Former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz set off controversy on Sunday when he compared rabbis to Iran's ayatollahs.
His remarks drew an angry response from United Torah Judaism Chairman MK Yaakov Asher, who reminded Halutz of the controversy surrounding the sale of his stocks at the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War.
In an interview on the "Moshe Fabrikant Podcast," Halutz addressed the leaders of the Haredi community, including yeshiva dean Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch and the rabbis of the Shas movement, saying: "I see no difference between the ayatollahs in Iran and the rabbis in Israel."
Halutz continued to compare Israel's rabbinical leadership to Iran's religious leaders: "Is Rabbi Hirsch any better because he speaks Yiddish? Are the rabbis of Shas any better? In Iran, there is no Sephardic ayatollah and Ashkenazi ayatollah. There is just one."
Following the remarks, MK Yaakov Asher issued a scathing response, personally attacking Halutz and recalling his conduct during the Second Lebanon War.
"Take off your shoes! A despicable man like you, who, while serving as IDF Chief of Staff, just minutes before sending soldiers into the Second Lebanon War, some of whom sadly never returned alive, was concerned at those fateful moments with nothing more than calling the bank to sell your stocks," Asher wrote.
Asher concluded his response with another attack, invoking a comparison to Iran: "Such depravity may not even exist at the headquarters of Iran's Revolutionary Guards."