You're going to I welcome the young Turks, Jake, you're in an with you guys, lots of news as usual, of course, some dramatic, some fun.

All right, Anna, take it away.

We begin with the dramatic because now it has become abundantly clear that some members of the

Israeli government do not see rescuing hostages as a top priority.

So let's talk about who it is and what he said. Far right Israeli finance minister, Baselel Smotrich, has now sparked fury after he stated that

getting the Israeli hostages back home is not the top priority and he said this during an interview just today.

Now that led to outrage and we'll get to that outrage in just a moment but let's get to what he specifically said. In this interview, he said, it's not the most important thing,

meaning saving the hostages and bringing them back home. Why make it a competition? Why is it so important at the moment? We need to destroy Hamas. That is very important.

Smotchrich also lashed out at those who are calling for a deal, a ceasefire if you will that would bring the hostages home at any price,

saying that at any price is a problem, we have to return the hostages and we have to put pressure on Hamas.

Now Smotrich's comments were so extreme that even Benny Gantz took issue with them

and released a statement of his own saying that the return of the hostages

is not only our goal in the war, it is our moral imperative as a country and as a people.

It is the most urgent thing. We will not miss any opportunity to bring them home.

Now, Jenk, you and I have been saying from almost the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza that it doesn't appear as

though saving the hostages is a priority because remember the hostages are in

the Gaza Strip everything that the Palestinians are dealing with right now the

hostages are also dealing with that includes the blockage of any

humanitarian aid that includes the aerial bombardments that includes the

shelling so we know that some of the

hostages, although it's unclear how many, have died as a result of some of the military

activity that Israel has carried out in the Gaza Strip. So we kept pointing to that as, hey, if they really care about bringing the hostages home, it doesn't really seem like it, given the brutal acts that are being committed in Gaza, which again, the Israeli hostages would have to deal with alongside

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