ABE FOXMAN: BIGOTRY IS FINE BY ME
Israel e News
July 14 2008
Israel
Professional genocide denier Abraham Foxman weighs in on John McCain’s
embrace of a white Louis Farrakhan, the anti-gay, anti-Jewish,
anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim evangelist for nuclear war John Hagee:
Hagee’s endorsement "is not a Jewish issue," Foxman told the
Forward. "Are we troubled by Hagee’s support of McCain and McCain’s
acceptance? The answer is no, and that’s where it ends for us."
The difference "between Farrakhan and Hagee is self-evident," Foxman
said. "So to compare the two and to say: ‘Well, if you ask Obama
to distance from Farrakhan — well, Farrakhan is a black racist, an
antisemite, anti-Israel, consorts with America’s enemies. Hagee is a
supporter of Israel, an advocate of Israel, opposed to antisemitism,
and there are issues on which members of the Jewish community and
some organizations disagree with, and so from time to time they or
we have indicated our disagreement, but it’s not of the same nature
or category or being."
Abe Foxman: "Why should I worry about religious defamation?"
So Foxman’s recent losing confrontations with reality haven’t humbled
him at all.Hagee is a supporter of Israel only in the sense that he
supports the launch of an aggressive Israeli war, which he devoutly
hopes and believes will result in the destruction of Israel beneath
a mushroom cloud; he further hopes that, among the contretemps
of Israel’s extirpation will be your death, and mine, and that of
virtually everyone else in America. Such "support" for Israel is rather
easy to combine with virulent antisemitism, so it is no surprise that
Hagee endorses one of the great historical tropes of antisemitism,
namely, that Jews have brought persecution upon themselves by refusing
to worship Jesus.
But never mind the facts, and suppose for the sake of argument
that Hagee really is a pro-Israel philosemite. Hagee’s bigotry is
"not a Jewish issue…and that’s where it ends" for Foxman. Good to
know that the president of the Anti-Defamation League is an overpaid
chauvinist who actually couldn’t care less about religious or racial
defamation. Which raises an important question: Did Foxman flack
for the Turkish government’s efforts to deny the Ottoman genocide
of Armenians out of some warped political calculus, or because he
thinks the Turkish position is right on the merits? Or is there no
difference between the two positions for Foxman?
Louis Sigel, the rabbi emeritus of my synagogue, died in 2005. The New
York Times profile of Rabbi Sigelnoted his role in motivating Teaneck,
NJ to be the first town to integrate its schools voluntarily:
A law professor who was a member of Temple Emeth stood and asked why
the whole community had to be "disturbed" by a problem that he said
black residents had created themselves by moving into one end of town.
"The temple’s rabbi, Louis J. Sigel, rose," Mr. Damerell wrote. "His
rich voice carried throughout the auditorium" as he narrated a story
from the Talmud about a man who sees a fire in another part of town
and asks, "What have I to do with the needs of the community?"
"Sigel’s voice rose in emphasis, ‘Such a man destroys the
world!’" Mr. Damerell wrote. "Applause exploded through the
auditorium."
Fortunately, all Foxman has managed to destroy so far is the ADL’s
credibility.
The opinions and views articulated by the author do not necessarily
reflect those of Israel e News.