Israeli Finance Minister Sparks Fury for Saying Arab-Backed Government Worse Than October 7 Massacre

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was harshly condemned on Tuesday after asserting that the previous government’s reliance on support from an Arab party was a greater disaster for the country than the October 7 massacre. The massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023 is mourned in Israel as the biggest catastrophe in the country’s history and has become a central issue in the upcoming elections scheduled for October. In an interview with Israel’s Radio 103FM, Mr. Smotrich was asked which of the two he saw as a greater tragedy for Israel. “Of course, the formation of the government with [United Arab List chief] Mansour Abbas,” he replied. “Someone who knowingly sold the State of Israel to its enemies … is much graver than someone who erred, slipped, failed,” Mr. Smotrich said, according to a translation by the Times of Israel. “A politician who lied, stole, 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 graver than the biggest failure imaginable, which is a failure and not a purposeful act,” he said. Mr. Abbas responded on X to the finance minister’s comparison between his party and October 7. “Smotrich has no respect for the 2,100 murdered individuals and their families,” he posted, decrying the cabinet minister’s “miserable and immoral statement.”“Even on its worst day, the ‘government of change’ was a thousand times better than Smotrich’s ‘October 7 disaster government’,” Mr. Abbas said, referring to the government led by Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid from 2021-2022. “Human life holds no value in Smotrich’s eyes, just as it holds no value for fanatical extremists anywhere else in the world,” he added. “Soon, we will change that.” Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party, said it doesn’t matter what the “racists and Kahanists say … what matters is what we will do.”“And 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,” Mr. Odeh wrote on X. Yair Golan, leader of the The Democrats party, also slammed the finance minister. From Mr. Smotrich’s perspective, “it’s preferable to massacre the people of Israel rather than have a government without him,” said Mr. Golan, “and that’s the whole story: the life of the government is more important to him than the lives of the citizens.”“It’s the same Smotrich,” he added, “who declared that Hamas is an asset. Palestinian terrorism is his ally.”Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot said that if Mr. Smotrich had heeded the warnings of “experienced professionals, even a failed government like yours could have prevented the disaster.”“The biggest failure in our history is an indelible stain that will never be removed from the October 7 cabinet,” he said.

Israeli Finance Minister Sparks Fury for Saying Arab-Backed Government Worse Than October 7 Massacre

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