http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/02/11/unaired_snl_skit_mocks_unconditional_support_for_israel_at_hagel_hearing.html

The onion bit is here, if anyone's interested:-

http://www.theonion.com/articles/israel-vows-to-use-veto-power-if-chuck-hagel-confi,30824/

After being banished from earnest Washington discussion for decades by various press gate-keepers, the absurdly overblown power of the Greater Israel lobby is now seeping into the popular culture. SNL captures the lunacy:

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/02/11/a-cultural-breakthrough/

still, its getting some views on the interwebs

not possible to watch hulu videos outside of the US, so its appreciated.

An unaired sketch, posted online by NBC, lampoons the Defense secretary nominee’s Senate grilling—and, the ADL’s Abraham Foxman tells Lloyd Grove, reinforces the notion that Israel controls the government.

<snip>

"An unaired sketch from the Feb. 9 Saturday Night Live, lampooning beleaguered Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearing and the alleged influence of the pro-Israel lobby on the United States Senate, has prompted criticism from a group whose mission is fighting anti-Semitism.

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, slammed the sketch—which wasn’t part of the live show but was released online by NBC—for potentially perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes.

NBC and SNL offered no response on Monday to Foxman’s complaint and usually don’t comment on the frequent criticisms of SNL’s comedy.

In the six-minute sketch, performed at SNL’s dress rehearsal, Hagel (played deadpan by Jason Sudeikis is grilled mercilessly by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (a drawling Bill Hader) about his published statement that the interests of the United States and Israel are not always identical. “Is this a typo?” Graham/Hader demands. “Are my eyes deceiving me? Does he think that our interests and those of Israel could ever be different?” And so on and so forth, as Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee fall all over themselves to prove their slavish devotion to the Jewish state.

The sketch culminates when a crotchety “Sen. John McCain” insists that Hagel answer a hypothetical question: would he agree to “go on national television and perform oral sex on a donkey” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu determined it was vital to Israel’s security? When Hagel says no, McCain declares that he can’t vote to confirm him."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/11/snl-lands-in-hot-water-with-anti-defamation-league-over-hagel-sketch.html

Since the SNL sketch didn't come close to that level of absurdity.
The US Congress show was painful to watch and the SNL skit didn't make it easier to choke down.

does not have.

And then there's this gem: It makes no difference, he said, that Michaels and many of the show’s writers and staffers happen to be Jewish. “That doesn’t excuse their insensitivity and their playing on stereotypes and selling stereotypes and forcing stereotypes,” he said.

Yea, it's what they live for..has nothing to do with reality.

Good for the usual crowd, I guess.

Just curious.

Would/could The Nation get it so wrong?

Look at when they are asking about Israel and when they are asking about Afghanistan. The latter is often referenced without using the name of the country.

If it were a parody it'd still be over the top. It doesn't make a lick of sense that it was real.

Iran as it relates to the US is understandable, but why is Israel's security an issue here? The simple fact that Israel is an ally doesn't quite cut it, so are many countries but their security was not mentioned, so why Israel?

He doesn't pay rent, but he does raid the fridge; his parents try to treat him like an adult, but frankly he dominates their lives like a very large infant that smells of sweat and doritos.

Bibi in t-shirt clutching a bag of Dorito's peering into the light of a computer screen in an otherwise dark room

I flash back to Mc Cain, and John Hagee the preacher, with his mixture of Christian fundamentalism, and Zionism... in 2000 Mc Cain thought he was nuts, and so stated.... in 2008 he actively courted Hagee's favor, trading in the straight talk express to match the Republican base... it sounds lie Mc Cain has adopted the right wing view as our foreign policy...

my guess is that those questions on Israel are more for the base than Hagel

Shame on Jewish Democrats

Op-ed: Republican senators were the only ones who passionately grilled Hagel on his lack of support for Israel

Shoula Romano Horing
Published: 02.11.13, 11:46

Watching the Chuck Hagel US Senate confirmation hearings for secretary of defense, I almost became physically sick. To watch my fellow Jewish senators, all liberal Democrats, suck up to Obama and Hagel with softball questions against the interests of their own people and Israel was more than I could handle. The spectacle of southern Republicans senators, with almost no Jewish constituents in their states, standing up for the Jewish people and Israel against Hagel's evasive and nonsensical responses, while fellow Jews sat idly by, will stick with me for a long time.


Bless the Republicans for doing what is right while shame on my fellow Jews for not learning from history. The actions of these Jewish Democrats concerning the Hagel nomination do not bode well for the future of our people or Israel.


Committee chairman, Democratic Jewish Senator Carl Levin, who prior to the hearing had already indicated his support for Hagel's nomination by calling him "well qualified, included in his opening remarks only a reference to Hagel's "troubling statements" concerning Iran without specifics or follow up, with not even one mention of Israel. During the hearing it was Levin who called Hagel "a person of integrity" and came to his rescue when Hagel was confused about US policy regarding Iran and containment.

The other Jewish senator on the committee, Richard Blumenthal, totally ignored Hagel's record concerning Israel and only murmured his dismay that a man who had served the country had to endure strong inquiries from the Republicans. After the hearings, he stated that he would support Hagel despite the fact that most observers believed that Hagel looked confused, uninformed, and ill equipped for the position during the hearing.


It was the Republicans who were the first and only senators who challenged Hagel's previous statement on the Jewish lobby. "The political reality is … that the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” Hagel told former Mideast peace negotiator Aaron David Miller in a 2006 interview. “I have always argued against some of the dumb things they do because I don’t think it’s in the interest of Israel. I just don’t think it’s smart for Israel.” Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, pressed Hagel on whether he still believes that is true.

in full: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4343538,00.html

are Americans and as such vote in America's interests not Israel's

Hagel should be scheduled to accompany Obama on his trip to Israel, I think.

and would make an impression too

Articles like this promote the view that if a person is Jewish, then regardless of their country of citizenship their primary allegiance ought to be to Israel. Apparently ynet doesn't mind promoting that view even though many would say that it contributes to a racist meme. A word that comes to mind is "whipsaw", esp. w.r.t. I/P debates.

do those who call him an ant-semite believe that PBO is one as well?

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/adelson-calls-hagel-anti-semitic-confirmation-shameful

Adelson Calls Hagel ‘Anti-Semitic,’ Confirmation ‘Shameful’



I would love to have been a fly on the wall with the Sheldon/BiBi call. How many times do you believe that PBOs name was brought up?

I'm sure Sheldon was just gushing over the 2-termer.