Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday blasted the government and its leader, claiming that the ministers are "busy making excuses and accusations".
Bennett attacked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and said, "The Minister of Finance publicly calls for Huwara to be wiped out and then accuses the pilots of not knowing him well enough and therefore being frightened. Yes, the same Smotrich who evaded combat service and arranged for a short job in the IDF so he could study for a degree in at the same time."
On Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan, he said, "The Minister of ‘Public Diplomacy’ whines that she doesn't have a printer(!), and therefore she fails in providing public diplomacy, a complete failure. By the way, as Prime Minister I established an excellent public diplomacy directorate led by Elad Tene.The directorate operated quickly, with coordination and successfully.I have no idea why this directorate is not used now and why a new and expensive ministry is needed for something that already exists."
"Minister Ben Gvir secretly records the police commanders and leaks it to the media, then instead of providing security, he writes posts and publishes TikToks blaming the left, his predecessors and everyone else for his failures."
Bennett also criticized the Minister of Heritage, saying, "And the minister of something, Amichai Eliyahu from [Ben Gvir’s] party, accuses the commanders of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Mossad of 'rebellion', no less."
"And Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, goes to address the nation, and instead of uniting, giving hope and leading, he spends most of his speech on weak excuses to explain why he is personally not guilty, and on placing responsibility on the previous government and the citizens of Israel (!) for all of Israel's ills. I will put it simply: This is not leadership," stated Bennett.
The former Prime Minister’s comments follow Netanyahu’s speech from Monday, in which he blamed the previous government for the current wave of terrorism in Israel.
Netanyahu pointed an accusing finger at the protests against the judicial reform and claimed that "our enemies interpreted the calls for refusal to serve as a weakness in our national strength."
Criticizing the previous government led by Bennett and Yair Lapid, Netanyahu said, "The previous government signed an agreement of surrender to Hezbollah, without any compensation." He added that "yesterday I met the head of the opposition, and I asked him: 'When you declare that Israel is collapsing, how do you think this is received by our enemies?', they hear it and see it and write about it."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Seventh Day of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)