By now, Pastor John Hagee has been revealed as a theological boor and John McCain has deftly, if belatedly, stepped away from the Hagee embrace he had earlier so assiduously sought and so gratefully welcomed.
“Boor” is a rough word, I know. So let Hagee speak for himself: “It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day. How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of antisemitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come…. it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people.”
What led to the McCain crisis was the discovery by Bruce Wilson and Talk to Action of a recording of a Hagee sermon from the late 1990s in which the pastor claims that the Holocaust was prophesied in the Bible:
How will God bring the Jews back to Israel? “The answer is given in Jeremiah 16, verse 15 and following. God says in Jeremiah 16: ‘Behold I will bring them the Jewish people again unto their land that I gave unto their fathers’ — that would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — ‘Behold I will send for many fishers and after will I send for many hunters.’ The fishers were the Zionists, men like Theodore Herzl who called for the Jews of Europe and the world to come to Palestine and establish the Jewish state. The Jews were encouraged to escape while there was still time.”
And the hunters? “A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and forces you. Hitler was a hunter. That will be offensive to some people. Well, dear heart, be offended: I didn’t write it. Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, ‘My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the Land of Israel.’”
So this self-proclaimed philosemite believes we brought all the centuries of persecution, culminating in the Holocaust, on ourselves. Or he believes that God created Hitler to inflict divine punishment upon us. That was the occasion for McCain’s “I am shocked, shocked” repudiation of Hagee’s endorsement.
End of story? Hardly. What happens to Hagee now?
Christians United for Israel, an organization founded by Hagee, is planning to hold its third annual “Washington-Israel Summit” toward the end of July. Among the currently scheduled speakers are not only Hagee and Gary Bauer, but also Daniel Pipes, former senator Rick Santorum, Charles Jacobs of the David Project, Dennis Prager, William Kristol, Senator Joe Lieberman and Sallai Meridor, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.
How many of these will now, in light of the new information about Hagee’s beliefs, cancel out? Or will they twist and turn to rationalize their continuing support for this false witness?
And: What if anything will the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where Hagee was just last year a featured speaker at its annual Washington conference, say about the pastor? Talk about rapture: The assembled Aipac delegates last year responded to Hagee’s provocative rhetoric with nine standing ovations, as if they’d been on the brink of starvation until he tossed them his red meat.
My favorite? Hagee: “It is 1938. Iran is Germany. And Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler.” Audience: Standing ovation. “It is 1938” as an applause line? Go figure.
And: For 26 years now, Hagee has been sponsoring, in cities across the country, an event entitled “A Night to Stand for Israel.” Between January 8, 2007, and May 15, 2008, there have been 39 such evenings, typically attended by more than 1,000 Evangelical Christians and almost always a few Jewish jingoes, usually including the local federation executive and a nonplussed rabbi.
Think of it: Phoenix and Philadelphia, Madison and Miami and Minneapolis, Toronto and Tulsa, Anchorage, Des Moines and Charlotte and 29 more. And at every one, a check handed over from Christians United for Israel to the local Jewish federation for one form or another of welfare work in Israel. What more than we now have before us is required in order for us to refuse this walk-on part in another’s noxious melodrama?
“Jewish jingoes?” you might ask. Jingo, according to the American Heritage Dictionary: “One who vociferously supports one’s country, especially one who supports a belligerent foreign policy.”
Hagee, at the opening Christians United for Israel conference in 2006: “The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West… a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation… and [the] Second Coming of Christ.”
For that matter, when will Israel stop rolling out the red carpet for Hagee and his followers? Other pastors have resigned their ministries in disgrace over lesser offenses — say, for example, for engaging the services of a male prostitute. Yet here is Hagee, busy making cheap whores out of as many Jews as he can snare — after all, we need all the friends we can get, right? — and so far, at least, only John McCain has pushed him away.
McCain’s Hagee problem has been resolved, even if there’s a sour aftertaste. Our Hagee problem has yet to be addressed, let alone resolved. For in addition to, and perhaps even prior to, “standing for Israel,” there is also, or ought to be, something called self-respect.
