Louis Farrakhan: Failing to confirm Hagel as defense secretary ‘sentences America to war with Iran’

Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel may not find a lot of love within the Republican Party, but Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan supports him.

Mr. Farrakhan endorsed Mr. Hagel during the recent annual Saviours’ Day convention, calling Mr. Hagel’s “Jewish lobby” comments — the same ones decried by members of the Republican Party as anti-Israel — a positive remark that would actually keep the United States from joining any of Israel’s future wars, Breitbart reported.

In his book, Mr. Hagel criticized the Senate’s tendency to support Israel absent any debate and said the Jewish lobby intimidated members of Congress. Some see those comments as evidence of how Mr. Hagel would use his defense leadership role to sway American policy away from Israel. But not Mr. Farrakhan.

“So let me tell you, Senator Hagel is in trouble, but American needs a man in Congress like that, who’s not a rubber stamp for others,” he said, as quoted by National Review Online. “You need a man like Senator Hagel as your Secretary of Defense. A man with a mind like that will keep you out of fighting somebody else’s wars. … If the Senate does not confirm him as defense secretary because of his opinion on Israel, that only proves that the Senate in the U.S. Congress is controlled by the Israeli lobby.”

Mr. Farrakhan added, according to National Review, “It also sentences America to war with Iran for the state of Israel.”