Agriculture and Food Security Minister Avi Dichter sat down with Arutz Sheva – Israel National News to discuss the state of the war against Hamas and other recent developments in the Middle East such as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
„We had three goals at the beginning of the war on October 7th. First, the total destruction of the military infrastructure of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. That is probably the most achievable goal. We have not 100% [achieved it yet]but we are close to it,“ Minister Dichter said.
„The second was to release all of the hostages in Gaza. At that time we had 255, today we have 100 [hostages remaining in Gaza]. Which means 155 were released. We still have 100. And the only way to measure it is by results. That’s the only way we should measure ourselves,“ he said.
He continued, „The third goal is to topple the regime of Hamas in Gaza. Under the circumstances that they are practically running the humanitarian aid in Gaza, it creates some problems for us to reach this goal. But I’m sure that we shall do it.“
„Above those three goals, I can tell you loud and clear: Gaza will never remain a military threat to the State of Israel,“ Dichter declared.
When asked what his red liens are on the issue of the hostage negotiations, Dichter stated, „The Red Line is to bring them back home, all of them.“
Dichter reiterated his warning about the new regime led by Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) in Syria and Turkey’s growing influence in the country following the overthrow of the Assad regime. „The new regime in Syria, people are not aware of where they come from. Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the new leader, he’s part of Al Qaeda. His spiritual leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was neck-to-neck with Osama Bin Laden. It means that when a new regime like that is leading Syria … to believe that those people will become rabbis in the future and will lead them in the way that we expect them to do so, I doubt it. They will take a few years in order to get support from Arab countries, and we can hear from Qatar and the Emirates and other countries.“
„We have to be prepared,“ he warned, „because once they will build there and form a new military construction and battalions and other troops, they will start to think about … the Golan Heights.“ He noted that the name al-Julani is a reference to the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered from Syria in 1967. „His roots are in the Golan Heights. So I can assure you that a few years from now, maybe less than a few years, he will start think about the Golan.“
„We have to be well-prepared and to make sure that Syria is not building itself under a Sunni regime – unlike the Alawite Regime – but as Israel remains its enemy and they will allow other countries, mainly Turkey, [outside influence in Syria]. Turkey is becoming the new Iran in Syria. Iran supported Bashar al-Assad, Turkey supports Abu Mohammad al-Julani, and as we all know, Turkey is not our best ally as it used to be before. The only difference is that Iran was not part of NATO and Turkey is part of NATO,“ he said.
Addressing the 60-day ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, he said that „the ceasefire speaks about the cessation of rebuilding Hezbollah troops. So whenever they are trying to trick and to move stuff from one place to another, military stuff, we are activating. It’s about 60 days and nobody knows how it’s going to look like after the 60 days.“
He said that there is „no doubt about the fact that Hezbollah suffered a huge attack by Israel and lots of losses.“
Dichter praised US President-Elect Donald Trump’s unprecedented support for Israel during his first term in office, including actions such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
As for his expectations for Trump’s second term, he said, „I don’t know what’s the next steps, but I hope that Trump will help Israel, mainly in combatting the most important threat, the nuclear bomb [being] built in Iran. That’s an existential threat that we have to foil it in one way or another with other countries or by ourselves.“
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