In 2001, influential Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, called for Arabs to be annihilated and said it was forbidden to be merciful to them. Nine years later, little has changed and Yosef is still making inflammatory and malicious statements. His most recent remarks were made during his weekly sermon: "Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth. God should strike them and these Palestinians — evil haters of Israel — with a plague."
That he was left to function as a leader despite his blatant racism and hate-filled rhetoric and that the Netanyahu government decided only to distance itself from these comments and not condemn them out loud is shameful. It was left to the US state department to come up with a strong statement against Yosef and warn of the effects of his comments. The Israeli government has a responsibility to speak up against such people and take action against them. Bottom line is, Yosef must be fired and prosecuted and the Jewish establishment must issue an apology.
Yosef's remarks could prove very harmful even if this kind of venomous and spiteful language isn't new. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are due to meet in Washington on Thursday to resume direct talks. Netanyahu should own up to his role and act against the likes of Yosef once and for all.
