Bentzi Gopshtain
Bentzi GopshtainEliran Aharon

Chairman of anti-assimilation group Lehava Bentzi Gopshtain reacted in an interview with Arutz Sheva to the life sentence on the terrorist who murdered Dafna Meir in her home in the Judean community of Otniel.

“A disgrace was committed in Israel,” Gopshtain said, using a biblical expression. “[Defense Minister] Avigdor Liberman was chosen on one ticket - he promised the death penalty for terrorists. You got elected, you became Defense Minister - so act. The murderer must be killed, hang him in the town square. The only solution is death to terrorists.”

Israel has always hesitated to invoke the death penalty, except for arch-Nazi Adolph Eichmann in 1962, because of the fear that any Israelis who fall into Arab hands would be summarily killed, although that has hardly proven itself. Terrorists murder their Jewish prisoners anyway.

Regarding the noise of late surrounding Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and her attempt to bring about reform in the way Supreme Court justices are elected, Gopshtain said: “I hope that the Justice Minister will have the courage to finish what she started.”

“The big problem in the State is not just the government, but the courts. If they really want to rule, they have to switch the judges, because we’re not going to get anywhere with those judges.”