Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) said in a radio interview on Tuesday that the decision by Naftali Bennett (Together) to include Mansour Abbas’s United Arab List faction in his 2021-2022 “change government” was worse for the country than the governmental failures tied to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel’s south.
The finance minister made clear his deep disdain for Bennett, accusing him of “turning his back” on his voters following the 2021 elections and breaking multiple promises to his voters in order to become prime minister.
Asked by the interviewer which was “more grave,” the formation of the “change government” with UAL or the failures of the October 7 massacre — Smotrich replied: “Of course, the formation of the government with Mansour Abbas.”
While he acknowledged that October 7 was “a terrible failure that must be probed,” he called it “a tactical failure” based on “a 30- to 40-year paradigm in which I had no part.”
To this, the perplexed interviewer said: “Did you just say that forming a government with Mansour Abbas was worse than the October 7 massacre?”
Smotrich responded, “Absolutely. Intention is far worse than error.”
“Someone who consciously sold the State of Israel to its enemies — the Islamic Movement is an enemy, the sister-movement of Hamas — to enslave the state to its enemies…it’s much more severe.”
Pressed again if he saw this as worse than the horrors of October 7, 2023, Smotrich said, “It’s horrible. I don’t understand, do you want a contest of disasters?”
“You asked me, as a politician, what I think is worse,” he continued. “A politician who lied, stole [votes], betrayed his values, partners, and promises, and sold the country to terror supporters, assassinated democracy and public trust in the political system and in Zionism, is a thousand times worse than the biggest failure imaginable, when that is a failure and not a purposeful act.”
Smotrich’s central point, that the rot of political betrayal and eroding the public trust is ultimately more harmful to the nation than a security lapse – no matter how catastrophic – that results from genuine human error, appears to have been lost on his many critics in the press.
But the finance minister is guilty of narrow thinking to the point that he’s missing the bigger picture and a significant opportunity to
Such an alliance would fundamentally undermine the last twenty years of Tibi’s political career, and his countless zero-sum attempts to advance the Palestiniann cause through an erasure of the state’s more uniquely Jewish features.
If Abbas and his fellow UAL lawmakers can improve the material conditions and advance the rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens while maintaining their traditional Muslim values, the Joint List may never recover from the losses they took in the recent split with the UAL.
Tibi therefore needs to convince himself that even if a nationalist government is formed together with the UAL, it won’t signal new possibilities for Jewish-Palestinian relations and cooperation but would simply be an isolated occurrence in which the national camp uses Abbas and his party for their own needs.
But Tibi is smart enough to know that his analysis could be wrong and, if so, Abbas’s inclusion in a nationalist coalition could revolutionize Israel’s political map and show the state’s Palestinian citizens that they have more to gain from supporting the UAL than from supporting the Joint List.
But all of this will remain irrelevant if Smotrich maintains his contrarian stance of complete refusal to sit with the UAL. It is likely that the inclusion of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s kahanist Otzma Yehudit faction (at Netanyahu’s urging) has hardened Smotrich’s stance on the matter and without the UAL, Tibi’s assertion that the national camp won’t be able to form a government may prove correct.
Even if Gideon S’ar (New Hope) can be persuaded to join a Netanyahu government and the UAL’s inclusion in the coalition becomes unnecessary, the national camp would have missed a crucial opportunity to improve the relationship between those Jews fully living Israel’s national story and the Palestinians.
What makes Smotrich’s position so disappointing is that he and his party represent exactly the sector of Israeli society that should be engaging the Palestinians. For decades, Liberal Zionists have dominated the nation’s relationship with our neighbors, which has not only led to misplaced hopes of attaining Palestinian liberation through a two-state paradigm but also a misunderstanding of Jewish identity and connection to this land.
Abbas has clearly differentiated himself from the other Palestinian factions by leaving the Joint List and focusing on what his community shares in common with the Jewish people. He has clearly demonstrated that he is open to a different kind of relationship with the State of Israel. And that has been a significant opportunity for Smotrich and the public he represents to take a leading role in redefining what our relationship can be.
Unlike the Israelis who’ve negotiated with Palestinians in the past, Smotrich actually lives Jewish history and has a clear understanding of what renewed Jewish independence means within the context of our people’s ancient story. Forging a nationalist government that’s inclusive of both the UAL and the national religious factions would have been a chance to explore different models of relationships than the one that has existed between our peoples here under Zionism.
If Smotrich and his partners were to follow Rav Eliyahu’s lead and present clear but reasonable terms under which they’d be willing to work with the UAL, it could mark a major turning point in Israeli politics, the likes of which haven’t been seen since Menaḥem Begin’s 1977 victory over the Labor Zionists that had ruled the state since its founding.
Instead of getting stuck in the narrow thinking most of Israeli society is stuck in when it comes to the Palestinian issue, Smotrich should be telling his voters and the country that for the last few decades, the weakest and most westernized sectors of Israeli society have monopolized our relationship with the Palestinians. And as a result, any agreements between our peoples has reflected the interests of that sector.
It’s time for the Jews deeply connected to Jewish identity and our homeland to begin engaging Palestinians directly with the objective of forging a new kind of relationship – not one of colonizer and colonized but one of two proud peoples deeply connected to this land and able to create a society where all our needs are met.
