Smotrich to Lapid: Funduq Must Look like Jabaliya so Kfar Saba Won’t Become Kfar Aza

Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Yair Lapid and Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset plenum, July 26, 2021.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said after the attack in the PA Arab village of Al Funduq near Kedumim that “The conceptzia is still here and it is costing us dearly. Terrorism in Judea and Samaria and terrorism from Gaza and Iran are the same terrorism, and must be defeated.” According to him, “Those who trust the Palestinian Authority to maintain the security of Israeli citizens wake up to a morning when terrorists are again slaughtering Jewish residents.”

Three Israelis – two women and a man – were murdered in a shooting attack that took place Monday morning in Al-Funduq, Samaria.

Smotrich added that “Funnduq, Shechem, and Jenin need to look like Jabaliya so that Kfar Saba does not become a Kfar Aaza, God forbid.”

Kfar Aza is a kibbutz in southern Israel, located between Netivot and Sderot, some three miles east of the Gaza Strip. On October 7, 2023, some 70 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Kfar Aza, killing residents and leaving the village devastated. Another group, the PFLP, declared that its fighters were also engaged in murdering civilians in Kfar Aza. The attackers approached the village from four directions, breached the perimeter gate, and carried out widespread violence, including indiscriminate killings, setting cars and homes on fire, and forcing their way into residences using rocket-propelled grenades. Over a hundred civilians were killed, while others were taken hostage.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) tweeted less than an hour after the attack that killed three Israelis and wounded eight: “You are the government. You are responsible. The conceptzia is yours. It was yours on October 7. It has been yours for the past 20 years. You are the ones leading Israel from disaster to disaster. And then you whine as if you had nothing to do with it.”

Smotrich responded: “You are right, Yair. We are the government and the responsibility is ours. A responsibility to fix what you and your friends on the left have done in the decades in which you promoted surrender and retreats and Oslo and escape from terror. We are fixing the escape from Gaza and the expulsion from Gush Katif, fixing the escape from Lebanon, and with God’s help we will also fix the damage of the Oslo disaster.”

He continued:

“It’s not easy to remove a stone that a bunch of irresponsible blind people threw into a well. It’s complex and takes time and requires determination and perseverance. But believe me, we’re on our way there with determination and without giving up.

“We dismantled Gaza and Lebanon like no one else has done, and we will continue until Hamas is completely destroyed. We dismantled most of Hezbollah’s capabilities, and we are continuing there as well, and we will do it in Judea and Samaria too. We will abolish Oslo, dismantle the PA, take back responsibility, and eradicate terrorism. I have been doing this for the past two years in the civilian sphere, which is my responsibility in the Ministry of Defense (where he is an adjunct minister in charge of the IDF civil government), and I am determined to lead this in the military and political aspects in the government and the cabinet.

“It is difficult and complex and challenging, both politically and security-wise, but this term of ours will go down in Israeli history as a dramatic turning point in the perception of security and, therefore, in Israel’s security reality in all sectors, and by the end of it, Judea and Samaria will also look completely different, God willing. You can take this as a commitment.”