Gail Collins, "Senators Overboard!": Needless to Say, No Mention by Collins of Anti-Semitism

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Senators Overboard!" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/opinion/collins-senators-overboard.html), Gail Collins also goes to bat for Chuck Hagel, Obama's nominee for secretary of defense. Collins writes:

"The complaints about Hagel that have come up so far range from the perfectly reasonable (seems to have trouble communicating), to the perfectly lunatic. During debate in the Senate Armed Services Committee, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican, suggested that Hagel had been 'endorsed' by 'terrorist-type countries.' This presumably had to do with a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry saying he hoped Hagel’s nomination would improve relations between the two countries."

So, Iran, which arms Hezbollah and Hamas, and which was responsible for the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, is not a "terrorist-type" country?

Senator Inhofe's suggestion that Hagel had been endorsed by terrorist-type countries "presumably had to do with a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry saying he hoped Hagel’s nomination would improve relations between the two countries"? Is that all? Let's have a look at what Iran's state-controlled press is telling us. Iran's Fars News Agency informed us in an article entitled "Chuck Hagel's Nomination: Iran Hopes for Practical Changes in US Foreign Policy" (http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107134107) that Tehran is pleased by Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel as America's next secretary of defense. Next, Iran's Press TV declared that Hagel is "anti-Israeli" (http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/05/281902/antiisraeli-tops-obama-pentagon-choice/). This was followed by a lead online article entitled "Hagel remarks on Israel, Iran controversial" (http://www.mehrnews.com/en/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1788426), appearing in Iran's Mehr News, which informed us:

"Political analysts in US believe that Hagel, learning lessons from Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars, and US strategic miscalculations in Central Asia and Africa, had come to believe that Washington is far from starting a new adventurist enterprise, with the result being no more than economic disaster and dwindled American hegemony in international scene, if US launches a war without the consent of international community. Accordingly, Hagel would keep US at bay from adventurism about Iran, and would try bringing US policies to convergence with its allies in line with Obama’s policies. This possibility has sparked the Zionist lobby (AIPAC) and its allied representatives in Congress, who believed that Obama, with Hagel on the Pentagon, would not pose the Iran strike as a serious option.

. . . .

US political circles had it that in meeting with Obama, Hagel has said that Benyamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, do not appreciate US helps, and has become isolated as the result of political extremism."
 

Unbeknownst to Collins, there is a big difference between  hoping that "Hagel’s nomination would improve relations between the two countries" and "Hagel would keep US at bay from adventurism about Iran," i.e. remain acquiescent as Iran continues to build its first atomic weapon.

Needless to say, there is no mention by Collins of Hagel's anti-Semitic declarations. As Collins surely knows:

• Hagel allegedly said that Israel controls the State Department (see: http://freebeacon.com/account-of-2007-speech-prompts-letter-from-senators-to-hagel/);
• Hagel opposed funding the USO Center in Haifa and said, "Let the Jews pay for it";
• Hagel said that “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” i.e. in the US Senate.

Sorry, Gail, but Hagel has no "trouble communicating" his feelings about Jews.

Racism of this kind would not be tolerated if it were aimed at any other US minority. But today, Jews have become fair game. It has almost become fashionable. Frightening.