There isn’t much doubt Chuck Hagel will finally be confirmed as secretary of defense this week when the Senate reconvenes. Some Republicans have abandoned their support of delaying the nomination. Meanwhile, Democrats–even those who have reputations as stalwart friends of Israel–have closed ranks behind President Obama’s choice. The result is that a man who was widely ridiculed for his incompetent performance during his confirmation hearing and who has a long record of troubling stands on Israel, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah will soon be running the Pentagon. As Pete wrote earlier today, having a “dim-witted” secretary of defense who isn’t up to the task of helping to set policy is bad for national security. There is also good reason to worry that whatever influence Hagel does have will be used to downgrade the alliance with Israel and to act as a brake on efforts to isolate Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
But before the book on the Hagel confirmation fight is closed, it’s worth re-examining one of the excuses used by some Democrats in refusing to stand up against such an unsuitable nomination. Many of those who otherwise count themselves as staunch friends of Israel—and who almost certainly would have gone to the barricades to oppose a similar candidate had he been put forward by a Republican president—have defended their support of Hagel by saying that it was impossible for them to speak out on the issue when Jewish and pro-Israel groups were silent. While many Jewish groups did keep quiet about Hagel, the initial reluctance of others went out the window in the last weeks as more information came to light about Hagel’s past statements about Jews and Israel. Earlier this month, Abe Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, said Hagel’s statements were disturbing and called for an explanation.
The latest to do so was B’nai B’rith International. On Friday, it said it was troubled by Hagel’s record as well as by his statements and urged the Senate to re-examine his record before voting. In doing so, it joined the American Jewish Committee, another large mainstream and generally liberal organization, in calling for a halt to the rush to confirm Hagel.
Prior to this, the Zionist Organization of America had made its negative views about Hagel very clear. The Republican Jewish Coalition had also been doing its best to galvanize opposition to the nomination. But since neither group can be said to represent the views of most liberals, it was possible for Hagel’s defenders to say they didn’t represent most Jews. But with ADL, AJC and B’nai B’rith speaking up, that just isn’t possible anymore.
There should be no misunderstanding, heading into the final debate about Hagel, about the insincerity of his confirmation conversion in which his past positions on Israel and its foes were abandoned. Israel-bashers are confident that the process by which Hagel morphed into a supposed ardent backer of the alliance with the Jewish state will be forgotten once he is ensconced in the Pentagon. But the willingness of so many pro-Israel Democrats to turn a blind eye to Hagel’s shortcomings in an effort to please President Obama is a shocking abandonment of principle. This is a not insignificant point that deserves to be brought up whenever some of the Democrats, like New York’s Chuck Schumer, who will vote for Hagel this week, parade their pro-Israel credentials in an effort to garner support and raise funds. It may be too late in the game to expect these politicians to behave in a manner that is consistent with their past statements, but, like Hagel, they should be held accountable.
It was none other than Karl Marx who wrote, that history repeats itself, "the first as tragedy, then as farce." n nThe "tragedy, is, of course, that it was elected Jewish Democrats who refused to press FDR to help save European Jews during the Shoah. Loyalty to a Democratic President along with a good measure of fear of stoking antisemitism combined to produce a Jewish leadership incapable of challenging a sitting Democratic President. n nThe "farce" is the Hagel nomination- a man so obviously imbued with animosity toward Israel and, even more troubling, a visceral hostility toward the participation of American Jews in the political process. And the reaction among elected Jewish Democrats is a yet another loyalty and fealty oath to a Democratic President.
"…it was elected Jewish Democrats who refused to press FDR to help save European Jews during the Shoah." n nWhile the Republicans cried, "Save them! Save them!"
Realizing that history does not appear to be HillelA's strong suit, nevertheless, perhaps in an effort at some self-education, may I suggest he read "The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust", published in 1984 by David S. Wyman followed by "Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the "Jewish Vote" and Bipartisan Support for Israel" published in 2012.
even if so, this would make the hypothetical abandonment by FDR OK? because a partisan point could be scored against the GOP? n nFDR did make however at least some small contribution to the defeat of the Naziis: America fought a war side by side with the Soviet Union Pat Buchanan et al. continue to insist was the wrong war against the wrong foe.
Chuck Hagel is an excellent choice as a representative of Obama: ambivalence/hostility toward Israel, ambivalence/friendly toward Iran and other criminal regimes, and basically a bumbling fool who never should have attained high office. Yep, the glove fits perfectly. n nHopefully, this appointment will help fuel a Republican renaissance; as the U.S. faces new threats, the citizenry will be frightened enough to move to the right in foreign policy and defense matters, which are by far the Republicans' strongest suit.
