{"id":426656,"date":"2026-05-05T15:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/426656\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:22:23","slug":"smotrich-including-arab-party-in-government-a-thousand-times-worse-than-oct-7-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/426656\/","title":{"rendered":"Smotrich: Including Arab party in government \u2018a thousand times\u2019 worse than Oct. 7 failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sparked an uproar on Tuesday when he asserted that former prime minister Naftali Bennett\u2019s decision to include the Islamist Ra\u2019am party in his 2021-2022 government was far worse than the governmental failures tied to Hamas\u2019s October 7, 2023, onslaught \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Smotrich\u2019s comments drew immediate condemnation from the opposition, with Ra\u2019am chairman Mansour Abbas asserting that \u201chuman life holds no value in [his] eyes\u201d and Bennett accusing the finance minister, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of \u201ctrying with all their might to make people forget the atrocities that occurred on their watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an interview with Radio 103FM, Smotrich spoke of his disdain for Bennett, accusing him of \u201cturning his back\u201d on his voters following the 2021 elections and breaking multiple election promises to form his government.<\/p>\n

Asked by the interviewer which was \u201cmore grave,\u201d the formation of the previous government with Ra\u2019am or the failures of the October 7 massacre \u2014 Smotrich replied: \u201cOf course, the formation of the government with Mansour Abbas.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he acknowledged that October 7 was \u201ca terrible failure that must be probed,\u201d he called it \u201ca tactical failure\u201d based on \u201ca 30- to 40-year paradigm in which I had no part.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To this, the perplexed interviewer said: \u201cDid you just say that forming a government with Mansour Abbas was worse than the October 7 massacre?\u201d<\/p>\n

Smotrich responded, \u201cAbsolutely. Intention is far worse than error.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cSomeone who consciously sold the State of Israel to its enemies \u2014 the Islamic Movement is an enemy, the sister-movement of Hamas \u2014 to enslave the state to its enemies\u2026it\u2019s much more severe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbas and Ra\u2019am have repeatedly condemned and denounced Hamas and its terrorist acts.<\/p>\n

Asked again if he put this above the horrors of October 7, Smotrich said, \u201cIt\u2019s horrible. I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tYesh Atid leader Yair Lapid (L), Yamina leader Naftali Bennett (C) and Ra\u2019am leader Mansour Abbas sign a coalition agreement on June 2, 2021. (Courtesy of Ra\u2019am)<\/p>\n

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\u2019am 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.<\/p>\n

Facing intense right-wing attacks, Bennett has said that, if elected in this year\u2019s election, he would only rely on Zionist parties<\/a> for his coalition, rather than sitting with Abbas\u2019s Ra\u2019am again.<\/p>\n

Though declaredly an Islamist, Abbas has stated that Israel will always be a Jewish state, condemned Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack, and called on Palestinian terror groups to demilitarize.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Justice Ministry stated that it was dissolving the \u201cAid 48\u201d association, a nonprofit connected to Ra\u2019am, 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\u2019am blamed the Netanyahu government for funding Hamas and accused it of seeking to divert attention from its own mistakes.<\/p>\n

Bennett: Smotrich added to list of massacre deniers<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who calls the October 7 massacre a \u2018tactical failure\u2019 is adding himself to the list of Israel-haters and massacre deniers,\u201d Bennett declared in a video message.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn October 7, Israelis who were partying were beheaded. Entire families were slaughtered in their beds. Children witnessed terrorists executing their parents before their eyes,\u201d he said, adding that he was \u201crepeating 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tOpposition 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)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more they fail, the more they try to incite against me to erase their own disgrace,\u201d Bennett continued, promising to soon \u201csend all the massacre deniers home\u201d and \u201cestablish a state commission of inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbas said on X that \u201cSmotrich has no respect for the 2,100 murdered individuals and their families,\u201d referring to all those killed on October 7 as well as during the subsequent military conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a miserable and immoral statement. Even on its worst day, [Bennett\u2019s] \u2018government of change\u2019 was a thousand times better than Smotrich\u2019s \u2018October 7 disaster government.\u2019 Human life holds no value in Smotrich\u2019s eyes, just as it holds no value for fanatical extremists anywhere else in the world. Soon, we will change that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta\u2019al party, also slammed Smotrich, declaring on X that \u201cwhat the racists and Kahanists say is not important, what matters is what we will do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tHadash-Ta\u2019al chair Ayman Odeh attends a faction meeting, at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on January 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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,\u201d Odeh wrote.<\/p>\n

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot accused Smotrich of using the October 7 disaster as a \u201ctool in the shameless campaign\u201d to belittle the failures surrounding the attack, calling Hamas\u2019s attack \u201can indelible stain that will never be removed from the October 7 cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yair Golan, head of The Democrats party, said Smotrich\u2019s words meant that \u201cas far as he is concerned, a massacre of Israelis is better than a government that doesn\u2019t include him, and this is the whole story: The life of the government is more important to him than the life of the citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smotrich subsequently issued a follow-up statement claiming his words had been \u201cdistorted\u201d and accusing critics of playing \u201cpetty politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIDF troops walk through Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the Gaza border, on October 20, 2023, following the October 7 Hamas onslaught. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question I was asked and which I answered was what was the worse political act \u2014 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,\u201d Smotrich said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yes, going knowingly to a government with Hamas while lying and stealing votes is the gravest political act Israeli politics has known,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe massacre Hamas committed is one of the most terrible we have known since the Holocaust, and nothing compares with it,\u201d he added, claiming that if the media was \u201ctrying to take my words out of context and belittle the massacre, you are evil liars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ra\u2019am 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sparked an uproar on Tuesday when he asserted that former prime minister Naftali Bennett\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[200458,1982,42,954,101649,953,43,190784,200457,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-426656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-anti-arab-attitudes","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-headlines","tag-israeli-politics","tag-mansour-abbas","tag-naftali-bennett","tag-news","tag-october-7-hamas-atrocities","tag-raam-party-united-arab-list","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}