What Does AIPAC, Joe Lieberman and Abe Foxman Do About Hagee Now
Now that John McCain has been forced to admit that Hagee is an anti-Semite and reject his endorsement, there should be some reckoning for those Jews who have trumpeted him as a friend of Israel and the Jewish people.
At an Christians United For Israel event where Hagee was speaking, Joe Lieberman described him as “An Ish Elohim. A man of God..Like Moses.” Abe Foxman has said that Hagee deserves to be heard and recognized by pro Israel types “because of his support of Israel. And AIPAC has repeatedly had Hagee speak at events and be something of an officially sanctioned advocate for Israel. So why were these two prominent Jews, and the most prominent Jewish political organization, supporting a conspiratorial, pseudo-Holocaust denying anti-Semite? That’s because short-term and unquestioning support for a hardline stance on Israel has replaced any substantive committment to Jewish values or more enlightened support for Israel as a mark of true Jewishness in the mind of Lieberman, Foxman and AIPAC. But because of McCain’s denouncing, the jig, fortunately, is up (or at least it should be).
And while AIPAC, Foxman and Lieberman may denounce Hagee now (despite his anti-Semitic ravings having been widely known for years), their dalliance with him just shows how morally and intellectually bankrupt the “pro-Israel” project is.
This is probably as good a time as any to implore everyone (especially Jews) to sign up for J Street’s email list. They did a great job of trumpeting the Hagee-Holocaust story and definitely helped raise its profile among Jews.
