Israeli newspaper Haaretz is known for its extreme left-wing stances on both domestic and foreign issues, but this time they’ve gone major league crazy. To write an op-ed about unifying against hatred and supporting justice Haaretz invited Al Sharpton, a divisive figure who has made a career of inciting hatred, to infect their pages.

In the piece, Sharpton tells Jews to put aside what did or didn’t happen in Crown Heights and unify with blacks against hatred an unfair justice system and to fight for economic justice in the U.S. and claims only a coalition of Blacks and Jews can defeat hatred in America. Now I am not opposed to fighting hatred, and certainly not opposed to uniting with African-Americans to fight hatred. However, a message of unity and justice loses its power when it comes from a low-life such as Al Sharpton. It is the equivalent of inviting former President Bubba Clinton to write an op-ed about fidelity in marriage, or Barack Obama writing an op-ed about how he loves Israel.

Not only is Haaretz’s choice for this op-ed ironic, but so is the timing. On the Sabbath prior to Sharpton’s op-ed calling for Jewish and Blacks to work together to create justice and end hatred in the U.S., Jews throughout the world read and studied a part of the Torah called Shoftim. This Torah portion contains the famous phrase, “Justice, justice shall you pursue…:”