(Photo: Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/ U.S. Department of Defense)
Haaretz‘s Barak Ravid reports on today’s meeting between Chuck Hagel and Ehud Barak. Israel doesn’t have to worry about the sequester:
New U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel hosted Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon on Tuesday, making a special effort to express warmth and friendliness toward his Israeli counterpart during their first meeting together since the prior assumed office.
Hagel assured Barak during their meeting that he was committed to the security of Israel and of preserving the Israel Defense Forces’ qualitative advantage over the armies of the Arab world. He also said that he would work to ensure that U.S. funding toward Israel, particularly with regard to its defense systems, would continue “despite fiscal uncertainty.”
“Secretary Hagel is committed to working with members of Congress to ensure that there is no interruption of funding for Iron Dome, Arrow, and David’s Sling rocket and missile defense systems,” a U.S. defense official said.
Hagel’s nearly two-hour-long talks with Barak represented his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign counterpart since he took over the Pentagon on Feb. 27.
Also sounds like someone is overcompensating a bit:
At the end of their meeting, the Pentagon issued an unusually long and detailed statement regarding their conversation, and published numerous photographs of the two together. The content of the Pentagon’s statement seemed directed more to the American Jewish community and friends of Israel than to Israel itself.
(Photo: Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/ 
Great. Americans suffer but the parasites get their money.
omg everyone in the picture has a shit eating grin. Send in the donkey
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/02/11/a-cultural-breakthrough/
When I heard that Chuck Hagel was nominated to be Sec of Defense and that there was a controversy about his views on the I/P issue and Iran, I was thrilled. I thought it was a bold move on Obama’s part and he was finally showing backbone. Many on this site pointed out Hagel was not that different from Obama himself—-he still favored an interventionist US, just a “smarter” use of power and wanted to “pick” our wars more carefully. Still, reading his speeches gave me a great feeling that someone different would have access to power and the President would finally get advice from someone other than a war-monger. I was greatly disappointed by the confirmation hearings and this pathetic display has convinced me that Hagel is completely neutered. This is embarrassing. He simply has no dignity left. Honestly, how can he stand himself; no job is worth having to castrate oneself. Embarrassing, and with what Joe is saying over at the AIPAC conference shows that, as The Who said, “the party on the left is now the party on the right.”
Here we go again: accuse the guy of being anti-jew, anti-israel and he’ll OVERCOMPENSATE. AIPAC always finds a way to always win: screw America and screw Americans, zionists first always.
glad that’s over with. next