President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, John Brennan as CIA director and John Kerry as Secretary of State will be a triple disaster if the Senate confirms these appointments.
Obama’s three picks all have records that should surely disqualify them from the top American defense, intelligence and diplomatic positions.
My article two weeks ago detailed how Hagel has repeatedly insisted on weakening (gutting) American defense capabilities, has a long record of virulent Israel bashing, voted against legislation to curb the Iranian threat, and has made it clear that he will not stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Hagel and Obama’s other nominees will allow existential threats to America and our allies go unchecked.
Hagel’s miserable record also includes gay bashing and employment discrimination, including opposing an appointment of an American diplomat because he was “openly aggressively gay.”
John Brennan’s record is equally alarming. Brennan praised Hezbollah, praised “our Saudi partners” for their custodianship of the “holy mosques” at Mecca and Medina, and said that “Al Quds” was his favorite city during a speech at NYU in Feb. 2010. (Hezbollah is a terrorist organization which demands Israel’s extinction. Saudi Arabia is notorious for restricting religious freedom and discriminating against non-Muslims. And “Al Quds” is the name for Jerusalem used by those who want to demolish Israel.)
A CIA director who praises terrorist organizations and whose favorite city is “Al Quds” is a frightening prospect.
Sen. John Kerry is just as bad. Kerry is among a very tiny minority of senators who refused to sign letters and/or voted against legislation to: impose sanctions on Iran (2010); insist that Palestinians engage in direct face-to-face negotiations with Israel without preconditions by either side (2010); include Hezbollah in a terrorist report (2003); urge President Obama to reiterate readiness to use military force if all other measures fail to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capacity (Dec. 2012); support Israel’s right of self-defense (2012) and urge the EU to name Hezbollah as a terrorist organization (Sept. 2012).
Kerry also advocated and influenced Obama to support Mubarak’s ouster (a disastrous policy which resulted in the dangerous Morsi radical Islamist regime in Egypt). Kerry also advocated renewed diplomatic ties with Assad’s Syria despite Syria’s complicity in transporting IEDs to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and Syrian complicity in the murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri.
Kerry also condemned the Israeli security barrier. (The Israeli security barrier was needed to stop the intifada, in which Palestinian terrorists murdered and wounded thousands of Israelis.)
In sum, Obama’s three nominees will: weaken our military, refuse to address the existential Iranian nuclear threat with needed crippling sanctions and military options, oppose addressing a variety of other terrorist threats, display extreme animosity towards Israel, and endanger America and our allies.
We need to demand that our elected officials oppose these confirmations. And our elected officials need to start speaking up about this.
Unfortunately, so far, our local elected officials have been eerily silent about these potential disastrous appointments.
When Kirsten Gillibrand spoke at the Mashadi Synagogue in Great Neck last year, she claimed that she is for strong American security and pro-Israel.
Why have we not heard from her on the Hagel-Kerry-Brennan appointments? In order to win his Senate seat, Schumer walked throughout Steppingstone Park and other local gathering places in 1998, assuring Great Neck residents that he would champion U.S. security and pro-Israel policies just as Alfonse D’Amato always did. Why is Schumer silent now?
Back in 2008, when Obama attempted to appoint Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council, Congressman Steve Israel spoke up and demanded an investigation of Freeman’s unseemly ties to Saudi Arabia and China. (Freeman defended the Chinese government’s actions in the Tianamen Square massacre, and ran a Saudi-funded organization which represented Saudi interests and distributed anti-Israel propaganda.) I’ve praised Steve Israel in prior articles in this newspaper for taking a brave stand in the Chas Freeman affair.
But why is Steve Israel also silent now?
And why is the National Jewish Democratic Council (which opposed Hagel’s previous appointment) silent now? Are leading Democrats so cowed by Obama’s threats and power that they no longer speak out when necessary?
