A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

On Hagel's Confirmation

Since I try to keep out of US politics on this blog I haven't written about the huge battles over Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of Defense. I've always admired Hagel, and most of the firestorm over his alleged sentiments towards Iran and Israel were fantasy: the positions attributed to him by some were closer to my own sentiments than his.

I should note that one of the sillier parts of this was the rightwing claim that he had been endorsed by something allegedly called "Friends of Hamas," which doesn't exist. But, of course, because the Internet abhors a vacuum, just because an organization doesn't exist doesn't mean it shouldn't have a website.

And yes, the fact that I linked to something called friendsofhamas.com, even a satirical one, may come back to bite me someday, at least among those who didn't click through.

1 comment:

David Mack said...

Full disclosure: Hagel spoke at an MEI conference on Iraq. He may also have been a speaker at an Iran conference, but my memory is less clear on that one. Former MEI Program Director Andrew Parasiliti became Hagel's foreign policy staffer for several years at a time when Hagel was on both the SFRC and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Not that MEI took a position on his nomination as SecDef. Just saying.