Netanyahu an ‘atheist,' former chief rabbi says, accusing IDF of targeting Sephardim
Former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Saturday night called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'an atheist,' accused him and Shas leader Arye Deri of stalling a haredi draft bill, and alleged that the IDF is targeting Sephardim for arrests.
Speaking after a week of demonstrations outside a military prison that houses haredi detainees, Yosef said that the coalition should have passed the draft law before approving its first budget, in line with the coalition agreement. 'It should have been before forming the government, as written in the coalition agreement, to pass the draft law before the first budget,' he said.
Yosef sharply criticized haredi lawmakers and Netanyahu, invoking the late Rabbi Shalom Cohen, who served as president of Shas's Council of Torah Sages. 'Do not listen to Bibi after the budget. Why did they listen to him? If Hacham Shalom were alive, he would shout at the emissaries of the rabbis. Why are you dragging your feet? Why are you listening to Bibi? Do you believe him? He is an atheist,' Yosef said.
The Rishon LeZion (the honorific for the Sephardi chief rabbi) continued, 'You rely on someone like that? What are you relying on him for, to pass the draft law? So more delays, and we got into trouble.'
He also took aim at the military's recent round of arrests. 'They arrest mainly Sephardim. They know that there the father is weak, the mother is weak,' he said, adding, 'What is this, Russia? When they knock on the door, look through the peephole to see who it is. If it is them, do not open the door. Get through this difficult period.'
Previous Controversies
Yosef has a long record of provocative statements that often incite public debate. In January 2020, he drew widespread condemnation for referring to some immigrants from the former Soviet Union as 'communist, religion-hating' gentiles; then-Prime Minister Netanyahu branded those remarks 'outrageous' and praised the immigrants as 'a huge blessing to the State of Israel and the Jewish people' .
In mid‑2021, Yosef dismissed secular academic subjects, labeling science and mathematics 'nonsense,' and urged that students focus solely on Torah study .
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Transcript: José Andrés on "Face the Nation"
The following is the transcript of an interview with Chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 17, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports that the total number of starvation-related deaths has now risen to 250, including 110 children, seven of those deaths in the last 24 hours. World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés joins us this morning from Jerusalem. He visited Gaza late last week. Good morning. It is rare to get a look inside of Gaza. The IDF does not allow journalists in to freely report, but they let you in. What did you see? JOSÉ ANDRÉS: It was a day trip. I was able to go early in the day and leave before sunset, and I visit our main- one of our two main kitchens inside Gaza in Deir al-Balah. And I was able to visit the few warehouses we have there, the bakery, the kitchens, and spending a day trying to see what else the teams need, what else we need to be doing, how we are going to be increasing the hot food and bread that we are producing right now. So this was a day, again, to show support, to see on my own and assess the situation of our own kitchens. And that's what I have to report about that. MARGARET BRENNAN: The U.N. says that there is starvation happening in Gaza, Israel's Prime Minister says there is no starvation. What's real? ANDRÉS: Obviously, there is always a gray area, but we are making boxes for children that we know they are in very- a special need situation. I saw those boxes being made with the name of every one of the children. We need to remember that during many weeks, no food was going inside Gaza, and this is two- two million people. So in the places we know we are feeding, we are doing around 200,000 meals a day, but this is only 10 percent of the need. That's what we are trying to increase. I can say that where we are, obviously, people are- are being fed at the bare minimum. It's not everything they should be receiving, but at the very least they're receiving a piece of bread and a piece of food. But we need much more aid. We need to make sure that the aid is never interrupted again. We need to make sure that the flow of trucks keeps happening. We need to make sure that we have safe roads so those trucks can reach their intended delivery place. We need to make sure that all the NGOs that are actively trying to do the best they can to take care of people inside Gaza- and this is beyond food, obviously, medicines, etc., etc. We need to make sure that the aid is massive enough that we don't get to those moments where- in some areas, like in the north, that is still very difficult to reach, that we know that people are desperate for food. MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned for many weeks no food was allowed in. That was a government policy. There was a blockade for many months. That is now lifted officially. But as you say, your organization wants to scale up. You are trying to produce one million meals a day in Gaza. Can you get the fuel in to do that? Can you get the food in? Are Israeli officials giving you a green light? ANDRÉS: Well, it's a million because we are an organization that we specialize in emergencies and in food, but obviously we are requesting that all the