MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: US slams ‘repugnant’ comments from right-wing Israeli minister 

The US State Department on Wednesday condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s “irresponsible” comment that Israel should “wipe out” an entire Palestinian town. Jewish settlers on Sunday carried out a violent rampage on Huwara, indiscriminately torching Palestinian cars and homes in retaliation for the shooting deaths of two Israelis over the weekend.

“I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it,” said Smotrich, who is expected to speak at a conference in Washington later this month.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to “publicly and clearly” disavow the comments from Smotrich, who heads Israel’s religious far-right Religious Zionism party.

“They were repugnant. They were disgusting,” Price said. “Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence.”

Smotrich’s comment comes less than a month after Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed reducing Palestinian-Israeli tensions during a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Ben Caspit writes in Al-Monitor that the extremist violence in Huwara is the latest evidence that Israel’s prime minister has lost control of his own government.

“Even such a political magician as Netanyahu has proven unable to control the delusional group of religious nationalists with which he has surrounded himself,” Caspit wrote.