Homosexuals Responsible For Israel's Earthquake

Ethan Cooper

Proving ignorance and intolerance shows no preference between race or religion, Knesset Member Shlomo Benizri says the earthquake last week in Israel was the result of homosexual activity. The earthquake registering 5.3 on the Richter scale, "lasted for 19 seconds and shook structures in many major towns and cities". Apparently some in the community fail to see the irony in a Jew, scape-goating an entire minority with a fallible belief or political agenda.

Benizri is an Isreali politician and member of the Shas party. He has served as the Deputy Health Minister, Minister of Health and Labor and Social Welfare Minister between 1996 and 2001. In 2006, he was charged by the State Prosecutor's Office with accepting favors worth millions in exchange for inside information regarding foreign workers.

The topic of homosexuality in Judaism dates back to the Torah's book of Leviticus stating "[A man] shall not lie with another man as [he would] with a woman, it is a toevah" (Leviticus 18:22). Because of this single line in the Torah, rabbis have traditionally viewed homosexuality as a "deliberate rebellion against God" and a "perversion".

The assertion by Benizri followed last months comments by another Shas member who referred to the gay community as a "plague that could destroy Jewish Israel," adding that it should be treated "just as the Health Ministry dealt with the bird flu epidemic."