At our site, Joe Catron has been following the eliminationist language of Shas rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Andrew Sullivan is also on the case. (Thanks to Peter Voskamp)
“Destroy [the Iranian regime] God, obliterate them from the face of the earth,” – Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, after being briefed by Netanyahu’s administration on the Iranian threat.
“Obliterate them from the face of the earth.” Recall that the Shas party is an integral part of Neyanyahu’s coalition, and the briefing was designed to put religious pressure on the Shas minister in the inner security candidate still sane enough to oppose a pre-emptive strike on Iran.
Let there be no mistake: this is an Israeli rabbi calling for another people to be obliterated from the face of the earth. The ironies seem lost.
Well, I called Hagee about this and he told me it’s all part of God’s plan. He’s really looking forward to the end times but says he’s living “high off the hog” for now, but’s he’s ready.
The title of this post refers to “Iranian leaders” being obliterated. And the Daily Beast article by A. Sullivan that is referenced also emphasizes that he was referring to the leaders. In that case, isn’t this just equivalent to Iranian leaders calling for the “cancerous tumor” to be removed? Isn’t Ovadia Yosef just wishing for the Islamic Republic to “vanish from the page of time”? If so, then why does the post end w/ “Let there be no mistake: this is an Israeli rabbi calling for another people to be obliterated from the face of the earth. The ironies seem lost.”? You wouldn’t refer to Ahmadinejad’s statement about “vanishing from the page of time” as calling for another people’s obliteration.
On the other hand, this report
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/shas-spiritual-leader-calls-on-jews-to-pray-for-annihilation-of-iran-1.460765
puts it as, “When we say ‘may our enemies be struck down’ on Rosh Hashana, it shall be directed at Iran, the evil ones who threaten Israel. God shall strike them down and kill them,” in which case it’s not clear to me what he means by “Iran” here.
So just like w/ the Ahmadinejad quote, you need to indulge in years of linguistic analysis, parsing the grammatical inferences of his precious words to arrive at divergent conclusions.
what is so surprising. ???
>> Let there be no mistake: this is an Israeli rabbi calling for another people to be obliterated from the face of the earth.
Well, at least he didn’t call for Iran to be wiped from the map AND pushed into the sea! ;-)
Benny Hinn and Pat Hagee have also prayed for the mass murder of Iranians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v70t0IfNglo
So after the Christians go an kill Iranians, perhaps Hagee will send them off to Israel be slaves on Jewish settlements.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/07/148076026/christians-provide-free-labor-on-jewish-settlements