When she was 16 years old, Orit Struk was a student at the prestigious "High School Near the University" (Lida) in Jerusalem, an anomaly in Jerusalem's elite institution. Questions she asked led her to the late Rabbi Chaim Druckman, in whose house she repented. Since then, Strzok has gone with her beliefs and doubts, even when others don't like them. With her husband Avraham, she settled in the Jewish Quarter of Hebron. At the same time as the birth of her 11 children, she became involved in the community's public activities.
As the years passed, the scope of its activities expanded. It began to deal with issues relating to all settlements in Judea and Samaria. Thus, for example, she founded the Yesha Human Rights Organization and fought the "special procedures" initiated by then-attorney Shai Nitzan against the residents of Judea and Samaria. Later, she prosecuted the many policemen who beat girls and boys during the evacuation of houses in Amona in 2006.
The next stage was extra-parliamentary activity in the Knesset. Strzok was behind the Eretz Israel Caucus, which she established after every election campaign. It made sure to include coalition and opposition representatives from the right and left in the lobbies – a line that has characterized its activity ever since, in contrast to the image they have built for it. She herself stayed behind the scenes.
Strzok on her way to a cabinet meeting (archive),
Working in the Knesset, and even earlier in Hebron, opened doors for her through the high windows. Both in the army and in the political system they have come to know a woman with a backbone and sharp thinking, devoid of personal interests. Several times a week she would take buses, about an hour and a half each way, from her home in Hebron to Jerusalem, and back. The devotion, almost asceticism, only increased the appreciation for her. For her part, she used the attentive ear she received to advance the issues of her agenda, not herself.
In 2014, after the three youths were kidnapped, on Saturday she called Naftali Bennett, then economy minister, and offered to return those released in the Shalit deal to prison. Bennett went with the idea to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the proposal was implemented.
Strzok continued to ask her questions that went beyond the norm both when she became a Knesset member in 2021 (she also served as a Knesset member from 2015-2013), and when she was appointed Minister of Settlements at the end of 2022. In fact, she felt that her duty to go with her truth only grew with the roles.
Minister Orit Strook on a tour of the Galilee (archive), photo: Yitzhak Weiss
As a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the days following Operation Guardian of the Walls, she asked IDF representatives countless times why materials known to be used by Hamas to arm themselves were brought into the Gaza Strip. She rummaged through protocols, confronted the officers with things they or their predecessors had said in the past, and asked for answers that never came.
Her campaign of questions, the only woman in a male-dominated security world, continued even when she entered government. Strzok, we reveal here, was the only one in the Israeli leadership serving to warn prematurely of the strengthening of Hamas. While the entire political and security leadership, in the coalition, the opposition, and the military, fell into the terrorist organization's anesthesia trap, Strzok warned on September 5, just a month before the war, that "the day of command, will come, when Hamas decides."
This is the language of one of many letters she sent to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant, National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi, and all members of the cabinet and government. Strzok, as the song says, stood and shouted why – why is Israel bringing into Gaza "dual-use materials that will return to us as warheads on missiles in the next conflict?"
The letter sent by Strzok
In the same appeal, despairing of the apathy of her colleagues, Strzok flattens her attempts to wake up Netanyahu, Galant and the cabinet.
"This letter was sent to you with great pain. The issue of bringing dual-use materials into the Gaza Strip was raised by me at a cabinet meeting on May 14, 5. I explained and proved at the time that the previous government had changed the procedures and allowed the extensive entry of dual-use materials into Gaza, and I said that I expected us to change this erroneous decision," she wrote in her letter. "I warned... I handed over the data to the Cabinet Secretary... The prime minister noted that this would be examined by him and the cabinet. I also raised the issue in an organized meeting with the head of the National Security Council, to whom I also entrusted the same data, as well as in a letter to the defense minister. To the best of my knowledge (and I would be very happy to apologize if I'm wrong), nothing has changed. I ask you to make sure that now the data is seriously examined, and that appropriate decisions are made."
From April to September of last year, Strzok warned at least 15 times about the strengthening of Hamas. "Most of the weapons and ammunition of the terrorist organizations in Gaza are manufactured inside the Gaza Strip. Most of the materials used in this production come to Gaza from Israel," she wrote to Gallant last June.
She notes that the lifting of restrictions began during the Bennett-Lapid government: "In January 2022, Israel allowed the entry of white cement into Gaza. A month later, steel sheets were allowed. In December 2022, fiberglass was allowed. During 2022, a series of medical and communications equipment were allowed, which until then had been on the dual-use materials list. There is no doubt that these dual-use materials were exploited to renew the armament and military buildup of the terrorist organizations in Gaza, and to rehabilitate the offensive capabilities of the terrorist organizations against us..." Strzok received the information, by the way, from former National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat, who was also among those warning.
Documentation: IDF attacks Hamas terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
The minister's criticism not only goes backwards, but is also directed at the current government, of which, as you will recall, she is a member. "In January 2023 (Netanyahu's government), engines for boats were allowed into the Gaza Strip. In May 2023, spare parts for motorcycles were allowed... The reservoirs that are filling up are waiting for the day of the order, which will come, when Hamas decides. I would like to understand who decided on this policy and what are the reasons for it," she added.
She continued: "The question of why additional and frequent actions are not taken to prevent the armament and damage to it remains unanswered at the time. I would like to ask her now, too... With the formation of the new government, it was requested that this policy of the Bennett-Lapid government be stopped, in order to prevent further armament, or at least minimize it. But the policy has not been changed or amended."
Strzok didn't let go. She asked for meetings, went on WhatsApp, and sometimes, when she was really desperate, she lectured at government meetings. Netanyahu called it "Orit Strzok's special procedure." He appreciated her, though he didn't do much about it. Not only him. The security establishment within the government smeared it. The ex-patrons outside rolled over her with characteristic patronage.
"Disgraceful incitement," former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, one of those who allowed dual-use materials into Gaza, defined the question Strzok asked at a cabinet meeting last Sunday, when she asked the head of the IDF's Strategy and Iran Directorate, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, whether the claim that there are pilots who do not bomb Gaza is true "for conscientious reasons." He and others commit the same character assassination, which in any case of another woman would be defined as discrimination against women.
The IDF Spokesperson replies to Strzok: "There is no case in which soldiers on the ground did not receive assistance from the air" // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
But it doesn't break, nor does it change its course. In contrast to the painting circulated about her in the media, Strzok is one of the government's unifying and effective figures. On the wall of her office in Jerusalem's Technological Park, hangs a notice of appreciation from the heads of the working settlement.
"We thank Sarah Orit Struk from the bottom of our hearts," wrote Eitan Broshi (former secretary general of the Kibbutz Movement), Danny Ivry (head of Misgav Council), Nir Meir (current secretary general of the Kibbutz Movement), Amit Yifrach (secretary general of the Moshavim Movement) and many others. The reason for the surprising recognition from the left is the relentless push of decisions and legislative changes led by Strzok in favor of settlement throughout the country.
Since October 7, at a heavy cost, Strzok has been getting government attention. At the emergency meeting Netanyahu convened at the height of the holiday, she was, at her request, the first to speak. It called for the complete crushing of Hamas' capabilities in Gaza, both military, governmental and budgetary. She demanded full demilitarization, stressed that rehabilitation should not be allowed before demilitarization, and made several more suggestions.
The conclusion is clear. Strzok's questions are justified. If, instead of attacking her, the generals, officers and commentators had joined her vigilance, the massacre that occurred on October 7 might have been spared.
The full article will be published tomorrow (Friday) in "Israel This Week".
Minister Strzok in the Knesset, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
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