Oh yes: And when will his followers abandon him?
The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.
Copyright © 2013, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Why Do Jews Intermarry at a Much Higher Rate Than Others?
If Rabbis Are Allowed To Intermarry, Get Ready for the Non-Jewish Rabbi
Top 10 Badass Mah Jongg Jews
Auschwitz Museum 'May Not Reflect Real Facts' Says Hungarian Lawmaker
Move Over Florida, Charleston Is Hot Spot
You've successfully signed up!
Since when would a speaker cancelling an engagement because other speakers or those attending or in fact those who organized the event were not in lock step with their thinking. Are you in fact saying that IF they do speak there, they will no longer be a legitimate voice for Israel? Why do you give us these silly examples comparing Barak Obama's twenty plus year personal relationship with his radical pastor the same weight as a champion for Israel speaking at an event? The question is, will the speakers use their voice for the good of Israel? Now explain again why that would be a bad thing?
Sorry, J streets support of Israel is conditional. The approach of J street is the tough love approach of Fein, Carter, Walt, Mearsheimer, and Finkelstein. I trust Hagee more than Soros
I have studied Hagee’s sermons and writings as well as those of other apocalyptic Christian Zionist (dispensationalist) for many years and have a strong background in fundamentalist Protestant theology. It is difficult for me to believe that any Jewish leader would stand with Hagee if he/she knew what was in those writings. Just a small sampling would include: teaching that Hillel instigated the attacks on Jesus; anti-Jewish Federal Reserve conspiracy theory; a narrative of a future New World Order that sounds like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and more. Hagee’s video, “Vanished,” features a series of images that evoke Kristallnacht except in his holocaust the “left behind” Jews, Catholics, and nonbelievers are attacking the newly “born again” Christians of the Tribulation. In his Kristallnacht it is the churches that are burning and New Testaments thrown in the bonfires. You can imagine the effect this imagery has on children that are being raised to believe that their brand of Christianity is being persecuted by liberal Jews. While wrapped in Israeli flags and supported by shortsighted Jewish leaders, dispensational preachers feel they have the license to openly attack and denigrate Judaism and Jews who are not cooperating in the apocalyptic timeline in an way that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. They feel invulnerable because of their “pro-Israel” status. They have created an environment where it is socially acceptable in much of the country to openly attack the “bad Jews” who are not cooperating with their apocalyptic timeline as the source of moral degeneration in America and as the obstacle to their vision of a utopian Christian millennial.
Strong words, and much needed. Unfortunately, too few "Jewish Leaders" are willing to hear them, let alone offer their own.
Yes, we lovely left wingers should absolutely hold Hagee in great disdain; he supports Israel, he supports Jews, he give dollars to Israel - how dare he! Where are Finkelstein and Chomsky when we need them?
Thank you for the thoughtful comments. I have long felt that the connection between American Judaism and the so-called "Cbristian Zionists" has been a slippery slope that in the long run will be harmful to Israel and the Jewish community.
Lynn, Generally speaking, AIPAC (and its vocal hangers-on, like Bill Kristol and Daniel Pipes) are in no way "a legitimate voice for Israel". They are American Jews, with a uniquely hawkish, left-oriented political philosophy steeped in Trotskyite rhetoric about "exporting eternal revolution". They are in many way completely detached from the true sentiments of the average people of both Israel and the United States, who in the main would like to see peace in the Middle East. The neoconservatives, Likudniks, and dispensationalist Christian zionists are all warmongering lunatics. The neocons wrap themselves in secular leftist ideology and make an unholy alliance with the Christian zionists, who seem to have forgotten Christ's own words, "Blessed are the peacemakers. These people are ultimately a danger to both the US and Israel, and their twisted, hate-filled, and belligerent ideas do as much to stir up anti-semitism as anything else today. Right-thinking Jews concerned about the future of Israel would do well to distance themselves from the hateful ideology of these deranged people.
