January 13, 2013, 2:29 PM
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As I mentioned before, it is not at all surprising that Obama appointed Hagel, and I see little chance that the Senate will reject his appointment. Israel and its American friends however can take heart that Israel will not be Hagel's chief concern.
Hagel -- and Obama -- have bigger fish to fry than Israel. They are looking to take on the US military. They will slash military budgets, they will slash pensions and medical benefits for veterans in order to save a couple dollars and demoralize the military. They will unilaterally disarm the US to the point where America's antiquated nuclear arsenal will become a complete joke. And I don't see the military capable of stopping it. Anyone remember the F-22?
I find the whole Israel angle on Hagel irritating because of this. Yes, Hagel will be bad to Israel. But we can minimize the damage by diversifying our own arsenal and weaning ourselves off of US military handouts that only serve as work subsidies for US military contractors at the expense of Israeli ones.Moreover, for years that military aid has been a corrupting force on Israel's general staff. I've been advocating ending US military aid to Israel for more than a decade, but better late than wait until we find ourselves at war and out of spare parts because Hagel and Obama won't sign the requisition orders to Boeing and Lockheed.
Unlike Israel, the US military cannot minimize the damage that Hagel and Obama will cause. America's capabilities will suffer at the hands of the duly reelected Commander in Chief and his duly appointed Defense Secretary. The only chance to dodge that bullet was on Election Day and the American people blew it.
By making this a story about Hagel the anti-Semite, nice senators like Lindsey Graham and John McCain are obfuscating the main problem. The main reason Hagel shouldn't be appointed is not because he hates Israel. It is because he hates a strong America.
But then, that is why Obama appointed him. The American people in their wisdom, reelected Obama despite the fact that he wants to cut America down to size, strangle the economy in regulations and unaffordable welfare handouts and then gut its military. By making Hagel's appointment about Israel all his opponents are doing is giving Hagel and his supporters new excuses for sticking it to Israel.
It was Obama and his supporters that started the myth that Netanyahu was interfering in the elections, even though he did no such thing. All Netanyahu did was welcome Romney to Israel during the campaign, just as Olmert welcomed then senator Obama to Israel before the 2008 elections.
Obama, Hagel and their army of media outlets and operatives are setting Israel up to take the blame for everything they do and in the process seeking to demonize Israel's prime minister before the American people. The campaign against Hagel the anti-Semite just plays into that while hiding the real problem which is that he is anti-American.
NOTABLY, AT the same time that the US electorate decided they'd had it with being the indispensable nation and so reelected a man who said the US is as exceptional as Greece, Israelis have decided we've had enough with trying to pretend we're nothing special.
Next week we're going to vote and it is already clear that Israel is in the midst of the Second Zionist Revolution. The first Zionist revolution was a socialist revolution. The second Zionist revolution is Jewish. Israel is coming into its own. Judaism is flourishing, changing, living and breathing here like it never has anywhere since the destruction of the Second Commonwealth. The secular Left has been eclipsed by the Jewish Right. I don't call it the religious Right because that is too limiting. What's happening isn't just about religion, it's about everything and that is why non-observant hipsters in Tel Aviv are voting for the Jewish Home party. Non-observant and observant Jews are joining forces and the anti-religious are being left behind.
As my content editor at Latma Avishai Ivri explained to me a couple weeks ago, all the polling data we're seeing is largely worthless because it is based on calls to landlines and most young Israelis don't have landlines. Two thirds of the Jewish Home party's voters are under 40 and the party is polling at 14-18 seats in polls that under-represent their supporters. I don't pretend to know how the election results are going to look but it is clear that a massive change has occurred in the last few years and it will only become more pronounced in the coming years. Next week's election will be the first formal expression of this change.
Some fear that Netanyahu will take his electoral victory, throw it in the garbage and replay Sharon's perfidy, by spitting on his voters and his party and forming a narrow coalition with the far Left in order to appease the anti-Semites in Washington. But I don't see that happening. First, Netanyahu isn't as shameless as Sharon and he doesn't seem to have the dictatorial impulses Sharon suffered from.
