Americans for Peace Now today issued the following statement:
APN supports President Obama's right, as the president of the United States, to name members of his cabinet. With respect to Senator Hagel, APN strongly rejects attacks on Senator Hagel's record on Israel and Middle East-related issues. We know Senator Hagel well from his time in office. In the Senate he was a thoughtful legislator with a deep commitment to U.S. national security and a keen understanding of the full gamut of complex foreign policy issues, including the vital importance of achieving durable Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Attacks on Senator Hagel for his record on Israel and the Middle East are disconnected from Senator Hagel's actual record and his qualifications for the office to which President Obama is reportedly considering nominating him. These attacks appear to reflect, more than anything, a desire to impose a very narrow ideological litmus test on senior U.S. officials - a litmus test that is in no way linked to their abilities to carry out the responsibilities of the office for which they are being considered, or even to their own commitment to the vital interests of the country they would serve. Such a litmus test serves the interests of neither the United States or Israel.
Email a friend
twitter
facebook
feed
This is sadly reminiscent of the smear campaign led by Sen. C. Schumer and the usual crowd of Zionists in 2008 or so that successfully blocked Ambassador Chas Freeman's nomination to be Director of National Security. Obama caved in cowardly in that instance and, if I were a betting man, I'd bet that Obama will not even bother to enter Senator Hagel's name for SECDEF. AIPAC and the rest of the Zionist Lobby rule America....