A spiritual leader of Israel’s Shas Party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, referred to President Barack Obama as a “slave’ with plans to rule the world and monopolize affairs in Tel Aviv.
“We live in a time when slaves are governing us and are trying to control us,” he said. “American insidiousness tells us to build here and not to build there as though we were slaves working for them.”
His remarks have been labeled racist by PressTV.com, a Middle Eastern newspaper, and goes on to detail the notion behind the statements that were made during Yosef’s weekly sermon. The Rabbi expressed his resentment behind the Obama administration’s efforts to apply pressure to Tel Aviv leadership over it’s expansion settlement, an age-old mid-east territorial battle.
“We are not employees of the Americans… and Israel does not work for the United States,” he shouted.
President Obama has been shunned by a mass of Israeli’s over his hard-nose approach with the country in his strategy for peace in the region. The president’s approach differs from many former U.S. presidents who had a tendency to comply with Israel’s agenda.
The senior rabbi harshly criticized Obama for what he believes is a favoring of Arab states and mad claims that Obama has a personal gripe with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The “spiritual leader” went on to attack Arabs.
“And where is our temple?! The situation there is a cause for grief! There is nothing there but evil Arabs who are occupying our lands… and I hope that the messiah will appear soon to destroy them,” he was quoted by the Arab language daily al-Miesri al-Yaum (Egypt Today) as saying.
The rabbi’s remarks come during a time when diplomatic conflict has risen between Israel and the Washington, who has called for the country to completely freeze all construction projects. Tel Aviv, however, is pushing for continuation to meet the needs caused by the Jewish communities “natural growth.”
On July 27, a group of right-wing Israeli supporters took part in a an anti U.S. rally in Jerusalem.
