Liberman: Yes to religious Zionism, no to Hardalim

Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman responded to criticism against him after attacking pre-military academies at the Herzliya Conference.

"I see that there are those who try to distort what I said this morning, so as usual, I will be direct and clear: the religious pre-military preparatory programs, some of which I helped found and all of which I authorized in 1997 together with the late Zevulun Hammer, are a great and important enterprise. I meet graduates of the preparatory programs in the field all the time: they are salt of the earth. But in order to preserve this tremendous enterprise, they must be cut off from the various 'Smotriches.' They must be distanced from rabbis who preach values which oppose the IDF heritage."

"I am certain that Roi Klein, may Hashem avenge his blood, would have rebelled against the words of Rabbi Levinstein and Rabbi Radler: Yes to a Jewish state, no to a halakhic state. Yes to religious Zionism, no to Hardalim," Liberman wrote in his Facebook account.