Right-wing ministers, Liberman trade barbs on rabbi resignation demand

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely slams Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman for threatening to withdraw military accreditation of the pre-army academy in the West Bank settlement of Eli, unless its co-head, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, resigns.

“The pre-army program in Eli is an educational institutions that trains the best of the IDF’s fighters,” she says in a statement. “Talk of closing the program is disconnected from reality. Criticizing Rabbi Levinstein’s words is legitimate, but his statements are covered under freedom of speech.”

Levinstein had disparaged female IDF soldiers, calling them “crazy” and saying they are no longer Jewish when they leave the military. He later apologized for the tone, but not the content, of his remarks.

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, of the religious nationalist Jewish Home party, says in a statement that Liberman “crossed a red line” in calling for Levinstein’s resignation.

Meanwhile, while rejecting Levinstein’s remarks, Education Minister Naftali Bennett lashes out at Liberman, his coalition partner, saying the defense minister “simply wants to do a cynical political exercise on the backs of religious Zionism.”

But the barbs don’t end there.

Liberman takes to Twitter to hit back at Bennett.

“Bennett is defending those who want to turn Israel into Iran,” he says. “We will not allow it. In Israel, women are equal to men and military service is for everyone.”