Religious party leader: Why this Israeli gov’t is a ‘disaster for Zionism’

The chair of the Religious Zionist Party heavily criticized the government for giving leeway to the Arab anti-Zionist Ra’am party.

By World Israel News staff

Israel’s current government is a “disaster for Zionism,” MK Bezalel Smotrich, chair of the Religious Zionist Party has told Israeli media on Thursday.

Following the last election, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett joined forces with Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, to pull together an anti-Netanyahu coalition from both left and right. Included in the mix is Ra’am, an Islamic party ideologically aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“My problem with the government is first and foremost that it was born in sin,” Smotrich said. “Every day it exists is a sin.”

Explaining what he meant by ‘sin’ he said: “The sin lies, first of all, in the partnership with the supporters of anti-Zionist terrorism in Ra’am. We are already seeing the results of this in the real world. We see Israeli Arabs raising their heads, walking around feeling as though they own the place.

“We see realized our great fear of an increase in their political power and their alignment with the left. We see cooperation between the government and the Joint List that gives them a safety net.

In recent days, Arabs have been rioting near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. On Tuesday a stones were thrown through a bus window in the area, shattering the glass. The driver of the bus told Channel 13 News that he and the passengers “survived a lynching.”

“[We] knew there had been rock-throwing earlier in the day,” driver Yechezkel Shmueli said, “but I was told that the police had opened up the road again and that security forces would be accompanying us. … Glass was shattering. I yelled for [the passengers] to lie on the floor. I hit the gas to escape this hell. We survived a lynching and saw death in front of our eyes,” he recalled.

None of the passengers were injured.

“We see what is happening at Damascus Gate, we see the lax response,” Smotrich commented.

Smotrich also criticized Ra’am for holding the government hostage over a new law to connect tens of thousands of illegal Bedouin and Arab settlements to the electricity grid.

“We see the surrender of Ayelet Shaked and the coalition to [Ra’am MK] Waleed Taha’s demands in the Electricity Law, this is a crazy booster for illegal construction and takeover of land in the Negev and the Galilee,” Smotrich said, adding: “That is a disaster for Zionism.”

BennettBezalel SmotrichCoalition governmentRa'amRa'am partyrock-throwingZionism