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Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party, outlined a blunt territorial doctrine in a recent interview in which he said that a war should never conclude on the same lines where it started and that seized land is the price an enemy must pay for starting a fight. Smotrich spoke the comments ahead of the Israeli elections.
“If a war ends on the same lines on which it began, what incentive does the enemy have not to start a war?” Smotrich said, implying that the current situation is an invitation to the next war.
The finance minister uses the example of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula to make his point. “If you want to know what would make Egypt not attack us, it is the understanding that if they attack, there is no Sinai,” he said. The threat of permanent territorial loss, as opposed to a return to prior borders, is what keeps an adversary at bay.
He then applied the same logic to Lebanon claiming Israeli territory on the other side of the border. “The same thing in Lebanon: up to the current line – eight to twelve kilometers – it’s ours,” he said. “Guys, you’re not coming back. Why? Because you started with us, and that is the price of war.”
His comments were in line with Smotrich’s previous positions, including calls to annex territory in Gaza and to extend Israeli control in southern Lebanon toward the Litani River. The comments drew sharp condemnation from the Palestinian Authority. The comments were made as Smotrich is currently trying to win votes in the Israeli elections.
Whatever the response to these comments, they are a unique and candid expression of a ‘territory first’ deterrence strategy from a senior government figure. The comments portray the map as the principal means for waging and bringing peace to the conflict.