For me the scariest thing about Hagel as Defense Secretary is his access to Israeli military secrets. He can do a lot of damage with insider knowledge without actually directly compromising Israeli intelligence sources. Would an Israeli Prime Minister be as willing to share intelligence with the USA when we have an anti-Semite as Defense Secretary?
"[T]he Anti-Defamation League said Hagel’s statements were disturbing and called for an explanation….B’nai B’rith International…said it was troubled by Hagel’s record as well as by his statements and urged the Senate to re-examine his record before voting….The American Jewish Committee, [called]for a halt to the rush to confirm Hagel." n nwow! that's really speaking truth to power, Jewish organizations! you're "disturbed"–you want a "reexamination of his record"–easy now, Moishe, you don't want to have a stroke. n noh please. n nif anyone wonders, as I have, how the Jews of Europe could have walked silently by the millions into the cattle cars to their deaths, this is a clue. n
or, just guessing, a crowd of civilians is easily controlled by a few people with submachine guns. n nthey didn't walk by the millions into the cattle cars–they were systematically stripped of their identity and intimidated. operatng within deeply ant-semitic populations a few thousand Eittzengruppen and their auxiliaries were able to murder a million Jews in the Eastern Front. n nisrael has a national army. The rest of us remain hostages to fortune. n ntwo-three million Polish Catholics were murdered by the Nazis. n npresumably not due to lack of spunk and sass n n
Bad day for global hegemonists.
"…they should be held accountable….. n nWhy can a country, whose people cannot seem to grasp what is happening to them, deny the leadership of the Pentagon to Chuck Hagel? Clearly, even Jewish senators can't find reasons to take this issue on. n nAnd as for who 'should be held accountable," why all of us should be—including Jonathan Tobin, who seems willfully clueless as to the real nature of Barack Obama and the truth about his presidency. n nThere is precedent for this. The Jews of Europe and the US seemed "willfully clueless" as to what Hitler had in mind for them—until the Gestapo and the SS began the Final Solution. Nothing's changed, at least not among our people. This is particularly worrisome, given the "conservative" slant of Commentary's writers. If they don't get it, who does? n nChuck Hagel is just the latest example of what Barack Obama is doing to our military. Maybe one of you (?????) recalls Obama's 2008 campaign promise, to create a civilian youth corps "larger and better funded than the Pentagon." What do you suppose the purpose of that "corps" (pronounced "corpse" in Obama-speak!) might be? Job creation? Really? Tens of millions of kids pressed into a leader's service—for jobs? Really? n nAnd look at the Left even in Israel, how in spite of what the Palestinians and other Arabs are teaching their children about Jews, how they are training them to "kill the Jew hiding behind the rock or tree," the Jewish Left remains loyal to "the peace process." n nChuck Hagel? He's a nothing. And, why does Jonathan Tobin suggest that the Senate deny Hagel the leadership of the Pentagon? Because he's made anti-Semitic comments? Evidently Chuck Schumer and Carl Levin don't agree. Gee, and I thought they "liked" being Jewish! n nIf Hagel had even coughed in a "racist" way, or hinted that gays were his cup of tea, you can bet that the entire Democratic Senate would vote against this nomination! But anti-Semitism? C'mon, Jonathan! If Jewish senators like Hagel, he can't be all that bad. Or, maybe anti-Semitism isn't as bad as we've been led to believe. Right? n nBarack Obama has been slowly and quietly forcing the generals that are not "his" to retire from the US military, while replacing them in key positions with those generals who are "his." Sound familiar? It's what Stalin, Hitler, Mao and every other Marxist demagogue did. They shape everything in their society to suit them, so that when the door of democracy finally shuts one last time, they will be the unchallenged leader of their people. n nWhether Obama is or isn't like those 20th-century monsters is unknown now. But which president in our past mimicked such tactics? Which clearly harbored so much dislike for half of the US population? Which set Americans at one another's throats: rich vs. poor, white vs. black, gay vs. straight, etc? And what will the result of this be? What can it be, except collapse? n nToday, a friend of my wife who went back to China to see her mother reports that violent hatred of Japan, the US and the Philippines is rampant in the cities and towns. She is a former reporter for CNN, based out of Hong Kong, now living in NYC. She saw a sign in a restaurant that should send shivers down every Jew's spine: "No Japanese, Americans, Filipinos, or dogs served here!" She's sending us the photo she took of the sign. But I have many memories of the violent racism in China today—three years ago in Chongqing a woman driving a BMW tried to run me down in a parking lot. She screamed: "Get out of here, you dirty foreigner." n nWar is coming. Either