There are real reasons that the neocon crowd oppose
Hagel that are merely masked by their libelous charges of
anti-Semitism. Even Danny Ayalon, the current Deputy Foreign Minister
of Israel, has come out supporting Hagel for Secretary of Defense,
referring to him as a friend.
To get a deeper appreciation why they
hate him, I refer you to the keynote speech that then-Senator Hagel gave
at the 2007 annual conference of the National Council on US-Arab
Relations (NCUSAR). In that speech, Sen. Hagel strongly defended the
Constitutional separation of powers, emphasized Article I, Section 8 of
the Constitution, giving Congress sole authority to bring the country to
war, and noting that Article I pertains to Congress, not the Executive
Branch, because Congress has the most direct accountability to the
American people. He echoed the warnings of General George Marshall and
others against foreign entanglements with Israel that jeopardize
American relations with the Arab world. He is knowledgeable about the
defense sector, like his predecessor Bob Gates, and because he is a
Republican, it will be harder for the GOP to play strictly partisan
warfare games on some of the most important decisions in decades on US
defense policy. Clearly Hagel will be a voice against the unbridled
expansion of unitary executive power.
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