Second, I don't think he has the people in Likud that would let him go that route. Sharon had Olmert and Livni who were happy to toss their values out the window for job promotions. Netanyahu is the head of the most right wing Likud list ever. The lefties he pushed into the cabinet despite his party members' objections last time around - Dan Meridor, Benny Begin and Michael Eitan -- were obliterated in the primaries. Netanyahu can't bring them in this time, even if he wants to. So that means he doesn't really have the ability to abandon his base, even if he wanted to. And again, I don't think he'd want to.
What all of this means is that beginning next month, we are in all likelihood going to see a post-American US government squaring off against the first genuinely Jewish Israeli government ever. I don't know what will happen when they meet. But I know it will be great material for my column.
Oh, and for Latma. Here's a song we produced two weeks ago that I believe gives voice to the public mood today. (Yes, I've been remiss in posting our shows, sorry, I have been busy. But my next entry is Latma's last two episodes.)
And a note to my loyal readers, I do apologize for taking a leave of absence from the Jerusalem Post. I miss writing my columns as much as you miss reading them.
But I hope when you buy (multiple copies of) my book later this year, you will say that it was time well spent away from you.
Oh, and one last thing, if you are an American Jew and trying to figure out who to contribute your money to, here's a good litmus test: Hagel. Is organization X (say, for instance, AIPAC), voicing opposition to Hagel or are they supporting him, or are they sitting on the fence? If it's one of the latter two, tear up the check.
And no, this doesn't contradict my point about Israel not being the problem with Hagel. He is an anti-Semite. And for American Jewish groups to remain silent about his appointment is worse than irresponsible. It is treacherous. My point about Hagel being anti-American is that the groups that should be leading the campaign against him are the American Legion and the Veterans' of Foreign Wars not AIPAC and the ADL, not that AIPAC and the ADL should be silent.
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Thank you Caroline. Once again with your expertise in world affairs and your boundless love for Eretz Yisrael you have managed to untangle the issues and make sense out of chaos. There is no question that Chuck Hagel is anti American, but as Obama is too he will make it his life's work to create an administration that marches to the beat of his drummer. Unfortunately if the fools who reelected Obama don't wake up very soon it might be too late to undo the damage. Yes, it does seem that Israel for once is back on the right path. Hopefully Netanyahu will have learned from his mistakes and realize that our day had indeed come. B'ezrat HaShem we will see a new and wondrous Holy Land.
about the poll, it is not noly that. It is two other basic facts. A - they call 500 people and say it is representative (sorry, I don't spell that good)of the number of voters, which is just under 5,000,000 (4.8 if to be exact). I don't know much about the art of statistics, but if one hundredth (is that how you say that? 0.01%?) is representative of anything, then that art is a total , well, nothing, actualy. B - it is well known that people eather lie or havn't realy decided yet.
I never, NEVER even bother reading or listenning to poll reports, I live out in the real world. The sound of the drums is loud and clear out here.
feel free to fix my spelling. Have a great day, week, life. You have earnd it.
A quiet purge of many officers known to be not pro-Obama has really already begun.
Caroline
I get my news from conservative sources on the web and even enjoy reading the answers of the general public - for and against.
Many times I see this same Jewish national pride shining through and it has seemed to be increasing.
When reading this I was pleased to have my analysis verified by someone of your calibre.
Anti-American and Anti-Semitic labels are too harsh. Hagel, like his boss to be are soft on superpower status and don't give much of a damn about Israel. So he got pissed off at the AIPACs and foolishly spoke publically. I'll bet he merely reflected what a lot of his colleagues say privately. Is it so hard to believe that the Jewish Lobby (and of course there is one) gets overbearing at times. Go threaten a Nebraskan (got to be at least 6 Jews in the State) with withholding donations to his next campaign. Hagel's nomination is just gives the American Jews to blow off some steam and believe they have some political influence. He'll testify he loves Israel, the Jewish Senators will ask tough questions and then vote for him. The American Jews will go along because they are in the tank for anything Obama does.
