Hagel and Israel
Former Israeli official Alon Pinkas writes that the attacks on Chuck Hagel as "anti-Israel" are unfounded and do not serve the US-Israel relationship.
Even by the ugly and depressing standards of Washington's [un]civility and character assassination as a beltway hobby, the recent attacks on former Senator Chuck Hagel seem venomous and iniquitous.
The fact that Washington has a readily available thesaurus for such phenomena: "Borked", "Swift-Boated" and, lately, even "Riced," says it all.
It is fine, acceptable and necessary to conduct a debate on past and present positions and policy preferences of a candidate to be Secretary of Defense.
It is, however, quite another thing to tag, brand, defame and distort his record. It is even worse to do what some, hiding behind the anonymity of "Concerned Jewish Leaders" or "The Pro-Israel Community," have done: labeling Hagel as Anti-Israeli, and then stepping it up, almost casually, as an Anti-Semite.
