JERUSALEM — Israeli prime minister is defending his partnership with a small ultranationalist party despite local and international condemnation. Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday took to Twitter and called the criticism, which also came from pro-Israel Jewish organizations in the US, as “hypocrisy and double standards.”Netanyahu is seeking a fourth straight term as premier in Israel’s April election. Earlier this week, his Likud party formed a partnership with a smaller merged party that includes members of the ‘Jewish Power’ movement. Jewish Power embraces ideas of late rabbi Meir Kahane, who wanted a Jewish theocracy and advocated forced removal of Palestinians. Netanyahu accused leftist critics of having once acted “to put extreme Islamists into the Knesset” to weaken the right.

Source: National Post February 23, 2019 19:50 UTC