Hagel: Israel's Nukes More Of A Threat Than Iran

In a newly surfaced video recorded in 2008, during a promotion event for his then-recently published book Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel expresses more concern over Israel’s nuclear weapons than Iran’s and advocates the U.S. engage with Iran and Syria.

In the video, an audience member asks “if Israel is attacked by Iran or an Iranian proxy like Hezbollah in a way that existentially threatens Israel, almost to the extent that Israel was attacked in ’73 and it was existentially threatened, would you support an American airstrike using U.S. forces, B2s, whatever on Iran?” Hagel responds with a three minute lecture. A full transcription is below, with relevant highlights (courtesy of the Weekly Standard).

Hagel Says: "“I’ll answer your question as honestly as I can. That’s a hypothetical question that somehow frames up the simplicity of the hypothetical question. The complications in the Middle East, and I’m certainly not an expert there, I have a chapter on the Middle East, I do know [laughter], I know a little something about the Middle East. I spent a lot of time there. And I spent a lot of time in Israel with the prime ministers and others. You who are well informed on this issue know the complexities starting with go back to the Bible, go back to ancient times, thousands of years. I mean that, if you really want to start trying to understand the Middle East, Paul, or David Aaron Miller, who you may know, has a new book out on this, The Not So Promised Land [The Much Too Promised Land]. And if you want to read something that is very, very enlightening, this guy he’s getting tremendous reviews on it. He’s Jewish. He worked in the State Department, worked for Baker, worked for Albright, I think he’s worked for four secretaries of state, different Democrats, Republicans. But it’s a great, great book.”

“But your question, I mean the complication of what’s going on there, Hamas is already attacking Israel. Iran supports Hamas. Iran supports Hezbollah. What I would much rather see is this administration, or hopefully the next administration, engage Iran, engage Syria. When I hear the talk about – well you can’t talk with Iran, you can’t talk with Syria and we’re, we should stay where we are and support Israel, and so on, well you miss the point.”

“Our policy has been so successful I believe, hasn’t it [laughter], that the Middle East is far better off today than it has ever been, isn’t it? [Laughter.] I mean all those countries, Lebanon is in great shape, Gaza is in great shape, Israel is in great shape, Iran, Iraq, things have never looked better, because we won’t talk to anybody. We are not going to have peace, stability, security or even any hints of it in the Middle East until Iran and Syria and all the players are part of it.

“Now that doesn’t apologize for or doesn’t close our eyes to what Iran has been doing, what Iran does do, but unless they are engaged in some way , then I don’t see this getting any better, and then where this could go, where this could eventually go. Someone was asking me the other day about a nuclear exchange in the world, where that would come from. I said well I’ll give you a scenario that’s very real. If Israel gets backed up enough into a corner and Israel uses a tactical theater nuclear weapon, you want to talk about seeing some things unravel in the world. The United States shouldn’t even be thinking about options of bombing Iran or anybody else. I mean we got our hands full right now. And we’re in such a hell of a mess.”

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Comment by Sweettina2 on March 28, 2013 at 10:43pm: Right on Ria girl! I usually just go over on their channel and write "LOL"....like you say, thats enough to get their goat. Girl, you need to send me your link so I can sub your channel.

Comment by Ria on March 28, 2013 at 12:44am: LOL....Oh dear, Sweettina2!!! I guess you and I are in the same boat on Youtube. I am constantly fought with by pro-Israel, foul mouthed, retards. But, you know, their only tool of fighting when they come across comments and opinions that dole out stark & ugly truth about Israel is "name calling". And that is so lame. They don't make me angry anymore. Rather, I laugh in their face and make my point which irritates the hell out of them and makes them improvise their name calling. They have nothing to defend themselves with besides upholding their "God's chosen" status and scampering around like slimy rats shouting their throats hoarse about being tortured and tormented victims of Holocaust [actually, I call it "Holohoax"... :P ]. It's fun to badger them with facts and watch them whine and grind their teeth. LOL....

Comment by Sweettina2 on March 27, 2013 at 9:43pm: I know one thing, the JDL is dealing me MISERY on youtube. They have their minions out attacking me, putting filthy comments on my page and under videos.....rat bastages. They dont know that they just fuel me to fight harder.

Comment by suzie on March 27, 2013 at 11:35am: i found it ... http://www.nogw.com/

Comment by suzie on March 27, 2013 at 11:22am: i'll look for it .. i shut down last night and thought .."that was a great link" i should have book marked it i use start page and it doesn't even keep my own history but i'll try to retrace my steps .. i was just browsing ..

Comment by Ken Troxel on March 27, 2013 at 11:03am: Suzie, i love that blank check picture, can you provide the link to where you found it, love to share that with WRH folks.

Thanks

Comment by suzie on March 27, 2013 at 12:26am

Comment by suzie on March 27, 2013 at 12:23am

Comment by Ria on March 27, 2013 at 12:02am: The billions of dollars, paid by the US citizens, that could have been rightly utilized in ensuring that the people in the country are well facilitated and benefit from it, has been and still continues to be illegally siphoned off to Israel, while half of America is officially poor. While it puts the taxpaying citizens under sequesters, the U.S. gives Israel over $8 million per day in aid, more than it gives to any other country on earth and, in fact, more than the US has given to all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean put together. While the US Government is considering curbing unemployment benefits and food stamps, on average, it provides Israel 10,000 times more American aid per capita than other people throughout the world, despite the fact that Israel is one of the world’s richest nations.

Comment by suzie on March 26, 2013 at 11:56pm: just before God set to obliterate Sodom and Gomorrah... the story goes Abraham asked God to spare the city if there were 100 good men .. he bargained with God until he asked not to destroy it if there was even one good man .. there was not one! Not one good man found .. i wonder why even one law is allowed to be broken too Ria .. a little leaven leavens the whole lump ( speaking of bread making ) an analogy .. seems that a little leaven of law breaking has led to the entire system is the whole lump corrupt to the core .. the salt of the earth has lost its saltiness good for nothing ~~ if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Time for something new ~