Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has emerged as one of the most consequential voices in the nation’s politics. His latest and most ambitious proposal is a public call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to occupy and settle the Gaza Strip.

In his own words: “We must establish Israeli control over the entire territory and rebuild Jewish settlements there. History has proven for a hundred years: where the plow passes, there the border and security pass. The war for our rebirth must end with the expansion of Israel’s borders.”