Bezalel Smotrich's "out of touch" comments about former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination "hurt the Shin Bet's good name," Likud MK and former director of the Israel Security Agency Avi Dichter said on Sunday night.
The Religious Zionist Party leader accused Israeli security forces of "failing to protect" Rabin during a Knesset ceremony memorializing the assassinated prime minister on Sunday.
Writing on Twitter late Sunday night, Dichter said Smotrich's comments, were "out of touch with reality" and "harm the good name of the organization and its people who work day and night to protect the citizens of the State of Israel."
אני מגנה בכל תוקף את אמירתו המנותקת מהמציאות של יו״ר הציונות הדתית, ח״כ בצלאל סמוטירץ׳ המאשים את אנשי שירות הביטחון הכללי בטענה שעודדו את יגאל עמיר לרצוח את רה״מ יצחק רבין ז״ל.אמירה זו פוגעת בשמם הטוב של הארגון ואנשיו שעושים לילות כימים כדי להגן על אזרחי מדינת ישראל.
— Avi Dichter אבי דיכטר (@avidichter) November 6, 2022
Dichter, a potential candidate to head the Defense Ministry in incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, called Smotrich out for "allegedly encouraging Yigal Amir to assassinate the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin," as he wrote.
A former Public Security minister, Dichter is a minister in the now-defunct Home Front Defense Ministry.