Former Anti-Defamation League head, Jewish-American attorney Abraham Foxman, claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to him that appointing ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich "was a mistake."
He stated this in an interview for a collection of essays published in the U.S., Shattered World: Jews and Israel after October 7, adding that Netanyahu said during their meeting at his Jerusalem office in 2023: "I will fix it." According to Foxman, Netanyahu made these remarks after he confronted him, saying that appointing the two presents Israel as a "racist and murderous state."