Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday at a Religious Zionism party meeting that during President-elect Donald Trump's previous term, "We were just a step away from applying sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], and now the time has come to do it."
Smotrich welcomed
Trump's election victory, noting his success "against the establishment media, elites, and celebrities," as he put it.
"After years in which, unfortunately, the current administration chose to interfere in Israeli democracy and personally refused to cooperate with me as Israel's finance minister, Trump's victory also brings an important opportunity," Smotrich said, adding that "2025 is the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The new Nazis need to pay a price through land that will be permanently taken from them, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria."