The chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, Smotrich, was asked at the National Education Conference of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivas and Ulpanot and "Makor Rishon" about the QatarGate affair.
"Qatar is a state of terror, a supporter of terror, a sponsor of terror. I opposed from the beginning the delegations going to Qatar. It is largely responsible for what happened with Hamas before October 7, and it should be condemned and delegitimized," Smotrich responded.
He continued, "If there are corrupt people in the Prime Minister's office, who during a time of war worked for Qatar, they need to be condemned to the stocks and serve many years behind bars. This is horrible and frightening. I am shocked."
He added that it is "a problem" even if the Prime Minister did not know about what was happening in his office.
The Finance Minister also addressed the changes needed in the education system. "There are excellent teachers, but the system itself needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. It's a frozen system that doesn't know how to encourage excellence or incentivize teachers. The education system must be competitive. If Ran Erez doesn't create a fight before the start of the year, he's not Ran Erez. I want good teachers to be incentivized for being good teachers."
He added, "It's very nice to put everything on the Minister of Finance, but I think we're making many small steps to fix it, but it's not enough. If parents had the right to choose, there would be an incentive for schools to be good. This requires dismantling teachers' unions and associations. There are excellent teams, but the system stifles them and doesn't allow them to develop and initiate. I appreciate those who manage to function within the system. The system needs to open up to competition and initiatives, and the teams will be able to do much more, and the students will get better results," he concluded.