JERUSALEM
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin expressed concern Thursday about the tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama over Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers.
“I am very concerned about the open front between Obama and Netanyahu, and its impact on our relations with the United States,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said according to Israeli daily Maariv.
“Netanyahu understands the United States better than I do, but for the first time, I see that Israel is isolated,” Rivlin said. “This worries me greatly.”
As for the attacks against him waged by Jewish extremists, the Israeli president said he “experienced similar things” in the past.
“These people have no middle ground. You are either with them or against them,” he said.
- Calls to torch churches
The head of the right-wing, extremist Israeli group Lehava called on Wednesday night for churches to be torched, claiming that this was what the Torah demanded.
“We must burn churches,” Benzi Gopstein said during a conference in Jerusalem. “I call for all churches in Israel to be put to the torch.”
In response to critics, Gopstein said: “Why are you surprised by my speech? We must burn churches; it is mentioned in the Torah.”
Lehava has hundreds of supporters, especially in Jerusalem and the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Last week, Israeli authorities arrested two Jewish extremists suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack in June on a historic church in Israel.
Another suspect was arrested due to his membership in a radical Jewish organization.
This spate of arrests targeting Jewish extremists comes in the wake of an arson attack last week in a West Bank village in which an 18-month-old Palestinian baby was burned to death.
None of the three recently-arrested Jewish extremists, however, has been accused of involvement in last week’s deadly attack.
