Ugh. Just… ugh. This is one of the main reasons I parted ways with the US right, and now it’s spreading to the highest levels of the Israeli government. Seriously bad news.

Boycotted by Jews in Belgium, Welcomed by Likud Deputy Minister in Israel - Diplomacy and DefenseIsrael News - Haaretz Israeli News Source

Ofir Akunis, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, met last week with a visiting delegation from an extremist right-wing party in Belgium that the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community are boycotting. Heading the delegation from Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) was Filip Dewinter, a prominent member of the racist party with anti-Semitic elements, whose views have earned him the sobriquet “Belgium’s Jean-Marie Le Pen” according to Israeli Foreign Ministry sources.

Akunis bragged about the meeting on his Facebook page, writing in a post accompanied by a photograph that he would “continue to be a spokesperson for Israel. Without apologizing or squirming.”

The meeting was organized by the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, and deputy head Yossi Dagan. Mesika, a Likud activist from the party’s “national camp,” has in the past few years signed up many settlers as Likud members, in a bid to move the party further to the right. Many Likud Knesset members say privately that if they don’t cooperate with Mesika they risk being left out of the party primaries.