And where is AIPAC? Sadly, the so-called “Jewish lobby” has again failed to act when strong action is needed. I
nterestingly, on CNN last night, Peter Beinart (who displayed his antipathy towards Israel in a recent Great Neck debate) gleefully claimed that Hagel will probably be confirmed because AIPAC is not taking strong action against Hagel’s confirmation. (AIPAC also failed to speak up against Chas Freeman’s nomination in 2008. A few brave individuals and other groups saved us from that disaster – but we cannot count on others succeeding again.) AIPAC’s supporters and donors should demand that AIPAC should zealously oppose these dangerous appointments.
Thankfully, some organizations, including the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Emergency Committee for Israel, the Zionist Organization of America, AFSI, and the Center for Security Policy, have sounded the alarm bells about Hagel, Kerry and Brennan. Groups and individuals opposed to job discrimination against gays including the Log Cabin Republicans have also spoken out against Hagel. But, these groups should not have to act alone.
Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of the American public wants strong American defense, opposes nuclear Iran, and supports Israel. We need to make our voices heard.
After publication of my initial article warning about Hagel, a man who has an Arabic last name (a name which happens to be the Hebrew word for “snake”) attacked American support for Israel and attacked me personally in a letter to this newspaper.
In previous letters, the same man supported Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions (despite Teheran’s chants of “death to America”), and attacked me and my children. I’ve refrained from fully responding in the past, but enough is enough. This man appears to be a trained propagandist for a radical Islamist entity. He or someone with the exact same first and last name wrote a blog in 2010 (which is still on the Internet) about his meetings with Arab media experts and government officials in Abu Dhabi to learn to promote the “Arab perspective.” This man’s personal attacks on me and my family are of course completely inappropriate. His attack on American support for Israel is also wrong.
Americans are safer because Israel is our unwavering ally. Steadfast American support for Israel is important for America’s sake as well as for our ally’s sake.
On March 2, 2011, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified before the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee about the extraordinary importance of Israel to America’s security.
When asked about the value of the American-Israeli military partnership to America’s national security, Admiral Mullen responded:
“Well, it’s of extraordinary value. I’ve invested a lot of my time with the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] as well, and I think that partnership, which is longstanding, is critical, and will continue to be in the future. . . . certainly we enjoy a deep relationship that I think is absolutely critical to the near-term and long-term stability in the Middle East in what is . . . a pretty unstable [region] –
Congressman Young then asked: “With regard to the U.S. national security. Is it [Israel] critical as well to U.S. national security?”
Admiral Mullen answered: “Yes, it is.”
Congressman Young again asked whether “our military partnership with Israel” is also critical to our security.
Admiral Mullen again responded: “Yes, it is, absolutely.”
Congressman Young then turned to Secretary of Defense Gates and asked him: “Mr. Secretary, do you feel that way as well?”
Secretary Gates responded: “Yes.”
Israel has also been an incalculable source of critical intelligence and other support for America.
Israel has acted time and time again, and has achieved miraculous victories that helped assure our own security here. During the Cold War, Israel was the bulwark that stopped Soviet domination of the Middle East, thereby protecting American interests. Syria and Egypt had pacts with Soviet Union commencing in 1955, and received hundreds of millions of dollars of arms and military aid from the Soviets. Syria and Egypt acted as Soviet proxies during the Cold War era. The Israeli victories in 1967 and 1973 helped stop the Soviets in their tracks.
In 1981, Israel destroyed Iraq’s nuclear weapons facility. And in 2007, Israel destroyed Syria’s nuclear weapons facility. One can only imagine the horrific toll of American lives that would have been lost if America would have had to deal with a nuclear Iraq or nuclear Syria. Many of the IEDs that killed our soldiers in Iraq were supplied through Syria. Just imagine the horror that would have resulted if Syria had been also able to supply dirty nuclear bombs to attack and kill our American soldiers!
Israel of course has been at the forefront of the existential worldwide battle to stop radical Islamist terrorist attacks for decades.
Let’s do whatever we can to stop Senate confirmation of a triumvirate who will weaken and endanger America and our allies.
Liz Berney
Great Neck
