An unaired sketch, posted online by NBC, lampoons the Defense secretary nominee’s Senate grilling—and, the ADL’s Abraham Foxman tells Lloyd Grove, reinforces the notion that Israel controls the government.
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"An unaired sketch from the Feb. 9 Saturday Night Live, lampooning beleaguered Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearing and the alleged influence of the pro-Israel lobby on the United States Senate, has prompted criticism from a group whose mission is fighting anti-Semitism.
The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, slammed the sketch—which wasn’t part of the live show but was released online by NBC—for potentially perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes.
NBC and SNL offered no response on Monday to Foxman’s complaint and usually don’t comment on the frequent criticisms of SNL’s comedy.
In the six-minute sketch, performed at SNL’s dress rehearsal, Hagel (played deadpan by Jason Sudeikis is grilled mercilessly by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (a drawling Bill Hader) about his published statement that the interests of the United States and Israel are not always identical. “Is this a typo?” Graham/Hader demands. “Are my eyes deceiving me? Does he think that our interests and those of Israel could ever be different?” And so on and so forth, as Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee fall all over themselves to prove their slavish devotion to the Jewish state.
The sketch culminates when a crotchety “Sen. John McCain” insists that Hagel answer a hypothetical question: would he agree to “go on national television and perform oral sex on a donkey” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu determined it was vital to Israel’s security? When Hagel says no, McCain declares that he can’t vote to confirm him."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/11/snl-lands-in-hot-water-with-anti-defamation-league-over-hagel-sketch.html
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