AP PHOTO BY NATI HARNIK

Unleashing
The Ethnic
Genie

The dark side of the
Bar-On Affair has the
powerful religious
Sephardic Party closer
to Bibi — and blatantly
anti-Zionist.

INA FRIEDMAN ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

Jerusalem

OD

"[Zionism] is a heretical movement that
wants to create a new Judaism," cried
Shas leader Aryeh Deri at a rally four
days after Israel's attorney general and
state attorney announced that they would
indict Mr. Deri, and Mr. Deri alone, in
the Bar-On Affair.
Charging that Zionism wants to de-
stroy the Torah, the religion, and the cul-
ture of the Sephardim, the persecution
of Shas, he added, "is not political perse-
cution; it is religious and ethnic perse-
cution. They're afraid that the Shaniks
will change the character of the State of
Israel, after they've seen that with all the
great vision of Zionism, they haven't suc-
ceeded in erasing us."
Thus laid bare the dark side to Israel's
unprecedented political scandal, one that
has exposed a charged ethnic division be-
tween Sephardic (eastern) and Ashke-
nazic (European) Jews that many
thought had diminished in recent years.
Giving weight to the Sephardic claims
was Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, a former chief
Sephardic rabbi and spiritual mentor of
Shas, which gained an unprecedented 10
Knesset seats in the last national elec-
tions, elevating it to the status of key
coalition partner.
"Those who ostensibly want to main-
tain the law ... did something very odd,"
Rabbi Yosef said at the same rally. 'There
are four in a boat. They took one, who is
a Sephardi, a `Frenkeleh,' accused him,
and the rest go home. How can that be?
Either they're all good or they're all bad."
Then came his son, Rabbi David Yosef.
"What is this democracy? Everyone can
do what he deems right. Freedom, free-
dom, freedom. What freedom? Freedom
from the Torah and the commandments.
Freedom to eat rabbits and pigs. Free-
dom to travel on Bar-Ilan Street on Shab-
bat. ... We have nothing in common with
you," he shouted at Israel's legal estab-
lishment. "We don't believe in what you
believe in. ... When will you understand
that the public is disgusted with you?"
The
enie from

Roni Bar-On: His appointment led to scandal.