Arye Dery, the chair of Israel’s ultra-orthodox Shas party and a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Monday that the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel “saved the people of Israel.”
“We were struck with a terrible blow, one we still haven’t recovered from. We lost so many lives, and we still have hostages,” Dery said in an interview on Israel’s Channel 14.
“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,” he added.
Dery said October 7 set off a chain of “miracles” that weakened Iran and its allies in the region. “Suddenly, everyone saw what Iran really is. The Iranians have lost all their proxies and are now exposed,” he said.
Another “great miracle” that happened, according to Dery, was the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States. “Without October 7, without Trump, and without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we couldn’t have done it,” he said.
Netanyahu has used the October 7 attack to justify his genocidal onslaught in Gaza, and he has made clear that his ultimate goal is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory. The Israeli government has also been engaged in wars in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, and has significantly stepped up military operations and the theft of Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Dery also praised Netanyahu for keeping his plans to attack Iran secret. “The prime minister led the army and the Mossad little by little. Nothing was impossible for him. They met three or four times a week, over months, and planned this operation,” he said.