war, or surrender. And this war will not spare "the lower 48" this time. Nor do the Chinese fight—unless they are assured of a victory. What, we must ask, is Obama doing to prepare for this war—the first shots of which have been "delivered" via hacking into our business computers, our military servers, our government bureaus and agencies? And since we know he is doing the minimum, and even that at a snail's pace, we must ask: What is this president actually up to? Does he mean to do the unthinkable? n nOf course neither I nor Jonathan Tobin can know for certain what Barack Obama is doing, or even who he actually is! But at least–unlike Tobin—–I've outlined a few of the possibilities, as well as insisting that what Obama is doing must not be simply “reported.” Some attempt, at least, must be made to explain what is behind this president’s behavior. Or, so you’d have thought. n n[continued] n
[continued] n nObama, Kerry, perhaps Hagel as well—are readying a "spring surprise" for us. It will culminate in the announcement of a "non-proliferation" deal with Iran. In return for the mullah's agreeing not to continue enriching uranium, Israel will be asked to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and then allow inspections by the IAEA. The reason for Chuck Hagel is that he, unlike Leon Panetta or any thinking head of the Defense Department, can be counted on to do as he's told by Barack Obama. Of course, I could be wrong. n nJonathan Tobin—what is the point of all that you write, other than to mention the obvious? "…they should be held accountable," my foot! Who will hold "them" accountable? You? B'nai Brith? The local JCC? The Wise Men of Chelm? My boy, 65% of America's Jews love Barack Obama. They have paid for his campaigns, drooled over his mere presence, voted for him, and helped formulate Obama-ism. The Jews in the film business last night went so far as to conflate Michelle Obama with the "Best Motion Picture of 2012!!" n nThe remaining 30% of our community, the ones who say they don't like Obama (but probably do secretly) are either indifferent or unwilling to peer into the darkness. Same as last time, 1933-1945. And after the war, I can still recall a German Jewish refugee at our shul, asking us to assure her there were no "Litvaks" in our congregation. You see, she didn't like Jews from Lithuania, any more than the SS had! n nSo, who will hold our would-be executioners "accountable" this time? No one will.
Wow! Jonathan. I am waiting for this unforgettable moment of Truth. Chuck Hagel will be confirmed as Secretary of Defense when Senate reconvenes. Republicans abandoned delaying nomination. Stalwart friends of Israel Democrats closed ranks behind President Obama’s choice. That man ridiculed for his incompetent performance during confirmation hearing and troubling stands on Israel, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah will be running Pentagon. As Orwell coined contradictory beliefs of hypocrisy and neutrality Pete the doublethinker wrote earlier today, having a “dim-witted” secretary of defense who isn’t up to task of helping to set policy is bad for National Security. Pete and you knew that you ain’t winning this battle but both of you continued promising your conscious of a victories that ain’t there. Give me in the seven thousands years of Jewish history one metaphor: ‘Once upon a time………..and they lived happily ever after’. I feel sorry for both of you.
HAGEL CLOTURE PASSES 71-27; FINAL VOTE nThat’s makes sense now to me. Nirupama Rao hangover influenced by DC Israelifirsters who probably promised him and his family E-2 visas if he ever uses Indian stance to put Hagel vote to death. Hagel remarks ain’t unearthed Monday by Washington Free Beacon Israelifirsters. Hagel speech at Oklahoma's Cameron University is GoogledJunk for some time since 2011. Where’s the Indian Ambassador all these years? Nirupama Rao fast asleep for past 2 years. If Nirupama Rao took him 2 years to google Hagel Speech – How would India sport Afghan Politics to rile Pakistan by Rao-Type at the helm in Delhi – Unless Pakistan exploiting Delhi superiority-complex to drain Indian treasury in stockpiling on arms for a war that both ain’t dare. Wow! Jonathan. I am waiting for this unforgettable moment of Truth. Chuck Hagel will be confirmed as Secretary of Defense when Senate reconvenes. Republicans abandoned delaying nomination. Stalwart friends of Israel Democrats closed ranks behind President Obama’s choice. That man ridiculed for his incompetent performance during confirmation hearing and troubling stands on Israel, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah will be running Pentagon. As Orwell coined contradictory beliefs of hypocrisy and neutrality Pete the doublethinker wrote earlier today, having a “dim-witted” secretary of defense who isn’t up to task of helping to set policy is bad for National Security. Pete and you knew that you ain’t winning this battle but both of you continued promising your conscious of a victories that ain’t there. Give me in the seven thousands years of Jewish history one metaphor: ‘Once upon a time………..and they lived happily ever after’. I feel sorry for both of you. n