Yair Lapid urges US leaders to tackle ‘alt-right’

Yesh Atid party chairman MK Yair Lapid warns against missing early signs of fascism in the US and calls on leaders there to condemn Nazi ideology, a day after a video surfaced showing attendees at an “alt-right” conference in Washington giving Nazi salutes in support of US President-elect Donald Trump.

“Seeing a video of Nazi salutes in the heart of Washington DC is sickening and intolerable,” says Lapid, whose faction sits in the parliamentary opposition, in a statement.

“America is Israel’s closest ally and our relationship is built not only on mutual interests but also on deeply held shared values of freedom, tolerance and democracy,” he continues. “In the spirit of those shared values I call upon the leaders of the United States to publicly condemn expressions of Nazi sympathy and fascism as well as rising anti-Semitism.”

— Stuart Winer