Editing Pat Buchanan (section)

=== Antisemitism allegations ===
In December 1991, a 40,000-word article by [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] was published in the ''[[National Review]]'' discussing [[antisemitism]] among conservative commentators focused largely on Buchanan; the article and many responses to it were collected in the book ''In Search of Anti-Semitism'' (1992). He wrote: "I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination amounted to anti-Semitism",<ref name="Newsweek1991" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Glazer|first=Nathan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/07/16/specials/buckley-anti.html|title=The Enmity Within|work=The New York Times|date=July 16, 2000|access-date=April 28, 2020}}</ref> but concluded: "If you ask, do I think Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite, my answer is he is not one. But I think he's said some anti-Semitic things."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chavez |first=Linda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwk5DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT207 |title=An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation Of An Ex-liber |date=2009-04-30 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-7867-4672-9 |page=207 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Anti-Defamation League]] has described Buchanan as an "unrepentant bigot" who "repeatedly demonizes Jews and minorities and openly affiliates with white supremacists."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/special_reports/Patrick_Buchanan2/|format=special report|title=Patrick Buchanan: Unrepentant Bigot|publisher=Anti-Defamation League|date=May 21, 2009|access-date=June 18, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030133214/http://www.adl.org/special_reports/Patrick_Buchanan2/|archive-date=October 30, 2012 }}</ref> In an article for ''The Washington Post'' in March 1992, conservative columnist [[Charles Krauthammer]] suggested: "The real problem with Buchanan ... is not that his instincts are antisemitic but that they are, in various and distinct ways, fascistic."<ref name="WaPo19920301">{{cite news|last=Krauthammer|first=Charles|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1992/03/01/buchanan-explained/c1cf4bdb-071b-4508-bae2-2422ee3846e4/|title=Buchanan Explained|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=March 1, 1992|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> "There's no doubt," said Krauthammer in 1999 when contacted for a ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' article, "he makes subliminal appeals to prejudice." He added: "The interesting thing is how he can say these things and still be considered a national figure."<ref name="SalonTapper" /> Buchanan denies assertions that he is an [[Antisemitism|antisemite]], and some of his fellow journalists, including [[Murray Rothbard]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-06-me-1084-story.html|title=COLUMN RIGHT/ MURRAY N. ROTHBARD: Buchanan an Anti-Semite? It's a Smear: His enemies labored hard, and brought forth a pitiful mouse|work=Los Angeles Times|date=January 6, 1992 }}</ref> [[Jack Germond]], [[Al Hunt]] and [[Mark Shields]], have defended him against the charge.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_n2_v45/ai_18579341/pg_4/|publisher=Find Articles|work=Judaism|title=Pat Buchanan and the Jews|year=1996}}</ref>

====Nazi war criminals====
Around 1982,<ref name="WaPo19900920">{{cite news|last=Kurtz|first=Howard|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/09/20/pat-buchanan-the-jewish-question/bfc8e956-316d-4abb-b33b-97aace0b80d0/|title=Pat Buchanan The Jewish Question|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=September 20, 1990|access-date=June 17, 2020}}</ref> Buchanan began to defend Cleveland auto-worker [[John Demjanjuk]] against the charge that Demjanjuk was a Nazi war criminal nicknamed "[[Ivan the Terrible (Treblinka guard)|Ivan the Terrible]]" responsible for the mass murder of Jews at [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]]. In 1986, while he was a senior figure in the Reagan administration, he was highly critical of the charges brought by the [[Office of Special Investigations (United States Department of Justice)|Office of Special Investigations]] (OSI), the Nazi war crimes unit of the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. He claimed Demjanjuk was the victim of mistaken identity and possibly the victim of a deliberate [[Frameup|frame-up]] by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Ryan|first=Allan A. Jr|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1986/10/26/pat-buchanan-is-wrong/aba0474e-6e01-4c48-b3ac-b7e99ab78adb/|title=Pat Buchanan Is Wrong|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=October 26, 1986|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref>

