Coalition

Smotrich Says Secret Iran War Plan Kept Him in Government

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of Bezalel Smotrich gesturing while speaking with a man holding a black folder beside an Israeli flag.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said knowledge of Israel's classified plan to strike Iran kept him from bringing down the government over the January 2025 hostage deal. He said elections would have prevented the campaign against Iran's nuclear threat and expanding ballistic-missile production, but secrecy meant he could not explain the decision even to his wife. Operation Rising Lion began on June 13, five months later. The interview was conducted at the Finance Ministry as Religious Zionism polled near the 3.25% electoral threshold ahead of the October 27 election.

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