Ben Gvir responds to Bennett: Fine, I’ll take down Baruch Goldstein’s picture

The leader of the extremist Otzma Yehudit faction says he’s willing to take down the photograph of Jewish mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the 1994 massacre in Hebron of 29 Muslim worshipers, in order to join a united right-wing Knesset late.

In a scathing Facebook post a short time ago, New Right leader Naftali Bennett emphatically ruled out sharing a Knesset list with Otzma Yehudit’s leader Itamar Ben Gvir, noting the photograph of Goldstein that hangs in Ben Gvir’s living room and his support for “price tag” attacks on Palestinians and IDF soldiers by Jewish extremists.

“Faced with the fact that the fate of the Jewish people and the land of Israel hang in the balance, I’m declaring that for the sake of unity and a right-wing victory in the elections, I’m removing the photograph in my living room,” Ben Gvir says in his response on Facebook.

“I call on you [Bennett] to show responsibility” and include Otzma Yehudit in the right-wing alliance, he adds.

It’s not clear from the statement that Ben Gvir understands that Bennett’s concern wasn’t about his interior decorating style, but about Ben Gvir’s longstanding support for Goldstein’s terrorism, which he does not disavow in tonight’s statement.