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Campaign Against Hagel Was A Loser

Another few unnecessary, unjust and unwise campaigns, such as the one against Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense, and the myth that the Jews control the United States will become a legend, writes Akiva Eldar.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel pauses during remarks to service members and civilian employees on his first day in his new post at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, February 27, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst    (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR3ECW8
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The failure of the Israeli-Jewish campaign conducted behind the scenes in an effort to thwart the appointment of Chuck Hagel to the position of US defense secretary, in addition to the openly visible attempt in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played an active role trying to oust President Barack Obama from the White House, reminds me of a panel discussion held in the mid-1990s at the George McGovern (the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972) Center in Washington.

The discussion centered on coverage of the Middle East in the US media. One of the participants, an editor of an important Egyptian newspaper, claimed that “everyone knows the US media is controlled by Jews,” and immediately came to this conclusion: “Naturally, their reporting and analyses are skewed in Israel’s favor.” Martin Sieff, then a Washington Times correspondent, himself of Jewish origin, took issue with his Arab colleague’s claim. He listed one by one the names of the owners of large newspapers and television networks, who do not have a single Jewish gene in their bodies.

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