Arye Dery, Shas party chair and a close ally of the prime minister, said Sunday that the October 7 massacre “saved the people of Israel,” stating, “On that day, for a brief moment, God abandoned us.” [Shas holds 11 of the 120 seats in the Knesset and is the third largest party in the governing coalition.]
In an interview with the right-wing Channel 14 news station, Dery quoted the prophet Isaiah: “In a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you.”
“We were struck with a terrible blow, one we still haven’t recovered from. We lost so many lives, and we still have hostages [in Gaza.] But it saved Israel, because Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, that wicked villain, decided to be the first to strike rather than wait for a broader front to form.”
The ultra-orthodox party chair added that the massacre forced Israel and the world to recognize the threat from Iran. “Suddenly everyone saw what Iran really is. The Iranians have lost all their proxies and are now exposed.”
In the same interview, Dery said he believed “another great miracle had been performed” with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. According to him, the strike on Iran would not have happened without Trump. “Without October 7, without Trump, and without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we couldn’t have done it,” he said.
Dery also described months of secret preparations for the campaign against Iran. “In recent months, everything was kept strictly confidential. There were no leaks, unlike previous cabinet meetings,” he said. “The prime minister gradually led the IDF and Mossad forward. He never said something couldn’t be done. They sat several times a week for months, planning the operation.”
He praised Netanyahu, saying, “Even after spending hours in court, he would come back and work on how to protect the people of Israel. That is his strength.”
The October Council, a group representing about 1,500 family members of those killed on October 7, issued a strong response to Dery’s remarks.
“We are deeply troubled by Dery’s comments, which promote a false and offensive narrative suggesting that the heavy price paid in the massacre was justified,” the group said.
“There is no military or political achievement that removes the government’s responsibility for the abandonment, the failure, and the most terrible massacre that Israel has ever known,” added the group. “The attempt to forget, whitewash, or rewrite history and create an alternative narrative is a spit in the face of the bereaved families, the kidnapped, and the survivors.”
Source: Haaretz
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