Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas on Tuesday leveled a startling accusation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that during a 2021 meeting at the Prime Minister’s official residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu told him that he and then-Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar “understood each other.”

Abbas made the claim hours after Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech at the swearing-in of the 26th Knesset to tear into the Arab parties and warn against any government that depends on their support. Abbas said the remarks brought back memories of what he had heard behind closed doors. “He portrays us as a danger to national security and continues to incite against us and against Israel’s Arab citizens,” Abbas said. “But I thought about how, when we sat at Balfour, he told me that he and Yahya Sinwar understood each other.”

According to Abbas, the conversation took place during Operation Guardian of the Walls, when Likud was courting Ra’am in an effort to block the formation of the Bennett-Lapid government. He said Prime Minister Netanyahu also expressed a sense of satisfaction with the relationship, and even asked him whether he had seen the message Sinwar sent him. Abbas said he had no idea at the time that the letter existed. The message, passed through mediators during the contacts over an arrangement in Gaza, was written in Hebrew and contained the words “calculated risk.” The account of the conversation is Abbas’s version alone.

Abbas went on to blame Prime Minister Netanyahu directly for the October 7th massacre, saying the disaster was rooted in his trust in the Hamas leader rather than in a failure of intelligence alone. “October 7 happened because of the prime minister’s complacency and nothing else,” he said. “This was not only an intelligence failure. It was the prime minister’s conception and his trust in the wrong person.” He accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of trusting Sinwar, going to sleep at night and abandoning the security of Israel’s citizens.

The Ra’am leader said that every time a state commission of inquiry into October 7th came up, he told himself he would have to appear before it and describe the conversation, and that he intends to do so if such a commission is formed. He also rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attacks on the Arab parties, arguing that Arab citizens paid a price on October 7th as well, and said that had he been prime minister that day, he would have resigned long ago.

Abbas also made clear where Ra’am stands in the coalition talks, saying Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot is leading the effort to form the next government and that his party is ready to back him. “We are prepared to support and help establish the next government,” he said. “We want to be part of it.” Likud has repeatedly denied any contacts with Ra’am since the election, calling such reports “fake news” and insisting there has been and will be no contact between Likud and “terror-supporting Arab parties.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)