BICOM

Yesterday’s announcement by US President Obama, that he has nominated Chuck Hagel as the new Defense Secretary and John Brennan as the incoming head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has drawn a range of reactions in Israel.

The nomination of Hagel, a former Republican senator has drawn criticism from congressional Republicans, who question the depth of his support for Israel and accuse him of being soft on the Iranian nuclear threat. Meanwhile, Brennan is a 25-year CIA veteran and was the first official in the Obama administration to publicly acknowledge the US drone programme.

The news of the nominations, which must still be approved by the US Senate, has been greeted with a variety of responses in Israel. The country’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, who is also a former Israeli ambassador to the United States told Yediot Ahronot, “I have met him [Hagel] many times, and he certainly regards Israel as a true and natural US ally.” However, Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin told AP, “Because of his [Hagel’s] statements in the past, and his stance toward Israel, we are worried,” although Rivlin noted “one person doesn’t determine policy.”

There is also debate in the Israeli media on the implications of the nominations. Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Sever Plocker calls Hegel’s appointment “the worst nightmare of the right-wing Israeli government that is expected to be formed here after the elections.” In the same publication, Orly Azulai opines that “when Obama chose Hagel, he wasn’t thinking about Benjamin Netanyahu,” and the two have other priorities such as ending the war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in Maariv, Nadav Eyal says that Obama’s choice of Hagel had more to do with the need to scale back defence spending rather than foreign policy.