BAIT AND SWITCH: EDITORIAL OF CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER
Chuck Hagel isn’t really the person being nominated for Secretary of Defense. Nor is John Brennan the man who will run the CIA. Likewise John Kerry will not be the person serving as Secretary of State. They are being pushed forward into those positions so that President Obama can validate his own ideas in a way he didn’t when he presented himself and his views to the electorate only a few short months ago.
Now, the President is using the Senate confirmation process to get a stamp of approval for policies on which he would not have dared to run. The Senate confirmation process will validate his new policy initiatives that differ from those he has pursued up until this point. Neither the compliant media nor his own Party will call him to account for this sleight of hand – this bait and switch.
Now, the President is using the Senate confirmation process to get a stamp of approval for policies on which he would not have dared to run. The Senate confirmation process will validate his new policy initiatives that differ from those he has pursued up until this point. Neither the compliant media nor his own Party will call him to account for this sleight of hand – this bait and switch.
Hagel-Brennan-Kerry all have views that are well documented by what they have done and what they have said over the course of their careers. Upon confirmation, they will faithfully fulfill their role as dogged proponents of the President’s policies, not merely as loyal soldiers, but as true believers. If American Jews and other friends of Israel knew that these men were going to be elevated to the high positions the President is proposing, they may well have reacted very differently to his candidacy. Hagel-Kerry-Brennan are not only unfriendly to Israel, they are still burdened by the post-Viet Nam trauma that paralyzed this country for decades following that conflict. Their idea of what the American military and foreign policy should be is much different than the one held by the majority of voters today.
President Obama’s about-face on the policies he was elected on will not be a surprise to many who did not support him. Those who did take his assurances at face value, however, stand to be sorely disappointed. He told AIPAC that he ‘had Israel’s back’ and he knows that Hagel-Kerry-Brennan absolutely do not. He told America that Al Qaeda’s role in the world was in decline and then ignored the facts that contradicted that notion by avoiding the issues brought up by the attack on Americans in Libya. The tragic deaths in Benghazi of three Americans and our Ambassador is still under ‘investigation’ as their murders fade in significance. During the last election, American voters were not given the full story. And now a few months later, these three nominees stand ready to reverse long held U.S. policies that the president feigned continued support for during the election, but now rejects.
This is not good for America, her democracy or her interests around the world. And, as many abused voters now realize almost as an afterthought, it threatens the security, safety and very existence of the Jewish state as well.
—nrg
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