Sometimes an MK will fight for their principles, attack, take a strong stance against something, and then the moment they are appointed to a ministerial position, become quiet and cautious. That didn't happen with MK Bezalel Smotrich (National Union). At least, not yet.
He isn't changing his agenda or apologizing for it. Even if his messages are hard for some of the population to hear, he still gives it to them straight-up.
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Last Tuesday, a day after it was announced that he had been appointed transportation minister and a member of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet, Smotrich was already sitting down with outgoing Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and spending hour after hour listening to representatives of the major transportation companies in Israel; the Israel Airports Authority; the Trans-Israel Highway; the Ayalon Highways Co.; and more. He sat, he listened, and he asked questions. He knows he was handed to lead the ministry for only three months ("maybe more, if I fall in love with it"), but he is already envisioning a train that leaves from northern Israel, makes a few stops in Samaria settlements, and continues southward.
"It appears that the ministry is functioning excellently," he says after a long day of meetings.
"What needs to happen is for everything to continue as is until I gain some insights. The minister sets the policy on some things, and those issues must be studied. For example, when there's a big [infrastructure] plan and a question about whether to build at night only to avoid traffic tie-ups, in which case it takes four years, or build around the clock and finish in six months at the cost of complicating citizens' lives. There are planning and budget questions. It's not easy," he says.
Q: Is there also a question about work on Shabbat?
"It hasn't come up. The matter of Shabbat has nothing to do with me. The one who approves work on Shabbat is the labor and welfare minister. I don't encounter that dilemma."
The Transportation Ministry was not Smotrich's first choice, but he appears to be enthusiastic, although he says he hasn't given up on the justice portfolio.
"The day after the election we'll see how strong we are politically, and then decide. But I'm going into the Transportation Ministry with a lot of passion, with sky-high motivation. If I see that I'm succeeding, I might stay there."
Smotrich says that his new ministry has almost unparalleled capabilities to carry out projects that affect Israelis' day-to-day lives: "Roads, streets, trains, ports, licenses, car checks. Above all, the Transportation Ministry can implement Zionist and settlement values."
"If you want to bring Jews to the Negev and the Galilee, you need more roads. If you want to bring another half a million people to Judea and Samaria, you need to make sure there are roads. Settlements comes after roads and public transportation. This ministry has great civil, Zionist, and settlement 'input.' The overreaching goal is to allow every citizen to get from one point to another in the fastest, cheapest, and safest way."
Q: You will be criticized for investing millions in building roads to remote settlements on the edges of Judea and Samaria.
"That doesn't scare me. In my four years in the Knesset, I've done what I believed in … There is a lot of room here to implement an ideology and a worldview. If you want to bring 20,000 Jews to the Golan Heights you need to create better transportation."
"When Yisrael Katz was waging fierce battles over building Highway 6 in the North, he did so because of a Zionist worldview. True, it was less financially feasible than building more public transportation routes in central Israel, but some things are more ideologically rather than financially sound."
"If you bring good highways to the south, within six or seven years you could build two more cities in the Arava. A train from Dimona to Eilat would be a revolution. By extending infrastructure, you can determine the face of Israel. Kiryat Gat used to be considered 'South,' and now it's a suburb of Tel Aviv, because there is transportation. If you want to break out of the confines of the area between Gedera and Hadera, the 'state of Tel Aviv,' it [transportation] is a great tool."
Q: Do you feel that people are afraid of you?
"On one hand, they're afraid of me, and on the other, everyone likes to work with me. I passed the most laws in the last Knesset, significant laws. I'm here to work. True, I'm an ideologue, I have a well-ordered outlook, I say what I think even when it upsets others. No one can deny that I'm here to work."
Q: Your name has become synonymous with the country becoming radicalized.
"'Smotrich' has become synonymous with someone who knows how to get things done, that's why they're afraid. There are people in politics who are eccentric, who make a lot of noise but don't work. No one is afraid of them. I get attacked because I'm here to work."
Q: You get attacked because of your nationalist-haredi, conservative, and extremist views. On the Friday evening news panels, they use the phrase "a government of Smotriches" to mean a government of extremists.
"[Journalist] Amnon Abramovich is an ultra-radical leftist. 'Extremist' is relative. I don't think I'm extremist. I'm religious, devout, right-wing, Zionist, nationalist, with a clear and determined worldview, with self-confidence. I don't get confused, don't apologize, and don't hide behind my positions."
"However, I'm very pragmatic. I understand the gap between ideology and implementation. The goal is to hold onto the great dream, the great vision, but know that implementing it means two steps forward and one step backward – through patience, dialogue, and compromise. The attempts to demonize me are ridiculous."
"I want to apply Israeli sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria, step by step. Through one [settlement] regulation bill, then another. I don't run around, shout and wave flags. That's why I'm singled out: 'He doesn't just talk, he also does stuff.'"
Q: Maybe some people are afraid that bit by bit, the haredi-nationalist-religious camp will grow and Israel will become a state governed by Jewish law.
