Far-right MK Maoz: Forms of ‘liberal religion’ are ‘darkness’ that must be expelled

MK Avi Maoz of the extremist anti-LGBT party Noam sparked outrage Wednesday after comparing the outgoing government to the Hellenizing Jews cast as the villains of the Hanukkah story.

Maoz, a far-right firebrand set to be given sway over curriculum in school and a new “Jewish identity” office as part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s nascent coalition, delivered a diatribe at the Knesset against the “darkness” of progressive values to the sound of heckles and boos from fuming lawmakers across the aisle.

“The spirit that the Greeks and the Hellenists tried to instill in the Jewish people is the real darkness,” Maoz said, after singing several lines from the popular Hanukkah song “We Came to Expel the Darkness.” READ MORE