SMRs and AMRs

Friday, May 23, 2008

Does Lieberman Still See Hagee As Moses Incarnate?

posted by Max Blumenthal on 05/23/2008
from The Nation

During a press conference at the 2007 Christians United for Israel Washington-Israel Summit, I asked CUFI Executive Director Pastor John Hagee about passages in his book "Jerusalem Countdown" in which he appeared to blame Jews for their own persecution. Hagee was visibly piqued by my question, insisting that his statements were directly inspired by the Book of Deuteronomy. When I attempted to ask Hagee a follow-up question, a public relations agent, Alison Silverman, the former assistant communications director for AIPAC, cut me off.

Moments later, a team of off-duty DC police officers hired by CUFI surrounded my co-producer and I and demanded that we immediately leave the conference, threatening us with arrest if refused to comply. You can view my exchange with Hagee and the ensuing fracas at 7:45 of my video report on CUFI's summit, "Rapture Ready:"

For nearly two years, a handful of independent journalists and I have raised the alarm about Hagee's long record of anti-Semitic statements. Until now, our reporting has been largely ignored by the mainstream press and the politicians who have clamored for Hagee's support. The supposedly "pro-Israel" groups that have joined with Hagee in support of Israeli military aggression, providing him with much-needed moral cover in the process, have also turned a blind eye to the pastor's Judeophobic tendencies.

Michelle Goldberg was, as far as I know, the first journalist to point out Hagee's Holocaust apologia, exposing his now-infamous "Hitler was a hunter" statement in a piece for the Huffington Post in November 2006. When AIPAC invited Hagee to headline its annual conference in March 2007, I noted Hagee's repugnant views on the Holocaust and his record of anti-Semitic remarks in a Huffington Post article entitled, "AIPAC Cheers an Anti-Semitic Holocaust Revisionist (and Abe Foxman Approves)."

(Continued here, with video.)

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