If anyone near understood anything about how Hashem runs the world, then they'd see that Hagee's words, although poorly chosen, are just his way of saying "everything in the world happens for a purpose". We, as Jews, also believe that, although we certainly wouldn't have used his "hunter" analogy. But what everyone here is forgetting is that he's been a long standing friend of Israels, something in very short supply in this world.
Since when would a speaker cancelling an engagement because other speakers or those attending or in fact those who organized the event were not in lock step with their thinking. Are you in fact saying that IF they do speak there, they will no longer be a legitimate voice for Israel? Why do you give us these silly examples comparing Barak Obama's twenty plus year personal relationship with his radical pastor the same weight as a champion for Israel speaking at an event? The question is, will the speakers use their voice for the good of Israel? Now explain again why that would be a bad thing?
The simple fact of history is that G-d sent His Son Jesus to die as a sacrifice for all sin for all time (Isaiah 53). Thus the Yom Kippur sacrifices ended, no longer effective or necessary. The rejection of Jesus by the Hebrew leadership of his day led to the destruction of 1.1 million Jews in 70 c.e. Jesus said He would not return until the Hebrew leadership cries out for Him to do so (still future, obviously). World leaders such as Hitler, Achmanijad and the coming "antichrist" are not from G-d but Satan whose objective is to kill all the Jews so that none are left to cry out for Messiah. Of course that plan will fail; Jesus will return and "all Israel shall be saved". Meanwhile, as there is no salvation except through Jesus as the New Testament teaches, it is the job of the Church to bring the Gospel message to Jews. As long as pastor Hagee does not actively proselytize Jews, his "love of Israel" results in few if any Jews coming into G-d's Kingdom.
1/ To put it simply, those who support Hagee support Israel, and those who oppose him don't. The Bible repeatedly blames the Isrealites/Jews whenever something bad happens to them, so Hagee is in good Jewish religious company. Remember what the chief Sephardic rabbi recently said about the Holocaust? So what Hagee said is mild and not out of line with modern Jewish religious thought as well. 2/ The only good thing about the emergence of Soros' 'J Street' and its negligible support is that it shows that all the talk about how AIPAC is unrepresentative of pro-Israel Jews is nonsense. Not even Fein in this article mentions it.
As a secular Jew and a staunch supporter of Israel, I am appaled at many Forward's readers reaction to Hagee's interpretation of our people's travails throughout our tortured history. I've come to the conclusion that many of your readers don't just undertand Christian religion. Their knowledge of their own religious heritage leaves a lot to be desired. It's their own alienation from anything Jewish that makes them uncomfortable with Christian Zionists, because it's those people that put too many secular Jews' devotion to Israel to shame. I cringe every time I hear secular Jews refer to those not of their orientation and a rather tepid connection to Israel as "warmongers." In a world hostile to Israel and all of our old "progressive" friends making nice with the old and new anti-Semites, I'll take Hagee's professions of friendship and support anytime over all those kaffiyah-wrapped all-too many Jews among them "intellectuals."
I will post here what I had written on Dr. Daniel Pipes forum... Thank you, Dr. Pipes, for speaking at the Christians United for Israel Third Annual Washington-Israel Summit in July 2008. * Recently, thousands came to the Canadian Christian College to hear Caroline Glick speak about what she sees as the two main existential threats to Israel: Islamic jihad and moral relativism in the West. Caroline expressed her gratitude to the Canadian Christian clergy and dignitaries who support Israel wholeheartedly and said… “We need to feel we’re not alone. We have to be brothers in our struggle for humanity, but tomorrow we’ll be brothers in peace.” She gave the example of Moses when he became exhausted after holding his heavy staff above his head for hours. Aaron and Hur came, “one on one side and one on the other” to steady his hands and with their support, Moses became strong again. Pastor John Hagee and all Christians United for Israel, thank you for giving strength to Israel. ------- Why would Israel turn their back on true friends? What support have YOU given to Israel, a country that stands at the frontlines of Global Jihad?
