Times of Israel
In a speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that the Jewish people are experiencing ‘the process of redemption and the return of the divine presence to Zion’ as they engage in the ‘conquest of the land.’
‘Over the past two years, the people of Israel have seen religious Zionism at its peak on the battlefield…There is no space in the State of Israel where we do not see its special fingerprint,’ the Ynet news site quotes the far-right minister as saying.
Speaking as Israeli air force jets carry out strikes in the Houthi-held capital of Yemen, Sanaa, Smotrich states that with G-d’s help, Israel will defeat terrorists in Yemen, ‘just as we defeated the head of the octopus in Iran and as our righteous and dedicated fighters are defeating Hamas in Gaza.’
Smotrich recently celebrated the approval of a major construction project that would see some 3,400 housing units built in the contentious E1 area in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, which he said ‘practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel.’
Opponents of the far-right minister often describe him as having dangerous ‘messianic’ views.