- Weather
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Max |
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40°C |
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Min |
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30°C |
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Sunrise |
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05 : 30 AM |
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Sunset |
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06 : 30 PM |
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Humidity |
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50 to 80 per cent |
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- Prayer Time
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Fajar |
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03:58 am |
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Dhuhr |
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12:08 pm |
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Asar |
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03:30 pm |
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Magrib |
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06:49 pm |
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Isha |
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08:09 pm |
- Oil Price
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Price in RO
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24ct / gm |
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16.97 |
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22ct / gm |
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16.60 |
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Forex Rates vs R01
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US Dollar |
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2.58 |
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Euro |
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2.01 |
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Pound |
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1.70 |
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Indian Rs. |
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142.84 |
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Pak Rs. |
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255.60 |
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Bangla Taka |
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201.37 |
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U.S. President Barack Obama (L) participates in his first cabinet meeting of his second term in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, March 4, 2013. Pictured with Obama is new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Photo - Reuters
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Jerusalem: While AIPAC donors know their pro-Israel group was powerless to stop Chuck Hagel's Pentagon nomination, many sounded off on the new US defense secretary for his past comments deriding a "Jewish lobby" in Washington.
Seven in 10 Jewish voters backed Obama's re-election bid last November, and some saw little thanks from the president in nominating a man whose remarks about Iran, Israel, nuclear weapons and the US troop surge during the Iraq war ignited a firestorm during his confirmation hearing.
Hagel, 66, is known for his fiercely independent streak and has drawn fire for his opposition to some sanctions on Iran, which Israel and much of the West suspects is trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
Hagel has also been accused of insufficient support for Israel, and he drew strong rebukes from supporters of the country when he warned that a "Jewish lobby" was intimidating lawmakers in Washington.
But like many at the group's annual conference -- which saw Vice President Joe Biden pledge to the thousands of delegates that the administration has Israel's back -- Ivry, a donor from Palm Beach, Florida, acknowledged that it was not AIPAC's role to wade into Obama's choices for cabinet posts.
Even though AIPAC donors and delegates "were not dancing in the streets" over the Hagel nomination, "the president is entitled to pick his people," said Rabbi Zvi Teitelbaum of Maryland.
"I don't think anybody (in AIPAC) wants to take on Obama frontally, but rather work within the system." That system allows lobbyists, and there are thousands of them in Washington, to lean heavily on US lawmakers to persuade them to see their side of an issue.
For years AIPAC has been among the most effective -- some would say powerful -- groups of its kind in Washington, sending divisions of political foot soldiers to Capitol Hill, often to press for greater support for the Jewish state.
So when it was highlighted in his Senate confirmation hearing that Hagel, himself a former Republican senator, had made less than flattering remarks about Israel, some groups spoke up, including the Anti Defamation League.
AIPAC sat this fight out, keeping largely silent, a move its donors and delegates understood.
Donor Sol Friedman of Florida was not happy with Hagel either, but he downplayed any negative effect Hagel might have on the strategic US-Israeli relationship.
"It's up to the president," Friedman said. "The president sets the agenda, and I assume the secretary of defense will follow."
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