Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday evening attacked the chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, MK Bezalel Smotrich, in a particularly scathing tweet.
Bennett was furious at a tweet posted by Smotrich which read, "Even at the end of this difficult bloody weekend we should remember to thank Ayelet Shaked and the rest of her friends in Yamina who at least prevented a fifth election when they formed a left-wing government with supporters of terrorism. PS. That is a complete lie of course."
The tweet included pictures of the 11 people killed in recent terror attacks in Be’er Sheva, Hadera, and Bnei Brak, along with the wording, “They won’t vote again.”
The Prime Minister wrote in response, "Anyone who publishes such a thing, anyone who dances like this on blood, represents neither Zionism nor religion. Over the weekend I did not have time to respond to this shocking tweet. I was dealing with security issues, with the dozens of actions we are taking to stop the wave of terrorism, thwarting the terrorist cell in Jenin and other burning issues."
"The silent majority knows very well: The values of religious Zionism on which I grew up are statesmanship and love of the state, significant military service and contribution to the state, every person the way he can, unity of the people at all costs, stubborn resistance in the face of terror and no fueling of the fire during a military campaign."
"A person who spent years in nocturnal ambushes with people from all parts of the nation, a person who saw friends wounded in battle, a person who remembers the smell of the tank or diesel during weapon cleaning, would not, simply would not publish such a post. The people of Israel will defeat their enemies together," Bennett concluded.
MK Smotrich later replied to Bennett and said, "A person who has used bereaved families to gather votes and today refuses to even meet with them to please his pro-terror partners would be better off not talking about ‘dancing on blood.’"