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Hamas official slams Smotrich’s ‘brazen’ remarks on Saudi Arabia
Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, has condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for saying that Saudi Arabia should “keep riding camels” if it asks for a Palestinian state as a condition to normalise relations with Israel.
In a statement on Telegram, Risheq said Smotrich’s “brazen and reprehensible statements against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are not a slip of the tongue”.
He added that “this racist lens has been used by the Zionist movement since its inception to view all Arabs and Muslims”.
Smotrich had said: “If Saudi Arabia tells us ‘normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state,’ friends – no thank you.
“Keep riding camels in the desert in Saudi Arabia, and we will continue to develop with the economy, society and state and the great things that we know how to do,” added Smotrich at a conference organised by the Zomet Institute and the Makor Rishon newspaper on Friday.
He apologised for his remarks later in the day.
And he only apologized because he was forced to, Trump/Witkoff/Kusner need Saudi Arabia to sign the Abraham accords, the key to all their plans.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jared-kushner-and-steve-witkoffs-extended-60-minutes-interview/
LESLEY STAHL: Well, part of the plan is the reconstruction, the building, rebuilding of Gaza. And-- you're builders. You've been in real estate. As you said, it's extremely complex. Tell us more about the plan and how-- how much it's gonna cost. Where is the money gonna come from? And who's gonna award the contracts? Three questions.
STEVE WITKOFF: I think it's going to cost a lot of money.
LESLEY STAHL: What's a lot of money?
STEVE WITKOFF: You know, the estimates are in the $50 billion range. It might be a little bit less; it might be a little bit more. I happen to think that that's not a lot of money in that region. You have governments that are gonna jump on in and--
LESLEY STAHL: So the-- Middle East countries are gonna--
STEVE WITKOFF: I think--
LESLEY STAHL: --provide the money?
STEVE WITKOFF: I-- yeah, well, you'll see European participation and so forth. I-- I think the beginning of this plan is how to get it going. And that's-- that's what me and-- what me and Jared work on all the time. The money raising we think is the easy part. We think that happens re-- relatively quickly. But it's the master plan, and we're working with a group of people who have-- been working on master plans for the last two years.
LESLEY STAHL: So there are plans already?
JARED KUSHNER: Yeah--
STEVE WITKOFF: We have plans already. We have a master plan already. And by the way-- and Jared's been pushing this and we're working together on it and I think if the world saw the progress so far they'd be pretty impressed.
Jared Kusner is a vile human being, he has been planning the Riviera in the ME since Oct 7, possibly before. As a long time friend of Netanyahu he can't be a neutral party, plus he's in real estate deals, not rebuilding a country.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/oct/19/the-enormous-conflict-of-interest-at-centre-of-jared-kushners-gaza-ceasefire-deal
LESLEY STAHL: What about a Palestinian state? That's in the 20-point plan.
JARED KUSHNER: Oh. Well, what--
LESLEY STAHL: Th--
JARED KUSHNER: --what the plan says is that there could create a pathway to it. But, you know, these-- what I learned when I got involved is that the-- the word "state" means different things to different people.
So right now what we're focused on is creating a situation for joint security and economic opportunity for Israelis and Palestinians so that they can live peacefully side by side in a durable way. What you end up calling it over time we'll allow the Palestinians to determine that themselves. But right now, it's just focused on making this functional. There's been a long war. The war's over. Hopefully we keep it that way. And-- we wanna create conditions for a long term success.
LESLEY STAHL: Okay. So do you have any-- responsibility, or do you feel it, to-- unite Gaza and the West Bank?
JARED KUSHNER: We'll see. You know, it's interesting. What a lot of the Arabs have been telling me is that it's-- there's very different cultures. The people haven't been connected in a long time. And ultimately, I think you need to create the right leadership in both places, and then let them decide if they wanna be connected or not. But you need both places to be functioning-- in a good way, where they can thrive before you can-- connect them.
Yeah he has no intentions for a unified Palestinian state. Already spreading propaganda to keep the West Bank and Gaza separate. They're not different cultures and both overwhelmingly want Marwan Barghouti to lead a Palestinian state.
It's clear the pushback against 'annexation' of the West Bank is just for show again, to get MBS onboard and unlock Arab money for all his real estate plans and other business deals. Jared still expects Gazans to leave or be moved out of the way for his master plan.
