By SCM Correspondent
JERUSALEM — In a sharp escalation of rhetoric that threatens to derail fragile international peace efforts, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called on Friday for an unrestrained military campaign against Lebanon, declaring that the country “must burn” following the combat deaths of four Israeli soldiers.
Mr. Ben-Gvir’s remarks, published on the social media platform X, openly rejected calls for diplomatic restraint from the United States and directly challenged the wisdom of a heavily negotiated framework intended to halt a spiraling regional war.
The statement exposed the intense, volatile pressures operating inside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, where ultranationalist ministers are actively pushing to expand military operations despite growing international condemnation.
”With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not up for bargaining,” Mr. Ben-Gvir wrote. “All of Lebanon must burn.”
The far-right minister went on to reveal that he had pressured Mr. Netanyahu privately to abandon what he characterized as a passive strategy of proportional retaliation.
“I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep,” Mr. Ben-Gvir said, adding: “In the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint — you need to go berserk. To obliterate. To crush the terror.”
Mr. Ben-Gvir was not alone in his fierce response. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another powerful ultranationalist linchpin in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, echoed the sentiment on social media, writing that it was a “tough morning” and time “to speak with fire” and “open the gates of hell.”
The inflammatory declarations arrived at a highly sensitive diplomatic juncture. For days, American and Qatari mediators, working with quiet assistance from Iran, have been rushing to solidify an agreement to halt hostilities on multiple fronts, including the border conflict in Lebanon. On Friday afternoon, senior U.S. officials reported that Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah had nominally agreed to a ceasefire.
However, the reality on the ground has remained starkly violent. The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that four of its soldiers had been killed during intense clashes inside southern Lebanon, where Israeli ground forces have advanced more than six miles past the border since launching a major offensive on March 2.
In retaliation for the soldier fatalities, the Israeli military conducted heavy airstrikes across several towns in Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, including Al-Sharqiyah, Harouf, and Kfar Sir.
According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency, the bombardments struck inhabited homes, killing at least 24 people and leaving others trapped beneath the rubble. Since the Israeli offensive began in early March, Lebanese health officials state that the conflict has claimed more than 3,900 lives, injured nearly 12,000, and displaced more than one million residents.
The public demands by Mr. Ben-Gvir and Mr. Smotrich highlight the persistent structural weakness of Mr. Netanyahu’s political position. Dependent on the far-right parties to maintain his parliamentary majority, the Prime Minister has frequently found his diplomatic maneuvers constrained by his coalition partners, who have repeatedly threatened to collapse the government if Israel halts its military campaigns prematurely.
Responding to the far-right ministers’ remarks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a sharp condemnation, accusing Israel’s leadership of seeking a state of “permanent war.”
”This is not a rant by a random genocidal lunatic,” Mr. Araghchi said on Friday. “It’s a public post by the national security minister of the Israeli regime.”
While Mr. Netanyahu issued a formal directive stating that the military would “exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah” and remain in southern Lebanon’s security zone for as long as necessary, he did not explicitly endorse his ministers’ calls for total destruction.
Nevertheless, the open defiance from within his own cabinet underscores the immense obstacles facing international diplomats trying to convert a temporary pause in hostilities into a durable peace.
