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QUOTE OF THE WEEK - AYATOLLAH ISRAEL
"How can you make peace with a snake?
The Ishmaelites
[Arabs] are all accursed evil people... God regrets
having created these Ishmaelites."
"Rabbi Ovadiah's fulminations cannot easily be dismissed.
A former chief rabbi of Israel, and a religious scholar
of some repute, he is also the spiritual leader of the
Shas party, the kingmaker of Israeli coalition politics."
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - 8/8/00:
It's rather ironic that in the modern secular world of
the 20th century there is a such a revival of theocratic based nationalism
in the Middle East. Whatever one's view of this development its important
to realize that this didn't start with the Iranian revolution against the
Westernized Shah. Nor did it begin with the Muslims who in casting
off the Ottoman Empire early in the last century dreamed of an Arab nation
based on geographic nationalism. It actually started with the birth
of the first specifically religiously identified state in the region in
1948, the "Jewish State". And the ramifications of this development
are still taking place. The following article appeared in ©The
Guardian on 7 August by Suzanne Goldenberg writing from Jerusalem:
"The bad boy of the Israeli rabbinate created a rare unity between Arab
and
Jew yesterday, scandalising his own people by saying that the millions
killed
in the Nazi Holocaust were sinners, and outraging Palestinians by declaring
them accursed "snakes" despised by God.
The outpourings from Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, who devoted his Saturday sermon
to
the Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli peace process, caused a firestorm
as
prominent Israeli rabbis and politicians as well as Palestinians took
to the
airwaves to deplore his views.
"The victims of the Holocaust, all 6 million Jews, all those poor people
who
were lost at the hands of those evildoers the Nazis were reincarnations
of
earlier souls who sinned time and again and did all sorts of things
that
shouldn't have been done, and were reincarnated so that things could
be set
right," the rabbi told a crowded synagogue in Jerusalem, and thousands
of
followers who tuned in on pirate radio stations.
He berated the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, for trying to make
peace
with the Palestinians. "Why are you bringing them close to us? You
bring
snakes next to us. How can you make peace with a snake?" Rabbi Ovadiah
told
his applauding followers.
"The Ishmaelites [Arabs] are all accursed evil people. They are all
haters of
Israel. God regrets having created these Ishmaelites," he went on.
Rabbi Ovadiah's fulminations cannot easily be dismissed. A former chief
rabbi
of Israel, and a religious scholar of some repute, he is also the spiritual
leader of the Shas party, the kingmaker of Israeli coalition politics.
Shas, which combines ultra-Orthodox theology and ethnic pride of Middle
Eastern Jews, is the third largest party in the Israeli knesset, or
parliament, and Mr Barak is desperate to woo its 17 parliamentarians
back to
his coalition. That explains the prime minister's tepid response yesterday.
Ignoring the slur against the Palestinians, Mr Barak said the rabbi's
comments did not befit a religious leader of his stature. "They are
liable to
harm the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and the feelings
of
their family members," his office said in a statement.
Mr Barak's silence on the attack on Arabs was inexcusable, said the
Palestinian information minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo. "Every Israeli
stands
accused of being a racist until he condemns this racist and idiot."
An Israeli Arab member of the Knesset, Ahmed Tibi, said he would ask
Israel's
attorney general to charge the rabbi. That seems unlikely; the attorney
general has already refused to charge Rabbi Ovadiah with incitement
after he
called the secular education minister an enemy of the Jews who should
be
liquidated."
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