In a leaked recording published on Monday last week by Kan 11 News, Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich \u2013 one of PM Netanyahu\u2019s staunchest allies in the current far-right governing coalition \u2013 is heard saying to a businessman “I am indeed an extreme right-wing person, a homophobe, a racist, a fascist – but my word is a word.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no need to be heavy with words in the description of Smotrich, for he himself acknowledges the fact that he is a racist and a fascist, something that we have known for a long time and have been warning about him since the moment he set foot in the Israeli Knesset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a recorded conversation that took place a few months ago, Smotrich told his counterpart that even if he actively works against LGBTQ+ people, this will not alienate voters from him. Every potential voter \u201cknows that I am like that and still comes to me,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same conversation, the minister referred to the topic at hand, the issue of the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community and proclaimed there are \u201cboundaries: I will not school gays, you will not feed me shrimp.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smotrich added, \u201cI protect the Land of Israel, I am the only one who did not agree to go with Ra\u2019am [United Arab List, one of the Palestinian parties in the Knesset] and kept his promise and I protect the Jewish identity for the grandchildren\u2026 I need people like that, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says “I am indeed an extreme right-wing person, a homophobe, a racist, a fascist,” in leaked recording.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jet_sm_ready_style":"","_jet_sm_style":"","_jet_sm_controls_values":"","_jet_sm_fonts_collection":"","_jet_sm_fonts_links":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israeli-politics-economy"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":10476,"he":10309,"ar":10314},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sowtna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}