By Debbie Schlussel

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You won’t see me among the many conservatives crying over the passing of noted anti-Semite and open friend of HAMAS, Robert Novak.  I couldn’t care less if he was a conservative.  That makes his open anti-Semitism and wish for Israel’s death no less offensive, no less noxious, no less disgusting.  (I had my own personal encounter with him and his anti-Israel baloney.  More on that below.)

Robert Novak, “Prince of Darkness”:

Noted Jew-Hater is Dead

And spare me the “give it time until he’s been buried” and forgotten BS.  This needs to be said–and it needs to be said now, while a bunch of ignoramuses on the right are lamenting this “great man,” who wasn’t great at all, as some sort of saint he wasn’t (predictably among these is Michelle Malkin, who is telling people to ignore the truth about Novak–she did something similar with Islamic terrorist lover and enabler Henry Hyde, and she also did it with Hezbollah’s and Arafat’s fave criminal thug Congressman, Darrell Issa;  also predictable, complete ignoramus Ed Morrissey who works for Malkin, praised Obama’s sickening speech to the Muslim world, and constantly panders to pan-Muslim Grover Norquist).

All of them who praised and more than tolerated Novak in life are either the same ones who would jump all over liberals and lefties who said the same anti-Semitic, pro-HAMAS garbage he uttered.  Or they are anti-Semites of a similar stripe, like Sean Vannity’s friend, pro-Hitler Pat Buchanan (the Vietnam War draft dodger who claimed Jews didn’t fight in America’s wars; tell it to my cousin, who was served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and my dad, who proudly served during Vietnam while Pat Buchanan dodged the draft).

Sorry he had cancer and died.  But that doesn’t erase for a single second who Robert Novak really was in life and good health.  In fact, Novak was a vessel of hate–hatred for Jews (he was one but hated us so much he converted away), hatred of Israel, and love for Hate, Inc. a/k/a HAMAS and every other Islamic terrorist group he openly and happily embraced on CNN’s “Crossfire” when he hosted it, in his columns, and to anyone who would listen.

He shamelessly announced on “Crossfire”:

There are many Americans who support HAMAS, and I am one of them.

In a 2007 appearance on “Charlie Rose” on PBS, he attacked “the Jewish Community” and its “influence” on “both parties.”  He said he agreed with all of the vehemently anti-Israel columns written by his former partner Roland Evans.

Israel. We—the “Evans and Novak” columns—we ran hundreds of columns critical of Israel, all of them written by Rolly Evans. But I agreed with him. . . . Rolly became very committed on the issue.

Full transcript here.

Here’s more of Bob Novak’s scintillating gems, from his syndicated column and elsewhere:

*  On 9/11, Novak blamed Israel for the attacks, saying it “had the most to gain.”  Just two days after the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on America, Novak was the first to call the attacks “an inside job” and blamed the attacks on the U.S. relationship with Israel.

* In 2007 column, Novak wrote that Israel’s policies were “worse than apartheid,” claiming that Israel also oppressed Christians, and that the real peace-seekers were HAMAS. As if. He also called on President Bush to pressure Israel, decrying that he wasn’t.

* In a December 2001 column written less than two months after the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on America, he called HAMAS terrorists, “freedom fighters.” Yup, he took his cues from CAIR and other Muslim extremists (redundant phrase).

* Former New York Mayor Ed Koch details a Novak appearance on CNN’s “Capital Gang”:

Two weekends ago, I watched ‘Capital Gang’ on CNN, featuring Robert Novak. I’ve known Novak for many years. . . . Novak has always been . . . hostile to the State of Israel.

On his Nov. 24 show, Novak went ballistic in his ill will toward Israel. While discussing the Israeli assassination of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a senior military leader of Hamas on the West Bank directly responsible for dozens of Israeli civilian deaths, Novak denounced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for ordering Hanoud’s assassination. Novak’s colleague, Margaret Carlson, rightly called Hanoud a terrorist, and Novak defended him as a freedom fighter. Carlson responded, “Bob, you’re the only person who would call Hamas freedom fighters.”

“Oh, no,” Novak rejoined. “People all over the world do.”

