Smotrich: Including Arab party in government ‘a thousand times’ worse than Oct. 7 failures |
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sparked an uproar on Tuesday when he asserted that former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s decision to include the Islamist Ra’am party in his 2021-2022 government was far worse than the governmental failures tied to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught — the worst attack on civilians in Israeli history, which saw some 1,200 people murdered and 251 taken hostage, and which led to a multi-front war in which some 900 others have been killed.
Smotrich’s comments drew immediate condemnation from the opposition, with Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas asserting that “human life holds no value in [his] eyes” and Bennett accusing the finance minister, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of “trying with all their might to make people forget the atrocities that occurred on their watch.”
During an interview with Radio 103FM, Smotrich spoke of his disdain for Bennett, accusing him of “turning his back” on his voters following the 2021 elections and breaking multiple election promises to form his government.
Asked by the interviewer which was “more grave,” the formation of the previous government with Ra’am or the failures of the October 7 massacre — Smotrich replied: “Of course, the formation of the government with Mansour Abbas.”
While he acknowledged that October 7 was “a terrible failure that must be probed,” he called it “a tactical failure” based on “a 30- to 40-year paradigm in which I had no part.”
To this, the perplexed interviewer said: “Did you just say that forming a government with Mansour Abbas was worse than the October 7 massacre?”
Smotrich responded, “Absolutely. Intention is far worse than error.”
He went on: “Someone who consciously sold the State of Israel to its enemies — the Islamic Movement is an enemy, the sister-movement of Hamas — to enslave the state to its enemies…it’s much more severe.”
Abbas and Ra’am have repeatedly condemned and denounced Hamas and its terrorist acts.
Asked again if he put this above the horrors of October 7, Smotrich said, “It’s horrible. I don’t understand, do you want a contest of disasters? You asked me, as a politician, what I think is worse. A politician who lied, stole [votes], betrayed his values, partners and promises, and sold the country to terror supporters, assassinated democracy and public trust in the political system and in Zionism, is a thousand times worse than the biggest failure imaginable, when........