Ayoon Wa Azan (Will Israel or America Win?)

If there is anyone, whether in or outside the United States, who still claims that there is a lobby stronger than the Israel lobby in America, then all he has to do is examine the media campaign in recent days against Barack Obama’s possible nomination of Chuck Hagel, former Republican Senator from Nebraska, as Defense Secretary in his new administration. Hagel is a decorated Vietnam War veteran. His name was circulated as a possible candidate but not yet officially. This prompted the Israel lobby to declare war on the Obama administration using terrorism, just like Israel – which the lobby defends – does. The campaign was spearheaded by William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and the successor of his father Irving as leader of the neoconservatives. That is to say, that group which lobbied for the war on Iraq and the murder of one million Arabs and Muslims. Kristol said that Hagel’s nomination would be a test for President Obama’s policy on Israel, and his seriousness about preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. He also said that it is a test for pro-Israel, anti-nuclear-Iran Democrats. He then thanked the Republicans for opposing the nomination of Susan Rice as Secretary of State and said that Hagel’s nomination would be much worse. What is much worse than Kristol’s view, if that is at all possible, is that of Bret Stephens, a former editor of the Likud-leaning Jerusalem Post in occupied Palestine. Now he is an op-ed contributor in the Wall Street Journal, where the op-ed section is entirely Likudnik and serves to justify Israel’s racism, crimes and occupation. Stephens begins by referring to what Hagel once said, that “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” meaning Congress. I say this too, and I accuse anyone who denies it of being part of the Israel or the Jewish lobby – although I prefer the first term because the majority of Jewish Americans are centrist liberals, while the lobby is rightwing ad extremist, and advocates occupation and killing. When the issue is supporting Israel’s crimes, one cannot overlook the (Jewish) Anti-Defamation League and its president Abraham Foxman, who believes that Chuck Hagel would not be the first, second, or third choice for the American Jewish community's friends of Israel. He also said that choosing Hagel would be troubling. But I read a commentary that reminded us that Foxman is the Jewish American who proclaims that Jews and Christians have the right to build synagogues and churches wherever they wanted, but that Muslims have no right to build a mosque in New York. I pause here to note that Hagel’s record indeed contains what is enough to raise concern among the supporters of Israel. For instance, he refuses to be a 'doormat' for the Israel lobby, as one of his supporters said, and his record includes the following: - In 2006, Hagel told Aaron David Miller, a peace envoy, “I’m a United States Senator, not an Israeli Senator. I'm a United States Senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States. Not to a president. Not a party. Not to Israel. If I go run for Senate in Israel, I'll do that.” I have mentioned the above a few days ago, and I have cited it again today in full. - During the second intifada, Hagel called on Israel to demonstrate its commitment to peace. Here, the Likudnik Brett Stevens spoke about 457 Israelis killed in 2002 during the second intifada, but he failed to mention that Israel killed 1,500 Palestinian children in the same period, and a whole family in Gaza last month. - In 2006, Hagel said about the Summer War on Lebanon that it is a destruction of an ally of the United States and its land and people. In 2007, he refused to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. - David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), recounted recently how Sen. Chuck Hagel in 1999 refused to join a statement against anti-Semitism in Russia. The AJC ran a full-page ad in the New York Times with 99 Senate signatories, and only Sen. Hagel’s name was absent. I say that we have before us an American citizen who is committed to the best interests of his country, against an Israeli fifth column that would sacrifice the U.S. and its interests every day to serve Israel. The coming weeks will show us whether Israel will win, with Hagel meeting the same fate as Susan Rice; or whether America will win, with a true American in the post of the defense secretary of America. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.