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Iran Gets the Message on Hagel

Alana Goodman | @alanagoodman 01.07.2013 - 10:45 AM

If there were any lingering doubts about how Obama really feels about Israel “in his kishkes,” the coming nomination of Chuck Hagel for defense secretary has sufficiently put them to rest.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll hear apologies from all the pro-Israel Democrats who vouched for him before reelection. The most entrenched Jewish Obama defenders, the ones who sunk too much of their credibility into him to turn back, will now set to work trying to justify Hagel.

As Jonathan wrote, we’ll probably hear how Hagel’s views have “evolved” and “don’t matter anyway,” because Obama sets the policies. That’s nonsense. Just about the only thing notable about Hagel’s decades-long record is that, when given a choice between totalitarian regimes and democrats, time and time again he has sided with the former. And if Obama just wanted a lackey, he had plenty of more qualified choices who would have breezed through confirmation. There is only one reason, one possible advantage, of choosing a fight over Hagel. And that’s to send a message to Israel and Iran.

It’s a message Iran has apparently received loud and clear, according to its state-owned Press TV (h/t WFB):

Obama to name anti-Israeli Hagel as Defense Secretary: Reports
All signs indicate that US President Barack Obama is poised to nominate anti-Israel ex-Senator Chuck Hagel as the next defense secretary soon, informed sources say. …
The top nominee for the post of defense secretary was the first Republican senator to publicly criticize the war in Iraq, calling it the worst foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam War, and he has consistently opposed any plan to launch military strike against Iran. …
Pundits believe the appointment of Hagel could spark tensions between Washington and Tel Aviv, but they predict no considerable trouble in his confirmation process in the Congress as he enjoys bipartisan support.

For whatever reason, Obama wants a defense secretary who the Iranian regime views as “anti-Israel” and anti-military force. Maybe he thinks it will help bring Iran to the negotiating table, or push the Israeli military to try to deal with the problem unilaterally. But it’s clear Obama never really gave up on his desire to reach out to the genocidal butchers in Tehran. He just put it off until he had more flexibility.

Topics: Barack Obama, Chuck Hagel, Iran, Israel

Monday, January 7, 2013