From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 7, 2025
Smotrich defends criticism of IDF chief in leaked comments
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich defends his clash with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir during a security cabinet meeting on Saturday evening, declaring that leaks of his comments “did not weaken me but [rather] strengthened me.”
“My stand in the cabinet, on what I believe is right for the State of Israel, is not a right, but a duty,” Smotrich tells reporters ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“Anyone who expects a political leadership not to challenge the cabinet or point out failures does not understand how democracy works and has learned nothing from the disaster we went through. Anyone who seeks to silence controversy and prevent criticism will be directly responsible for the next [mistaken strategic] concept and the disaster that, God forbid, will follow it,” he insists.
“And anyone who thinks that petty politicians, who leak half-quotes to journalists, will deter me – does not understand what purpose I’m serving here,” he says.
On Sunday, Hebrew media reported that Smotrich had accused the military of failing to manage the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaz and had said that Zamir had “failed enormously on this matter.”
The Times of Israel Community.