NGOs that are participating in feeding are given more access, including us and other organizations like Anera, which was one of the organizations we work with that they've been in Gaza for many, many decades- and many others. We need to make sure that everybody has access. For that, we need a lot of things, the trucks inside Gaza. We need to remember that the trucks come from outside Gaza, and there they are put aside. And then we need to reload the trucks that are inside Gaza. This takes time. We need more trucks inside so the trucking company can have enough people and enough trucks to have a constant flow. I have to report that, yes, I saw a good flow of trucks going in. I don't- around 150 to 250 trucks are going in every day. But even I will say that this is not enough. We need to make sure that we massively increase- that we massively make sure that nobody has to be walking for miles to try to reach a place where they can find a plate of food or use a bag of rice. We need to make sure- like what World Central Kitchen does, at one moment we had, you know, 100, 200 kitchen partners. We need to make sure that we are cooking where people live. We need to make sure that we are feeding them where people are, so the people don't have to be, again, leaving their neighborhoods, leaving their tents and walking for hours back and forth only to try to bring little bit of food back home. MARGARET BRENNAN: In terms of walking to designated areas for food, you're referring to the model that the Israelis have set up with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. You are saying that their preferred method of feeding people is not sufficient. ANDRÉS: Well, it takes a village, right? To feed 2 million people and more in a- in a situation like the people of Gaza are facing. That's why the model we are- we are pushing for is the more kitchens we have, the better. Right now, we have 80 partner kitchens on top of the two main World Central Kitchen kitchens, but that's not enough. We need to make sure that we increase the numbers of World Central Kitchen, the big ones that people can see on the webpage of World Central Kitchen or in my Twitter account. We need to make sure that our partner kitchens, that they produce between 500 and two, three, four thousand meals each. We need to make sure the bakeries are fully loaded with bread. We need to make sure that we have the fuel. That's why we need to be bringing pellets, because we have hundreds of kitchens firing up every day. We need the fuel to be able to cook the food. The big bakery we have, a bakery that was in partnership with the Kingdom of Jordan that is doing almost 50,000 loaves of bread a day. We need diesel to make sure that we are able to move the machinery to be very effective, but that's only one bakery doing 50,000 pitas a day. We need many more bakeries to make sure that we are able to- to cover the demand of 2 million people. MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I let you go, I have to ask you about an incident that happened a few days ago. World Central Kitchen issued a statement saying the Israeli government told you armed people were posing as workers for your organization. Is that the first time that you've heard bad actors are trying to pose as humanitarian workers? Have you experienced exploitation by Hamas? ANDRÉS: Obviously, World Central Kitchen, we are a young organization. Gaza is a very complicated place. I know this is still kind of under investigation on our side and everybody else. But doubly, we are there to be next to the people of Gaza, next to the Palestinians. At the end, what we have is Palestinians feeding Palestinians. Only in our kitchens, we have around 600 Palestinians doing amazing work just trying to feed their fellow citizens, and that's what we plan to continue to make sure that Palestinians feed Palestinians, that Palestinians take care of themselves, and we're going to be giving them all the support we can to achieve that. MARGARET BRENNAN: And I understand you met with a former hostage while you were in- in Israel, whose brother is still being held in Gaza. What did you learn? ANDRÉS: Yeah, I've been- I've been- I've been- I've been meeting with- with different- but these- I met with Iair Horn. His brother is still in Gaza. You know, we had a two hour conversation. You know, was hard to listen to the story. Obviously, he wants his brother- his brother out. Today is a very massive strike in- in Israel, and everybody is asking for the return of the hostages. That's what should be happening. That's what should be- let's hope that this happens, obviously, alongside of a cease-fire, of peace, where nobody is under bombs, where nobody has their loved ones away, where nobody is losing their loved ones in the middle of- of- of this- of this war, where everybody is fed, where we can start the reconstruction of Gaza, where every children can receive a plate of food that they can go back to school, where, obviously, the hostages are released, where the people of Palestine and Gaza can live in peace and where the people of Israel can live in peace. What is good for you must be good for me. Let's hope that you at least will cover the basic minimums right now of feeding everybody, hopefully also the hostages being released as soon as possible. MARGARET BRENNAN: José Andrés, thank you very much for your time this morning. Full interview: José Andrés on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" José Andrés on what he saw on a recent trip to Gaza Alaska Sen. 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