Elie Wiesel Appears With End Times Pastor John Hagee, Hagee Trashes Obama

On October 25, while an overflow crowd of 1,500 poured into the first convention of the progressive-leaning, Israel-oriented lobbying organization J Street, Elie Wiesel addressed a crowd of 6,000 Christian Zionists at Pastor John Hagee's "Night To Honor Israel." According to the San Antonio Express News, while Wiesel sat by his side, Hagee trashed President Barack Obama, baselessly accusing him of "being tougher on Israel than on Russia, Iran, China and North Korea."

Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, who appeared at Hagee's Christians United for Israel summit earlier this year, rejected J Street's request to speak at their convention, instead dispatching a low-level embassy official to "observe" the event. Oren then accused J Street of "impair[ing] Israel's interests."

In blessing Hagee while damning J Street, Wiesel and Oren chose an anti-Semitic group led by a far-right End Times theology preacher over a fledgling progressive organization that bills itself as "pro-Israel, pro-peace." And both Wiesel and Oren seem to be embroiled in yet another controversy over involvement with the extremist preacher.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain avidly sought Hagee's endorsement, appearing by the pastor's side during a widely publicized press conference to announce it. McCain was intent on winning a seal of approval from a figure of the Christian right, especially since he had lambasted Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries.

Hagee: The Antichrist will be "partially Jewish...as Hitler was"

McCain may have been completely unaware of Hagee's sermon declaring the Holocaust to be a divinely ordained incident orchestrated by God to fulfill biblical prophecy; Hagee's accusation that the Jews' rejection of Jesus was the root of anti-Semitism; or his prediction that when the Antichrist returned, he would be homosexual and "partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx." When Hagee's anti-Semitic ravings surfaced on blogs like Talk2Action.org and eventually gained national notoriety, McCain renounced the preacher's endorsement.

Unlike McCain, Oren and Wiesel cannot claim innocence of Hagee's anti-Semitic remarks precisely because of the clamor over McCain's disassociation. "My dear pastor when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart," Wiesel told Hagee in a September 3 interview. "And it simply says, look, people have learned from history." (Hagee is hawking DVD's of his Wiesel interview for $15 each on his personal website, turning footage of the encounter into a windfall profit.)

On October 26, during an unofficial panel of bloggers and activists at J Street's conference, I criticized Wiesel and Oren for associating with Hagee just as I had written about McCain's involvement with the preacher. By embracing an anti-Semite, Wiesel appears not to have learned the lesson he has taught. I said that the last person Wiesel trusted as much as Hagee was Bernard Madoff. That was a joke, of course, something of a Jewish joke, and in the humorous comparison I was granting Wiesel foolish credulity in his involvement with Hagee.

The Nobel Prize winning writer Wiesel has based his work and lectures for decades on the premise that we must learn from the tragedy of the past, the lesson of the Holocaust, in order not to repeat it. Perhaps Wiesel is not unaware of Hagee's appalling theology in which the violent destruction of the Jews is essential to bring about the Second Coming; or perhaps he doesn't take it seriously and feels such nonsense should not get in the way of Hagee's financial and propaganda support for the settlement movement on the West Bank that is now at the heart of difficulty in the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Hagee's notorious "God sent Hitler" sermon

Michael Goldfarb, a former spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign who blogs at the neoconservative Weekly Standard, called the blogger panel "clownish." He reported on my remarks:"Elie Wiesel Mocked At J Street Conference." In his post, Goldfarb omitted the facts I introduced about Hagee's anti-Semitism. Once again, ideology demanded forgetting history.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for the Atlantic, also called the panel "clownish," attacking me for criticizing Wiesel. "Here's a tip," Goldberg wrote on his blog. "Criticizing public figures who survived the Holocaust is permissible, of course. But mocking them is disgraceful. It's also not going to win you too many Jewish friends." Goldberg also excommunicated me as one of the "anti-Zionists with Jewish parents."

Why is Wiesel palling around with Hagee? Why did I "mock" Wiesel? Both Goldfarb and Goldberg refused to address these questions and neglected to quote the facts I offered on Hagee. While Goldfarb assailed a J Street donor for controversial statements on Israel, they have never addressed Hagee's anti-Semitic rants. Goldberg has not addressed the issue of Hagee either. The two present their opinions conveniently without the facts.

