US National Security Council spokesman rebukes Israeli finance minister as ‘dead wrong,’ amid push for ceasefire talks

By Donald Judd, CNN

(CNN) — John Kirby, the spokesman for the US National Security Council, issued a stark rebuke Friday of the Israeli finance minister over comments undercutting a ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas, calling Bezalel Smotrich’s comments “dead wrong.”

“Some critics, like Mr. Smotrich, for example, have claimed that the hostage deal is a surrender to Hamas, or that hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners,” Kirby said. “Mr. Smotrich essentially suggests that the war ought to go on indefinitely without pause and with the lives of the hostages of no real concern at all – his arguments are dead wrong. They’re misleading the Israeli public.”

In a post Friday, Smotrich called the proposed ceasefire deal a “surrender deal,” writing on social media platform X, “I call on the Prime Minister not to fall into this trap and not to agree to a shift, even the slightest, from the red lines he set just recently, and they are also very problematic.”

Smotrich’s comments followed President Joe Biden and the leaders of Qatar and Egypt releasing a joint statement Thursday calling on representatives from Israel and Hamas to resume ceasefire talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Israel will send a delegation to the talks. Hamas has yet to state publicly whether they will participate.

The exchange also comes amid the threat of retaliatory strikes against Israel after a pair of high profile assassinations in Lebanon and Iran in recent weeks. Israel last week killed the top military commander for Hezbollah, Fu’ad Shukr, in Lebanon. The next day, Israel is widely believed to have assassinated Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in that incident.

On Friday, Kirby blasted the far-right Israeli finance minister for the comments, saying following Smotrich’s rhetoric “would in fact sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages – his own countrymen, and American hostages as well – and flies in the face of the national security interests of Israel at this critical stage of the war.”

“He’s saying this as President Biden is actually directing the United States military to the Middle East to directly defend Israel against a potential attack from Iran or other Iranian-backed terrorist groups,” Kirby said. “The idea that he would support a deal that leaves Israel security at risk is just factually wrong, it’s outrageous, it’s absurd, and anybody who knows President Biden and how staunchly he’s been a defender for Israel for the entirety of his public service ought to be ashamed for thinking anything different.”

Pressed on what prompted such an explicit admonition of senior Israeli minister, Kirby rebuffed the idea that his comments were out of the ordinary.

“I think a better question is, what made Mr. Smotrich decide, in the wake of the joint statement put out and the support that it’s been given, not only by other leaders, but by Israel itself, what made him decide to put that statement, that that outrageous and absurd statement out,” he said.

Even before the joint statement, the US has been lobbying its allies in the region for peace amid fears of an escalating conflict.

Biden spoke Monday with King Abdullah of Jordan and with his national security team, who outlined US military assets in the region, where they’ve been deployed in anticipation of a possible attack on Israel from Iran or Hezbollah.

Biden also spoke Tuesday with Amir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke Friday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi for the second time in a week, according to a State Department readout of their call, about “efforts to calm tensions in the region.”

“The Secretary and Foreign Minister Safadi discussed the joint statement by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar which called for an immediate ceasefire to provide relief to both Palestinians in Gaza and the hostages and their families,” according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in the statement.

The call is Blinken’s third with Safadi since the assassination of Haniyeh was reported on July 30.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche, Alex Marquardt and Michael Conte contributed to this report.

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