About Pastor John Hagee sermons and beliefs... If he is right and Jesus returns, then Jews and Christians will talk about it. About Mahoud Ahmadinejad...and many many other Islamist Well, he's quite clear about what they want to do...and will most likely do it if Jews turn their backs on friends. Israel cannot afford to stand alone, therefore we must keep united and be grateful for the few friends we have.
"My enemy's enemy is my friend" is not only an Arab half-truth, and too many Jews have made themselves ridiculous by allying themselves with chiselling, clownish charlatans such as Hagee. However, Christian Zionism, social conservatism and the like are of declining importance in US electoral politics. Still less will they have salience in an election year when most Americans-- even the rubes and boobs who keep Hagee's kind rich-- are more worried about their house, their job and their credit card bills than being "left behind" when Armageddon kicks off. John McCain's natural appeal is to disaffected Democrats, independents and moderates in the GOP. He is pretty irreligious, and though he screws for the secular-Zionist dollar as hard as any candidate in a party whose base dislikes you would do, he's no Bible-thumper.
There is no difference between Hagee's view and Orthodox Rabbis' view, so what's the big deal
Since when would a speaker cancelling an engagement because other speakers or those attending or in fact those who organized the event were not in lock step with their thinking. Are you in fact saying that IF they do speak there, they will no longer be a legitimate voice for Israel? Why do you give us these silly examples comparing Barak Obama's twenty plus year personal relationship with his radical pastor the same weight as a champion for Israel speaking at an event? The question is, will the speakers use their voice for the good of Israel? Now explain again why that would be a bad thing?
What exactly do these effete Jewish (they say they're Jewish)progressives stand for? They scoff at the religious expression of both Christian and Jews. They want to accommodate the Jihaddists by supporting those who'll push Israel into submission and see themselves as Jews because their grandfather spoke Yiddish (they don't) and belonged to the Workmen's Circle (they don't.) It seems their religion is a committment to "Gay" marriages and a devotion to the Democratic party. Is this all there is?
For those who know how to access TV archives, there`s a real Hagee gem waiting to be found in a Hagee broadcast sometime in the 1990s, which I caught on a cable replay in Montreal. As he lyrically praised Israel while striding around his opulent church, the good pastor held the end of a talit (ritual prayer shawl)which trailed along the ground. Amazed, I phoned the Toronto distributors who assured that the segment would never be televised again. It was shown again a few months later.
I am a strong Jewish support of both Haggee and Pat Robertson. Who do the liberal Jews think are Israel's only friends in this hostile world anyway? And if they are Israel's friends only because they believe God commanded them to be such, or because they believe the Messiah will be Jesus, that's okay with me too. My mother was saved during WWII by TRUE Polish Christians, who were prepared to lay down their lives to do so. And some of my best friends in Israel when I lived there were Christian missionaries. These former boshevik Jews who think that they are going to find other friends on the Gentile Left are still living with their dystopian delusions. Will they ever wake up?
My mother was saved by TRUE Polish Christians, who risked and were prepared to risk and even lay down their lives in doing so. My best friends while I lived in Israel, were Christian missionaries, are still living there raising their children and love the country more than most Jews ever will. I'll support Hagee and Pat Robertson over the Chomskys and Finkelsteins and the others whose grandmommies were commies any day.
My mother was saved by TRUE Polish Christians, who risked and were prepared to risk and even lay down their lives in doing so. My best friends while I lived in Israel, were Christian missionaries, are still living there raising their children and love the country more than most Jews ever will. I'll support Hagee and Pat Robertson over the Chomskys and Finkelsteins and the others whose grandmommies were commies any day.
