Israeli rabbi prays for Mubarak to be saved from his enemies

Monday, 16 January 2012

The Israeli cleric, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has expressed his hopes for the acquittal of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. (File photo)

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By Al Arabiya

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel’s ultra-orthodox religious political party Shas, paid tribute to the ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in his Saturday night sermon and prayed for God to “save him from his enemies.”

“Mubarak brought respect to Egypt … He was admired by kings and presidents, he prevented wars, he was a peace-seeking person and a friend of Israel,” Rabbi Yosef was quoted by Israeli media as saying.

“I pray that God will instill wisdom in the hearts of his judges so that they will acquit him.”

Rabbi Yosef praised Mubarak ─ who is currently being tried on, among other charges, for the killing of demonstrators in the Jan.25, 2011 revolution ─ as “a decent and wise man [who] kept every promise he made to me.”

Israel’s Ynet news website reported that Rabbi Yosef recounted a meeting with Mubarak when he was Israel’s chief rabbi.

“I was told that Egyptian engineers were planning a highway that would plow through a Jewish cemetery,” he said.

Rabbi Yosef said he went with another rabbi to see Mubarak. When they met him they asked him to change the route of the highway, a request Mubarak granted.

The rabbi said that at the end of the meeting, Mubarak asked him for blessings.

“Please bless me. I believe in your blessings,” Mubarak is reported to have said according to the rabbi, who added that the former Egyptian president’s 30-year rule was due to that blessing.