Several Israeli ministers called this Sunday for a strong response from their country to the Iranian attack with more than 300 missiles and drones last night, which the two settler and ultra-nationalist ministers of the ruling coalition see as an opportunity to “shape the Middle East”.
The Minister of Finance, the settler and radical Bezalel Smotrich, said today in a speech recorded on the social network that the answer “will reverberate throughout the Middle East for generations.”
That way, “we will win,” Smotrich said, but “if we ignore it, God forbid, we will put ourselves and our children at imminent existential threat,” he added.
For his part, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, also anti-Arab and resident of a settlement in the occupied West Bank, said Israel must “go crazy” to “create deterrence in the Middle East.”
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar also said that “a lax response” would only serve to perpetuate the “outdated concept of rational logic in the face of brutal terrorists,” noting that this concept was already in place before the October 7 attack against Hamas.” “failed” ; against Hezbollah, which continues its attacks in northern Israel; and warned that “it will fail against Iran, which did not hesitate to attack Israel directly.”
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet, leader of the opposition National Unity Party and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political opponent, said Iran was “a global problem” and a challenge for Israel and considered this a good time for greater regional cooperation.
“In the face of the threat from Iran, we will form a regional coalition and.” “We will ensure that Iran pays the price in the way and at the right time for us,” he added.