Israel will ‘not forget’ about hostages or destroying Hamas, Dermer tells JNS

By JNS staff

The Israeli government will finish the war against Hamas and return the hostages, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affair Ron Dermer declared at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Monday night.

“There are people you’ll meet in Israel who say, you know, forget about the hostages, just finish the war. And the people who say finish, you know, forget about the war, just return the hostages,” Dermer told JNS CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief Alex Traiman during an interview.

“We’re not going to do that. That’s not where Prime Minister Netanyahu is. It’s not where I am,” said Dermer, who has led the negotiations for a hostage deal with the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza in recent weeks.

“I think we have to work on achieving those goals, and we’ve gone pretty far, and what will happen the ‘day after’ in Gaza is a discussion—lots of discussions we’ve had behind the scenes,” added Dermer.

“You never want to have daylight with the United States if you can afford not to have daylight,” Dermer said of Jerusalem’s relations with the U.S. “It’s never a good thing because it sends a message to Israel’s friends and Israel’s enemies when we are aligned with the United States.”