The Sefardi haredi leader also called Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid "Asmodai," a "demon" who is one of the Seven Princes of Hell.
Netanyahu Will Soon Dump Secularists And National Religious And Will Return Sefardi Haredi Shas Party To Power, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon fulfill his intention to return Shas to the coalition, due to his enemies [within the coalition]. Even Netanyahu is saying there won't be much time with [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid and [Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali] Bennett. He is suffering from them. He knows that he will suffer from them,” Sefardi haredi leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said this week.
Yosef was apparently speaking privately after a condolence call paid to him by Netanyahu after the death of his son, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, early this week. But apparently unbeknownst to him, Yosef was recorded and that recording was given to Army Radio, which broadcast it yesterday, Israel HaYom reported.
The Prime Minister's Office denied that Netanyahu made that statement.
Lapid's Yesh Atid party did not respond to Yosef’s remarks.
Haredi leaders have viscously attacked Lapid and Bennett, whom they blame for leaving them out of the government.
In the recording played by Army Radio Yosef can be heard calling Lapid "Asmodai," a “demon” cited in rabbinic literature. Also spelled “Asmodeus,” he is called by the rabbis one of the “seven princes of hell.”
Speaking with Netanyahu during his condolence call, Yosef reportedly said, "I'm in mourning now as a father who buried his son, but my greatest sorrow is my sorrow over the [forced military] enlistment of [haredi] yeshiva students.… the fate of the world of Torah,” Yosef reportedly said, was greater than the sorrow he felt over the death of his son.