Please stop apologizing for Rav Ovadia Yosef
You may recall that three weeks ago, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef made some comments about the 'Palestinians' that caused people outside of Israel to stand up and take notice. Senior Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in his weekly lecture on Saturday night, said that he hope Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and the people he represents would disappear. “May Abu Mazen and all those evil people be utterly destroyed. May G-d strike them, and the evil Palestinians, with a plague,” he said.Among others, the US State Department objected.
The State Department Sunday issued a statement saying it regretted Yosef's "inflammatory statements," and noting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced his government from the remarks.Rabbi Yosef did not say anything different than what the rest of us said in - among other recent prayers - the Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King) prayer throughout the ten days of penitence, and while eating the signs for a good year on Rosh HaShanna. Assuming, of course, that one accepts as Rabbi Yosef wisely does (and he doesn't need me to tell him that it's wise) the reality that Abu Mazen and the 'Palestinian Authority' are no less an enemy of Israel and the Jewish people than Hamas.
“We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. We note the Israeli statement that the Rabbi's comments do not reflect the views of the Prime Minister,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement Sunday.
“These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace," Crowley continued. "As we move forward to relaunch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it.”
The furor had since died down. But now, another former senior politician in Yosef's Shas party feels the need to 'defend' the rabbi.
Speaking to radio station Radio Kol Chai, Deri said that Rabbi Yosef’s remarks came as a result of his deep sorrow over the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem.That's Deri as in Aryeh Deri, one of the founders of the Shas party and a former government minister.
“The rabbi is very sensitive,” explained Deri. “He calms down his pain when he speaks harshly about a person.”
Deri explained that in this case, the Rabbi’s emotions came from “his terrible pain over the construction freeze, over the fact that no apartments are being built in Jerusalem and he sees the distress of the yeshiva students, as well as the public who has no place to live. It hurts him and he expressed this pain by saying what he said. The Rabbi has no interest in provoking the world’s nations. His whole way of life was using peaceful means to try to appease rather than provoke.
Please, stop apologizing for Rav Ovadia and stop trying to 'explain' what he said. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. Unlike our country's politicians, he doesn't know how to lie.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:03 AM
7 Comments:
Is it really necessary to soothe the feelings of those who hate Jews?
I think for once the unvarnished truth is far better to be heard and if the world objects to it, then that's its problem to deal with.
I would have been surprised at the rush to apologise or dissociate from his prayer had it not been said by an Israeli Rabbi. In an otherwise excellent piece Ami Isseroff distanced himself from what was said.
I was reminded of a Cavalier song from the English Civil War which shows that no-one in war wishes enemies long lives:
Cavalier Ballad
Here's a health unto his Majesty,
With a fal la la la la la la,
Confusion to his enemies,
With a fal lal la la la la la la.
And he that will not drink his health,
I wish him neither wit nor wealth,
Nor but a rope to hang himself.
With a fal lal la la la la la la la la,
With a fal lal la la la la la.
Yaacov Lozowick on the Rabbi:
http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2010/09/rabbi-speaks-like-rabbi.html
You're so wrong about OY. He is at the forefront of responsibility for the misery we have suffered since the Oslo Accords. Remove the beams from your eyes. Indeed, stop apologizing for him. Go read some newspaper archives.
G-d bless Rav Ovadia Josef and his family and everything he does!
You're also wrong about Rabbi Yosef. He approved of the peace process only when it would save Jewish lives. He poskined that saving Jewish lives is important enough to give away land.
When it became clear that it did not have that effect, he stopped encouraging it.
Can't say the same about Bibi or Lieberman!
F0xpawz, nope.
First of all, in normal societies (may we be zocheh), people responsible for the helping to implement plans leading to the deaths and crippling of 1000s should have the decency to excuse themselves from public life forever.
Nothing doing. SHAS has never missed the opportunity to go along with any government who would give them the monies and positions of influence they so hunger for.
Not once has SHAS done anything of value for the sake of the Jewish people of Israel as a whole.
You can find examples of this throughout SHAS's 20 or so years of history. One example by Carl in the not too distant past:
Olmert keeps Shas in his coalition cheaply
Like I said, we seem to have very short memories. I have my bets on what kind of a Din Ve'cheshbon the Ribbono Shel Olam will have with these people, no matter how many Sifrei Halacha they published or how many children they educated.
Somehow I have missed the condemnation by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on what the terrorist imams have to say about killing Jews and anyone else that doesn't bow down to the death cult that is islam.
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