Bezalel Smotrich
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Bezalel Smotrich is an Israeli far-right minister who, with Itamar Ben-Gvir, oversaw security before the October 7 attack. John Kiriakou calls the two "morons" who, despite settlers warning Jerusalem for two or three weeks that an attack was coming, insisted it would come from the West Bank rather than Gaza, leaving Israel unprepared.

Elsewhere Kiriakou sets out Smotrich's portfolios and record as the reason he considers a durable settlement impossible while the present government stands. Smotrich is finance minister and, "oddly", in Kiriakou's word, also holds jurisdiction over the West Bank; like Itamar Ben-Gvir he carries a felony conviction for anti-Muslim hate crimes, "not for failing to fill out an internet form or something like that." That both men hold felony hate-crime convictions and are nonetheless "in charge of the Palestinians" is, for Kiriakou, the point: "as long as those guys are in place, there's no possible way that there can be a lasting peace." He characterises the coalition they sit in as "the most extreme right-wing government in the history of Israel."

'Our next great fear'

Asked in October 2025 what worries him most about the Israeli government, Kiriakou answered by naming its far right rather than its prime minister: "not just Netanyahu, but the likes of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir and these other right-wing extremists, extremists who have been convicted of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes, felonies, and who now lead the Israeli government. I think that they are crazy enough to use nuclear weapons. And so I think that should be our next great fear."

He pairs it with a rule about taking such figures at their word: when they say they cannot lose a war, or threaten Iran with nuclear war, "we should believe them", and only American pressure will restrain them.

See also

- Itamar Ben-Gvir
- October 7 attack