The following year<!-- 1987 -->, while still a member of the administration, he made unofficial attempts to stop the deportation of suspected [[Nazi war crimes|Nazi war criminals]] from the [[Eastern Bloc]], including Estonian [[Karl Linnas]] as well as Demjanjuk.<ref>{{cite news|last=Shenon|first=Philip|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/19/us/washington-talk-the-buchanan-aggravation.html|title=The Buchanan Aggravation|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=February 19, 1987|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> [[Menachem Z. Rosensaft]], in a ''[[New York Times]]'' [[op-ed]], described Buchanan's "oft-expressed sympathy for a host of Nazi criminals" like Linnas as being "a constitutionally protected perversion."<ref>{{cite news|last=Rosensaft|first=Menachem Z.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/31/opinion/deport-karl-linnas-to-the-soviet-union.html|title=Deport Karl Linnas To the Soviet Union|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 31, 1987|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> Buchanan referred to such cases as being pursued by "revenge-obsessed [[Nazi hunter]]s" in 1987.<ref>{{cite news|last=Buchanan|first=Patrick J.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/07/opinion/l-dr-hammer-s-role-in-ivan-the-terrible-trial-get-it-out-in-the-open-248387.html|title=Dr. Hammer's Role in 'Ivan the Terrible' Trial; Get It Out in the Open
|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 7, 1987|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> As a member of the Reagan White House, he was accused of having suppressed the Reagan Justice Department's investigation into Nazi scientists brought to America by the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]]'s [[Operation Paperclip]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/operation-paperclip_n_6123746.html|format=news report/book review|title=Nazis Helped Get Us To The Moon. The Reagan White House Helped Keep Them In The U.S.|work=[[The Huffington Post]]|date=November 8, 2014}}</ref>

In 1990, Allan Ryan Jr., a former head of the OSI said Buchanan's accusation of [[KGB]] involvement in the Demjanjuk case was "an absolutely cockamamie theory." Ryan accused Buchanan of being "the spokesman for Nazi war criminals in America." [[Neal Sher]], OSI head in 1990 said Buchanan had never contacted them, even when he was a government official. "He essentially took what was fed him by our opponents, sometimes Holocaust-deniers, and just regurgitated it," Sher told ''[[The Washington Post]]''.<ref name="WaPo19900920" /> In 1993, however, the [[Supreme Court of Israel]] overturned Demjanjuk's war crimes conviction and sentence of [[death by hanging]] as a [[miscarriage of justice]] based on [[mistaken identity]]. Demjanjuk then returned to the United States to fight the revocation of his American citizenship.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hedges |first=Chris |date=12 August 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/12/world/israel-recommends-that-demjanjuk-be-released.html?scp=3&sq=Demjanjuk%20&st=cse |title=Israel recommends that Demjanjuk be released |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> 

Following an elderly Demjanjuk's re-arrest and extradition to the [[Federal Republic of Germany]] in 2009,<ref>{{cite news|last=Mustich|first=Emma|url=https://www.salon.com/2011/05/12/demjanjuk/|title=After decades, Demjanjuk found guilty in Germany|work=Salon|date=May 12, 2011|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> Menachem Z. Rosensaft in ''[[The Times of Israel]]'' and [[Jeffrey Goldberg]] in ''[[The Atlantic]]'', objected to an outraged Buchanan again accusing the case of being a frame-up and comparing Demjanjuk to [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] and calling him an "American [[Alfred Dreyfus|Dreyfuss]].{{sic}}" This was alleged by Goldberg as an example of the libel that the [[Jewish deicide|Jews as a whole]] killed Christ.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rosensaft|first=Menachem Z.|url=https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/the-sins-of-pat-buchanan/|title=The Sins Of Pat Buchanan|work=[[Times of Israel]]|date=February 21, 2012|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Goldberg|first=Jeffrey|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2009/04/pat-buchanan-is-slipping-poor-thing/16803/|title=Pat Buchanan is Slipping, Poor Thing|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=April 29, 2009|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> Describing Buchanan's comparison as "strikingly offensive" and an attempt to "revive the charge of [[blood libel]]" against Jews, [[Peter Wehner]] wrote in ''[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]'' magazine: "Rarely do you find such an obscene mix of blasphemy and bigotry, and all in less than 900 words."<ref>{{cite news|last=Wehner|first=Peter|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/peter-wehner/pat-buchanans-latest-anti-semitic-outburst/|title=Pat Buchanan's Latest anti-Semitic Outburst|work=[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]|date=April 30, 2009|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> Demjanjuk was later convicted of being an [[Accessory (legal term)|accessory to the murder]] of 28,000 Jewish prisoners at the [[Sobibor extermination camp]]. Demjanjuk died in 2012, while the verdict had been overturned and was pending appeal.<ref>{{cite news|last=Mustich|first=Emma|url=https://www.salon.com/2011/05/12/demjanjuk/|title=After decades, Demjanjuk found guilty in Germany|work=Salon|date=May 12, 2011|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref>

