Israeli religious leader prays for Abbas, Palestinians: "May the Lord strike them down"

Shas party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "an evil hater of Israel" in his weekly sermon on Saturday.

After mentioning the traditional New Year's wish of "may those who hate us be finished," Yosef reportedly said that God should send a plague to Abbas and the Palestinians, and they should be finished.

Four days before the opening of new negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Yosef also wished death on the Palestinian nation and prayed that "the Lord strike them down."

Shas veteran Yehuda Avidan responded by saying that anyone who knows Yosef knows that there is no one who wants and seeks peace more than him. Avidan explained that the rabbi sees the Palestinians as Israel's enemies but wants there to be peace.

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