Bezalel Smotrich is Israel's finance minister and a leader of one of the coalition's far-right ultra-nationalist parties under Binyamin Netanyahu. He grew up in settlements in the West Bank (which he insists on calling Judea and Samaria, its biblical name) and still lives in one. Were elections to be held, surveys indicate his party would struggle to cross the electoral threshold of 3.25% of the vote. Yet he is a key member of the coalition: if he left, his fellow radical Itamar Ben-Gvir would follow, denying Netanyahu his majority.
Smotrich has repeatedly opposed ceasefires with Hamas by threatening to leave the coalition. He says Hamas must surrender, disarm and send its leaders into exile. He has called for the building of Israeli settlements throughout a Gaza depopulated of Palestinians: "Where there are settlements and the army, there's security; where there aren't settlements and army, there is no security." He denies Gazans would be forced to leave but concedes the war has rendered Gaza uninhabitable and says those who want to should be "allowed" to emigrate. He says the ground assault has been "gentle" and the army has been "using tweezers" in its targeting. He claims half of those killed are combatants (Israeli officers say closer to a third).
In 2019 he called for restoring "the laws of the Torah" as in the biblical days of King David; he says: "There is no contradiction between halachic [religious] law and democracy." In June 2025 Britain and a number of other Western allies imposed personal sanctions on Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
In September 2025 Smotrich celebrated the reopening of Homesh, one of the settlements dismantled 20 years earlier under Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan. A nursery opened with government funding, the first successful return to an evacuated settlement. "The children who will start their day here with laughter and singing are the true answer to anyone who thought the settlements would be uprooted," he said. Since the Gaza war began, he has taken part in rallies where religious-nationalist groups have openly called for the displacement of Gaza's 2.1m Palestinians and for mass settlement by Israelis. His party colleague Orit Strock, the settlements minister, described the situation as "a period of miracle".
On September 3rd 2025 Smotrich presented a map with his vision of annexation, showing Israel controlling all but 18% of the West Bank and reducing Palestinian cities to six stranded islands. He has also starved the Palestinian Authority of the customs revenues Israel collects on its behalf, and stopped Israeli banks from corresponding with Palestinian ones. In a plan he wrote in 2017 he called for Palestinians in the West Bank to be divided across separate regions to "dismantle the Palestinian national collective" and thwart independence. As finance minister he has not only funnelled billions of shekels to established settlements, but has sponsored more than 100 new farms that challenge Palestinian farmers' access to land they cultivate or graze. He is also in charge of civil affairs in the West Bank.
Smotrich rejects any possibility of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, saying it would create an "existential" threat of an attack "20 times worse" than October 7th. His longer-term vision is that most Palestinians, apart from those who currently live in Israel, will remain without full citizenship or voting rights. "If there is a process of deradicalisation, if there is a generation that accepts that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state...I don't mind giving them the vote," he says. "But I can't let them destroy me through democracy after they failed to do it by terror."
When Donald Trump and Netanyahu presented a 20-point peace plan for Gaza on September 29th 2025, Smotrich called it "an echoing diplomatic failure" that "will end in tears". He is in favour of Israel resettling the Gaza Strip and is expected to leave the coalition if the plan is implemented. His fellow radical Itamar Ben-Gvir shares his views and would follow.
Smotrich acknowledges that Saudi Arabia has conditioned ties with Israel on a process towards a Palestinian state, but says: "We won't commit suicide for it." He insists that "in closed rooms" Israel is hearing other things from its Arab counterparts.
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.