====Bitburg visit by President Reagan====
Buchanan supported President Reagan's plan to visit a German military cemetery at [[Bitburg controversy|Bitburg]] in 1985, where among buried [[Wehrmacht]] soldiers were the graves of 48 [[Waffen SS]] members. At the insistence of German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] and over the vocal objections of [[Jewish]] groups, the trip went ahead.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/international/europe/06REAG.html|title=Reagan Joins Kohl in Brief Memorial at Bitburg Graves|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 6, 1985|access-date=January 22, 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018123607/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/international/europe/06REAG.html|archive-date=October 18, 2016|last1=Weinraub|first1=Bernard}}</ref> In a 1992 interview, [[Elie Wiesel]] described attending a [[White House]] meeting of Jewish leaders about the trip: "The only one really defending the trip was Pat Buchanan, saying, 'We cannot give the perception of the President being subjected to Jewish pressure.'"<ref name="WashingtonPost-1992">{{cite news|last=Dionne|first=E. J.|author-link=E. J. Dionne|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/29/is-buchanan-courting-bias/4753a57f-183b-4033-be38-4e2360e6aa00/|title=Is Buchanan Courting Bias?|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=February 29, 1992|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> Buchanan accused Wiesel of fabricating the story in an [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] interview in 1992: "I didn't say it and Elie Wiesel wasn't even in the meeting ... That meeting was held three weeks before the Bitburg summit was held. If I had said that, it would have been out of there within hours and on the news."<ref>As quoted by ''[[Crossfire (U.S. TV program)|Crossfire]]'' on [[CNN]] (February 24, 1992). Transcript No. 514.</ref>

====Comments on the Holocaust====
In a 1990 column for the ''[[New York Post]]'', Buchanan wrote that it was impossible for 850,000 Jews to be killed by [[diesel exhaust]] fed into the gas chamber at Treblinka in a return to his interest in the Demjanjuk case. "[[Diesel engine]]s do not emit enough [[carbon monoxide]] to kill anybody," he wrote. ''The Washington Post'' cited experts to the effect that there is more than sufficient carbon monoxide present in the fumes to speedily asphyxiate victims, causing their death.<ref name="WaPo19900920" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Buchanan |first=Patrick |date=17 March 1990 |title="Ivan the Terrible" - More Doubts |work=[[New York Post]] |url=https://phdn.org/archives/holocaust-history.org/~jamie/buchanan/column.shtml}}</ref> Buchanan once argued Treblinka "was not a [[Extermination camp|death camp]] but a transit camp used as a 'pass-through point' for prisoners". In fact, historians have estimated that some 900,000 Jews were murdered at [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]].<ref>Lichtblau, Eric, (2015) ''The Nazis Next Door, How America Became a Save Haven for Hitler's Men'', p. 194, Published by Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, Boston.</ref> When [[George Will]] challenged him on the issue on TV in December 1991, Buchanan did not reply.<ref name="Newsweek1991">{{cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/1991/12/23/is-pat-buchanan-anti-semitic.html|work=Newsweek|date=December 22, 1991|title=Is Pat Buchanan anti-semitic?}}</ref>

====Comments about Israel====
In the context of the [[Gulf War]], on August 26, 1990, Buchanan appeared on ''[[The McLaughlin Group]]'' and said: "there are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East – the Israeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States." Buchanan on ''The McLaughlin Group'' on June 15, 1990, asserted: "Capitol Hill is Israeli occupied territory".<ref name="ADLprofile">{{Cite web|title=Pat Buchanan in his own words|url=http://www.adl.org/special_reports/buchanan_own_words/buchanan_intro.asp|publisher=ADL|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026130115/http://www.adl.org/special_reports/buchanan_own_words/buchanan_intro.asp|archive-date=October 26, 2012}}</ref> He also said in the August 1990 program: "The Israelis want this war desperately because they want the United States to destroy the Iraqi war machine. They want us to finish them off. They don't care about our relations with the Arab world."<ref name="JTA19900831">{{cite news|url=https://www.jta.org/1990/08/31/archive/behind-the-headlines-buchanans-latest-anti-israel-slur-may-signal-new-conservative-trend|title=Behind the Headlines; Buchanan's Latest Anti-israel Slur May Signal New Conservative Trend
|work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=August 31, 1990|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> [[A. M. Rosenthal]], in an article for ''[[The New York Times]]'' explicitly accused Buchanan of antisemitism on the grounds that he had used the word "Israelis" as a cover for Jews.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rosenthal|first=A. M.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/14/opinion/on-my-mind-forgive-them-not.html|title=On My Mind; Forgive Them Not|work=The New York Times|date=September 14, 1990|access-date=August 20, 2020}}</ref> [[Abraham Foxman]], the director of the ADL, compared Buchanan's comments to insinuations made during the [[World War II|Second World War]] "that Jews were the only ones who sought American entry in the war against Nazi Germany".<ref name="JTA19900831" />

Holocaust survivor [[Elie Wiesel]] in September 1990 said Buchanan "leaves the memory of Jewish victims in such disdain; a man who always takes the side of those accused of being killers; a man who is constantly criticizing Israel; a man who always has something nasty to say about the Jewish people".<ref name="WaPo19900920" />