"This 'state of Jewish law' is a scare campaign. I don't know what a 'state of Jewish law' is. It's something that was made up by someone who has been in politics for 30 years and left no impression [a reference to Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman] and who is looking for attention and a way of making it past the minimum electoral threshold."
"Even my aspiration of seeing Israel progress toward redemption will happen only when the people want it. At least my remarks about a country run according to the laws of the Torah started a discourse. People are asking questions."
"All fear of me and fear of the word 'Torah' stem from ignorance. The values of the Torah are just, enlightened, moral, and humane. I see them as the right values. Rabbi Haim Navon wrote a nice post about how the laws of the Torah are being demonized. He argued that the rules of Jewish law are good ones. On road accidents, for example, Jewish law mandates that road laws be followed with exactitude."
Q: So there's no reason to fear you?
"Obviously, anyone who wants a Palestinian state and thinks that would be a good thing for Israel should be worried about someone who sees that as a terrible thing and is working to bring about the opposite. With God's help, I'll manage to do the opposite. Not alone, but with a lot of other people."
"Anyone who wants to turn Israel into a state of all its citizens should be worried about Bezalel Smotrich. Anyone who has no problem with the awful demographic balance in the Galilee, where 70% of the people are gentiles, should be afraid of Bezalel Smotrich, because with other people's help, I'll turn that around. I'm going to bring Jews to the Galilee. If I'm still transportation minister a few years from now, I'll build a network of roads and complete the revolution to allow hundreds of thousands of Jews to move there. That's a huge goal."
"Anyone who thinks that settlement in Judea and Samaria is a danger to peace should be afraid of Bezalel Smotrich. If I stay on as transportation minister, I'll ensure that there is a major multi-year plan that envisions another half million people in Judea and Samaria, including a train line, roads, and interchanges."
Q: Did you ever believe that you, a troublemaking 'hilltop youth,' would become a minister and cabinet member?
"I wasn't a 'hilltop youth.' That isn't something that existed in my time. I was a member of the Regevim movement … and I transitioned into politics. Why stand outside and shout, if you can go in and take the wheel? Sometimes you need to shout, and sometimes you need to take the reins and lead."
"I was an MK, I was a party leader, and now I'm a minister and a cabinet member. I hope I'll manage to learn [how to do] the job and do good for the Land of Israel. Did I plan, as a kid, to become a government minister? No. Everything I've done in public life was pretty much by chance."
Q: Do you regret your remarks about Torah law? Could they have cost you the justice portfolio?
"Using the speech about Torah law against me is just [political] spin. In any case, [the prime minister] wasn't running after me to offer me the justice portfolio even before that. He decided for his own reasons that it would stay within the Likud."
Q: Did you imagine what an uproar it would cause?
"No. I was giving a lecture at the Rav Kook Center, to a friendly audience, to mark Jerusalem Day. I spoke in the style of a beit midrash, because I was talking to beit midrash people. It got out. I don't have a shred of regret about it. That was the week of the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade. If they can wave flags for things that in my view are perverted, and their broken values, then I can also stand up for what I believe in with the same pride and power."
"My vision will bring us a better, healthier, and more positive future, and I'm at peace with it. I have no regrets, even if people got spooked and put my head on a platter. People gave interviews, discussed it, Jewish law became the matter of the house. In my opinion, that's great. If I paid a price for it, I do so with great love."
"The main thing that pained me in these past two weeks was discovering how deep [people's] ignorance about Judaism, the Torah, and Jewish law runs. People think that Jewish law means people being stoned to death."
"Jewish law eradicated the death sentence long ago. The Torah doesn't rest on enforcement, it teaches norms and values. A state that is run based on the Torah would be run in the freest manner with a lot less coercion and much more faith in people."
"People are scared of tradition, values, our culture that is thousands of years old. David Ben-Gurion said, 'We wanted to raise heretics, but we raised ignoramuses.' I propose that we stop being afraid and stop being populist and study more. I don't know of any other people that holds thousands of years of tradition in contempt."
Q: Will you change your party list for the September election?
"There must be one party to the Right of the Likud. Anyone who wants to come back and serve the state of Israel needs to unite on one party list. If we hadn't made the mistakes we did in the last election [when several small right-wing parties failed to pass the minimum threshold], which was a waste of votes, we would have a big, stable right-wing government without Lieberman. It would have implemented all the plans we have about governance, democracy, settlement, society, and the economy."
"There needs to be a single religious-Zionist party. Everyone needs to put the past behind them and join one party. Anyone who stays out of it will be unbelievably irresponsible, and condemned."
Q: Is Zehut leader Moshe Feiglin considered right-wing?
"Good question. In recent days, he's saying he is. How reliable is someone who switches ideologies? I don't know."
"We all need to sit down together, as soon as possible. I don't accept the view of [former education minister] Naftali Bennett, who says 'I won't negotiate now, only in the last week [to submit party lists for the election]. We can't busy ourselves with internal battles. The public is sick of it. I'm willing to give up my spot so that together,, we can get this going. The most important goal is to succeed in the election, with 60-plus seats, without Lieberman."
