Far-right Israel minister Smotrich says heading to US
TEL AVIV
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who supports the annexation of the occupied West Bank, said on Tuesday that he was travelling to the United States for a brief visit.
"The goal of this visit is to strengthen economic cooperation between Israel and the United States... and deepen the strategic alliance between our two countries," Smotrich wrote on social media platform X.
His trip comes with U.S. President Donald Trump expected to announce whether to back the annexation of all or part of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Smotrich, an ultranationalist settler whose support is key to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary majority, said he would meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as other U.S. government officials.
He has said on several occasions since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered war that Israel should push for Palestinians to leave Gaza and the West Bank, and that it should take control of them.
In 2024, the International Court of Justice, the U.N.'s top legal body, issued an advisory opinion saying that Israel's prolonged presence in the West Bank was unlawful.
The United Nations regularly condemns Israel's settlement expansion in the territory as illegal under international law.
The visit coincides with an Arab League summit on Tuesday in Cairo, where leaders are discussing a counterproposal to Trump's Feb. 4 plan for U.S. control of Gaza.
Under that plan, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip would be transferred to third countries, and the coastal territory would be turned into what Trump called "the Riviera of the Middle East".
He later appeared to soften the plan, saying he was only recommending the idea.
Asked whether he backed Israeli annexation of the West Bank, Trump said he would probably "make an announcement" on the issue within four weeks.
"In my meetings, I will emphasize Israel's determined stance in the fight against terrorism and the need for clear American backing for the continuation of our security activities in the war," Smotrich wrote on X.
The finance minister has been pushing for Israel to return to hostilities in Gaza, after the first phase of a ceasefire ended this weekend with no agreement on its extension.
On Sunday, he called on the government to "to open (the) gates (of hell) as quickly and lethally as possible on the cruel enemy, until absolute victory".
Netanyahu had sought to extend the initial exchange phase to secure the release of as many Israeli captives as possible without offering anything in return or fulfilling the military and humanitarian obligations of the agreement.
Hamas has refused to proceed under these conditions, insisting that Israel abide by the terms of the ceasefire and immediately start negotiations for the second phase, which includes a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a complete halt to the war.
The ceasefire agreement has halted Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which began Oct. 7, 2023 and has since killed more than 48,380 victims, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