"dictatorial impulses"...That phrase just about defines the American leadership of today. No longer is there a quiet narcissism being played out in our national politics; it's an in your face attitude and "what are you going to do about it sneer!"
Don't leave out Al Gore...former television station owner who sold out to those who hate Jews of any description, of any nationality, anywhere and at anytime. This excuse for a "prep school" graduate has been a true "beta" male since he first looked up to his father. Then there's Bill Clinton, our new "father of the year" winner...see the pattern here?
Read your Tacitus...This is a game of "getting even" being played by those with grudges.
This is characteristically perspicacious. I'm looking forward to reading your book. Keep up the great work.
Chuck Hagel hates Jews. Or should I say, he hates Jews who think that Jews have rights and that their rights should be defended, in Israel by the government and the IDF, in America by Israel's supporters.
As the old saying goes, when you don't know a man's character (Obama) look to that of his friends and associates.
Hagel -- and Obama -- have bigger fish to fry than Israel. They are looking to take on the US military. They will slash military budgets, they will slash pensions and medical benefits for veterans in order to save a couple dollars and demoralize the military.
Yep. The military may be the last major American institution the left has been unable to destroy, or seriously damage. Obama's good friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn will agree that their Marxist/Maoist Utopia cannot be realized as long as the American military exists in it's traditional manner.
They will unilaterally disarm the US to the point where America's antiquated nuclear arsenal will become a complete joke. And I don't see the military capable of stopping it.
Agreed. Such is the power of a media that is totally in the tank for a regime.
Unlike Israel, the US military cannot minimize the damage that Hagel and Obama will cause. America's capabilities will suffer at the hands of the duly reelected Commander in Chief and his duly appointed Defense Secretary. The only chance to dodge that bullet was on Election Day and the American people blew it.
Will some future Gibbon devote a chapter in his/her book to the recent election?
The main reason Hagel shouldn't be appointed is not because he hates Israel. It is because he hates a strong America.
Unfortunately, with Obama free from reelection concerns, anyone nominated by him for any office will share a hatred of traditional America.
After WWI, the America Firsters were bitter at having been"dragged into the war by the British"
and made rearmament difficult in the 30's. US heroes like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh extolled Hitler as a great leader and FDR had to propel Japan into Pearl Harbor in order to arouse the US to fight. When you put Defense and State into the hands of disillusioned ex servicemen, you're going to get just what Obama wants: a US incapable of leadership. To be charitable, he may have just the naive notion of an even playingfield, but it is either naive or dangerous or both.
Caroline, your clarity of thought is simply awesome. Israel and the Jewish people are fortunate to have you. May you go from strength to strength.
I love what Carolyn clearly says about the primary threat Hagel poses to the US military, even more than to Israel. It's brilliant and something I pray someone in the Senate and the House says forcefully.
The Senate Resolution denounced Anti Semitism in Russia.
Ninety nine senators signed this incredible bi-partisan resolution.
But only one senator did NOT >>> Chuck the schmuck Hagel.
Forget the scumbag Hegel. The song is the most optimistic and uplifting I've heard from the Middle East (actually, from ANYWHERE) recently. Thanks.
Since Hagel was an enlisted man in Viet Nam,, he can't wait to shaft the senior officers at the Pentagon who were his superiors in Viet Nam.
"Chuck Hagel hates Jews. Or should I say, he hates Jews who think that Jews have rights and that their rights should be defended, in Israel by the government and the IDF, in America by Israel's supporters."
That's the classic definition of being an anti-Semite. Anti-Semites don't hate all Jews. They never did. They only hate Jews who believe in Judaism, the ones who have Jewish values, the ones who want to maintain Jewish customs and traditions, the ones who stand up for their rights and dignity as Jews.
Throughout history, with the small exception of the Holocaust, Jews could always escape persecution and oppression by converting or giving up their Jewishness.
Caroline wrote:
They will unilaterally disarm the US to the point where America's antiquated nuclear arsenal will become a complete joke.
She was correct!