President Donald Trump’s proposal to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza does not replace the need for Israel to meet its war aims of eradicating Hamas and ensuring they can no longer threaten Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization’s mission to Israel during an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Thursday.

“With regards to Trump’s idea, I will put it this way,” Sa’ar began. “If someone wants to emigrate and on the other side you have a country willing to accept [them], that is legitimate and it is moral, as in any other part of the world which is in conflict. I think it’s a new suggestion, a fresh one.”

However, the minister added, “It’s not instead of what we declared as our red lines for the future [of Gaza], because I cannot have a guarantee it will be successful … I want to give it a chance according to the principle I just said, but at the same time … it is clear we need a total demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. This is the most important thing.” 

Sa’ar said it was a mistake that Israel did not insist on demilitarization after the past rounds of fighting Hamas in Gaza. At the same time, he said “it’s a huge question” how to enforce it.

Sa’ar said that Hamas was seeking a “Hezbollah model in the Gaza Strip,” which means someone else would nominally govern but Hamas would remain the strongest force. “It’s totally unacceptable,” he said.

As to the Arab leaders’ summit set for Friday in Riyadh to plan an alternative to Trump’s proposal, Sa’ar said Israel is willing to listen to their suggestion, but that if it is a “Hezbollah model,” Jerusalem will reject it.

”The Arab states have their interests, and they have concerns about public opinion — I don’t blame them. They urge us to accept a Palestinian state. We cannot do that,” he said.

Another lesson Sa’ar emphasized from past conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians was that “there can be no sovereign entity west of the Jordan River [other than Israel], no other armed forces except for the IDF. When we see what happened [on Oct. 7, 2023], we see the logic because of the short distance, less than one mile from Jabaliya to the kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip, is a huge temptation, and in life, you cannot have guarantees that you have 100% accurate intelligence all the time. We learned it the hard way.” 

Sa’ar urged Conference of Presidents member organizations to speak out against a Palestinian state, which he said would be “a cancer in the heart of our homeland.” Though participants in the mission met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, among other Israeli officials, multiple attendees told Jewish Insider that Sa’ar was the first to ask them to actively oppose a two-state solution.

The minister opened his remarks addressing the return of the bodies of four hostages to Israel, which took place during the interview.  

“We have had so many tough days during the last 16 months,” Sa’ar said. “You cannot be sure it’s over. This is what we have to face, and have the strength to continue and to take our people to a better future, a safer future, in our ancient homeland.”

The minister said that the current cease-fire and hostage-release deal “is a bad deal, every negotiation with terrorists is bad.” However, he said he is proud to have played an influential role in reaching the deal, because it was necessary after half a year in which no hostages had been returned alive.

Asked whether Israel would try to extend the current phase of the cease-fire and hostage-release deal — in which Israel only partially withdrew from Gaza and exchanged Palestinian terrorists and security prisoners for Israeli hostages — or go to phase two, which would mean full withdrawal, Sa’ar described the choices Israel faces.

Lengthening the first phase “might have constructive negotiations, maybe combined with smaller deals getting out some of our hostages,” Sa’ar said. “Theoretically it’s within the framework … this option exists.”

The minister said that Israel has less than 10 days to reach agreements on phase two, “which seems difficult due to the fact that there are huge gaps. It’s not only an argument over the numbers of terrorists that will be released … After the release of the six [living hostages] on Shabbat, we will have about 21 hostages alive, and of course it is reasonable to assume [Hamas will] try to have a maximum ratio of terrorists released in exchange” for them.

The bigger question in the negotiations, according to Sa’ar, is who will control Gaza in the future, and that cannot be Hamas.

“If we can meet these objectives with diplomatic means, it’s better,” he said. “I doubt it’s possible, but war is not an ideology in itself. To the extent we won’t be able to do it, we will have to resume military actions.” 

Sa’ar warned that if Israel does not complete its mission of removing Hamas as a threat, “there will be a fashion to kidnap Jews, not only in Israel, but all over the world, and the demands — it’s not only the demand to release terrorists, which is severe enough. [They will demand] ‘give us territory, give us international guarantees, give us the option to control Gaza in the future.’ Can Israel agree to that? My answer is simply, no.”

The minister recounted that one of the female soldiers released in this cease-fire told him that “the people who kept her in captivity told her ‘we are going to come back within two or three years,’ and that on the 80th anniversary of the State of Israel [in 2028], they will launch their grand attack to eliminate the State of Israel. It is very clear what will happen if we let this organization survive as the dominant power in Gaza.”

With Israel withdrawing from Lebanon almost entirely, in accordance with that cease-fire, Sa’ar repeated his warning that Turkey is helping Iran smuggle funds to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which he said he also told Secretary of State Marco Rubio and visiting senators this week.

Israel is fighting “parallel battles,” to maintain its security and to keep Iranian influence out of Lebanon, the foreign minister said.

Lebanon has a chance to free itself from “the radical axis … Iranian occupation,” Sa’ar said, and whether it succeeds depends on whether or not Hezbollah is able to rebuild.

“What Iran is doing today is systematically trying to smuggle money into Lebanon,” Sa’ar said. “They were successful at least 12 times that we know of. Some of these attempts were via Istanbul, with the clear knowledge of Turkey about what is going on.” 

The funds are used by Hezbollah to restore its military strength and rebuild its power base by giving their supporters funds for welfare and to rebuild their homes destroyed in the war, he added.

Sa’ar noted that the Lebanese Armed Forces attempted to stop flights from Tehran carrying aid for Hezbollah, and the terror group’s supporters rioted, showing “how desperate they are to get this money.” 

“The most important thing for Lebanon’s future is that the army of Lebanon will be stronger than Hezbollah,” Sa’ar said. “This will be a parallel effort that we are maintaining with our friends around the world.”