Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses parliament in Jerusalem. AP
"The goal of this visit is to strengthen economic cooperation between Israel and the United States... and deepen the strategic alliance between our two countries," Smotrich wrote on social media platform X.
His trip comes with US President Donald Trump expected to announce whether to back the annexation of all or part of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Smotrich, an extremist colonial settler whose support is key to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary majority, said he would meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as other US government officials.
A self-described fascist labelled a "war criminal" by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Smotrich, among other Israeli cabinet members, has claimed there is no such thing as an innocent civilian population in Gaza while advocating for blocking humanitarian aid from entering the bombed-out Palestinian enclave.
He has been advocating for Israel to resume its war on Gaza after the first phase of a ceasefire ended this weekend with no agreement on phase two.
The 15-month Israeli assault has killed at least 48,397 Palestinians and wounded over 111,824, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, figures deemed reliable by the UN.
On Sunday, Smotrich called on the government to "to open (the) gates (of hell) as quickly and lethally as possible on the cruel enemy, until absolute victory".
In 2017, Smotrich outlined three possible options for Palestinians: live under occupation without rights, leave their land, or rebel and be eliminated. A settler in the occupied West Bank, he has repeatedly insisted that Israel should push for Palestinians to leave Gaza and the West Bank, asserting that Israel should take control of them. His remarks have been widely condemned as advocating for ethnic cleansing.
In February 2023, he called for "annihilating" the Palestinian town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank and said “there are no Palestinians because there are no Palestinian people.”
In 2024, the International Court of Justice, the UN's top legal body, issued an advisory opinion saying that Israel's occupation of the West Bank was unlawful. Israeli settlement expansion is considered illegal under international law and is regularly condemned by global bodies and human rights organizations, including the United Nations.
The visit coincides with an Arab League summit on Tuesday in Cairo, where leaders are discussing a counterproposal to Trump's 4 February plan for US control of Gaza.
Under that plan, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip would be forcibly displaced to third countries, and the coastal territory would be turned into what Trump called "the Riviera of the Middle East".
Arab countries and the international community have condemned the plan as a colonial scheme aimed at ethnically cleansing the territory devastated by Israel's deadly war since October 7, 2023.
He later appeared to soften the plan, saying he was only recommending the idea.
Asked whether he backed Israeli annexation of the West Bank, Trump said he would probably "make an announcement" on the issue within four weeks.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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