Bennett accuses Smotrich, PM of promoting October 7 denial

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett slams Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for claiming that Bennett’s decision to include the Islamist Ra’am party in a coalition was a far greater disaster than Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

“Anyone who calls the October 7 massacre a ‘tactical failure’ is adding himself to the list of Israel-haters and massacre deniers,” Bennett declares in a video message.

“On October 7, Israelis who were partying were beheaded. Entire families were slaughtered in their beds. Children witnessed terrorists executing their parents before their eyes. For long hours, women and men were brutally raped. Babies and elderly people in the Gaza Envelope were kidnapped from their homes,” Bennett says, explaining that he is “repeating these facts because [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Smotrich and their government are trying with all their might to make people forget the atrocities that occurred on their watch, and under their full responsibility, and as a result of their failed policy, for which they are responsible.”

“The more they fail, the more they try to incite against me to erase their own disgrace,” Bennett continues, promising to soon “send all the massacre deniers home” and “establish a state commission of inquiry.”

Asked this morning during an interview with Radio 103FM what was the greater calamity — the formation of the previous government or the October 7 massacre — Smotrich replied: “Of course, the formation of the government with [Ra’am chief] Mansour Abbas.”

He argued that while October 7 was a “tactical failure” that must be probed, a deed that was done on purpose is worse than something that happened unintentionally.

Following harsh condemnations by opposition lawmakers, Smotrich issued a statement claiming his words were “distorted” and comparing Ra’am to Hamas.