Sarah Palin’s Israel Flag Tale Grows Taller

Today Sarah Palin gave a softball interview to Hugh Hewitt. It was part of the McCain campaign’s reintroduction of Sarah Palin on friendlier turf. Most of the interview focused on the mean media’s unfair attacks on the Governor. Toward the end of the interview, Hewitt asked her a "foreign affairs" question.

Here is the exchange:

HH: Governor, let’s close with some foreign affairs. It is reported that you had an Israeli flag in your governor’s office. You wore an Israeli flag pin occasionally. One, is that true? And two, why your support for Israel? 

SP: Well, it is true, and I ran into Shimon Peres recently at a meeting, and he even pointed that out. He said I saw a picture of you on the internet, and you had an Israeli flag in your state government office, and I said I sure do. You know, my heart is with you. And all of those trials and tribulations throughout history that Israel has gone through, not only does that allow me to want to support that country, but Israel is our strongest and most important ally in the Middle East. And they are a democratic country who I believe deserves our support, and I know that John McCain believes as I do that Israel is our friend, and we need to be there to support them. They are there for us, and I do love that country. 

In this telling of her Israel flag story, she asserts that Shimon Peres asked her about the flag after seeing a picture of her on the internet.

In the previous telling of this Israel flag story, it went like this:

Upon meeting the Israeli president Palin told him she has wanted to meet him and get to know him for years. She added that the only flag in her office, aside from the American flag, is the Israeli flag, stressing that she wants Israelis to know that she’s been a longtime friend of the Jewish state, and will remain such.

Another published account of the Peres meeting also was similar:

President Peres of Israel yesterday met for the first time with Governor Palin and with Senator McCain, who called the veteran Israeli statesman "my old friend." The warm handshake and exchange of broad smiles occurred during an international gathering known as the Clinton Global Initiative, hosted by President Clinton. "I wanted to meet you for many years," Ms. Palin told Mr. Peres, according to an aide to the president. "The only flag at my office is an Israeli flag," she was quoted as saying, "and I want you to know and I want Israelis to know that I am a friend."

Never mind that the "only flag" statement from her is itself a lie. Consider now that she is claiming it was Peres who asked her about the barely visible flag. The earlier news accounts of the meeting are that she volunteered the information about her Israeli flag.

You have to start shaking your head at all the lies, big and small, Sarah Palin tells. Some are simply inexplicable, like the one about her visiting Ireland when she had done no such thing. Some are whoppers like her "bridge to nowhere" lie.

Now we have another that we can add to the long and growing list.