Likud Minister David Amsalem delivered a scathing speech on Sunday at the Municipal Corporations Union conference in Eilat, attacking the left and the judicial system, including its persecution of lomdei Torah.

“When I look at the history of the Jewish people, without Torah there is no Am Yisrael,” Amsalem said. “Therefore, anyone who learns Torah, in my view, is the jewel in the crown. I see him contributing no less than a soldier currently fighting in Gaza. There is no difference between them.”

“Shevet Levi never fought in a war. It’s very difficult to learn Torah from morning until night. Serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu isn’t simple. They impose lives of poverty upon themselves. Some are capable of it, some partially, and some are not. I wish I could trade places with someone learning Torah.”

“The IDF has a surplus of combat soldiers in whom billions have been invested, but the army is being dragged along by all the poison of the left. They are incapable of drafting them. If tomorrow all the Chareidim drafted to the army, the entire left would go to Kaplan and say: ‘Don’t draft them!’”

Amsalem slammed the Israeli left: “We endured four terrible years, and I reached the conclusion that the left in Israel is the most violent group in the country and the most anti-democratic. The left never sanctified democracy — only power. But something has changed. I think the fundamental change in recent years is that the public understands what is happening.

“When you used to say ‘the High Court,’ you would raise your head upward as though angels were walking there. Today, they are people with first and last names — the public knows. There are millions of people watching and exploding with anger. There are three or four million [Shin Bet chief] David Zinis in this country. The same goes for Gofman. We will carry out the [judicial] reform forcefully and intelligently.”

Regarding Gofman’s appointment, he said: “He will be chief of the Mossad. What they did to Zini and Gofman is unforgivable. They allow themselves to humiliate these people. Did they do anything to Ronen Bar, who is responsible for the deaths of thousands? They fought to keep him from leaving. But Zini? Chas V’shalom. Why? Because he’s Sephardi.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)