New York -Charles Krauthammer, a conservative champion of Israel, announced that he has weeks to live.
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Krauthammer, perhaps the dean of neoconservative columnists in Washington, wrote about his cancer in a post that appeared Friday on the websites of both of his employers, Fox News Channel and The Washington Post.
He said he thought he had beaten the disease.
“There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly,’ Krauthammer wrote. “My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over.”
Krauthammer, 68, has been outspoken for decades in his support of Israel, and was a lacerating critic of the Obama administration. His rejection of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was influential in galvanizing Jewish organizational opposition to the deal. He regularly made himself available for Jewish organizational events.
Krauthammer also was among a small but unyielding core of conservatives who opposed Donald Trump, even as he closed in on the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and then the presidency. Krauthammer cautioned against “Trump derangement syndrome” — criticizing the president even when his policies were consistent with conservative doctrine — and denounced Trump’s unfiltered rhetoric, which he called“vainglorious.” (Trump called Krauthammer an “overrated clown.”) He said Trump’s failure to unequivocally condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis whose protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, culminated in a deadly attack on a counterprotester was a “moral disgrace.”
Krauthammer, a New York native who was raised in Montreal, was a first-year medical student at Harvard when a diving accident put him in a wheelchair for life. He became a psychiatrist and first emerged in the political sphere as a speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale during the Carter administration. Like many hawkish Jewish Democrats, he was soon attracted to the hard-line Cold War postures of President Ronald Reagan.
He opposed the Oslo accords, primarily distrusting the renunciation of terrorism by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — a view that seemed vindicated when Arafat embraced the second intifada. Krauthammer also was an outspoken advocate of the Iraq War, scrambling to defend his advocacy when the war went south.
Krauthammer in his note to readers said he had no regrets.
“It was a wonderful life — full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living,” he said. “I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.”
ONE fine amazing human being. He was a quadrpelgic and become a doctor, psychitrist and the voice of conservatism after being a liberal. May we all daven for the Jew
Look at his words. No mention or thought of G-d. He is looking death in the face yet still refuses to look at it as a Jew should. So sad. He is such a good man. Yes. even a Jew. He was so influential and full of so much Ahavas Yisroel. Cannot say this about so many so-called Jewish spokesmen of the coming generation. May he be judged for what he nebach is…a tinok shenishba and his wonderful efforts writing and advocating for am Yisroel be taken in account when he is judged.
As per wikipedia, he grew up in a home with 2 orthodox parents, and went to Hebrew school.
CHarlie, this is not the Jewish way.
“Even if a sharp sword is resting on one’s throat, he should not refrain from asking for mercy” – Bavli Berachos 10a, bottom of the amud.
Whata nice man. He called everyone out for what they are. No bluffing. He criticized Trump yet gave him a chance. A sad life as an invalid and an invalid in yiddishkeit. Unfortunately dying as a nice guy yet a goy gumir and a glorious Zionist. May G D open his eyes so dies like a yid.
I am sorry to hear of this.
Time to do teshuva. He has some sechut that HaShem is showing him death is near. He has time to strengthen his emunah, ask for forgiveness, do cheshvon hanefesh, start keeping Shabbat and Kashrut the right way. And dunk in the Mikvah at least once before becoming niftar. May HaShem grant him a refuah Shelema for doing teshuvah.
With all the vituperative name calling and anger on this site, it surely is one of the most inauthentic “Jewish” places I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing. And I bet many of you even cry over sinas chinum on Tisha B’Av. Sadly, amazing.