Word: ashkenazy
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...tribal enmity among the citizens of the Jewish state. Iraqi-born Rabbi Yosef is also the spiritual leader of Israel's third largest party, Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party representing Sephardic Jews, who immigrated to Israel from Arab countries and suffered racist treatment at the hands of the Ashkenazi (of European origin) elite...
...decades of its independence, has borne the brunt of the resultant hostility, and despite apologizing for its past ill-treatment of the Sephardim, it continues to suffer their ire. Shas recently bolted Prime Minister Ehud Barak's coalition, and last week helped defeat his nominee for president - the ur-Ashkenazi Shimon Peres - instead electing an Iranian-born legislator from the opposition. But the contempt for European Jewry implied by Rabbi Yosef's depiction of Holocaust victims signals a new low, and the fact that it came as part of a sermon castigating Barak's peacemaking efforts and characterizing all Arabs...
...Ultra-Orthodox Jews of both Sephardic and Ashkenazi origin have theological difficulties explaining the Holocaust, because it appears to challenge the notion that the Jews are God's chosen people. For the most part, they prefer not to talk about it, and on Israel's annual Shoah day - when the nation is called to observe two minutes of remembrance for those who died - the ultra-Orthodox go about their business even as the majority stop what they're doing and stand in silence. But it remains a cause of considerable discomfort for ultra-Orthodox theologians, not least because so many...
...vote was as much a protest at the concessions Barak offered the Palestinians at Camp David as it was a reflection of widespread personal animosity toward Peres even within his own party, as well as of the backlash by Israel's Sephardic (immigrants from Arab countries) majority against the Ashkenazi (immigrants from Europe) elite that has traditionally run Barak's Labor party...
...fringe group of anti-peace process zealots. In fact, those on the extreme right reject Bibi as too moderate and will not support him. Rather, Bibi's popular strength is much more organic. Netanyahu is the king of the Israeli underclass. Those who are alienated from Israel's privileged, Ashkenazi upper-class find a real leader in Netanyahu. In particular, Bibi has skillfully stitched together an ethnically heterodox and eminently loyal support base of Sephardim (Jews of Middle Eastern origin), Russian immigrants, and the ultra-religious. Although Barak may enjoy the applause of Israel's socioeconomic elite, they constitute only...