Smotrich: Government with Mansour Abbas Would Be Worse Than October 7 Massacre

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a prominent figure in Israel's political landscape, has ignited a firestorm with his comparison of a potential government coalition with Mansour Abbas's Ra'am party to the horrors of the October 7 massacre. Speaking on Radio 103FM, Smotrich articulated a view held by many on the right: that while the October 7 attack was a devastating tactical failure, the deliberate act of forming a political alliance with an Arab party, which he equates to the Islamic movement, represents a far graver, strategic danger to the State of Israel.

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The October 7 massacre is a horrible and terrible failure, but it is a tactical failure. Whoever knowingly sold the State of Israel to its enemies and to the Islamic movement has done something 1,000 times worse than the most terrible failure, because it was not a malicious act.

Smotrich's subsequent clarification on X/Twitter aimed to frame his comments not as a direct comparison of tragedies, but as a judgment on political actions. He argued that knowingly entering a government with parties like Hamas, driven by "lust for honor and power," is a more severe betrayal of Israel than the "tactical failure" of being caught off guard on October 7. This distinction, while attempting to reframe the debate, underscores the deep-seated political divisions and security concerns that permeate Israeli society.

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The question I was asked and answered was what *political act* is more severe - to go into a government with Hamas knowingly and deliberately out of lust for honor and power, or to sit in a government during whose watch a horrific massacre occurred in which Hamas attacked the State of Israel and murdered thousands of our people.

The reaction from Mansour Abbas was swift and condemnatory. Abbas, leader of the United Arab List (Ra'am), dismissed Smotrich's statement as "wretched and immoral," accusing the Finance Minister of devaluing human lives and showing a lack of respect for those murdered on October 7. Abbas's response highlights the intense animosity and distrust between certain factions within Israeli politics, particularly concerning the role of Arab parties in the government.

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This is a wretched and immoral statement.

From an Israeli perspective, this exchange is not merely about political rhetoric; it touches upon fundamental questions of national security, identity, and the very definition of who constitutes a legitimate partner in governing the Jewish state. While Western media might focus on the inflammatory nature of the statements, for Israelis, these words reflect deeply held anxieties about the nation's future and its internal political dynamics. The debate over forming governments and the perceived threats from both external enemies and internal political maneuvering is a constant undercurrent in Israeli public discourse.

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Human lives hold no value in Smotrich's eyes, just like in the eyes of fanatical extremists anywhere in the world.