Disparate figures united in hard words on Sharon

WASHINGTON – Television 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. Both men’s comments were immediately condemned by religious leaders.

Speaking on his Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club,” 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.

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.

U.S. 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.