Israeli finance minister accuses U.S. of ‘hypocrisy’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday criticized U.S. policies and practices in Iraq and Afghanistan, accusing Washington of "hypocrisy" and human rights violations.
"There is no more moral country than Israel, and there is no more moral army than the IDF (army)," Smotrich told Army Radio.
The finance minister labelled parties criticizing Israel as "hypocrites."
"There is no nation that has been fighting for its survival in the face of murderous terrorism for decades in a cleaner and more careful way than the Jewish people," he said.
"I am not talking about the Americans and how they acted in Afghanistan and Iraq. They shouldn't preach to us about human rights, neither to the IDF nor to us on a political level. This is unmitigated hypocrisy," he added.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Smotrich's comments came after the U.S. labelled statements by Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Palestinians as "racist rhetoric."
Last week, Ben-Gvir said that the safety and mobility rights of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank held more weight than those of Palestinians.
"My right, my wife's, my children's, to roam the roads of Judea and Samaria are more important than the right of movement of the Arabs," Ben-Gvir said, using the biblical term for the occupied territory.
Smotrich supports settlement building in the Palestinian territories, and publicly calls for the annexation of large parts of the West Bank to Israel.