The Anti-Defamation League has long been a pro-Israel (as in pro-Likud) group disguised as a human rights organization. Never has this been more clear than last week when ADL president Abe Foxman refused to condemn Pastor John Hagee because he's an "advocate of Israel."
But that's not the only reason Abe abides Hagee. You see, unlike Louis Farrakhan--whom some conservative Jews are trying to tie to Barack Obama--he's not black:
The difference “between Farrakhan and Hagee is self-evident. 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.
It's one thing to be a bigot, but a black bigot: yikes!
Dishonest Abe chooses to ignore Hagee's hatred of Catholics and Muslims. Of course, the ADL will forgive anyone anyone as long that person is a superhawk on Israel, and there's no greater hawk on Israel than Hagee, who has courted conservative Jews since "converting" to Zionism in 1978.
He formed Christians United for Israel, which seeks to deepen Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Although Hagee believes in the Rapture, he found a loophole that would allow Jews to avoid eternal damnation. Fear not, Jewish brothers and sisters, Hagee is kind enough to grandfather you into Heaven.
[Hagee] cuts Jews in on Christian salvation. His theology includes a loophole for Jews, or to borrow a phrase from Liberation Theology, "a preferential option" for the Jews. Unlike his dispensationalist brethren, Hagee allows that Jews can be saved from eternal damnation because they're covered by the First Covenant between God and his people. The get into Heaven by what might be called a grandfather clause.
This grandfather clause, plus Hagee's fanatical hawkishness on Israel, leads Foxman to overlook his bigotry. Other Jewish leaders aren't so easily purchased. In response to Hagee's appearance in front of AIPAC, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, of the Union for Reform Judaism, worried about the message it would send young Jews:
And so whom do we offer to these young people as a spokesman for Israel? John Hagee, who is contemptuous of Muslims, dismissive of gays, possesses a triumphalist theology and opposes a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. If our intention was to distance our young adults from the Jewish state, we could not have made a better choice.
Even worse, a primary motive here seems to be that we see Hagee and his Christians United for Israel as a source of dollars for federation coffers. The pattern has been that in return for federation sponsorship of dinners hosted by the lobbying group, contributions are made by Christians United for Israel to our federation fundraising campaigns. The conclusion that our young people are most likely to draw from this arrangement is that we are simply selling our souls.
Oh, yeah. As usual, I buried the lead: Hagee gives AIPAC and other conservative Jewish groups lots and lots of money. So in exchange for the money, Foxman will righteously denounce any comparison of Hagee to a "black racist" like Farrakhan, who, we can assume, has never given any money to AIPAC.
Selling their souls, indeed.