Likud MK Saada slams Vaturi’s praise of Kahane: ‘Kahane was not a democrat, was racist’

Likud MK Moshe Saada criticizes his fellow lawmaker, Nissim Vaturi, for praising the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane from the Knesset podium yesterday.

Vaturi, a firebrand Likud MK, said yesterday that Kahane was “right about many things” and would have deserved the Israel Prize. Vaturi also criticized the policy of Likud in the 1980s, when Kahane served one term in the Knesset, to walk out on his speeches. Then-Likud prime minister Yizhak Shamir opposed Kahane at the time.

Saada slams Vaturi’s remarks in an interview on Army Radio.

“Shamir was right, [former prime minister Menachem] Begin was right in the way they handled Kahane,” Saada says. “When he spoke, they left the plenum, because Kahane was not a democrat, was racist, and so he was the exact opposite of Likud’s values.”

Saada quips, “If I had to choose between Shamir and Menachem Begin, and Vaturi, could you help me? It’s clear.”

Kahane, who served in the Knesset before his party was banned for racism, advocated expelling all Arabs from Israel.