JNS.org – Christians United For Israel (CUFI), America’s largest pro-Israel organization with more than 2 million members, issued a strongly worded rebuttal to journalist Bruce Wilson for what CUFI called his “exceptionally dishonest” attack article about CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee.

In an article published by The Huffington Post, Wilson claims that Hagee believes it is “half-breed Jews” who are responsible for the Holocaust, and goes on to cite several passages from Hagee’s books and sermons to back up claims that Hagee believes Jews are “responsible” for the antisemitism they suffer.

“The sum total of the arguments Wilson makes in his 1,600-word screed against Hagee involved his quoting random phrases—and even random words—taken blatantly out of the context in which Hagee wrote or spoke them,” CUFI said in a statement.

“To cite just a few of the numerous examples of Wilson’s distortions, Hagee never directly states that Hitler was a ‘half-breed Jew’ in the provocative way Wilson claims,” said CUFI. “Rather Hagee engages in an extended discussion of the lineage of Esau, whom God ‘hated.’ (Romans 9:13). Hagee goes on to discuss Esau’s descendent, Haman, who sought to kill the Jews of Persia and those other of Esau’s descendants who have plagued the Jewish people for centuries. Hitler is mentioned as a possible descendant of this antisemitic line.  Countess rabbis have engaged in similar speculation. Agree with this speculation or not, such thinking has nothing whatsoever to do with antisemitism.”

Wilson has a history of attacking Hagee. According to his bio on the Huffington Post, Wilson claims to have played a role in US Sen. John McCain’s decision to distance himself from Hagee during the 2008 presidential campaign by posting a video of a Hagee sermon about the Holocaust in 2005.

Hagee has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Jewish community and was honored in 2013 by leading Jewish organizations for his “years of support and humanitarian endeavors on behalf of Israel,” including more than $80 million in donations by John Hagee Ministries to Israeli charities, which is a separate entity from CUFI.

CUFI Executive Director David Brog said, “As a Jew whose extended family was murdered in the Holocaust, I find Wilson’s claims deeply offensive. How dare he use the greatest tragedy in Jewish history to slander one of the greatest friends the Jewish people have ever known.”

“Pastor John Hagee has devoted his life to standing in support of Israel and the Jewish people, and he’s suffered repeated death threats from anti-Semites because of it,” Brog added. “For Wilson to once again slander this righteous gentile as an anti-Semite is disgusting even for a journalist of Wilson’s low reputation. Shame on him.”