An unusual clash took place at the security cabinet meeting on Sunday night between Settlements Minister Orit Strock and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir during the discussion on the expansion of the military operation in Gaza, Kan News reported.

According to the report, Strock quoted the passuk from Parshas Shoftim: “And whoever is fearful and fainthearted, let him go and return to his house, lest he make the heart of his brothers faint like his own.” She then added, “They are trying to intimidate us; they are trying to frighten us with all sorts of scare tactics.”

Likud Minister Gila Gamliel asked who was trying to intimidate, and Strock replied, hinting that she meant the army, “I hesitated whether to say it and decided to say it anyway.”

Strock later explained that she did not mean the word “fearful” but the idea of “making the heart of his brothers melt,” asserting that a concentrated effort was being made “to melt the hearts of the Cabinet members so that they would retreat from an existing decision to take over Gaza and defeat Hamas.”

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who has aligned with the left since entering his position and has clashed with the government on many of its war plans, responded sharply, saying that he’s here for “two missions of my life—preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and destroying Hamas.”

When Strock again quoted “whoever is fearful and fainthearted,” Zamir raised his voice and said, “I recommended taking action against Iran. The map of the Middle East faces me every morning, and I approve attacks everywhere. No one is fearful and fainthearted, including the generals here.”

“I make powerful decisions that no one has made. I present to you the significance and implications of everything. If you want blind obedience, bring someone else!”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu then intervened, saying, “I’m not interested in blind obedience, and I also don’t want an alteration of our plan.”

Another issue that came up at the meeting was a possible framework for a hostage deal, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir asking to hold a vote confirming that there would be no partial deal. Netanyahu responded that “a partial deal is not relevant” and there was no need for a vote. However, although no vote took place, there was a majority among the ministers that a partial deal with Hamas should not be pursued.

Despite this fact and the prime minister’s position that the issue of a partial deal was not on the agenda, Zamir expressed support for it, claiming, “There is a framework on the table; we need to take it.” He also asserted that Operation Gideon’s Chariots, deemed an abysmal failure by an internal IDF review, created the conditions for the return of hostages.

Strock expressed opposition to an overly cautious combat approach in areas where hostages are thought to be located: “There must be no ‘do not touch me’ areas in Gaza because this endangers the residents of the Gaza border area and all the residents of the south,” she said. “In order to win the war, we must take over these areas as well and not leave them as terror bubbles above and below ground.”

She asserted that although strenuous efforts should be made to prevent harm to the hostages, the IDF cannot refrain from defeating Hamas in those areas: “They are already firing every day at our yishuvim from these areas…every day, terrorists emerge who try to kidnap soldiers,” she said. “This also endangers people’s lives.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)