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Influential rabbi calls for Iran's destruction
An influential Israeli rabbi has called for prayers for Iran's destruction, a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to court his support for a possible attack on a nuclear program Israel sees as an existential threat.
The sermon by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef added to a flurry of recent rhetoric from Israeli officials that has raised international concern that Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only atomic power, might attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
"(When) we ask God to 'bring an end to our enemies,' we should be thinking about Iran, those evil ones who threaten Israel. May the Lord destroy them," Yosef was quoted as saying by Israeli media on Sunday.
Last week, Netanyahu sent his national security adviser to brief Yosef, 91, on Iran's nuclear activities in what was widely seen as an effort to win his backing for any future military strike, possibly before the US presidential vote in November.
Yosef, a former Israeli chief rabbi, is the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key member of Netanyahu's governing coalition.
He issued his call in a sermon late on Saturday in which he said Iran should be included in a traditional Jewish New Year blessing next month over food in which God is asked to strike down Israel's enemies.
Netanyahu's security cabinet, which Israeli officials have said is divided over the question of launching a go-it-alone attack on Iran, includes a Shas minister as one of its eight members. Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.
Yosef wields significant influence over Shas's lawmakers, who seek his guidance on policy.
In the past, the Baghdad-born Yosef has stirred controversy by likening Palestinians to snakes, calling for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "perish from this world" and describing non-Jews as "born only to serve us."
But he has also spoken out in favor of Israel ceding occupied land for peace with the Palestinians in order to end conflict and save Jewish lives.
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Ovadia Yosef was the Sephardi Chief Rabbi in Israel during the 1980s. He's described by some as the most important religious figure in Israel's entire history. Seems that he's the one responsible for introducing ultra-Orthodox Judaism into the Mizrahi and Sephardi communities in Israel (the movement was originally Ashkenazi).
As the article points out, he has something of a history of racist incitement -- against non-Jews in general (whose purpose in life, according to him, is to serve Jews) and against Palestinians in particular, whose destruction he has called for in sermons.
An influential Israeli rabbi has called for prayers for Iran's destruction, a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to court his support for a possible attack on a nuclear program Israel sees as an existential threat.
The sermon by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef added to a flurry of recent rhetoric from Israeli officials that has raised international concern that Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only atomic power, might attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
"(When) we ask God to 'bring an end to our enemies,' we should be thinking about Iran, those evil ones who threaten Israel. May the Lord destroy them," Yosef was quoted as saying by Israeli media on Sunday.
Last week, Netanyahu sent his national security adviser to brief Yosef, 91, on Iran's nuclear activities in what was widely seen as an effort to win his backing for any future military strike, possibly before the US presidential vote in November.
Yosef, a former Israeli chief rabbi, is the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key member of Netanyahu's governing coalition.
He issued his call in a sermon late on Saturday in which he said Iran should be included in a traditional Jewish New Year blessing next month over food in which God is asked to strike down Israel's enemies.
Netanyahu's security cabinet, which Israeli officials have said is divided over the question of launching a go-it-alone attack on Iran, includes a Shas minister as one of its eight members. Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.
Yosef wields significant influence over Shas's lawmakers, who seek his guidance on policy.
In the past, the Baghdad-born Yosef has stirred controversy by likening Palestinians to snakes, calling for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "perish from this world" and describing non-Jews as "born only to serve us."
But he has also spoken out in favor of Israel ceding occupied land for peace with the Palestinians in order to end conflict and save Jewish lives.
*********************************
Ovadia Yosef was the Sephardi Chief Rabbi in Israel during the 1980s. He's described by some as the most important religious figure in Israel's entire history. Seems that he's the one responsible for introducing ultra-Orthodox Judaism into the Mizrahi and Sephardi communities in Israel (the movement was originally Ashkenazi).
As the article points out, he has something of a history of racist incitement -- against non-Jews in general (whose purpose in life, according to him, is to serve Jews) and against Palestinians in particular, whose destruction he has called for in sermons.
