Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionism party, told Ynet News that Israel should "go to war" in the occupied West Bank and replicate the tactics used in Gaza. He called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority, which he labeled a "terror authority," and urged the military to eliminate what he described as terror infrastructure, weapons, and tunnels across the territory. The comments arrive one month before Israel's general election, but multiple analysts argue this is not electioneering — it is an articulation of existing government policy. Smotrich simultaneously called for the annexation of territory inside Gaza up to the so-called "Yellow Line" — a military demarcation covering roughly 58 percent of the enclave — and southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. Israeli forces currently occupy up to 600 square kilometers of Lebanese territory. He framed these annexations as making Israel's enemies "pay a price" for the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack. The scope of this territorial claim is extraordinary: it encompasses the majority of Gaza, substantial Lebanese territory, and the West Bank. The operational baseline matters. Israel has already arrested thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023, many without formal charges. Settlement expansion has accelerated: the Israeli cabinet approved 13 new illegal settlements in the central West Bank, followed by 2,162 new homes in another illegal settlement near Jerusalem. In Smotrich's own words, Israel has launched a "revolution in settlement" expansion. Settler violence, conducted under army protection according to Adalah's legal director Suhad Bishara, is driving entire communities from their land. Bishara's assessment is blunt: "Smotrich is not only proposing a 'war' on Palestinians in the West Bank, he is already waging one." She described his call to replicate Gaza operations — where at least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023 according to Gaza's health ministry — as "a public declaration of intent to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide." A UN commission of inquiry panel last September concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The ICC has requested an arrest warrant for Smotrich over forced displacement orders, support for settlements in occupied territory, and his claim that starving Palestinians in Gaza may be "justified and moral." Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group placed Smotrich's comments within the settler movement's strategic logic: expansion and settler violence are used to provoke Palestinian responses, which then justify even more force. "Any response by Palestinians is met with even more ferocious force," she said. This is a ratchet mechanism — each cycle of provocation and response moves the baseline further toward permanent territorial control. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the comments reveal "the truth of the Israeli plans aimed at implementing attempts at annexation and displacement." Chatham House senior fellow Yossi Mekelberg offered the critical framing: "What is now rhetoric, tomorrow may be policy." If voters endorse Smotrich's ideology at the ballot box, he will treat the result as a mandate. The structural reality is that Smotrich has held finance ministry authority since 2022 and used it systematically to fund settlements, resource the settler movement, and enable territorial expansion. The distinction between campaign rhetoric and government policy has effectively collapsed — the rhetoric IS the policy, spoken aloud for electoral purposes. The international response architecture remains weak. Western sanctions against Smotrich and Ben Gvir have not altered behavior. The ICC warrant request has not constrained action. Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam demanded full Israeli withdrawal at the UN General Assembly, but Israeli shelling and demolitions continue in southern Lebanon despite a US-brokered ceasefire. At least 4,386 people have been killed and 12,407 wounded in southern Lebanon since March 2. The gap between international legal frameworks and enforcement capacity is the enabling condition for everything Smotrich describes.
