Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the hostages' safe return from Gaza is "thanks to me," in remarks that drew immediate backlash across Israeli media and social media. The statement was made in an interview with journalist Nadav Perry, according to the report.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told journalist Nadav Perry in an interview published Sunday evening that the safe return of hostages from Gaza is "thanks to me," according to an Israeli media report. The remark, first reported at 16:37 Jerusalem time, triggered immediate backlash across the political spectrum and on social media, with critics calling it self-aggrandizing and insensitive. The Zioneer has tracked five published versions of the story since the initial report, with the core claim remaining consistent across all versions.
The thread began with a single right-wing source reporting at 16:37 Jerusalem that Smotrich made the remark during a meeting with freed hostage Nadav Popplewell. Subsequent versions (also timestamped 16:37 Jerusalem) shifted the attribution to an interview with journalist Nadav Perry—first citing the source, then the Israel Yamim source, then an Israeli right-wing source, and finally an Israeli media report. By version 5, the desk reported the statement as drawn from an Israeli media report, without independent verification. The evolution shows the claim moving from one unverified source to multiple newsroom reports, but the underlying source quality—an anonymous or secondary attribution—has not changed.
As The Zioneer reported in an earlier bulletin (published 18:45 Jerusalem Sunday), Smotrich had already sparked controversy over the weekend with similar claims for which he was criticized. The current remarks fit a pattern of statements that have drawn bipartisan backlash. The wider political context includes ongoing pressure from hostage families for a deal to bring remaining captives home.
The full context of the exchange between Smotrich and Perry has not been independently verified by The Zioneer. No official response from Smotrich's office has been reported, and the exact wording of the remark remains sourced only through secondhand media reports.
5 developments
- StrongReleased hostage Or Levi confronts Smotrich: 'You mean hostages were killed while you torpedoed deals'
- DevelopingSmotrich backs Lebanon deal, in apparent shift
- DevelopingSmotrich says he hopes Haredim will 'correct' course on enlistment
- DevelopingFinance Minister Smotrich tells Oded Harosh he considered resigning after October 7
Source and signal
- Internal intake