2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRepublican Senate Aide Calls Hagel Anti-Semitic
by Ali Gharib Dec 14, 2012 2:15 PM EST
The debate about the potential and reportedly likely nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) to serve as Barack Obama's next Secretary of Defense has already turned nasty. And so far, at least, it's all about Israel. Jewish leaders at the White House last night for a Chanukah reception raised their objections to Hagel, citing, for example, his criticisms of Israel's 2006 war against Lebanon (an Israeli government-commissioned report also criticized the war, after the fact). But the most despicable of the allegations against Hagel came from an unnamed Republican Senate aide, who called the former senator an anti-Semite in the Weekly Standard. Here's the meat:
The top aide Republican Senate aide passes along this quotation from Hagel: The political reality is that the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.
A friend of Hagel's, the Washington foreign policy pundit and Washington editor at large for The Atlantic Steve Clemons, berated the accusation: "That's reckless commentary. This is typical, that people get out and slander someone. I find it disgusting that a staffer would do that." Me too, and this unnamed Senate aide and the Weekly Standard ought to be ashamed of themselves.
As the Standard's Daniel Halperwho was against blind quotes before he was for themnotes, the quote from Hagel comes from Wilson Center scholar Aaron David Miller's 2008 book, "The Much Too Promised Land," about Arab-Israeli peace-making. I let Miller know by phone that the passage was seized upon to tar Hagel as an anti-Semite. "Seized upon is an understatement," Miller told me. "It was hijacked." In fact, Millera Mideast adviser to six Secretaries of State who no one in their right mind could ever call "anti-Israel"quotes Hagel approvingly. In the passage, Miller noted that few members of Congress are willing to publicly criticize AIPAC or Israel, but there are a few exceptions. "One who is willing is Chuck Hagel, the two-term Republican senator from Nebraska," Miller wrote. "Of all my conversations, the one with Hagel stands apart for its honesty and clarity." The line introducing the one cherry-picked by this Senate aide, and reproduced uncritically by Halper, begins with this statement from Miller: "Hagel is a strong supporter of Israel and a believer in shared values." I asked Miller if he still viewed Hagel as "pro-Israel." "I don't think there's a Senator of note in the Senate who is not pro-Israel," he responded. "But there is a difference between a special relationship with Israel and an exclusive relationship with Israel. I believe in the former and Chuck Hagel believes the former."
The statement construed by the Senate staffer and Halper as anti-Semitic should not even be controversial. As for the phrasing about a "Jewish lobby," I myself use "pro-Israel community" to describe both the conservative and liberal factions that strongly support Israel, because "Jewish lobby" is too narrow a term that doesn't include, for example, millions of evangelical Christian Israel supporters. Though it must be noted that much of the strongest support for Israel in Washington does indeed come from the organized Jewish community's groups there. Miller, however, didn't hesitate before telling me Hagel's statement was plainly true: "It's one thing to say that the pro-Israeli community in the United States is a powerful voice," Miller said. "It's another to say that the Jewish community has a veto over U.S. foreign policy." This gets at the common strawman that supporters of Israel use to deflect criticisms: criticizing and even discussing the existence of what's now become known colloquially as the "Israel lobby" and its influence is not the same thing as saying that these people and organizations constitute an all-powerful entity that controls Washington. To be sure, some people speak of the pro-Israel community as the latter; it does smack of an old anti-Semitic canard, and its purveyors should be challenged, ridiculed, or ignored. Chuck Hagel, though, is not one of those people: what he actually said bears no resemblance to what Halper's source said he did.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/14/republican-senate-aide-calls-hagel-anti-semitic.html
bigdarryl
(13,190 posts)Here we go again rethugs ready to torpedo another nominee.I was under the impression who ever the President was could pick his own cabinet not the Congress and Senate.There going to keep doing this shit as long as Obama keep letting them dictate what they want
xxxsdesdexxx
(213 posts)We should strongly call Israel out when they do something we don't agree with like, oh let's say, settlement expansion. We should label them an occupying force and demand that they withdraw and give Palestine their own country.
genna
(1,945 posts)Another whisper campaign from the Republicans.
Who would have thought it possible?
Maybe a former politician can defend himself better than a diplomat considering how long it may take to be nominated.
I guess winning election means nothing when Republicans can choose your cabinet for you and hamper the President's ability to choose his own staff.
Let's see what Obama does with this.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Third Doctor
(1,574 posts)one their own who they think is not pure (nuts) enough to land the position. The fact he is willing to work with a Obama makes him even worse.
HeavyMeta
(21 posts)JK will fly through... I think Hagel will have issues.
Jennicut
(25,415 posts)makes me want him as Sec of Defense even more. I am not anti-Semitic in any way and have some Jewish ancestry in my family on my mother's side. But Bibi is nuts and the ultra conservatives in Israel are as bad as the ultra conservatives here.
and BOTH of my parents are Jewish. I consider myself a Jewish Atheist with Agnostic tendencies.