"The protesters are patriots? Yigal Amir also thought he was a patriot"

Knesset member Nissim Vaturi from the Likud party addressed today the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's statement in which he said, "The protesters against me in the United States are connecting to the PLO and Iran, and tarnishing Israel's image worldwide."

In an interview with the Knesset Channel, Vaturi agreed with Netanyahu and added, "Israel haters are currently protesting where Netanyahu is going – if the protesters from Israel join them, then they are a part of it. Even the protesters are Israel haters; they harm Israel."

Vaturi addressed the fact that the protesters see themselves as patriots and defenders of democracy, saying, "There was someone here who assassinated a prime minister, and he thought he was an Israeli patriot. I disagree with him, you disagree with him."