'Hamas must come crawling and begging for a Gaza hostage deal' - interview

An initiative by the US administration to end Israel's conflict with Hamas by forming a Palestinian state provides a "tailwind for terrorists," Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the far-right Otmza Yehudit Party said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Rather than "award" the Palestinians a state, Hamas must come "crawling and begging" for a hostage deal after being completely defeated, Eliyahu said. Palestinians from the West Bank will then be afraid that they will be destroyed like Hamas if they attack Israel – and will not dare. "This is what the US did to al-Qaeda and ISIS … and despite the voices by those people who brought onto us the curse of Oslo and the idea to recognize a Nazi state alongside the state of Israel … we will break them," he added.

"Any other discussion is childish and unnecessary," the minister said. "There are no proportions. This is not a game. You killed – and you will pay," he said.

Eliyahu also believes that during the war, the civilian population in Gaza should be "pressured."

"I have no intention to harm innocent people … but the price for this monster [Hamas], they must pay," he said.

Plans for Gaza's civilian population

Eliyahu added that the civilians of Gaza should not be barred from leaving Gaza.

"It cannot be that you speak about open borders, but these poor people that Hamas teaches to be monsters, you are not giving them a future," he said.

"I will not allow for any state that wants to destroy me or commit genocide … to be there [alongside Israel]. If the price is that we must conquer them – so be it."

"Where there is Jewish settlement – there is security," he added.

Eliyahu added that he supported the controversial policy of his party leader, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to limit visitation rights at the Temple Mount during the upcoming month of Ramadan, since Israel must stand up for Jews and show "who the owner is." When Jews show weakness, they are attacked all over the world. Jews in Israel and in the diaspora should no longer bow to pressure, and Temple Mount visitation is an example where Israel should not stand down, Eliyahu said.

"This is at the heart of Hamas' campaign – which they are calling the 'Flood of Al-Aqsa' – and we will not let them turn the place that is the most holy for Jews… to a place where for a month Jews run away," Eliyahu added.

The Heritage Ministry was one of the six ministries that finance ministry officials proposed in November to shut down in order to free up funding for the war efforts. But the government decided to leave them open, and Eliyahu says that his ministry's contribution to the war effort is a project to commemorate October 7 by documenting information, artifacts, and testimonies from that day.

"Heritage" is different than "tradition," Eliyahu said (the two words sound similar in Hebrew – moreshet and masoret), and the heroic and tragic stories from October 7 are part of the broader Jewish story and will become part of Jewish and Israeli heritage. Israel's legal defense team last month even contacted Eliyahu's project in order to request documentation ahead of a hearing in the International Court of Justice in the Hague South Africa's accusation of genocide, Eliyahu said.

Specialists from a number of disciplines are collecting the information and are working with close legal oversight in order not to violate the privacy of the October 7 massacre. The project will soon be released for public purview, and Eliyahu hopes that the public will come forward with more information in order to develop the project further.