As noted last October, South Carolina's senior U.S. Senator, Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, is getting loonier and more embarrassing to the state as he edges closer to retirement. Now he's trying to deny that vituperative comments he published recently are anti-Semitic.
In the face of charges of anti-Semitism, U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings on Tuesday defended a newspaper column he wrote alleging President Bush went to war in Iraq to defend Israel and please American Jews.Hollings declined a request for an interview Tuesday, but he released a letter defending his comments and calling “ridiculous” any criticism of them as anti-Semitic.
One S.C. Jewish leader was “horrified” by Hollings’ writings. The nation’s most prominent Jewish civil rights organization called on Hollings to renounce his charges.
“The whole foreign policy of the United States is based on Israel? What kind of ridiculous statement is that?” said Rabbi Philip Silverstein of Columbia’s Beth Shalom synagogue. “It makes him anti-Israel. It’s anti-Semitic ... it’s dangerous.”
Throughout his 38-year Senate career, Hollings, a Charleston Democrat, has apologized for remarks that have been decried as callous toward Jews, blacks, Japanese and other groups.
Judge for yourself, via the senator's own website:
Of course there were no weapons of mass destruction. Israel's intelligence, Mossad, knows what's going on in Iraq. They are the best. They have to know.Israel's survival depends on knowing. Israel long since would have taken us to the weapons of mass destruction if there were any or if they had been removed. With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country? The answer: President Bush's policy to secure Israel.
Led by [Paul] Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer, for years there has been a domino school of thought that the way to guarantee Israel's security is to spread democracy in the area.
Every president since 1947 has made a futile attempt to help Israel negotiate peace. But no leadership has surfaced amongst the Palestinians that can make a binding agreement. President Bush realized his chances at negotiation were no better. He came to office imbued with one thought -- re-election. Bush felt tax cuts would hold his crowd together and spreading democracy in the Mideast to secure Israel would take the Jewish vote from the Democrats.
Note how easily and recklessly the distinguished senator smears not only his nation's President, but Jews in both Israel and America as well. He even entered this statement in the Congressional Record. Hollings and his incontinent mouth cannot retire soon enough.
Posted by Alan at May 19, 2004 09:38 PM