In an interview with The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel on Monday said he demonstrated an “unequivocal, total support for Israel” throughout his career as a senator.
The former Nebraska senator bristled that his critics — many of whom are former GOP colleagues who previously spoke glowingly of him — have “completely distorted” his record on U.S. policy toward Israel while he has been “hanging out there in no-man’s land unable to respond to charges, falsehoods and distortions.”
But Hagel insisted that there is “not one shred of evidence that I’m anti-Israeli, not one (Senate) vote that matters that hurt Israel.”
“I didn’t sign on to certain resolutions and letters because they were counter-productive and didn’t solve a problem,” Hagel said in his first interview given since being made President Barack Obama’s official nominee to head the Pentagon.
Read the entire interview here.