If, like me, you caught snippets of today’s Senate hearing on the nomination of Chuck Hagel to serve as U.S. defense secretary, you could be forgiven the impression that he was nominated to serve as Israel defense secretary.
After all, almost every senator seemed more interested in getting Hagel to testify about his support for Israel than in getting him to delineate his plans for defending the United States; none more so than freshman Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
In fact, Cruz personified the ironic phenomenon of the American who acts more like a Zionist than any Jew in Israel – treating, as he did, any hint of criticism Hagel has ever uttered about Israel as if it were tantamount to blasphemy against the almighty God.
Except that the Hispanic Cruz has already demonstrated that he not only wants to be more Zionist than any Jew, but also more White and right wing than any White right-winger in the Republican Party. And, lest you think I’m being unfair to him, here’s how this latter-day Uncle Tom reacted just days ago after fellow Hispanic, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, announced the immigration reform proposal he and other Republicans struck with Democrats in the Senate:
I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants….
(Washington Post, January 29, 2013)
In other words, like the “severely conservative” Mitt Romney, Cruz thinks the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country should either “self-deport themselves” or wait until a Tea Party Republican like him is elected president to be rounded up and deported by force. But I digress….
I will have more to say about this insidious strain of pro-Israel pandering in American politics next week when I comment on Israeli Dror Moreh’s instructive documentary, The Gatekeepers.
For now I predict Hagel will be confirmed, despite the jihad against him by all of the self-appointed Israeli gatekeepers in the United States Senate. And, for the record, like Obama, I suspect Hagel has done more to demonstrate his unimpeachable support for Israel than any of his Pharisaic inquisitors….