WASHINGTON – Despite growing criticism over Chuck Hagel’s positions on Israel
and Iran, US President Barack Obama on Monday nominated the Republican former
Nebraska senator to be the next secretary of defense.
“Chuck recognizes
that American leadership is indispensable in a dangerous world,” Obama said,
recalling that Hagel demonstrated that belief during a trip the two men took
together to the Middle East. “He understands that America stands strongest when
it stands with allies.”
His remarks seemed to push back against the
criticism over some of Hagel’s past statements and votes on issues connected to
the Middle East, though Obama did not directly refer to Israel or Iran in his
remarks at the White House on the nomination of Hagel and of John Brennan,
currently the White House counterterrorism advisor, as head of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
Obama also praised Hagel’s independent
streak.
“In the Senate, I came to admire his courage, his judgment, his
willingness to speak his mind even if it wasn’t popular, and even if it defied
the conventional wisdom,” he said. “That’s exactly the spirit I want on my
national security team.”
Hagel echoed this assessment in his own brief
comments accepting the position, saying that he would always give the president
“my honest and most informed counsel.” Hagel also said he was grateful for
having the opportunity to continue to “strengthen our country, and strengthen
our country’s alliances.”
At a press briefing following the announcement,
White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the nominee’s record on
Israel.
“Senator Hagel has been a staunch supporter of Israel, of the
Israeli-American relationship, of the United States’s support for Israel’s
security throughout his career,” he said. “He has also been, as demonstrated by
his record, a supporter of the broad sanctions regime that the president has put
into place against Iran.”
Carney added that Obama’s strong ties with
Israel would continue under “all the members of his national security team,” as
would his policies of strict sanctions on Iran.
Hagel himself declared in
an interview with the Lincoln Journal Star Monday that his record has been
“completely distorted” and that it in fact demonstrated “unequivocal, total
support for Israel” and an endorsement of tough international economic sanctions
against Iran.
He also said there is “not one shred of evidence that I’m
anti-Israeli, not one [Senate] vote that matters that hurt Israel.” He
continued, “I didn’t sign on to certain resolutions and letters because they
were counter-productive and didn’t solve a problem.”
Critics, however,
have expressed concern about Hagel’s past description of an intimidating “Jewish
lobby” on Capitol Hill in reference to supporters of Israel; certain votes
opposing Iran sanctions; and his unwillingness to sign letters that included
calling on the EU to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization.
Hagel has also come under fire for comments he made in the
1990s opposing the confirmation of an “openly, aggressively gay” man to be a US
ambassador, statements for which he recently apologized.
Obama called on
Monday for a speedy confirmation process to replace outgoing Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta. Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-Michigan)
called Hagel “well-qualified” for the position Monday and said he would give
“prompt and careful consideration” to Hagel’s nomination. The comments suggested
that Levin believed Hagel had sufficient backing to clear his
committee.
Whether the broader Senate will approve the nomination,
however, remains an open question. Some Republican senators have already
indicated they will likely break tradition and vote against their former
colleague and party member, and many have said they will carefully question him.
Several Democrats have also suggested they are uneasy with certain aspects of
his record.
In response to the nomination, House Majority Leader Eric
Cantor (R-Virginia) expressed his displeasure with Obama’s choice.
“I am
profoundly concerned and disappointed by President Obama’s nomination of former
senator Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense. Recent reporting has made clear
that senator Hagel’s views and inflammatory statements about Israel are well
outside the mainstream and raise well-founded doubts that he can be trusted to
manage the special relationship the United States shares with our greatest
Middle East ally,” he said in a released statement.
Cantor also called
into question Hagel’s past positions on Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran,
saying his views “call into question his judgment about the most important
matters facing our national security.”
“The nomination of a man known
primarily for opposing sanctions and military action against Iran strongly
suggests that all options are not on the table,” the statement also
read.
“Hagel’s nomination telegraphs weakness in the Middle East and
defeatism in Afghanistan, where our Afghan partners will surely be concerned,
and our Taliban and Iranian adversaries will surely be emboldened.”
|