Malcolm Hoenlein: Chuck Hagel Is A Jackie Mason On Steroids

In an appearance on Newsmax's "The Steve Malzberg Show," Malcolm Hoenline called newly-appointed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel "Jackie Mason on steroids," and says the threat from Hamas to Obama over his upcoming visit to Temple Mount is "outrageous."

A Newsmax (http://bit.ly/14xZQPS) teaser from the show says, Hoenline, the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, claims he will be watching Hagel closely to see how proceeds with U.S. policies towards Israel going forward.

"So much of what he has said is disturbing," Hoenline says, referring to Hagel's 2008 statement that "the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people" in Washington.

"We will judge by what he does now. He claims that it was a mistake and he didn't intend what he said. He's sort of a Jackie Mason on steroids when it comes to what he has said," Hoenline adds.

"[On Tuesday], he met with the defense minister of Israel, made some very strong statements [and] has come out strongly on the Iran issue," says Hoenline, "But the truth is…each of the presidents came into office saying they were going to make peace---until they sit down and they figure out and try it and find out that the other side walked away from it for no reason."

On Hamas' warning to President Obama over his scheduled journey to the Temple Mount later this month, Hoenline says, "The threat is outrageous. A person of any religion from anywhere ought to be able to visit. He doesn't want a provocation. But this is an insult to the president, it's an insult to the sacredness of this place."

Saturday Night Live - Dress Rehearsal C-Span Chuck Hagel Hearings

NEW YORK — In an unaired skit cut from its Saturday night broadcast, NBC’s popular sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live took aim at the full-throated support for Israel expressed by some senators during the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for Chuck Hagel.

The video shows the dress rehearsal from Saturday afternoon. The skit was cut from the final show aired that night.

The skit begins with a parodied South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham quoting a 1998 statement by Hagel that “the United States will always have an extremely close relationship with the state of Israel, but that’s not to say that in every single instance our interests and those of Israel will be identical.”

Graham expresses dismay at the words, and wonders at great length if he’s “slipped into some parallel dimension.”

SNL’s unaired Chuck Hagel skit (photo credit: NBC screenshot)

Graham’s fellow South Carolina Republican Tim Scott then notes emotionally, barely able to contain tears, that he “just loves that little country so much.” He claims Israel has the best food, most beautiful women and tallest mountain in the world, among other subjective or downright inaccurate attributes.

The competition reaches its debauched crescendo when a parodied Senator John McCain asks Hagel if he would commit a sex act with a donkey if Israel’s survival was at stake.

The mock hearing quickly degenerates into full-blown competition over support for Israel and a discussion among senators of the technical definitions of various sex acts. Hagel is scarcely able to respond throughout the skit, and at its end sneaks out of the hearing unnoticed.

Hagel Can't Explain Past Comments About Israel Lobby

Ted Cruz plays tape in which Hagel agrees that Israel committed war crimes

StandWithUs Deeply Concerned About Chuck Hagel Nomination

Given former Senator Chuck Hagel`s foreign policy record and public statements, StandWithUs is deeply concerned about him becoming U.S. Secretary of Defense.  We are concerned about his commitment to policies that would stop Iran`s nuclear program, isolate terrorist groups and their state sponsors, and support Israel`s right to self-defense.

Mr. Hagel has voted and argued against sanctions on Iran and Syria, refused to support designating Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organizations, accused Israel of "slaughter" after Israel defended itself against Hezbollah in 2006, and was an apologist for Yasser Arafat. Hagel has labeled the pro-Israel community the "Jewish lobby," despite its implications of dual loyalty and despite widespread American support for Israel.
 
We are disturbed that Chuck Hagel:
 

Refused to vote for legislation condemning anti-Semitism.

•  In June 1999, Hagel was the only U.S. senator who refused to sign a Senate letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin condemning anti-Semitism and calling on Russia to protect Jews. The letter was run as a full-page New York Times ad.

Labeled Israel`s supporters the "Jewish lobby."

•  Hagel critically used the term "Jewish lobby" to single out the pro-Israel supporters communicating to Congress. "I have not heard a nominee for another position in President Obama`s cabinet say that any other lobbyists groups intimidate a lot of lawmakers," said Rabbi Steve Fisch.

Has been weak on Iran for more than 10 years.

• Hagel opposed 76 senators in voting against designating Iran`s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization (September 2007). The "sense of Congress on Iran" read, "the United States should designate Iran`s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization...and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists."

• Hagel voted in the Senate Banking Committee against legislation imposing sanctions on countries conducting certain business with Iran. It passed in committee, 19-2 (July 2008).

• Hagel was cited as "solely responsible" for holding up a bipartisan Iran sanctions bill in the Senate that already had 72 co-sponsors (October 2008).

• "Iran will not be deterred from developing nuclear arms only because the United States and the EU say they must--especially if they feel threatened and if the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, among others, all retain their nuclear weapons."--Excerpts from Hagel`s 2008 book, America: Our Next Chapter.

Has rarely shown he is a friend of Israel.

• Hagel was one of only 11 senators who refused to sign a letter requesting that President Bush not meet with Yasser Arafat until Arafat`s Fatah terrorists ceased attacks on Israel (November 2001).

• Hagel said he would have opposed a House resolution that blamed terrorist Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian terror groups for terrorism (May 2002). "I would have very much voted against it because it did, in fact, single out the Palestinians and Arafat as the real problem here....And it doesn`t help when we take public sides on this and castigate and assign all of the responsibility and all the blame to one side."

• After two years of Palestinian suicide bombings and terror attacks had murdered hundreds of Israelis, Hagel told an anti-Israel conference audience that the U.S. alliance with Israel should not come "at the expense" of Palestinians and that the U.S. must impose an "end game" on Israel and the Palestinians. According to a report from the conference, "The cheers were deafening. Hagel went on: `What we need isn`t a cease-fire, leading to a sequential peace process, leading to negotiations on a Palestinian state, leading to negotiations on refugees, Jerusalem, etc. That time has passed. An end game must be brought to the front, now.`"

• Hagel was one of only 12 senators who refused to sign a letter asking the EU to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization (August 2006).

We hope that the U.S. Senate will closely question Mr. Hagel during the nomination hearings to determine whether his positions will serve the foreign policy priorities of the U.S. and its allies.