Bob Johnson: Applying Philosophy to Hagel's Comments

on Israel. Obama's nominee to be the new Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, is causing a lot of politicians and Israel firsters to be upset. Two comments Hagel made, seem to focus the most hatred on him. One statement was,"I'm not an Israeli senator. I'm a United States senator. I support Israel, but my first interest is, I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States, not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel." The second statement the Israel firster's find offensive is,"The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people. I've always argued against some of the dumb things they do, because I don't think it's in the interest of Israel."The first rule of philosophy is to see things as they really are, so we can arrive at the truth. Objectively and honestly looking at Hagel's first statement above, shows Hagel to be 100% correct. He was at the time of the statement (2006) a senator, and not an Israeli senator. His statement that he supports Israel seems to be true, in that he voted for a war in which thousands of Americans and over a hundred of thousand of Iraqis were wounded and killed, and which cost American tax payers to date well over $810 Billion. The only beneficiary of the Iraq war is the Jewish state of Israel. His oath of office is to the Constitution of the United States, and not to a president, a party or to Israel. However, if he really truly did take his oath seriously, he never would have voted to start an unnecessary war against Iraq. His second statement is factually wrong, in that it is not "the Jewish lobby" but it is "the Israel lobby" that has US politicians from both parties running scared. Not all Jews promote US politicians blindly supporting Israel in its bloody aggression against its neighbors at the expense of Americans. His motivation for arguing against "the dumb things" the Israel lobby does is not because he cares about America and Americans, but because the dumb things the Israel lobby promotes, he does not think are in the best interests of Israel. The world jewish daily.com seems to think that Hagel's chances of winning approval from the Senate rests with the Jewish senator Chuck Schumer. Schumer is a rabid war monger and Israel firster, who actually said he wants to "strangle" them for voting the way they did, when they voted overwhelmingly in elections with international observers for Hamas in Gaza.