US politics and the Republicans

As support base of republicans shrunk, they resorted to thinly-veiled attacks on Obama’s race and “Muslim” heritage.

If there is one lesson to be drawn from the haggling over US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and the sorry mess that is sequestration, it is that putting narrow, partisan politics and agendas ahead of the national interest is by no means a purely Pakistani phenomenon. Ever since US President Barack Obama took power in 2008, the Republican fightback has grown increasingly shrill and desperate. They have extended their support to fringe groups like the Birthers (conspiracy theorists who assert that Obama is not a natural-born US citizen and so, is ineligible to be president) and have tried to hitch their wagons to those of the Tea Partiers. They have tried to win the votes of the middle class, while protecting the interests of the super-rich one per cent. As their support base shrunk, they resorted to thinly-veiled attacks on Obama’s race and “Muslim” heritage. While the very demographics of the US changed, the Republican Party stayed the same, a factor that contributed to their loss in the 2012 US elections.

But even before that stunning defeat, the Republicans had decided on a strategy that boiled down to one thing: to oppose anything and everything that Obama was trying to do. Whether it was tax cuts, new spending proposals or healthcare, the GOP used every trick in the book — from filibustering, using procedural delays and even postponing key appointments to try and sabotage the Democratic President. If the 2012 results are any gauge, the only people they truly managed to sabotage were themselves.



So when it came to the nomination of Chuck Hagel as Defence Secretary, it was no surprise that the GOP pulled out all its big guns to prevent him from being confirmed. But this time, they had the support of what is arguably the strongest force on the hill: the Israeli Lobby. During the nomination process, a quote from Hagel surfaced in which he points to the existence of a “Jewish lobby” that “intimidates a lot of people” in Washington. This is not news for most of the rest of the world, but in America, it provoked a firestorm. Leading the charge against Hagel was the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is considered the strongest pro-Israel lobby in the US. Using its network of allied politicians and opinion-makers, it made every effort to smear Hagel and prevent his confirmation.

For a while, it seemed as if they would succeed. Such is the perceived power of the Israeli lobby that it is considered capable of making or breaking Congressmen and Presidents alike. But, to almost everyone’s surprise, it failed. Part of the reason is that while support for Israel is a firm US policy plank backed by public opinion, there are increasing questions over the direction in which Israel is heading under Benjamin Netanyahu. The recent assault on Gaza saw harder questions being asked of the Israeli government by both the media and US officials and while the subtleties of this may be lost upon a world that takes US support for Israel as a given, the fissures were there to see. Looking at Hagel’s previous statements, it seems that he is a man who has his country’s best interests at heart and is not afraid to say what he feels. He has repeated several times that “It’s in Israel’s best interest to get a peace”, adding that Netanyahu has “essentially stopped the (peace) process.’’ He has also advocated engaging with Iran in a “clear-headed” way. It seems that ultimately his pragmatism won out against the accusations. It was little surprise then, when the Israeli lobby itself could not derail him, that the last minute “leak” of his statement on India using Afghanistan against Pakistan barely made a ripple in the US. While the predictable near-hysterical reaction came in from the Indian media, Hagel’s confirmation was already a done deal. If anything, it once again revealed that the Republicans have no qualms in seeking foreign allies against a domestic foe. As for the sequester, which involves sweeping budget cuts on everything from child care to the military, the general consensus is that this, too, can be laid at the doorstep of Republican intransigence. Predictably, the Israeli lobby is trying hard to make sure aid to Israel is exempt from the cuts, leaving no doubt as to where their loyalties lie.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2013.