Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, during a TV appearance on “Solovyov Live,” said that the comment of Israel’s Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu, that dropping an atomic bomb in Gaza “is an option,” raises “a huge” number of questions. “The number one question is, did we hear an official declaration that [Israel] has nuclear weapons? Consequently, the next questions that everyone had were: Where are the international organizations, where is the IAEA, where are the inspectors?” she said, reported TASS. Zakharova also said that such statements by Israeli officials shed light on the true reasons why Tel Aviv is opposing the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. She argued that the U.S. made every effort to help Israel acquire nuclear weapons, giving it full support in this matter.
“If this program exists and existed, where were the tests conducted, at what testing grounds? Obviously, apparently not in the region, then where? And isn’t the United States behind all this?” she said.
In the uproar following Eliyahu’s “nuke ’em” proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he had “suspended” Eliyahu from cabinet meetings. Asked about Eliyahu’s horrifying statement in his Monday, Nov. 6 press briefing, State Department Deputy Press Spokesman Vedant Patel assured people that “Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government have repudiated those comments, which we also found as wholly unacceptable,” and “both sides” should “refrain from hateful rhetoric.” End of statement; no demand for further action.
Yet that same day, Times of Israel reported that Eliyahu had “taken part in a telephone cabinet vote hours” after he had supposedly been “suspended.” “The premier reportedly looked into firing Eliyahu, but backed down due to pushback from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who heads Eliyahu’s Otzma Yehudit party,” ToI reported.