*  In a 2007 column he said Israel was “Worse than Apartheid,” stating:

Jimmy Carter raised hackles by titling his book about the Palestinian question ‘Peace Not Apartheid.’ But Palestinians allege this is worse than the former South African racial separation.

* In December 2003, during a CNN appearance, he blamed Israel for the Iraq war (despite the fact that Israel opposed it and was forced to give concessions–i.e., Gaza–for America to get lip-service Arab support to fight it).

It’s sad that I have to cite the work of Ira Forman of the National Jewish Democratic Council on this–the “work” of Robert Novak.  But on Bob Novak, he is right, and cites far more of Novak’s outrageous comments.  And I have to cite him because no prominent conservatives or Republicans have ever had the guts to call Bob Novak on this–praising Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israel books, calling HAMAS “freedom fighters,” etc.

This is a conservative you want to lament and, in his death, exalt him to a greatness that, for him, never existed?  Good luck with that.  It makes you–all of you who regret this jerk’s passing–hypocrites.  It gives you no moral highground when the Barack Obamas and Cynthia McKinneys of this world embrace HAMAS or the idea of negotiating with Iran, HAMAS’ sponsor.

When I worked for Weekly Standard Editor Fred Barnes (then at The New Republic), and he and I would go to his weekly tapings of “McLaughlin Group,” I saw and heard Bob Novak in action with his verbal anti-Israel screeds.  You could tell he hated that he was born a Jew, that even though he converted he looked like a Jew.  He was disgusted with every Jewish aspect about him.  And that disgust carried over into his reaction toward “the Jews” and toward Israel.  Someone needed to tell him that despite his uber-outrage against us, when the Nazis came, they’d be rounding us both up for the camps and ovens.

That same summer, 1989, I attended the conservative National Journalism Center school, and Novak was a speaker.  I asked him, since he was such an anti-Communist, why he would openly support Yasser Arafat and the P.L.O.–who were sponsored and funded by the Soviets and had trained with other Communists around the world that he (Novak) hated, including Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistas, Castro’s thugs, the East Germans, etc.  I asked him, given those things, why he would side with Arafat and the PLO and oppose our only democratic, capitalist ally in the Middle East, Israel.  And I asked him to name a single other communist group he supported in the world.

He sputtered to give a response, because he and I both knew the truth:  he simply hated Jews.  Instead of openly admitting that, he struggled to come up with a credible answer on Israel and couldn’t.  So, he just mumbled something about having supported, in years past, a Turkish military junta that was Communist in its bent.

Yes, this is the real Bob Novak, a sputtering Jew hater, who may have been right on some things, but whose hatred was readily over looked by conservatives who continue to not just tolerate–but embrace and promote– this same hatred, today, from the likes of Patrick J. Buchanan (and his pro-Hitler book), Darrell Issa, and similar other malefactors on the right.

I wish I could say I want Bob Novak to rest in peace.  But if I did, I’d be lying to you.  In fact, I hope he meets some of the blown-to-bits innocent victims of HAMAS–the “peaceful” group he said he supported–on his way down under.

There won’t be any 72 virgins where he’s going, despite what his HAMAS and P.L.O. friends might have told him.  And I hope he brought his summer clothes.

It’s very hot in hell.

****  UPDATE:  One thing I forgot to put in this column, which I’ll add now:  Robert Novak desperately wanted to be a WASPy patrician like his writing partner Rowland Evans.  But even after he adopted his Jew-hating tone and converted away to Catholicism, Novak lamented that Rowland Evans never socialized with him away from work, never invited him to his fancy parties at his tony Georgetown home.  Because, you see, no matter how much Bob Novak hated himself and wanted to get away from being a Jew, his anti-Semitic partner–to whom he pandered and like whom he desperately wanted to be–still saw him as a dirty Jew.  Sometimes justice is poetic, indeed.

****  UPDATE #2:  Read more about Bob Novak’s anti-Semitism, hatred of Israel, how conservatives are whitewashing it, and how Novak was hardly conservative–supporting amnesty for illegal aliens and compared those of us who oppose that to supporter of apartheid.  Also, read about how Robert Novak was the father of 9/11 trutherism and was the first to call 9/11 “an inside job.” The truthers are mourning him.  Why are conservatives?