Sleepy Chuck Hagel Has Some Bigger Questions to Answer

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- During the 2008 U.S. presidentialcampaign, I interviewed then-Senator Barack Obama on the subjectof the Middle East. Much of our discussion was pro forma -- hewas trying to convince certain hawkish elements of the AmericanJewish community that he wasn’t Yasser Arafat in mufti -- and sohe expressed, at some length, his appreciation for Israel as ahaven for Jews and as a friend of the U.S.

When I asked him whether he thought Israel is a drag onAmerica’s reputation overseas, however, he gave an interestinganswer. He said no, Israel wasn’t a drag, but then he added:“What I think is that this constant wound, that this constantsore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of aresolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-Americanmilitant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so wehave a national-security interest in solving this, and I alsobelieve that Israel has a security interest in solving thisbecause I believe that the status quo is unsustainable.”