A. Saba Dare To Call It Conspiracy
_______ ____ ______ / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ QUOTE OF THE WEEK - AYATOLLAH ISRAEL http://www.MiddleEast.Org News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups, and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know! - - - - - - - - - - "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 ŠThe 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." MiD-EasT RealitieS - www.MiddleEast.Org Phone: 202 362-5266 Fax: 815 366-0800 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------- For latest information about MER, and to subscribe or unsubscribe from the MER List, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------
