Israel’s political arena has been turned in recent months into a slaughterhouse of democracy’s most sacred cows. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is busy eroding the foundations of the legal system and the media. Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz is engaged in slinging poison arrows into the hearts of gay youths. Yisrael Beitenu Chair Avigdor Liberman is spewing hatred against elected Arab officials, who represent 20% of the country’s citizens. The most recent addition to this frenzied political slaughter, kosher, of course, is an official religious cleric.
In a recently exposed rant, Yitzhak Yosef, Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi, purported to be the embodiment of apolitical brotherhood and peace, turned an entire community of Israeli citizens into enemies of the Jewish people. “They were brought here to provide a counter-weight to the ultra-Orthodox,” the senior rabbi said of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. “Then they vote for parties that incite against the ultra-Orthodox and religion.” Some, heaven help us, even attend church every Sunday, complained the leading religious authority.
