Smotrich: We failed, ‘I take responsibility for what was and what will be’

Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a press conference in Jerusalem on August 9, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a press conference in Jerusalem on August 9, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel acknowledges that he failed, and the government failed, to stop the Hamas assault that killed some 1,300 people.

“I take responsibility for what was and what will be. We have to admit with pain and with a bowed head — we failed. The country’s leadership and the security system have failed in maintaining the security of our residents,” Smotrich tells a press conference.

Commenting on the brutal assault by the Hamas terror group over the weekend, Smotrich says that the “massacre was the most  horrifying we have known in Israel — such unimaginable cruelty that the world has not seen since the Holocaust.”

Smotrich says that he has instructed to change the order of priorities in terms of budget allocation in tight of the war.

“All the budgets that have not yet been paid and committed are being examined, including the coalition budgets, some of the funds have already been diverted,” says Smotrich. “I instructed to change the order of priorities.”

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