Pat Robertson apologized yesterday for his comments about Sharon”s stroke.

Pat Robertson has apologized to Ariel Sharon’s son for saying on his TV
show that the Israeli prime minister’s massive stroke was divine punishment
from God.

“My zeal, my love of Israel, and my concern for the future safety of your
nation led me to make remarks which I can now view in retrospect as
inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief experience
because of your father’s illness,” Robertson wrote to Omri Sharon.

Wow – Pat Robertson apologizing. Surely there is something wrong with him or
something at stake here. Oh wait.

Robertson is leading a group of evangelicals who have pledged to raise
$50 million to build a large Christian tourism center in Israel’s northern
Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

Avi Hartuv, a spokesman for Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson, said on
Wednesday that Israeli officials were furious with Robertson’s comment that
Sharon’s stroke was divine retribution. “We can’t accept this kind of
statement,” Hartuv said.

He said the Christian Heritage Center project was now in question, though
he left the door open to develop it with others.

“We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don’t
back these comments,” Hartuv said. “We will do business with other
evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him.”

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So did Pat mean what he said originally about Sharon and is now backing down
because of greed or did he not mean it and only said it to hopefully boost his
ratings? Either possibility is disturbing and more proof that Robertson should
be taken off the air or heavily fined by the FCC. Howard Stern’s 1992 comments
about masturbating to a Aunt Jemima caused enough of a outrage to force a
$600,000 fine and that was pre-Janet Jackson nipple incident. His comments also
only provoked some very minor outrage here, not major outrage around the globe.