Increasing Political and Ethnic Stress in Israel

The Chief Rabbi of the Oriental Communities Itzhak Joseph has just said in public what most Oriental Jews (Mizrahim, or Sepharadim) murmur among themselves:  the Russian immigrants are not Jewish by descend or religion, in fact, they hate religion. The pic needs explanation: the strange hat and dress is the uniform of a religious officer of the Turkish Empire. The Turks recognized several religions - Jewish, Aramean, Greek Orthodox, etc. and gave to the head of each an honorific title, a dress and a salary. Under the Turks there was no sizeable Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, so the Chief Sepharadi Rabbi was the head of the Jews. Being so, the Chief Sepharadi calls himself "The First in Zion" and wears the honorary Turkish dress of his official position. The Sultanate was dissolved a hundred years ago and the  uniform it used to grant to religious dignitaries lost all meaning, except for the Sepharadi Chief Rabbi who insists in being called "The First".
                                                                                          He accused the Socialist government of thirty years ago of allowing a large Russian immigration in order to increase its electorate - and to undermine the political power of the religious block. Already Israelis of Russian origin are feeling the hostility and naturally, tend to vote against Shas, the party of the non-European Jews. I would remind him that his father (yes, the post is hereditary), Ovadia (originally Abdallah) Joseph had declared the Ethiopian Falasha as true descendants of the tribe of Dan, a complete fantasy, and caused the Mossad to organize their immigration. To increase the number of "Sepharadim" in Israel. Ironically, Sepharadim means Spanish Jews which the Africans certainly are not. 

I hate this ugly business.