Likud up in arms after musician rues that Rivlin’s wife died and not Netanyahu’s

An Israeli musician came under fire Tuesday from the ruling Likud party after lamenting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife did not die instead of President Reuven Rivlin’s.

Nechama Rivlin died Tuesday morning at the age of 73 after relapsing following a lung transplant in March.

In a Facebook post reacting to the death, Efraim Shamir wrote, “why not Sara?”

Shamir, a singer and guitarist, is best known as a member of Kaveret, a popular rock band in the 1970s.

“The Likud movement expresses deep shock over Efraim Shamir’s comments. His outrageous words are deserving of condemnation,” Netanyahu’s party said in a statement.

A number of top Likud members also denounced Shamir, among them Culture Minister Miri Regev.

“While this a person who has already made scandalous statements in the past, this time it really is the crossing of a red line,” Regev wrote on Twitter.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Shamir had “reached a new low.”

“Out of hatred and political hostility [Shamir] lost all humanity,” Katz tweeted.

Despite the condemnations, Shamir doubled down on his remarks.

“To all the hypocrites, don’t talk to me about morality after you chose a criminal prime minister,” Shamir wrote in a separate Facebook post, referring to corruption accusations against the prime minister in a trio of graft cases.