Abbas and Palestinians should die: Israeli rabbi

gimmesometruth27

ok, who is this guy and do people really listen to him? seriously, is this kind of rhetoric helping anything? and as usual, nothing from the israeli government to condemn this rabbi or his remarks. as in most cases, silence speaks volumes...

Abbas and Palestinians should die: Israeli rabbi
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38901525/ns ... tn_africa/

JERUSALEM — An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.

"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, said in a sermon late on Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's popular name.

"God should strike them and these Palestinians -- evil haters of Israel -- with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio on Sunday.

The Iraqi-born cleric has made similar remarks before, most notably in 2001, during a Palestinian uprising, when he called for Arabs' annihilation and said it was forbidden to be merciful to them.

He later said he was referring only to "terrorists" who attacked Israelis. In the 1990s, Yosef broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders by voicing support for territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef's latest comments were tantamount to calling for "genocide against Palestinians." The rabbi's remarks, he said, were "an insult to all our efforts to advance the negotiations process."

Arriving at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office for a weekly cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef's sermon.

Netananyu and Abbas are due to resume direct peace talks in Washington on Thursday, the first such negotiations in 20 months in a peace process that commits both sides to avoid incitement, which has included anti-Jewish sermons by Palestinian clerics.

rafie

As far as Jewish law goes, he is considered a top class scholar, as far as everything else goes, most people here see him as a senile old nutjob.

gimmesometruth27

rafie wrote:

As far as Jewish law goes, he is considered a top class scholar, as far as everything else goes, most people here see him as a senile old nutjob.

but he is the "spiritual head of the shas party in the israeli government", so it appears his words carry some weight...or else he would not be an advisor of any sort...

TriumphantAngel

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

ok, who is this guy [/u]

the former Chief Rabbi of Israel.

gimmesometruth27

TriumphantAngel wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

ok, who is this guy [/u]

the former Chief Rabbi of Israel.

that is reassuring.......

TriumphantAngel

rafie wrote:

As far as Jewish law goes, he is considered a top class scholar, as far as everything else goes, most people here see him as a senile old nutjob.

has there been any condemnation from Israel's leaders?

gimmesometruth27

TriumphantAngel wrote:

rafie wrote:

As far as Jewish law goes, he is considered a top class scholar, as far as everything else goes, most people here see him as a senile old nutjob.

has there been any condemnation from Israel's leaders?

nope. not on any websites i have seen.

"Arriving at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office for a weekly cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef's sermon."

Commy

that he was ever in any kind of religious leadership position says a lot about Israeli mentality. They had to have agreed with him, at least some of what he said, for them to have put him in that position. Maybe his mentality is more pervasive throughout Israel than one would think. That jews follow his thinking at all is absolutely disgusting, that he was once in a very powerful position even more disturbing.

so we have a racist jew making inflamatory remarks....you would expect some sort of condemnation from Israel....something from the authorities saying he is a nutjob. Otherwise it appears Israel is supporting genocide.

rafie

Some people on this site really have a hard time separating "Judaism" from "Israel". The 2 things rarely go side by side. Most Israelis lead a mostly secular lifestyle and are far from being Orthodox Jews. More so, many Israelis openly object any kind of interference from Rabbis in daily Israeli life.
I have also seen here recently comments saying that Israel represents all jews or that jews = Israel. In reality, it is not so black and white. Yes, around 80% of Israels population is Jewish (the other 20% is made up mostly of Muslims, but also Christians, Drusie, Bedouins, Circassians and other minorities - many of which also serve in the IDF), but the range of Judaism practiced by them varies greatly. There are also extreme religious sects in Judaism (some who actually live in Israel) who denounce Israels existence because of religious beliefs (they believe that only after the Messiah arrives the Jews are allowed to have a state).
It may surprise you, but the position of Chief Rabbi (there are actually 2 at a time - 1 Ashkanaz and 1 Sephardic) has no real power in the country. It is pretty much just an honorable title.
Yes, Ovadia Yossef is the spiritual leader of the Shas party, but he himself is not a politician, nor does he serve in any elected position. In recent years (I remind you that he is 89 years old), due to all kinds of odd statements (few of which had anything to do with arabs or muslims) he is considered to be a bit of a senile nutjob by most Israelis.

As for Israeli leaderships reaction to the statements that the OP posted here. Netanyahu said yesterday that "The statements made by Yosef do not represent my opinions or those of the Israeli government. We are heading in to peace negotiations with good intentions" (translation from Hebrew by me).

Hope that clears some things up.

polaris_x

unfortunately for palestinians tho ... the orthodox control the gov't ...

yosi

That simply isn't true. The orthodox do not "control" the government. Because of the way Israeli coalition politics work certain orthodox parties have a say in the current government's decisions, but they hardly have the final say. As Rafie noted the government has responded appropriately to these statements, and quite frankly, these are the sort of statements that ought to be given as little attention as possible. They should be ignored for the crazy old ranting that they are, and not given the limelight that they so clearly do not deserve.

polaris_x

yosi wrote:

That simply isn't true. The orthodox do not "control" the government. Because of the way Israeli coalition politics work certain orthodox parties have a say in the current government's decisions, but they hardly have the final say. As Rafie noted the government has responded appropriately to these statements, and quite frankly, these are the sort of statements that ought to be given as little attention as possible. They should be ignored for the crazy old ranting that they are, and not given the limelight that they so clearly do not deserve.

how can you say that? ... at the end of the day - i don't put too much stock in what this guy says for the same reasons why some islamic extremist shouldn't be listened to to represent all muslims ... one has to judge the actions ... i don't see how you can't say that when it comes to the treatment of palestinians whether it be the blockade in gaza or the continued expansion of settlements - that the right wing or orthodox jews aren't dictating policy? ... do the moderates want to continue to expand?