Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) resigned from politics Friday, leaving space for Temple Mount prayer rights activist Yehuda Glick to join the Knesset. 

The appointment was met with mixed reactions. 

MK Rachel Azaria (Kulanu) welcomed the resignation, adding she was eager to work with incumbent MK and Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick. 

“[Glick] is a sharp and liberal man with interesting views that sometimes are surprising,” Azaria said. “I am sure we will have the opportunity to work together.” 

But the Left fumed over the replacement. 

“It’s an appropriate substitution for this ‘hilltop youth’ government,” Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit stated Friday morning. 

Fellow Zionist Union MK Yael Cohen-Paran said Friday she would boycott Glick’s swearing-in ceremony. 

“The Knesset went through an earthquake with the departure of a moral person [Ya’alon – ed.] and his replacement with an extreme, dangerous, and delusional person,” Cohen-Paran claimed. “This is a reflection of the Netanyahu government that leads us from bad to worse. I’m not going to his inauguration.” 

Champion of right-wing values

Glick, a resident of Otniel in Judea, is number 33 on the Likud Knesset list, a spot that will now enable him to launch his political career.

“I pray to God that He give me good counsel and accompany me as an emissary for the nation of Israel, to sanctify the name of Heaven and to increase peace and light in the world and work to unify the nation of Israel,” Glick told Arutz Sheva in response to the news.

Glick has long fought for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, where the Jordanian Waqf has been left with de facto control and bans Jewish prayer in a violation of Israel’s laws guaranteeing freedom of religion.

His activism led him to be the target of an assassination attempt by an Islamic Jihad terrorist in October 2014, which he miraculously survived after being shot four times at point blank range.

In an indication of the positions Glick is likely to press in the Knesset, back in January he called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take a stronger stand against Arab terrorism after a woman was murdered at her doorstep in his town of Otniel.

Glick spoke with Arutz Sheva back in December 2014 as he recovered from the assassination attempt.