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.[1][2]
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.”[3] 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.”[4] He characterises the coalition they sit in as “the most extreme right-wing government in the history of Israel.”[3]
’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.”[5]
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.[6][7]
The conviction that preceded the ministry
Discussing a column arguing that genocidal statements by Israeli officials were temper rather than policy, Kiriakou pointed to a fact about the two men usually cited. Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir “were successfully prosecuted for felony hate crimes against Palestinians years before ever becoming ministers in the Netanyahu government.” His conclusion: “These are very bad people.”[8]
He measured the record against the standard set at Nuremberg, where “people went to prison for less” — reaching for Julius Streicher, who was hanged for publishing a newspaper, however nasty a piece of work it was.[8][9]