Coalition head brands Likud MK ‘messianic’ as row escalates

David Bitan scoffs at party colleague Yehudah Glick after latter demands answers on broadcasting deal

By Sue Surkes

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

2 April 2017, 1:09 pm

Edit

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

Coalition whip and Likud MK David Bitan attends a committee meeting in the Knesset, March 22, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Uncertainty and political squabbling over the future of public broadcasting has led to bickering within the Likud party, with coalition chairman David Bitan branding his fellow party member Yehudah Glick “messianic” on Sunday after the latter criticized a recent compromise deal.

Glick, who joined the Knesset in May 2016 and who is most closely associated with the campaign to allow Jews freedom of access and prayer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, tweeted that the recent broadcasting brouhaha had left “a very bad taste [in my mouth].”

“I expect the heads of the [Likud] party to explain what happened if they expect me to vote for legislation on the subject,” he wrote, referring to the revised plan on the new public broadcaster advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon.

Asked by Army Radio on Sunday what penalties he would slap on Glick, Bitan said, “What punishment can you give to a person who is messianic? A man whose interest is being able to go up to the Temple Mount?”

Likud MK Yehudah Glick on March 28, 2017, outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, where he submitted a petition to allow lawmakers to visit the Temple Mount, after a ban of nearly 18 months. (Raoul Wootliff/Times of Israel)

“He’s not interested in Likud, in being elected to Likud again, nothing. Why should I relate to him? You’ve made him into something great, when he isn’t something great, just because he tweeted against Likud and the prime minister. I don’t want to punish him, I don’t even want to see him,” said Bitan.

Responding to Bitan on social media, Glick said arguing with a fellow party member was the last thing he wanted to do, while urging respectful dialogue among politicians.

“We were elected as servants of the public and we are expected to give answers and explanations,” he wrote.

He added, “It seems only proper to expect a respectful manner of speech within the party.”

Last month, Glick penned an anguished account of the culture of fear within the coalition, singling out Bitan for criticism. “He mocks, he abuses, he hurts,” wrote Glick of the coalition chair.

Glick also petitioned the High Court of Justice last week to overturn Netanyahu’s ban on lawmakers from visiting the Temple Mount.

Late last month, Netanyahu threatened to go to elections unless Kahlon (Kulanu) backed down on his determination to allow a newly created broadcasting corporation known as Kan to replace the veteran Israel Broadcasting Authority, as dictated by legislation that Netanyahu himself had supported. After crisis talks, the two men came to a compromise whereby the corporation will be allowed to start broadcasting minus its news division. That division, whose staff is to be laid off and replaced primarily by IBA staff, will commence operations at an unspecified future time.