Shas spiritual leader: Edelstein’s soul is an abomination, a shame he came to Israel

Former chief Sephardic rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, slams Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein as “wicked” and an “abomination” over his support for tough economic sanctions against yeshiva students who evade the IDF draft.

“His soul is an abomination. He was a prisoner of Zion and came to Israel. It’s a shame he came to Israel, he should have stayed there. He’s causing trouble for the yeshiva students,” he says.

Edelstein, whose committee is currently revising a government-backed law regulating Haredi enlistment that is said to include strict sanctions, is a former prisoner of Zion, or Soviet refusenik, who spent three years in forced labor camps for teaching Hebrew in the 1980s.

Prisoners of Zion were jailed in the former Soviet Union for Zionist or pro-Israel activities, mainly fighting for the right to move to the Jewish state.

Yosef also calls Edelstein and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu part of a “false right wing” and “wicked.”

Yosef’s comments, which are broadcast by Radio Kol Barama, come hours after he reportedly ordered Shas to sharpen its threats to bring down the government if the coalition does not come to an agreement with its ultra-Orthodox parties on exempting yeshiva students from military service.

חשיפה | מתקפה חסרת תקדים של המנהיג הרוחני של ש״ס הגאון רבי יצחק יוסף נגד יולי אדלשטיין: ״נשמתו תועבה, היה אסיר ציון ובא לארץ, חבל שבא לארץ, שהיה נשאר שם. הוא עושה את הצרות לבני הישיבות. הכל זה הוא עושה. אדלשטיין ונתניהו, כל הימין הזה ימן שקר. רשעים מרושעים!״. את הדברים אמר הבוקר… pic.twitter.com/rMSGHT94bm

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