Q: Are you in favor of Ayelet Shaked heading the list?
"I think that Rabbi Rafi Peretz is excellent. He was party leader, and he should be party leader. But I'm not alone and I'm not forcing my opinion on anyone … We need to put personal considerations and ego aside."
Q: Would you join a government under Blue and White leader Benny Gantz?
"No. Benny Gantz is left-wing, full stop. Left-wing politically, left-wing economically, left-wing on the settlements, left-wing on security, left-wing when it comes to Jewish identity."
"We've already forgotten what it means for the Left to be in power, what it's like to have buses exploding all over the country, what irresponsible economic policy looks like. The deficit we have now isn't a fraction of what the Rabin government created. Let's hope we don't have a reminder of what a left-wing government looks like."
Q: Would you join a government with Lieberman?
"Lieberman isn't right-wing, Lieberman is Lieberman. He has no ideology and no path. He torpedoed a dream government, he behaved irresponsibly because of personal, populist considerations."
"There is a certain sector of the public that is turned on by hatred of Judaism and the haredim. So he chose to fight [by using that]. Lieberman is a dangerous, irresponsible man, who in 30 years … hasn't created any major [plans of action] for the state of Israel or passed any laws … One of the goals of this election is to make that man disappear from the political landscape."
"A dream government was around the corner. We could have made immense changes to democracy and governance, restored the proper balance between the Knesset, the government, and the courts. We could have turned back the wheel on the 'judicial revolution' that former Chief Justice Aharon Barak led here illegally, unjustly, illogically, and without any public debate. The Right has been in power for years, and hasn't really been able to implement policies because of these obstacles."
"We have the most supportive American government we've ever had, and instead of taking advantage of the chance to promote sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, we are wasting our time with another election and [party] negotiations. That's irresponsible. Someone like that [Lieberman] certainly isn't part of the Right."
Q: What is your position on the haredi conscription bill?
"In the negotiations, the haredim came a long way, gave Lieberman 95% of what he wanted. His obstinate insistence that quotas be set down in law rather than by the cabinet was nonsense. They went as far as they could. Politics is an art of compromise, of dialogue, and the compromise reached was just right."
"The number of haredim who enlist in the army and then join the workforce is growing. Anyone who thinks that social processes can be forced in one go is wrong. Doing that is like a bull in a china shop."
"The Tal Law resulted in positive social processes, but a combination of Yair Lapid's populism and the foolishness of the Supreme Court and Lieberman's lack of responsibility just set the whole situation back."
Q: What are your goals as member of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet?
"I'm entering the cabinet with a great sense of responsibility. I'm here to learn, to listen to good, wise people with experience, and also to present my own worldview."
Q: And now you'll be part of a cabinet that gives money to Hamas.
"You can't have influence in any field, certainly not politics, if you play the game only when your position is accepted. There is a prime minister and a defense minister. I'm going to be part of that body. Thus far, I could present my opinion in the media and on Twitter, and now I have the privilege of having it heard by the prime minister and experts."
"I'll keep on stating my opinion, in the cabinet and outside it. Responsibly, not in a populist way."
Q: What do we do about the Gaza Strip?
"Gaza is a ticking time bomb with a self-destruct mechanism aimed at Israel. The only deep-rooted solution that will restore calm and security to the residents of southern Israel in the long term is to retake Gaza. Take responsibility for it, reestablish the settlements, and open the gates to emigration [out of the Strip.] Until we do that, we are destined to live from one round [of violence] to the next."
"I think we need to make them pay a higher price. For every rocket fired at Israel, we should take out 40 high-rises in central Gaza, so Hamas understands that it is paying an insufferable price and we take away its desire to attack us."
Q: Are you willing to fight a full-scale war? Because that's what you're saying.
"Definitely not. We can pound them from the air without sending a single soldier in. I'll try to state my position in the cabinet bit by bit. Will they accept it on the first day? Probably not. It's obvious to me that a strategic solution demands a change to how the public thinks, and legitimacy for the leadership to enact one."
Q: What is your opinion of Netanyahu's policy of "containment"?
"It's correct given the trap that Israeli policy is currently in, as long as we aren't willing to make the strategic move of returning to Gaza. I don't see any value in a ground incursion that would topple Hamas just to put Abbas in power.
"I'm done talk about bringing down Hamas because I don't know what would happen next. That's cheap populism that is more like Lieberman. Bring them down, and then what? Will we put Abbas in power? Will the IDF and its fallen put Abbas in power? So we handle the current reality.
Q: A reality in which arson balloons are released from Gaza every day.
"In my opinion, we need to exact a price for that, too. Anyone who sends an arson balloon into Israel is a dead man. I would create an automatic system that identifies incendiary objects and fires at the point of release. That means that if someone fires from inside a populated area, he is the one who pulls the trigger of the retaliatory fire."
