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.”
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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 that is a failure and not a purposeful act.”
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid (L), Yamina leader Naftali Bennett (C) and Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas sign a coalition agreement on June 2, 2021. (Courtesy of Ra’am)
Neither Smotrich nor the interviewer pointed out that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely reported to have been the first to try his best to form a government with Ra’am after that same election. Smotrich himself has repeatedly asserted so, and claimed that this scenario was only thwarted by his veto on the matter at the time.
Facing intense right-wing attacks, Bennett has said that, if elected in this year’s election, he would only rely on Zionist parties for his coalition, rather than sitting with Abbas’s Ra’am again.
Though declaredly an Islamist, Abbas has stated that Israel will always be a Jewish state, condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack, and called on Palestinian terror groups to demilitarize.
Last year, the Justice Ministry stated that it was dissolving the “Aid 48” association, a nonprofit connected to Ra’am, following an investigation over alleged money transfers to groups proscribed for terror links. The party itself was not implicated in any wrongdoing. In response, Ra’am blamed the Netanyahu government for funding Hamas and accused it of seeking to divert attention from its own mistakes.
Bennett: Smotrich added to list of massacre deniers
Opposition party leaders launched scathing attacks on Smotrich in response to his comments, accusing him of racism and of valuing his political survival more than the lives of the citizens the government serves.
“Anyone who calls the October 7 massacre a ‘tactical failure’ is adding himself to the list of Israel-haters and massacre deniers,” Bennett declared in a video message.
“On October 7, Israelis who were partying were beheaded. Entire families were slaughtered in their beds. Children witnessed terrorists executing their parents before their eyes,” he said, adding that he was “repeating these facts because Netanyahu and Smotrich and their government are trying with all their might to make people forget the atrocities that occurred on their watch, and under their full responsibility, and as a result of their failed policy, for which they are responsible.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (right) and former prime minister Naftali Bennett at a press conference announcing their joint run in the coming elections, in Herzliya, central Israel, April 26, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
“The more they fail, the more they try to incite against me to erase their own disgrace,” Bennett continued, promising to soon “send all the massacre deniers home” and “establish a state commission of inquiry.”
Abbas said on X that “Smotrich has no respect for the 2,100 murdered individuals and their families,” referring to all those killed on October 7 as well as during the subsequent military conflicts.
“This is a miserable and immoral statement. Even on its worst day, [Bennett’s] ‘government of change’ was a thousand times better than Smotrich’s ‘October 7 disaster government.’ Human life holds no value in Smotrich’s eyes, just as it holds no value for fanatical extremists anywhere else in the world. Soon, we will change that,” he added.
Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party, also slammed Smotrich, declaring on X that “what the racists and Kahanists say is not important, what matters is what we will do.”
Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh attends a faction meeting, at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on January 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“And we, the Arab citizens, together with the democratic Jews, will do everything, simply everything, to prevent Smotrich-Netanyahu-Ben Gvir from continuing to another term,” Odeh wrote.
Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot accused Smotrich of using the October 7 disaster as a “tool in the shameless campaign” to belittle the failures surrounding the attack, calling Hamas’s attack “an indelible stain that will never be removed from the October 7 cabinet.”
Yair Golan, head of The Democrats party, said Smotrich’s words meant that “as far as he is concerned, a massacre of Israelis is better than a government that doesn’t include him, and this is the whole story: The life of the government is more important to him than the life of the citizens.”
Smotrich subsequently issued a follow-up statement claiming his words had been “distorted” and accusing critics of playing “petty politics.”
IDF troops walk through Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the Gaza border, on October 20, 2023, following the October 7 Hamas onslaught. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“The question I was asked and which I answered was what was the worse political act — going for a government with Hamas knowingly and on purpose and due to lust for honor and power, or sitting in a government that had a terrible massacre happen on its watch in which Hamas attacked Israel and murdered thousands of people,” Smotrich said.
“So yes, going knowingly to a government with Hamas while lying and stealing votes is the gravest political act Israeli politics has known,” he said.
“The massacre Hamas committed is one of the most terrible we have known since the Holocaust, and nothing compares with it,” he added, claiming that if the media was “trying to take my words out of context and belittle the massacre, you are evil liars.”
Ra’am has no ties to Hamas. It is a political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a group which, like Hamas, was historically inspired by the political Islamist aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a global Islamist organization that has been outlawed in around a dozen countries for alleged links to terrorism.
However, the dovish Southern Branch has never espoused violence and has consistently called for abiding by Israeli law and for coexistence. It has also long distanced itself from the Brotherhood.