Boy Leonard, this pastor must have really gotten your goat by citing the Torah and it's commandments all of which believe it or not demand that Jews actually act like, well, Jews. And then this Christian had the nerve to actually claim, just like the Torah itself claims, that when Jews don't behave Jewishly, you know, believe in the one God and not follow other gods, keep the Shabbat, follow the commandments regarding charity, justice, and sexual decency as well as the ones regarding personal and ritual purity, like kosher food, dressing decently, etc, that this One God will punish His chosen People. All of this is written in our Torah, and indeed, our God has apparently carried out some pretty horrific punishments, including the mass slaughter of thousands of His People for something as simple as disobeying the various commandments concerning sexual impurity or incorrect rituals. It seems to me that the Christian Pastor Hagee knows more about Torah Judaism than you and probably most of your readers do and that is what really enrages you. Indeed, all of what this pastor has said and more, has been said before, and in far more extreme and angry ways by most of our Rabbis. So Leonard, before you start ranting again about some Christian reading you the Torah, and who supports Israel, why don't you read a little Torah yourself?
Leonard Fein is on-point as usual. And after reading the article, and the ensuing comments, I finally have an answer for both the extreme left and the extreme right, who beat their chests and howl about "persecution" and "censorship" whenever one of us dares to call them anti-Semitic. How do you spot an anti-Semite? Criticism of Israel? No, of course not. Criticism of Israel is many times warranted, and everyone's entitled to have a say about what goes on in other countries, including Israel, regardless if you agree with the opinions or not. How do you spot an anti-Semite? Criticism of individual Jews? Absolutely not. Jews aren't perfect, and there are plenty of knuckleheads and jackasses in the Tribe who I'm pretty ashamed to count as my religious and ethnic brethren. SO how DO you identify an anti-Semite? By those arrogant enough to lump all Jews into two ridiculous categories: "Good" and "Bad." How dare Hagee declare himself the arbiter of what is a "good Jew" or a "bad Jew." Or any Christian, for that matter. Or the NK bastards who are so virulently anti-Israel they're willing to sell out their own flesh and blood in the process? They're no better than those on the far left who try to squirm out of the anti-Semite label by claiming, "Well, I have no problem with the GOOD Jews." How's about this. You let me worry about being a good Jew and you work on your own myriad shortcomings as a human being. Anyone with a modicum of Jewish knowledge knows that we're ALL imperfect and our job in life is to perfect OURSELVES. (This should come as a resounding "DUH" to most folks.) But regardless of your religious affiliation/race/ethnicity, when you start talking this "good Jew/bad Jew" crap rest assured, you have Hitler's stench all over you.
I learned from the Talmud that it is one’s actions that count . Even the most rabid bashers of John Hagee admit that he is a strong supporter of Israel and Jewish people all over the world. If we believe in the Talmud‘s teaching of what counts, we should be grateful for what John Hagee has done consistently for many years. If we do not believe in this teaching of the Talmud, we should be still grateful for his unconditional support for us. In spite of decades of abuse by Jewish leaders he still continues to support Jews and Israel. In his place I would have given up long ago. So why is there so much animosity against him? It is POLITICAL. Pastor John Hagee is not a leftist. The majority of American Jews are leftists. They can have Jimmy Carter as their friend. I welcome John Hagee as my friend.
I keep looking around for the true friends of Israel. Where are they? The ones that are demonizing Joe Lieberman, at first because of his stand on Iraq, but now more openly because he is pro-Israel? The Democratic party? Maybe they are in Europe? Israel is becoming more and more isolated not because of it's policies, but because anti-Semitism is gaining ground. The Lieberman example is telling. By stigmatizing Lieberman with the canard that he is for Israel first, it reinforces the old libel that ALL Jews by extension are not loyal to their country and cant be trusted. That a US Senator could be smeared this way day in and day out and have his colleagues sit silently is a terrible thing. I already hear the same accusations being thrown at Sen. Feinstein. Coincidence? I can argue about the sense and sensibility of the appropriateness of Rev. Hagee when I see that the American press reacts with the same outrage when slanders are thrown at patriots like Joe Lieberman then I can take some time to critque Rev. Hagee's theology. In the meantime, he must be looked upon as a welcome friend of Israel.
John Hagee's comments anti semitic??? Then Moses must be much more anti-semetic, Read Deuteronomy 28.
It's dispiriting that Mr. Fein doesn't rail equally against Jeremiah Wright (and the Democratic presidential candidate [and his wife] who chose to join- and remain in his church for 20 years).
