Sunday on Twitter, Auburn University head basketball coach Bruce Pearl reiterated his support for Israel by posing the question, if his hometown Boston or his current residence Auburn were threatened by a hostile power, what would be the appropriate reaction?
Pearl made those comments about a Jerusalem Post story published on Saturday that quoted Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, threatening to turn the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv “into ghost-towns”:
“You’ve tried your chances twice,” and failed, Khatami said, according to an Iranian Student News Agency report. “Despite the fact that Hezbollah is stronger today than ever, if you want Tel Aviv and Haifa razed to the ground, try your chances again.”
If a foreign country threatened to destroy Boston Massachusetts, where I grew up or Auburn Alabama, where I live now, within the next 25 yrs, how should our country react? Really?
— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) April 8, 2018
— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) April 8, 2018
Auburn’s Jewish head basketball coach has been a staunch advocate for Israel in the past. In 2016, he lashed out at the Obama administration for what was deemed to be an anti-Israel move at the United Nations.
Before that, Pearl led the U.S. men’s basketball team at Israel’s 2008 World Maccabiah Games, known to some as the “Jewish Olympics.”
He won a gold medal for the United States during those games.
“I wanted the guys to understand that the trip to Israel wasn’t just about basketball, although we took our basketball really seriously,” he said of the games according to a 2014 report from the Times of Israel. “It was about our Jewish heritage. It was about our young Jewish men [having] the chance to go to the homeland, if you will, and experience it — and for me, the same thing — and have a greater appreciation for who she is and what she faces and how we stay connected and protect her.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
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