Netanyahu calls comments to erase village 'inappropriate'
The Hindu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the remarks by a key Cabinet ally calling for a Palestinian village to be erased were inappropriate
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remarks by a key Cabinet ally calling for a Palestinian village to be erased were inappropriate in a Twitter thread early Sunday, after the United States demanded that he reject the statement.
In the thread, posted in English shortly after midnight, Mr. Netanyahu did not appear to condemn the remarks outright and implied that the ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, misspoke.
Mr. Netanyahu thanked Mr. Smotrich for later walking the comments back and “making clear that his choice of words” was “inappropriate.” The bulk of the thread urged the international community to seek condemnations from the Palestinians over attacks against Israelis.
It appeared to be his first public response to Mr. Smotrich's remarks since they were made on Wednesday.
Mr. Netanyahu's Twitter thread underlines how the Israeli leader has had to balance the ideologies of the far-right members of his government with the expectations of Israel's chief ally, the United States. Mr. Smotrich is the head of one of several ultranationalist parties that help make up Mr. Netanyahu’s government, Israel's most right-wing ever.
Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank last week rampaged through the Palestinian village of Hawara, where earlier in the day two Israeli brothers were killed in a Palestinian shooting attack. Later in the week, Mr. Smotrich said the village should be erased — by Israeli forces and not by private citizens.
Mr. Smotrich later backtracked, saying he didn’t mean for the village to be erased but for Israel to operate surgically within it against Palestinian militants. Still, his earlier comments sparked an international outcry. The U.S. called them repugnant and urged Mr. Netanyahu to “publicly and clearly reject and disavow them.” The United Nations and Middle East powerhouses Egypt and Saudi Arabia also condemned Mr. Smotrich's remarks.