Chuck Hagel - SecDef 2012 - President 2016

Chuck Hagel: An Unconventional Realist

Why the Israel lobby hates him — and why we need him at DoD

The knives are out:

“Send us Hagel and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite.”

That’s what a top Republican Senate aide told the Weekly Standard in response to the news that President Obama is likely to nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his new Secretary of Defense. Normally, the Israel lobby would try to hide such viciousness, acting behind the scenes to go after their perceived enemies in ways that might repel bystanders: not this time, however.

It’s an indication of their diminished stature and power that they are openly going in for the kill, perhaps hoping they can pull a Bobby Ray Inman. Inman, you’ll recall, took himself out of the running for SecDef during the Clinton administration when Bill Safire, then Likudnik-in-chief among newspaper columnists, went after the respected former admiral and intelligence maven because he had sought to limit our sharing of intelligence with Israel. No sooner had the Inman appointment been announced then it was suddenly discovered he had failed to pay  by Browse to Save”>Social Security taxes .” Hagel, however, is made of tougher stuff, so it will have to be the President who blinks.

Why the hate directed at Hagel? Bill Kristol, the neocons’ little Lenin, has provided us with a handy list of reasons, all of which involve Hagel’s adamant refusal to take his marching orders from Tel Aviv.

AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby whose local affiliates spend millions bribingmembers of Congress, routinely circulates letters on this or that issue-of-the-moment involving the Jewish state’s demands on Washington, which our solons are then blackmailed into signing. Most of them do: not Hagel. Asked about this at a New York meeting with a pro-Israel group pushing for a US attack on Iran, the straight-talking Vietnam vet told his interlocutor:

“Let me clear something up here if there’s any doubt in your mind. I’m a U.S. Senator. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a U.S. Senator. I support Israel… But my first interest is, I take an oath to the constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel.”

Read the rest here:  http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/12/16/chuck-hagel-an-unconventional-realist/