The spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, made waves this week when he included in his blessing for Rosh Ha-Shana, the Jewish New Year, a prayer that a plague should strike the Palestinians and wipe them out, including Mahmoud Abbas. He said, “Let Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority] and all these evil folk perish from this world. May God smite them with plague, them and these Palestinians.”
I wrote a comment - we'll see if he publishes it:
It is amusing that Juan Cole, who famously defended Ahmadinejad by claiming that his statement to wipe Israel from the face of the earth was a mistranslation, relies on Yahoo to translate the words of Rabbi Yosef. YNet today gave a more accurate translation: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3945840,00.htmlThis picture was taken in Iran in 2008. I guess the podium designer doesn't know Farsi as well as Cole does.
Yosef did not wish a plague on all Palestinians, only the ones who “persecute Israel.”
Since Cole cares so much about accurate translations, I trust that he will correct this and apologize.
(h/t Dan)