Smotrich Attacks Ra Party Coalition, Says It Would Eclipse October 7
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that forming a government with the ra party would be worse than the October 7 Hamas massacre in 2023. He made the remark in an interview with Radio 103FM after being asked to compare the massacre with a coalition led by Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas. He later said the media was taking his words out of context.
Smotrich and Mansour Abbas
Smotrich said that forming a government with Abbas was “obviously” more severe. He called the October 7 massacre “a terrible failure” but said it was “a tactical failure.” He added that someone who knowingly sold the State of Israel to its enemies and to the Islamic Movement did something “a thousand times worse than the worst failure,” and when pressed he replied, “Do you want to compare disasters?”
When the interviewer asked which was more severe, the massacre or forming a government with Ra’am, Smotrich answered, “that is far worse.” In his framing, the 2021 coalition that included Ra’am was not just a political arrangement but a government formed with Hamas.
Smotrich on X
After the interview, Smotrich posted a clarification on X saying he was referring strictly to “the more severe political act.” He wrote that “knowingly entering a government with Hamas, through lies, deception, and stealing votes, is the most severe act Israeli politics has ever known.”
The exchange reopened a dispute that has followed the 2021 coalition and now centers on how far political language can go when it is tied to October 7, when over 1,200 people were murdered and 251 were taken hostage. Smotrich’s remarks placed that attack beside a coalition question involving Ra’am, then narrowed his defense to the political act he said he meant.
Mansour Abbas response
Abbas called Smotrich’s remarks “miserable and immoral” and said they showed “no respect” for those murdered and their families. His response turned the dispute back on the finance minister’s wording rather than on coalition arithmetic, leaving Smotrich defending the comparison while Abbas attacked the intent behind it.
That leaves the argument where it began: over whether Smotrich was making a literal comparison with October 7 or attacking the 2021 political deal by equating it with betrayal. His clarification on X suggests he wants the fight framed as a dispute over political legitimacy, not the scale of the massacre itself.
