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Home Front: Politix
Chuck Hagel becomes pro Israel
2013-08-06
...During a private dinner..., the serving SecDef, Leon Panetta, told Hagel of an up-until-then secret, $10 billion arms deal between the United States, Israel, and two Arab countries that could amount to a strategic game-changer in the region. The terms of the deal were all but settled, but Hagel would need to be the closer, Panetta told him. Hagel's job was not only to seal the arms deal with Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, but in so doing help put the "special relationship" the United States and Israel have long enjoyed back on track.
After getting that tasker from Panetta, Hagel dove in... Hagel has kept his eye on the prize: using the arms deal to rebuild a relationship with Israel that has foundered over the years. That triggered a series of "firsts," as senior U.S. defense officials call them: Hagel's first trip to an ally, after Afghanistan, was to Israel; the first foreign defense minister he called after being sworn in at the Pentagon was Israel's, the gregarious Ehud Barak; Hagel called Barak's successor, Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon, on the Israeli's first day on the job; Ya'alon's first overseas trip as defense minister was to Washington. And as Hagel and Ya'alon sat beside one another on a helicopter tour of Israel earlier this year, the two former soldiers called each other "Chuck" and "Boogie."
Foreign Policy magazine uses the word 'mensch' in the article title to describe Hagel. 'Mensch' is a german/yiddish word meaning 'man' but with a connotation that the person is good guy as opposed to an 'unmensch' or 'unmentsch' who would be a bad guy.
How nice that they are using Yiddish terminology for one party in relationship for which the language is Hebrew. I believe it was in the 1920s or so when that question was resolved in Israel, it being concluded that Yiddish is a language of exile, Hebrew the language of independence. It is utterly symptomatic that the Foreign Policy editor, working for a magazine owned by the Washington Post Company, would make that kind of mistake.
Posted by:lord garth

#5  "Pro Israel. This week."

That long, huh, Frank?
Posted by: Barbara   2013-08-06 19:37  

#4  Pro Israel. This week
Posted by: Frank G on the road   2013-08-06 14:16  

#3  But can Chuck save his own USDOD dept. from the Sequester ...

He isn't even trying, JosephM. Rather, he is deepening the cuts and telling all to shut up and soldier on.
Posted by: trailing wife   2013-08-06 06:05  

#2  It just so happens I have temporary liquidity problems and would like to sell my shares of the Brooklyn Bridge. Anybody interested?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2013-08-06 05:18  

#1  But can Chuck save his own USDOD dept. from the Sequester ...

* STARS-N-STRIPES > PENTAGON SEQUESTRATION
REVIEW PAINTS A DIRE PICTURE.

China.

* SAME > [US] SENATOR SEEKS A CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR [loss of USN's] BAHRAIN BASE.

Iran, i.e. a Nukulaar Iran wid anti-CVN ASBMS.

Persian Gulf???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-08-06 00:46  

00:00