A political faux pas occurred on Sunday evening in Israel when a pre-recorded broadcast on Channel 11 news asked young children to identify which people come from Iran from a group of photos. Among the photos presented was Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Hagaon Harav Yitzchak Yosef. Rabbi Yosef’s photo was presented next to the photo of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
MK Michael Michaeli from Shas was outraged at the comparison. “Just the notion that these two people, one of the Gedolei Yisroel and one of the greatest haters of Israel could ever be compared is outrageous and insulting. From Israel’s new broadcasting authority, (which runs channel 11) I would have expected far better.”
Journalist Amir Ivgi who tweeted the video wrote: “This was amusing in the public forum. Showing children pictures of the two personages and asking them to say whether each was Iranian or not Iranian. Wait a second, this is the same place that was shocked and appalled by children who had been hurt by hearing the words “Shema Yisroel and Ve’ahavta L’Reiacha…”
(YWN Israel Headquarters – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Why should we sink to this level. If some evil news organizations like channel 11 enjoy this topic, we don’t have to follow them. Aren’t we better people than them.
This comparison is utterly disgusting!
It reveals the warped mind of those who try to mock Torah and our true leaders.
If anyone were stupid enough to compare these broadcasters with Goebbels yemach shmo, there would be outrage!
This comes from having no spirituality whatsoever
Everything is superficial and all that matters are looks as opposed to actions
So in this way (and without intending to), Channel 11 has shown that Jews are at least as native the region as anyone else (including Iranians) rather than the alleged European colonizers so viciously spited by the alleged progressives around the world.
In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, there were lots of studies in the US in which people were shown photographs of groups of people and were asked to identify the Jews in the pictures. The studies established that (absent black hats, black suits or tefillin) people – Jews and others – could not accurately identify Jews by their looks.
According to this article, Channel 11 was doing the same thing. I have no problem with that, nor do I have a problem with the fact that a great rabbi may physically resemble an evil person. Hashem has not made it easy for us to identify our enemies, or our friends. He expects us to be insightful, not superficial.
I remember a story where a teacher was proving that you need to learn how to read and he showed an Arab that was a terrorist and was saying look at this tzaddik and all the kids agreed then he told them he’s a terrorist