Tsunami was God's punishment claims former chief rabbi

The tsunami that ravaged southern Asia last month was God’s punishment for world support for Israel’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a former chief rabbi has claimed.

“When the Holy One, Blessed be He, is angry with the nations of the world that don’t help Israel – but want to evacuate and disengage, and interfere in our affairs and harm us – then the Holy One, Blessed be He, claps his hands in sadness, and this causes the quake,” former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu told the ultra-Orthodox Ma’ayanei Hayeshua magazine.