Image
© Jim Young/ReutersBarack Obama and Chuck Hagel, who were Senate colleagues at the time, at the Amman Citadel in Jordan in July 2008.
With Chuck Hagel, a former senator from Nebraska, emerging as a front-runner to be President Obama's next secretary of defense, critics are taking aim at his record on Israel as well as remarks he made about pro-Israel lobbying groups in Washington.

Mr. Hagel, a Republican, has been skeptical about the efficacy of American sanctions against Iran, has opposed efforts to isolate militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and has spoken candidly about the influence of what he once referred to as the "Jewish lobby" on Capitol Hill.

Those comments, in particular, have drawn the ire of Jewish leaders, who say they raise questions about Mr. Hagel's commitment to Israel and have propagated unsavory stereotypes about Israel's influence over American foreign policy.

"He has a checkered past on Israel," said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization. "At the least, it's disturbing; at worst, it's troubling."

Several of the groups are reaching out to members of Congress, circulating a list of Mr. Hagel's positions on issues related to Israel, Iran and the Palestinians. The goal, officials on Capitol Hill said, appears to be to pressure the White House to think twice about naming him.

The White House declined to comment on the criticism or on whether Mr. Obama has settled on him for the job. Administration officials said Mr. Obama would like to announce at least part of his second-term national security team this week.

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, is viewed as a lock for secretary of state, while the choice for director of the Central Intelligence Agency has narrowed to two candidates - Michael J. Morell, the agency's acting director, and John O. Brennan, Mr. Obama's counterterrorism adviser.

Administration officials noted that there were other candidates for the Pentagon, including Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense, and Ashton B. Carter, the current deputy secretary at the Pentagon. Mr. Hagel, a Vietnam veteran who left the Senate in 2009 and now teaches at Georgetown University, declined to comment.

For the White House, it is the second time a candidate's record has come under fire even before a nomination was announced.

Last week, Susan E. Rice, the ambassador the United Nations, withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of state after coming under weeks of withering assault by Republicans for statements she made after the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

In the wake of Ms. Rice's withdrawal, there have also been questions about whether Mr. Obama's proposed national security team would lack diversity.

None of Mr. Hagel's former Senate colleagues has come out against his candidacy. But on Tuesday, several Republicans predicted that he would face some blunt questions if nominated.

"I am concerned about some of his statements on Iran and Hamas and Israel," Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said in an interview with Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper. "I'm sure that those issues will be explored in the nomination hearing, should he be nominated."

Mr. Hagel is a friend and "was a fine senator," added Ms. Collins, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, which will consider the nomination of a defense secretary to succeed Leon E. Panetta.

Some officials on Capitol Hill predicted that if nominated, Mr. Hagel, 66, would not face anywhere near the opposition that scuttled Ms. Rice's candidacy. He remains popular among his former colleagues.

But the steady drumbeat of criticism from Jewish and other pro-Israel groups is a problem for the White House and Mr. Hagel, who as defense secretary would have to engage regularly with Israeli leaders on American military aid and the Iranian nuclear threat.

"There is a very systematic effort going on, and these things can have an impact," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, which defends Mr. Hagel.

"It is simply beyond disturbing to think that somebody of Chuck Hagel's stature and significant record of national service is being slandered in this way," Mr. Ben-Ami said.

The criticism of Mr. Hagel is on two levels. The first is his voting record, which some analysts say has been soft on groups like Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He voted against designating the Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, they said, and refused to demand that the European Union designate Hezbollah a terrorist group.

"It is a matter of fact that a record like that is well outside the mainstream of both Democratic and Republican positions on such issues," said Josh Block, the chief executive of the Israel Project, a pro-Israel educational group.

The second set of criticism centers on an interview Mr. Hagel gave in 2006 to Aaron David Miller, a longtime American diplomat, for a book he wrote on the Middle East peace process, "The Much Too Promised Land."

Speaking of groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which advocates for Israel, Mr. Hagel said, "The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here." Critics faulted both his implication that lawmakers are bullied and his use of the phrase "Jewish" rather than "Israel," suggesting that all advocates for Israel are Jewish. Senators from both parties have expressed discomfort with his choice of words.

In the interview, Mr. Hagel noted, "I'm a United States senator, not an Israeli senator." While he said he supported Israel, "my first interest is I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States. Not to a president. Not a party. Not to Israel."

Mr. Miller, now a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said that while Mr. Hagel's past positions on Iran sanctions, Hamas and Hezbollah differed from the administration's policies, it did not matter much since, as defense secretary, he would not be formulating policy in the Middle East.

"His brief will concentrate on when to project American military might," Mr. Miller said, "and here his caution and experience in the Vietnam years coincide with where the president is."

Based on talks with Mr. Hagel, Mr. Miller said he concluded that the former senator "believes in a special relationship with Israel, but not an exclusive one."

"There should not be a litmus test of whether he is pro-Israel enough," Mr. Miller said. "He is just independent enough to recognize that there are moments when U.S.-Israel interests don't always align."