THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 24, 1995 TAG: 9504220009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By PAT ROBERTSON
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
During the summer before the 1994 congressional elections, as I was watching a CNN program, to my amazement a program guest who happened to be a paid media consultant for the Democratic Party turned to the camera and with a straight face delivered a well-rehearsed line: ``Pat Robertson is an anti-Semite.''
This signaled the beginning of a campaign. Within three days of that broadcast, several left-wing media organs went into high gear in a frantic attempt to discredit the efforts of the mainstream agenda of the Christian Coalition prior to the coming congressional elections.
Unfortunately a lie - even one that blatant - can take on a life of its own, particularly if it becomes part of a larger effort to blunt the extraordinarily effective grass-roots lobbying of the Christian Coalition in support of family tax relief, tort reform, a balanced budget, and the rollback of the intrusive and wasteful Washington bureaucracy begun 30 years ago under Lyndon Johnson.
Now as we stand on the threshold of the second 100 days of the new Congress and on the verge of the 1996 presidential campaign, the war drums of the left are beating again.
Our nation faces significant social pathologies that government is incapable of solving. These problems are difficult enough to face among people of good will. They are impossible to face among people of ill will who impugn motives and assassinate character. My imperative and the imperative of the Christian and Jewish communities is to create a culture of civility and mutual respect. Hillet wrote, ``What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.'' Nearly 2,000 years later, these words must still be our guide.
My associate, Ralph Reed, appeared last week before the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, as I did 10 years earlier, to assure the Jewish people of America of the love, support and understanding of America's evangelical Christians. Mr. Reed's eloquent address reflected not only my oft-spoken words, but my deeds demonstrated repeatedly and consistently in the United States and in Israel over the past 35 years.
On Christmas Day 1974, at the height of the Arab oil embargo, I interviewed then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in his office in Jerusalem. That night, while looking out on the Temple Mount, I thought of this tiny nation so isolated and vulnerable. Then I vowed to God that whatever happened, however unpopular the task, I and the organizations I controlled would stand with Israel and the Jewish people.
I have kept that vow. In the mid-1970s, I publicly denounced the United Nations resolution equating Zionism with racism. I have personally lobbied the governments of the U.S. and Britain against the introduction of high-performance armaments in the Middle East against Israel. The Christian Broadcasting Network has contributed generously to the United Jewish Appeal. Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, we have also provided financial support for Operation Exodus, a resettlement effort of Russian Jews. For eight years, our affiliate humanitarian organization, Operation Blessing, has sent scores of Jewish children on Aliyah to learn about Jewish culture in Israel.
In 1982, CBN began a television station broadcasting in English and Arabic from Southern Lebanon. The signal reaches five countries, including Israel, in the Middle East. Our staff lives in Metulla and Qiryat Shemona in Northern Israel. Our staff faces death every day alongside our friends in the Israel Defense Force. Our studio has been car bombed twice by terrorists. Our transmitter was struck by Katusha rockets fired by Syrian terrorists. Our microwave link to Beirut was destroyed by mortar fire. Recently, our broadcasting complex in Marjayoun, Southern Lebanon, came under the same shelling that has been raining down upon the Israeli army, which has suffered 60 casualties in that area this year. We don't just report about Middle East violence; we live it.
I realize, however, that being pro-Israel does not necessarily equate to being pro-Jewish. Here in the Unites States, I have repudiated anti-Semitism repeatedly in the strongest of terms.
On my daily television program, I held up a copy of ``Spotlight'' and denounced the anti-Semitism of the Liberty Lobby and other Holocaust deniers. On national television prior to the 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election, I rejected the candidacy of former neo-Nazi and clansman David Duke with these words: ``It's very dangerous in America to foster hate, and racial hatred, hatred of the Jews, bigotry - that kind of thing. It is something we just don't need in this country.''
In my 1990 book, The New Millenium, in a chapter titled ``The Rise of Anti-Semitism,'' I decried a rising tide of anti-Jewish feeling the world over. ``Intolerance in any quarter is wrong, but inasmuch as we are able, we must ensure that the trend throughout the 1990s remains in favor of a Jewish homeland in Israel and not for the elimination for the Jews.''
I have walked through the ovens of Dachau, and stood before the eternal flame at Yad Vashem that burns in memory of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. I have dedicated myself to educating the American people about that painful past to ensure that Jews are never again the victims of hatred and discrimination.
I have given meaning to that pledge through decisive action, such as the airing of the ``Holocaust'' television series repeatedly on The Family Channel, of which I am founder and chairman of its parent company.
My 1991 best-selling book, The New World Order, was written to warn the United States about the dangers of surrendering its sovereignty to a one-world government controlled by the United Nations. In the book, I intended no anti-Semitic code words, embraced no conspiracy theories, but set forth a historical analysis that raised legitimate policy questions that had been brought to the forefront by Bush administration officials during the Persian Gulf War. I further warned that a United Nations holding the armaments of the world could ``make Israel its target'' and could include a ``frontal assault on Israel.'' My premise in this book was underscored by Sen. Bob Dole, who stated in his announcement speech for the presidency: ``American foreign policy will be determined by us, not the United Nations.''
It saddens me to think that my words could ever be seen as anything but pro-Jewish. That was never the message, never my heart.
As columnist Don Feder has written, ``Pat Robertson must be an entirely new breed of anti-Semite - an anti-Semite who invited an orthodox rabbi to address his conventions, has a legal-action arm that filed an amicus brief in support of Hasidic Jews and employs a Jew as his chief lobbyist.''
Despite claims to the contrary, I have never suggested or even imagined any type of political action to make America a ``Christian nation.'' While it should never mean that religious ideals and ideas are to be excluded from political discourse, I agree that church and state should be separate because the separation of church and state is good for religion, religious institutions and the religious liberty of believers. These are not merely words of acquiescence to the acrimonious writings of a few - they are the enunciation of my most personal beliefs and my most fundamental convictions.
We should never allow freedom of religion to become freedom from religion. As Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas argued in Zorach vs. Clauson (1952): ``We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.''
Regrettably, since this dispute is not about religion but about politics, it is highly doubtful if any enunciation of my deeply held beliefs will silence those critics on the left who are using religion to attack my conservative political agenda.
The Christian Coalition respects the beliefs and traditions of the Jewish community. Indeed, we share many of the same concerns. Even as the Jewish community has struggled to ensure that its voice is heard, we too, seek an opportunity for our voice to be heard. Our values are those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. We seek nothing more radical than to ensure a hearing for America's time-honored values and to join with Americans of every cultural background to ensure for ourselves and our posterity the successful continuance of this great experiment in ordered liberty we call the United States of America.
KEYWORDS: PAT ROBERTSON CHRISTIAN COALITION ANTI SEMITIC JEWS
JEWISH by CNB