CINCINNATI — The head of the country’s largest Jewish movement called prominent Texas pastor John Hagee an “extremist” and urged fellow rabbis to shun his high-profile support of Israel.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, denounced Hagee, a national evangelical leader, televangelist and head of the Christians United for Israel, at an April 2 gathering of Reform rabbis in Cincinnati. Yoffie criticized Hagee for fostering religious intolerance between evangelical Christians and other faiths and for exacerbating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by opposing a two-state solution.
What Hagee and his allies “mean by support of Israel and what we mean by support of Israel are two very different things,” Yoffie said. “Their vision of Israel rejects a two-state solution, rejects the possibility of a democratic Israel and supports the permanent occupation of all Arabs now controlled by Israel.”
“On Israeli-Palestinian politics, John Hagee and the Christians United for Israel are extremists,” Yoffie said. “They do not represent most evangelicals, do not represent most Republicans and do not represent the American heartland.”
Hagee, a global media mogul who reaches millions of Americans through radio and TV broadcasts, founded Christians United for Israel in 2006. He heads a church of 19,000 in San Antonio.
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