Meretz leader praises US Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg

Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz expressed admiration for the presumptive winner of the Democratic Party’s Iowa Caucus, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.Horowitz, who is one of four gay MKs in the current Knesset, said he was happy to see a gay candidate run for president of the United States. A veteran journalist, Horowitz covered the last Iowa caucus for Channel 12 in 2015.“I am very fond of Pete Buttigieg,” Horowitz said. “I think he’s a great guy. I really like him. I don’t have a relationship with him, but I met him and spoke to him casually when we both spoke at the last J Street conference. He’s an impressive guy and one of the best voices of the Democratic Party. I’ve followed him from a distance and I like what I hear and what I see.”Asked if he thought America could elect a gay president, Horowitz said: “I sure hope so. It’s time for us to be fully included and accepted. I hope Israel will elect a gay prime minister one day too.”Horowitz also praised the social agenda of Buttigieg’s fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.“I’m in favor of a more fair partition of wealth,” he said. “The gap causes a very deep social problem in the world, not just in the US. We need a more equal division of wealth, resources and power or we will lose the real meaning of democracy.”