Israeli Chief Rabbi: We Have ‘Moral Obligation’ to Respond to Syrian Massacre

Israel has “a moral obligation not to keep quiet and to try and stop this massacre,” Rabbi Yosef said of the chemical attack in Syria. 

By: United with Israel Staff

The Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, on Sunday said that the Jewish state has a “moral obligation not to keep quiet” and must work to stop the massacre of civilians by the Assad regime in Syria.

“I have said in the past and I will say it again: What is happening in Syria is genocide of women and children in its cruelest form, using weapons of mass destruction,” and Israel has “a moral obligation not to keep quiet and to try and stop this massacre,” Yosef said in a statement.

A suspected poison gas attack on Saturday by Assad’s forces in Douma, the last remaining foothold for Syrian rebels in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, killed some 200 people and injured over 1,000.

Invoking the memory of the Holocaust, Yosef added that “as Jews who have experienced genocide, as Jews whose Torah is a light to the nations, it is our moral obligation to try and stop this murder.”

“It is an obligation no less important than the moral obligation to destroy the nuclear reactor in Syria,” he added, relating to a 2007 Israeli destruction of the Al-Kibar nuclear facility in Syria, which was in its last stages of construction at the time.

President Donald Trump had promised a “big price to pay” for the suspected chemical attack.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Trump tweeted on Sunday.

“President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!” he added.