Israel’s Precious Political Capital Is Being Squandered in Hysterical Hagel War

Over the course of 15 months, Israel has turned into an omnipresent superpower in the American political psyche. From the first Republican foreign policy debate in November 2011, throughout the presidential election campaign and now, with the impending clash over former senator Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearings, tiny Israel has cast a giant shadow over the discourse and the debate on America’s foreign and domestic policies.

But whether this has been good or bad for Israel itself - as opposed to the legions of politicians, pundits and other professional who make their fame or fortune or both by continuously picking fights on Israel’s behalf - is a completely different matter. Political prestige, influence and sway are not an infinite resource that can be used and reused endlessly, after all, but rather a precious commodity that, in Israel’s case, is being wasted on far too many campaigns that, in the final analysis, are changing very little.

Because the fact of the matter is that the many millions of dollars and scores of divisive slogans and speeches that were meant to discredit President Obama’s attitude and policies towards Israel have, in their political and electoral bottom lines, amounted to almost naught. By the same token and by all appearances, the all-out, go-for-the-jugular campaign that is being mounted against the appointment of Hagel as Secretary of Defense is also likely to end in failure, at last as things stand now.

In the process, however, the American public has been exposed to dismayingly disproportionate discussion of Israel’s trials and tribulations, above and beyond all the countries of the world, more or less, put together. And while the traditionally solid bipartisan support for Israel remains strong on its surface, many on the left and in the Democratic Party are increasingly viewing it as a Republican tool, which, in the natural progression of things, needs to be resisted and countered.

And thus there is room for concern that when push comes to shove, and Israel reaches a crossroads that is truly crucial or even existential, in which it needs to try and muster all the support that it can in order to exert maximal influence on American policies, it will find that too many bridges have been burned and too many supporters have been alienated in its name; that when the critical moment to use it finally arrived, Israel will discover that the force is no longer with it.

Laura Rozen wrote in the Forward about the possible fallout from a Hagel confirmation for what she described as “Israel hawks”, but the same and perhaps even greater damage might be incurred if he is denied. A stinging defeat for the President would send his die-hard American opponents into ecstatic fits of joy but would Israel gain or benefit? Would the president, whose influence on Israel’s fate during the next four years is far greater than all of Congress put together, be more or less favorably disposed towards Israel in the wake of a humiliating rejection of his candidate inflicted by its alleged supporters – or even by a victory earned at the expense of a bitter partisan battle? 

Moreover, is the kind of black-or-white, take-it-or-leave-it, with-us-or-against-us dichotomy that seems to be infecting every corner of American political discourse, on both the left and the right, really good for Israel or does it just serve the narrow interest of the zealots who promote it?

After all, the right wing’s ferocious and usually absurd campaign against Hagel, in which hyperbole is often just an understatement, has created a no less outlandish counter-reaction on the left, in which Hagel is suddenly being casted as the answer to generations of Jewish dreams. Hagel is far from being a Haman or even Mel Gibson, as some of his determined detractors ludicrously portray him, but he is far from being a Nebraskan Judah Maccabee or Theodor Herzl, as some of his overenthusiastic supporters are now trying to propose. 

The spreading exclusionism on both sides of the fence is bound to ultimately repel well-meaning Israel supporters from both camps: if Hagel is a “litmus test” which will define true Israel lovers and expose closet anti-Semites, as one columnist suggested, than most American senators and a majority of its public opinion are soon to be excommunicated from the camp of true believers. But by the same token, if criticism of Hagel or even opposition to his appointment is now being portrayed as proof of one’s retrogressive, primitive, Israel-Firsting war-mongering, as another writer on the left suggested, then far too many American Jews and, I venture to say, a majority of Israelis will soon find themselves banished to the land of the unenlightened. 

Hagel’s appointment is an internal American affair, of course, but his positions are of interest and concern to everyone, including Israelis. And while charges of him being anti-Semitic are patently outlandish – his statement that “the Jewish lobby intimidates people” is a sentiment shared, though often better phrased, by most people I’ve ever spoken to on this topic - his attitudes towards the use of military force and unilateral sanctions Iran are a source of legitimate worry for most Israelis, at least, if not for elements of the American left that still support them. And this holds true, even if it is Obama who ultimately calls the shots.

But in the heated political atmosphere in Washington these days, the chances for a cool and constructive examination of Hagel’s positions are rapidly dwindling. Unless he blunders, his appointment is likely to be confirmed by virtue of the majority that the Democrats hold in the Senate. 

The sides will then regroup for their next bitter political battle, while rational Israelis will be left on the sidelines to worry about the price they will ultimately pay for all the holy wars being fought in their name, in Jerusalem as well as on Capitol Hill.

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