Friday, January 06, 2006

From the “I can’t make this shit up” file:

WASHINGTON – The TV evangelist Pat Robertson and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may not agree on much, but both suggested Thursday that the severe illness of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was deserved.

Speaking on his Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club,” which says it has 1 million viewers, Robertson said God was punishing Sharon for dividing the land of Israel. Sharon, who engineered Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip last year, suffered a massive stroke Wednesday.

“Sharon was personally a very likable person, and I am sad to see him in this condition, but I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who ‘divide my land,’ ” Robertson said.
Sharon “was dividing God’s land, and I would say: Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU (European Union), the United Nations or the United States of America,” the 75-year-old Baptist minister said.

Robertson, who ran for president in 1988, has a history of controversial statements. In August, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, then denied the remark and, a day later, apologized for it.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said Robertson’s latest comments violated “simple human decency” and were “profoundly offensive.” Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it is “outrageous and shocking, but not surprising, that Pat Robertson once again has suggested that God will punish Israel’s leaders for any decision to give up land to the Palestinians. His remarks are un-Christian and a perversion of religion.”

Ahmadinejad, elected in June, previously made headlines by calling the Holocaust a myth. “Hopefully, the news that the criminal of Sabra and Chatilla has joined his ancestors is final,” he was quoted by the Iranian press as saying Thursday. An Israeli commission found Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre of Palestinians by Christian Phalangist soldiers during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Ahmadinejad’s remarks “hateful and disgusting.” He was not asked about Robertson’s remarks, which were not widely known at the time of his briefing for reporters.



He is a Fucking Grade a Nut Job:

JQP