To Leonard Fein, With as few friends in the world as Isreal has, it needs every friend, ally and non-enemy it can get, NO MATTER how nutty, whacky or kooky. Criteria: Is he against izlam? YES. Is he for Israel's survival? YES. End of story.
Ouch! Your POV is certainly clear. You distrust Christians. Could you be more vitriolic if Hagee were an SS guard? Most of us Christians love Jewish people! Please note the outrageous excitement among the Body of Believers for Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a fellow you might appreciate. www.youneedarabbi.com. He teaches us from the depth of the Torah. He is also a Physics, Mathematician and Economic scholar. How does the passion of us stupid Christians for this lovely man (brother) fit into your mold? He appears regularly on Hagee's show, and agrees with him about the Holocaust! God didn't send the holocaust (even that Bible quotation of Hagees is much too vague to support that notion) but God allowed it. If God is and is omnipresent and all powerful then he allowed the holocaust. The question was not where was God - the question was "Where were the Christians? Where was the USA?" We have the numbers, we have the power. If we Christians ever let happen to the Jews again what happened in Germany, God will take the Christians and the USA to the woodshed (we will be lost!!)- of what value are we to God if we won't stand up to defend our older brothers in the faith? Jews are hard for Christians to hug! Every encounter I have ever had with Jews has brought me exponential blessings. In fact, I might go so far as to say they have saved my sanity, many times (and I can name names) and that is not just Jesus. Returning the favor has been much more difficult! You Jewish people seem much more comfortable excusing people for hating you that you are accepting that some people are just over the moon in love with you ... and the God that created you. Our Jewish business partner almost puts up garlic and a cross when I want to discuss the subject. Finally, when I bugged him enough he said, "I am not even sure I believe in God!" From inside came pouring forth a reponse I didn't even know that I thought. "I don't care if you believe in God ... God believes in YOU!" I might say the same thing about the Jewish response to the Christian embrace - "We don't care if you like us - we love you!" And it is not going to change. We, the much malined and rediculed Charismatic / Fundamental Christians are 130 million strong in the US and are also People of the Book. We have access to God through our belief in the salvation through Jesus (our first Jewis Rabbi) - You have your access to God by circumcision through Abraham. We are going to support Israel. Most of us are more loyal to Israel than we are to the USA. God can get another nation to support Israel if the USA defects, just like he dumped England in 1948, and replace them as a world power with the USA but he will never get another Israel. Regarding the Second Coming - we Christians and Jewish both rejoice in the belief of the coming Messiah - You have prayed for the Messiah to establish the reigh of peace and justice on earth for 4000 years. We have prayed the same prayer for 2000. As one Christian said, "The only difference between the two of us is that a Rabbi and Pastor will be walking down the street arm and arm, and the Messiah will be walking toward them. When they finally can make out his face, one of the two of them is going to be embarrassed." The delightful mystery is, which one? You can hate us bible thumpin', ignorant, pentacostal / charismatic / fundamental Christians all you want, but we will always love you. Maybe you want to put your fine mind to consider how to deal with 130 million Chrisians intent on giving 6 million a hug! LOL, Love and Blessings, Susan Browne
Christian Zionists are repenting for their idolatry. There is a line from Jesus to Hitler. Agnostic Jews who wage class warfare are as bad as the corrupt Levites when the Temple was destroyed to usher in the very hatred Fein condemns. When rich Jews say it is not about the $$$ - it is about law manipulated to enrich the relative few. Torah emet.
I think instead of worrying about Mr.Hagee;right about now the Jews/Israelis should be worried about obama who is coming against the New Israeli government Bibi and FM Lieberman. Mr.Hagee it seems will prove to be more of a friend to Israel than Barack Hussein Obama who is interested in Israel for one reason:their PIECE/land Inheritance and giving it to Israel's sworn enemies!I think Israelis are fixing to find out the hard way that Barack Hussein Obama is not all that most Israelis thought he was cracked up to be!