“Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef implored God to ‘wipe out and destroy’ Iran and Hezbollah during his weekly sermon on Saturday night,” reports the Jerusalem Post. “Speaking on Saturday night, Yosef talked about the tradition on  the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, of eating various fruits and vegetables as positive portents for the year ahead. ‘When we make the blessing on the  dates that ‘our enemies and haters should be ended’ we should have in mind the  Iranian regime, those evil people who threaten Israel,’ the Rabbi  said. ‘Do good, God, wipe them out, kill them,’ he entreated, to which  the assembled crowd answered ‘amen.'”

The Rabbi is wrong. We should pray for the salvation of the Iranian people, not their utter destruction. We certainly should pray for the current regime in Iran to be changed or removed, and for the Iranian nuclear program to be dismantled or neutralized…