Now, at last, at long last, the U.S. government has spoken out, and called incitement, “incitement”.
And it was on a Sunday, too, a day on which Washington is normally quiet.
The U.S. went further, and said that the remarks made by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in a sermon in a Jerusalem synagogue over the weekend (and reported after Shabbat, overnight on Sunday, by Israel Army Radio), were also “inflammatory” [a word used by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office to describe the comments several hours after criticism of Yosef’s words intensified] , and “deeply offensive”.
In a statement from Washington — apparently issued because there was a clear and urgent need, in advance of meetings the U.S. has convened for 1 + 2 September to relaunch direct Israeli-Palestinian talks that the Palestinians called off at the end of December 2008, as Israel began a massive three-week military attack on Gaza — U.S Assistant Secretary of State, spokesperson for Hillary Rodham Clinton, said: “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. These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace. 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”.
Hours earlier, the Jerusalem Post reported that “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday distanced himself from inflammatory comments made by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef over the weekend in which he wished a plague on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people. [Yosef apparently wished that Abbas would “disappear from the earth”, or die; see our previous post here.] A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office said that Yosef’s comments ‘don’t represent the views of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or the Israeli government. Israel entered into negotiations out of a desire to progress with the Palestinians toward an agreement that will end the conflict and ensure peace, security and good neighborly relations between the two nations’.” This Israeli reaction — correcting an earlier position, in which Netanyahu didn’t have much to say about Yosef’s comments, was posted here.
Yosef, who was born in 1920 in Iraq, was brought by his family to Jerusalem in 1924. [He apparently worked as a Rabbi in Egypt from 1947 until about 1949 or 1950 — during the most intense phase of the conflict surrounding the creation of the State of Israel, and during the war waged against Israel by neighboring countries, including Egypt.]
Renowned for his Talmudic scholarship and his innovative interpretation, Yosef became Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, and was later elected the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. Now, he is said to be the spiritual leader of the Shas political party, one of the major haredi (ultra-orthodox and more) religious parties seated in the Israeli following February 2009 Israeli national elections.
Shas leader, Eli Yishai, who now heads the powerful Israeli Interior Ministry in what has been called Israel’s most right-wing government ever, put together by Netanyahu after the last elections, said earlier Sunday that the party stood by Yosef’s remarks.
Yosef reportedly holds an ambivalent attitude towards Zionism. One of Yosef’s sons is reportedly about to be elected as Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem (representing the Sephardic or Mizrahi Jewish community, those from Arab countries), in a complicated religio-political trade-off [in which, one of those who have been described as “religious Zionist” Rabbis will be simultaneously elected as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Jerusalem (representing those with views and traditions developed from centuries of living in Europe), and this deal has been described as an effort “to lessen haredi influence” in rabbinical and religious issues]. See here for this report.
Shas, incidentally, is one of the main opponents of continuing Israel’s supposed (and in any case only partial) settlement freeze beyond its 26 September expiry date. Palestinian President Abbas has said that if there is continued settlement construction, negotiations will be meaningless.
Was it convenient that Yosef spoke in such an inflammatory way at this juncture? Will the outcry over Yosef’s remarks make it easier, now, for Netanyahu to argue for the extension that the U.S. is pushing for?