But the absence of the facts from their blog posts does not allow them to evade the issue. Do they, like Wiesel and Oren, approve of Hagee? In defending Wiesel from criticism for his relationship with Hagee, they are also defending the relationship. Is this what they really mean to do? Then they must also disagree with John McCain's severing of his ties with Hagee. What is it about Hagee that Goldfarb and Goldberg find acceptable, as Wiesel and Oren find him acceptable? Unless, of course, they don't approve of Hagee or association with him at all, and were using criticism of those embracing him as a cudgel to beat up on J Street. Send in the clowns.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

 

 

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Comments

[sawdustinhershoes]

That Mr. Hagee is pure charlatan is lost on his followers. I don't understand how it is they don't see that fact.

Mr. Hagee is a man of hate. His behaviors and appearance show that he is guilty of several of the seven deadly sins. I wouldn't be surprised to find that he was guilty of less obvious of those sins, too.

Now, let's see those seven sins are,

Sloth - Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional apathy, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive. He looks slothful, but I believe he's emotionally actively greedy, so I don't know.
gluttony - Ahem.
greed - Ahem, again.
lust - In spite of his obvious "conservative" proclivities, he hasn't been outed yet on this one, so I'd say no.
envy - Can we just take this as a given?
wrath - Oh yeah! He'd like to rain all kinds of Hell all over this world so he and HIS chosen few can go to heaven.
pride - I'd say that anyone who professes to speak for Christ while subverting the teachings of Christ is pretty arrogant. I think arrogant people are prideful by definition.

Isn't there something about not taking the Lord's name in vain, too. Oh yeah, that's the 10 Comandments.

Anyway, I believe he's guilty of at least 5 of the seven deadly sins. With that record I don't know if I'd be calling down the "rapture." He might just get left behind.

[T Specter]

Elie Wiesel should be ashamed of himself.

[janeycat]

what i have never understood is the need that Hagee has for such LARGE HOMES ( plural ). Is it because he is Holier that everyone else.I'm sure the Millions he takes for personal income every month is necessary.
He has trained his son to be bigger than him and is going to give his son the church when he retires.
I have seen and heard his son sing,,,he is a very talented singer.

I dont want to go through the process of dieing either,not to be disrespectfull but why cant we all go in the rapture??

[sawdustinhershoes]

Personally, I want to be one of the left behind.

[fabricnthreads]

pompous, ignorant and totally unbelievab­le.......a­stounding that people follow the lunacy of these people.....

thank you, Max, for keeping us informed

[maori]

I guess I'm just cynical enough to consider one church, or religion as good as another.

[BruceHNV]

Yes, that would be the height of blind cynicism.

It is as if to say daddy long legs are the same thing as black widows,

[skialethia]

correction: Opportunistic and duplicitous...can be attributed to either/or of these.

[skialethia]

Opportunistic and duciplitous...can be attributed to either or of these.

[skialethia]

The saying: Birds of a feather flock together is one of the wisest, eye-opening methods of discerning a person's true character.

They deserve each other.

[raker]

What is the beef with Obama over Israel? First Lieberman, and now Wiesel. Since the Nightly News now does weather reports instead of news stories and our newspaper is composed of celebrity news and AP blurbs, we're not privy to these important political matters, but I'd like to know.

Whatever it is that motivates Weisel to join the so-called christian zionists, it must be big. These are the people embrace the Jews so there'll be someone to suffer and die when the x-ians are yoinked into heaven. They hate the Jews. So what's the real story.

[TommyMcCarthy]

Max Blumenthal's investigative pieces are always informative.

Unfortunately,I wish I had not been informed of Elie Wiesel's alliance with a purveyor of hate like Hagee. My whole life Mr. Wiesel has had my highest respect and admiration. It will take more than this Ill-advised appearance with Hagee to diminish that.

Just the same I am deeply saddened. It's like finding out Ghandi has been hanging out with theAryan Nation

tm

[Mij13]

"Ideology seems to demand forgetting history," and also ignoring the truth. This is very disappointing to learn about Wiesel, who, I agree, should know better than to embrace someone like Hagee. These people are not true friends of the Jews, and why so many refuse to see this is appalling.

[S1m0n]

Imagine the excitement if Ahmadinejad had uttered any one of Hagee's cited opinions.

[winningticket]

Elie Wiesel has no credibility with me.

[BruceHNV]

And we care who has credibility with you because...?

[Lou Bridges]

I used to support and donate to Mr. Wiesel years ago, until my mailbox started filling up with right-wing hate literature and solicitations.

[newsmaker]

you have tio remember that John Hagee along with Dr. James Dobson said that Bush was a man of God. Talk about considering the source.