Former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel – Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense – appears to have another battle to fight relative to past comments that increasingly make the case that he is anti-Israel at best and anti-Semitic at worst (note that it is Republicans who are opposing their own; Democrats rarely do that). Hagel is reported to have asserted during a 2007 speech at Rutgers University that the U.S. State Department had become an arm of Israel.
No, really.
Via the Free Beacon:
Hagel said the U.S. Department of State was an adjunct of the Israeli foreign minister’s office, according to a contemporaneous report of the event.
Republican political consultant and Hagel supporter George Ajjan wrote about the March 2, 2007, speech on his website the following day, writing a description “point by point through some of the more important elements of his speech.”
Here is Ajjan’s account:
6) The State Department has become adjunct to the Israeli Foreign Minister’s office…
Wow. A very bold statement by Hagel bound to further raise the ire of the “Jewish Lobby” (yawn…), but it does express his strong belief in a comprehensive solution to problems in the Middle East. Hagel mentioned this theme several times – comprehensive, he said, in the sense that all tools should be used to achieve American foreign policy objectives (diplomatic, political, economic, and military), but also comprehensive in the James Baker sense of addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict holistically as both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have proved too lazy and too incompetent to do.
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and Kelly Ayotte (NH) sent Hagel a letter requesting that he confirm or deny that these comments were made.
Evidence the State Department is an entity that does Israel’s bidding is not only laughable on its face but completely belied by very recent history. Two years after Hagel allegedly made those statements, Huma Abedin entered the State Department as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closest adviser, in her role as Deputy Chief of Staff.
Contrary to the vague, unspecific, and unsubstantiated claims allegedly made by Hagel in 2007, a case can absolutely be made that Saudi influence in the U.S. State Department via Abedin is far more likely. Abedin worked at the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA) for more than ten years prior to leaving to work for Hillary in 2009. The IMMA was founded by Abdullah Omar Naseef at the urging of the Saudi Royal family. Naseef has ties to Al-Qaeda. Among other things, he founded the Rabita Trust, which was shut down by the U.S. Government one month after the 9/11/01 attacks. An al-Qaeda founder was running Rabita at the time.
Abedin’s parents were put in charge of running the IMMA and Huma’s mother – Saleha Abedin – is one of 63 leaders with the Muslim Sisterhood.
In addition to Graham and Ayotte asking Hagel for clarification on his alleged 2007 comments, perhaps they could also ask him his opinion of Abedin’s ties to the Brotherhood and what he thinks of her spending four years as Clinton’s close adviser at State.
Furthermore, all of the Democratic Senators who are also Jewish, fully support the confirmation of Hagel, who is increasingly looking anti-Israel at best and anti-Semitic at worst. If either one of those conclusions is true, the likes of Al Franken, Barbra Boxer, Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin, et. al. are prioritizing the Democratic Party (regardless of what it does) over their own heritage.
Got empathy for Moses yet?
Stiff-necked people, indeed.