‘You know more than any other leader in the world to differentiate between good and evil,’ said MK Ohad Tal at the resort in Florida.
By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS
Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Knesset coalition have at times opposed the deal that the Jewish state is negotiating with the Hamas terror group. But Ohad Tal, who chairs the Religious Zionism Party’s Knesset faction, made the unusual decision to reject the negotiations publicly and not only to do so while traveling abroad, but in remarks at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“Mr. President, I want to use this important podium here at this event in Mar-a-Lago to tell you,” Tal said at the event, which he attended with Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, on Tuesday.
“You know more than any other leader in the world to differentiate between good and evil,” Tal added, to much applause. “I call you from here, from this important podium, not to support a deal that will leave this total evil of Hamas in power.” (Trump did not appear to be in attendance.)
Israel signaled its support for the current proposed hostage deal—which reportedly calls for the release of thousands of terrorists and an Israeli withdrawal from strategic areas—after being pressured by Steve Witkoff, whom Trump named as his Middle East envoy, according to widespread Hebrew media reports.
Witkoff, who met recently with Netanyahu, told Sean Hannity, of Fox News, on Jan. 9 that the Qatari prime minister and Israeli negotiators are “doing God’s work.” (JNS sought comment from the Trump transition team.)
Tal stated ahead of his trip to the United States that his party is united against a “bad deal that leaves many of the hostages in Gaza and that releases terrorists with blood on their hands.”
“Israel must continue its military pressure and unleash hell on Gaza until Hamas is defeated and all of the hostages are returned,” Tal stated prior to the trip.
The Religious Zionism Party, which holds seven seats in Netanyahu’s 68-member governing coalition, slammed the “surrender deal” on Monday as a “catastrophe” for the Jewish state.
“We will not be part of a surrender deal that includes the release of arch-terrorists, halting the war, undermining the achievements that were secured with many lives lost and abandoning numerous hostages,” stated Bezalel Smotrich, the party leader and Israeli finance minister.
Seven members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party also came out against the terms of the emerging deal on Monday, per Kan News.
Kan News published a letter that it obtained, in which Likud lawmakers Avihai Boaron, Amit Halevi, Dan Illouz, Tsega Melaku, Hanoch Milwidsky, Moshe Passal and Moshe Saada, and Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) and Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) wrote to Netanyahu, “Do not cross the most basic moral lines, do not endanger Israel’s security.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit Party occupies six seats in the coalition, has called on other lawmakers to join him in leaving the government if it approves the ceasefire with Hamas.
“In the current composition of the government, Otzma Yehudit cannot prevent the deal, and our withdrawal alone will not prevent it from being implemented,” Ben-Gvir stated on Tuesday.
“We succeeded in the past year through our political power in preventing this deal from going through,” the right-wing leader said. “Since then, however, additional parties have joined the government which support the deal, and we are no longer the decisive factor.”
Ben-Gvir added that “even if we are in the opposition, we will not bring down Netanyahu, but this move is our only chance to prevent its implementation and to prevent the surrender of the State of Israel.”
Saada, of Likud, denounced the reported deal terms as “dangerous and reckless” in a conversation with Israel’s Arutz 7 outlet on Tuesday.
“It abandons the hostages that remain,” he said. “We need to understand that, in this deal, we are giving up all the leverage we have: the Philadelphi Corridor, the crossings—everything.”
“We are returning the population from the northern Strip after the State of Israel and the soldiers worked hard to cleanse the area” of terrorists, he said. “But who is not returning? The hostages.”
A deal must pass the Security Cabinet, which is made up of senior ministers including Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and the full government.
Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with members of the Tikva Forum for Families of Hostages and the Heroism Forum, which represents families of soldiers and security personnel who died in the ongoing Swords of Iron war, at his Jerusalem office on Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday night, the Tikva Forum called on the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, and Likud Knesset lawmakers who oppose the partial hostage deal, to withdraw their support for the government.
“Any partial deal with Hamas will turn the hostages into valuable assets, and will endanger the lives of soldiers and other hostages,” the families stated following protests in Jerusalem.
The call followed reports of a breakthrough in the ceasefire talks.
The terms of the deal have yet to be announced officially, but reports about it, including by Kan on Monday, speak of a two-phase deal that would begin with the release of 33 out of about 100 hostages believed to be in Hamas’s hands over a 42-day ceasefire.
Jerusalem would free some 1,300 Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons, including hundreds serving life sentences. The 33 hostages would include female soldiers, women and men over the age of 50, as well as ill and wounded captives. It is unknown how many are still alive.
The second phase of the deal would include the release of the remaining hostages and talks about a permanent ceasefire, according to Kan. The report did not include a timeframe for the deal’s second phase.
במאר א לגו, באחוזה של טראמפ בפלורידה, קראתי לנשיא לא לתמוך בעסקה מופקרת! לא משאירים חטופים מאחור! pic.twitter.com/Wdajzt2vxW
— אוהד טל – Ohad Tal (@MKOhadTal) January 14, 2025
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