Many in the pro-Israel community have been disturbed by the Israel lobby's embrace of Pastor John Hagee's "Christians United For Israel." Hagee, who "supports" Israel in order to hasten the rapture, actually keynoted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington in 2007 where he received repeated standing ovations. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) even likened Hagee to Moses!
But now Hagee is demonstrating that, even if he is as pro-Israel as he claims to be (doubtful because his support is entirely limited to the Israeli fundamentalist right), he is no friend of Jews.
This shouldn't be a surprise. After all, in 2008, Presidential candidate John McCain repudiated Hagee's endorsement after Hagee said, that "Hitler was fulfilling God's will, to return the Jews to the land of Israel according to the biblical prophecy." He also claimed that Hitler himself was of Jewish heritage.
This weekend, a right-wing hate organization in Israel, Im Tirtzu -- funded by Hagee to the tune of $100,000 -- has launched a campaign against Israeli progressives. Specifically, it attacked New Israel Fund President and former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Naomi Chazan, employing anti-Semitic stereotypes.
According to J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace organization, Im Tirtzu is attacking NIF and Chazan "in a style reminiscent of propaganda from the darkest days of recent Jewish experience, depicting Chazan with a horn on her head...." It is calling for investigations of Chazan and other progressive and centrist Israelis.
Today Im Tirtzu members demonstrated outside a conference in Tel Aviv, where Defense Minister Barak was speaking. They displayed a mock prison in which cut outs of Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other Israeli leaders were displayed in prison stripes.
Is it possible to be pro-Israel and anti-Semitic?
Recent statements by Hagee -- and Rush Limbaugh -- raise the question. Two weeks ago Rush Limbaugh conflated Jews with bankers and Wall Street -- a classic anti-Jewish canard -- and was defended with the claim that he can't be anti-Semitic because he supports Israel. Hagee, the supposed champion of Israel, rants that all Jews must be gathered in Israel, and then -- for the most part -- destroyed, as a prelude to the rapture.
However, by supporting Im Tirzu, Hagee moves from rantings based on his theology to the support of ugly actions. Im Tirzu is an organization dedicated to targeting and vilifying Israeli progressives with the goal of purging them from public life.
And he's having an effect. The Knesset has announced that in response to Im Tirzu it will investigate New Israel Fund grantees and other progressive groups to determine if their work accords with the Israeli national interest, as seen by the right. This is a page right out of Joe McCarthy's handbook.
As the saying goes, with friends like Hagee...