Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Tuesday for permanent Israeli sovereignty over territory held in Gaza and Lebanon, presenting territorial losses as a necessary penalty for enemies that initiate wars.
“A side that started a war and lost it will lose territory to the victorious side,” Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, told the first National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) held in Jerusalem.
In his address, which came three weeks before Israel’s Oct. 27 general election, Smotrich outlined a postwar agenda combining territorial sovereignty, voluntary emigration from Gaza and greater Israeli independence from Washington.
“I demand that the State of Israel permanently apply its sovereignty over the territories it currently holds, both in Gaza and in Lebanon,” he said.
Smotrich argued that Israel’s enemies have been able to regroup, rebuild and attack again after previous rounds of fighting because they ended along the same territorial lines as they began. Territorial losses would impose a lasting price for aggression and deter future wars, he said.
The three-day NatCon gathering, running Oct. 6-8 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, brings together conservative politicians, scholars and commentators. Organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, chaired by Israeli philosopher Yoram Hazony, the conference series has previously convened in Washington, London, Rome, Brussels, Orlando and Miami.
Smotrich also reiterated his demand for the application of Israeli sovereignty—or Israeli civil law—in Judea and Samaria, citing Jewish historical ties. He described Palestinian nationhood as “a fiction.”
Three years after the outbreak of a regional war triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the situation offers opportunities for Gaza residents to move to Arab and Muslim countries, Smotrich said.
“The final stage of the war should include creating a genuine, lawful and directed opportunity for voluntary migration for those Gaza residents who wish it,” he said. “This is not a call for coercion,” he added.
Smotrich accused Egypt and other Arab states of preventing Gazans from leaving and rebuilding their lives elsewhere. Countries that share the language, religion and culture of Gazans were the natural destinations for them, he said.
Turning to the U.S.-Israel alliance, Smotrich called for a transition “from a relationship of dependence to a partnership between two independent nations.”
Israel should develop greater military and economic independence while demonstrating how its security serves American interests, he said.
“America is entitled to make decisions that correspond to its interests, even if Israel does not like them,” he said, adding that Israel must enjoy the same freedom.
“A strong and independent Israel will be a better ally of the United States,” Smotrich said. “A strong and national America will be a better ally of Israel.”
