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Tuesday, February 05, 2013

'Senators from Israel'?

You just knew this would happen. Time Magazine publishes a piece by Brandon Friedman that counts (counts!) references to Israel and Afghanistan in last Thursday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
In fact, Lee—by himself—made reference to Israel and its security a total of 16 times.
Why is this important? It’s important because Lee never mentioned Afghanistan and the 66,000 U.S. troops at war there.
And Lee was not alone.
Freshman Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas also grilled Hagel about Israel. He mentioned the Jewish state 10 times—without ever once referring to Afghanistan or the U.S. troops in combat there.
When it was their turn to question Hagel, GOP senators Roy Blunt of Missouri and Roger Wicker of Mississippi each referred to Israel in a half dozen instances.  Neither mentioned Afghanistan.
In nearly eight hours of interrogation and testimony, Israel and its interests were referred to by the Senate Armed Services Committee a total of 106 times. On the other hand, there were a mere 24 references made to Afghanistan and the Americans fighting there—most by Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the committee.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan—where the U.S. frequently targets militants with drone-launched Hellfire missiles—barely merited mention at all.
It’s difficult to interpret this message any other way: the Senate Armed Services Committee—particularly its Republican membership—is more concerned with the apparent American defense secretary’s relationship with Israel than with the future of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the fate of U.S. troops engaged in both locations.
The reason for that imbalance is because Hagel's views on Israel (and Iran, which is not mentioned in this post) veer wide left from even the very extreme views of the Obama administration. When it comes to Afghanistan (and Iraq and the US defense budget), Hagel's views are more in line with those of the administration. 

Nothing to see here.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:54 PM

1 Comments:

At 2:18 PM, Blogger Shy Guy said...

I've often repeated this 70's recollection of mine:

When Menachem Begin upset the status quo and won the Israeli elections back in 1977, TIME Magazine introduced Begin to its readership by telling them that his name rhymes with Charles Dicken's anti-Semitic character of a Jew, "Fagin."

The next issue of TIME included a letter to the editor by someone who wanted to make sure that the magazine's readership was aware that TIME rhymes with slime, grime and crime.

I haven't picked up a copy of this dreck publication for at least 2 decades now.

 

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