Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took responsibility in the name of the government for Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel last week in a statement he made on Sunday evening.
“I stand in front of you today and take responsibility,” he said. “Responsibility for what was and responsibility for what will be.”
He went on to say that the massacre was the most horrible the State of Israel has known, saying that the world had not seen such unimaginable cruelty since the Holocaust.
“We failed”
“We must admit honestly, painfully, and with our heads bowed – we failed,” he said. “The country’s leadership and defense system failed in maintaining the security of our citizens. We didn’t succeed in upholding the most important unspoken agreement between a nation and its citizens. It’s a contract signed in blood, and now, it’s stained with blood.”
In a poll released by Maariv on Friday, Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party lost two seats compared to last week.
Earlier on Sunday, Smotrich had been appointed as the head of the Socio-economic Committee by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he vowed to take responsibility for managing the home front during the war.
