Israel as a Rogue State 129

The fatal cocktail of fanatic Jewish fundamentalism, ugly settler colonial racism and the rise of internal fascism does not bode well for anyone, particularly given the fact that Israel owns hundreds of nuclear weapons. Little wonder many consider Israel a major threat to world peace!

Ovadia Yosef is the spiritual leader of the hugely influential Mizrahi fundamentalist party Shas, a partner in the current Israeli coalition government.

Imagine the leader of a major European party in any coalition government daring to say something as hateful, racist and extreme: "Jews are like our cattle, born to serve us." Most likely, that leader will sit in jail for a long time, his party will be kicked out of government and perhaps out of political life altogether, and, in all likelihood, the government will collapse after profusely apologizing and distancing itself from this criminally racist speech. In Israel, such utterances and direct calls for "annihilating the Arabs" have not only become the norm, failing to raise any serious protest; they are inciting real racist violence against Palestinians everywhere. 

Israel's impunity must be checked before it is too late for all of us. BDS now! 

Given this, Palestinians have very warmly welcomed the prominent filmmaker Mike Leigh's cancellation of his planned visit to Israel in protest over its oppression of the Palestinians, colonial expansion and the loyalty oath, which he regarded as "the last straw." 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/18/mike-leigh-cancels-israel-visit

Omar Barghouti

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=191782

The Jerusalem Post October 18, 2010

Yosef: Gentiles exist only to serve Jews By JONAH MANDEL18/10/2010 According to Rabbi, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews.

The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator. “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat. According to Yosef, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews. “In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money. This is his servant... That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew,” Yosef said. “Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat. That is why gentiles were created,” he added. Yosef’s Saturday night sermons have seen many controversial statements from the 90-year-old rabbi. In August, Yosef caused a diplomatic uproar when he wished a plague upon the Palestinian people and their leaders, a curse he retracted a few weeks later, when he blessed them along with all of Israel’s other peace-seeking neighbors. Now, my question is what the new Dutch pro-Israel secretary of state, Uri Rosenthal, is planning to do with this information while at the same time the Dutch government is busy upgrading its relations with the 'Jewish state'. I' ll keep you informed.