Hagel , AIPAC and S RES 65 or What it Means to Represent the US
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- Written by Gilbert Schramm Gilbert Schramm
- Published: 10 March 2013 10 March 2013
The recent struggle over the nomination of Chuck Hagel for defense secretary is highly instructive and demands some attention from every responsible American citizen. Hagel is a Republican, but members of his own party, operating on the principle that they must oppose everything Obama does, savaged Hagel. Their excuse was primarily that Hagel has been “soft on supporting Israel.”
The fact is, he really never has—he has merely pointed out that he was elected to serve US interests, NOT Israeli interests. It is a distinction that is apparently lost on many of his GOP colleagues, especially those who vacuously preach that there should be “no daylight” between the US and Israel. Hagel might be a good pick at defense precisely because he can (and does) make that distinction. Of course he also said that AIPAC “intimidates” those it disagrees with. While they fiercely objected to this, they then showed their displeasure by a very public demonstration of intimidation. Ironic. It rather proves Hagels’s point.
Oddly (because he has been so idiotic over Susan Rice and the Benghazi affair), John McCain, while criticizing Hagel, made a distinction that is even more noteworthy—he said that the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) wasn’t a “Jewish lobby” but an “Israeli Lobby.” This is a rare grain of truth—and one with huge implications.
As a lobby for a foreign country, AIPAC would normally have to play by the strict rules that restrict lobbyists from foreign countries from gaining undue influence in the US. But by posing for years as a generic “Jewish Lobby” (representing American Jews) AIPAC has always been oddly exempted from that requirement. The result is something every American should worry about.
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