The chairman of the Religious Zionist Party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that forming the previous government together with the Arab Ra'am party was even worse than the October 7 massacre.
"Of course forming the government with Mansour Abbas is worse," Smotrich declared in an interview with Radio 103fm.
He emphasized that despite the tragedy of the massacre, in his view intentional political partnership with an Arab party constitutes a more significant danger. "The October 7 massacre is a terrible and awful failure, but it is a tactical failure. Knowingly selling out the State of Israel to its enemies and to the Islamic Movement did something that is 1,000 times worse than the worst possible failure that was not a malicious act."
When asked why he does not acknowledge that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the leader during whose term the massacre occurred, he responded, "I have significant arguments with him. I still think this war must end with a change in Israel's borders, in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, and of course in Judea and Samaria."
According to him, if it depended on him, IDF forces would capture much larger areas in Lebanon. "Yes, I think he is wrong. In terms of mindset, our enemies do not care how many terrorists we kill or how many bombs we drop on them. It does not interest them. What matters to them is whether we take territory from them."
When asked, "How would Bennett, if he were prime minister, conduct this war differently than you?", Smotrich replied, "The left, over the years, is a master at taking military achievements and diluting them. I am willing to argue with the right; I am willing to argue with the left - I do not know how to argue with someone who one day promises he will not sit with Lapid and then sits with Lapid, someone who promised not to form a government with anti-Zionist supporters of terror - with the sister movement of Hamas - and did it. Let's talk about people who have a worldview."
Later Smotrich published a clarification of his remarks. "Let it be clear - to anyone trying to play at politics at the expense of the massacre victims - you do not interest me. What pains me is the many people harmed by your distortion of my words and to them I want to clarify that the question I was asked and to which I answered was: which political act is more severe - knowingly and deliberately joining a government with Hamas out of a lust for honor and power, or sitting in a government during whose term a terrible massacre occurred in which Hamas attacked the State of Israel and killed thousands of our people."
"Knowingly going into a government with Hamas with lies and deceit and vote theft is the most severe act Israeli politics has known. The massacre carried out by Hamas is among the most horrific we have seen since the Holocaust and nothing compares to it. To you the media - if you try to take my words out of context and belittle the massacre, you are wicked liars."