Dana Milbank, NeoCons and "The L-Word"

Definition of NEOCONSERVATIVE Per Webster's Dictionary
1: a former liberal espousing political conservatism
2: a conservative who advocates the assertive promotion of democracy and United States national interest in international affairs including through military means 

Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank wishes to add a third definition to the Webster's listing above--Jews. His latest column is titled "Neocons push against Chuck Hagel," but talks about "Other right-wing publications and conservative Zionist groups" Funny...I didn't see those elements in the definition above.

Milbank's position is that the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic quotes attributed to Hagel aren't so bad.

But, as an American Jew who has written about anti-Semitism in political dialogue, I don’t see this as anti-Semitic or anti­-Israel. The sentence preceding the quote said that “Hagel is a strong supporter of Israel and a believer in shared values.”

Sorry Dana, referring to the "Jewish Lobby" is extending an anti-Semitic meme that has been around for ages, that there is a Jewish Conspiracy that runs the government (the banks, the media and Hollywood also).

It doesn't matter if it is said by a war hero earning two Purple Hearts in jungle combat like Hagel, a Journalist Like Helen Thomas, a Columnist like MJ Rosenberg a racist like David Duke, a former National Security Adviser such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, or a Republican Presidential candidate such as Ron Paul.

It also doesn't matter whether the term used is Jewish Lobby, Israel Lobby, Zionist Lobby or in some contexts Neocon.

And by the way we entered the War where Hagel earned his purple hearts because of JFK and LBJ, neither of which could be called Neocons or publishers of other right-wing publications, or members of conservative Zionist groups.

Sometimes it astounds me how the progressives have changed our language to be politically correct--heck we just had the "M-Word" added to the language by a Congressman who claims too many Marines on Guam would tip the Island over--but when it suits the liberal's purpose, anti-Semitic memes are excused, just like Milbank does with Hagel.

There are many reasons to oppose Chuck Hagel in my opinion. I believe his positions on Hamas and Hezbollah show him to be weak on terrorism.  I believe he is not favorably disposed to our number one ally in the Middle East, Israel.  Reasonable people can disagree on those points and none of those positions make him anti-Semitic.

However, his belief that there is some sort of conspiracy, a Jewish Lobby trying to control US Government policy, is anti-Semitic.  Maybe the progressives should start using the "L-Word. And if Milbank is truly someone who cares about Antisemitism in the political dialogue instead of just a hack for the Obama administration he would understand that!

One More Neocon Definition...this one from David Brooks of the NY Times

“the people labeled neocons (con is short for ''conservative'' and neo is short for ''Jewish'') travel in widely different circles and don't actually have much contact with one another… (If you ever read a sentence that starts with ''Neocons believe,'' there is a 99.44 percent chance everything else in that sentence will be untrue.) Still, there are apparently millions of people who cling to the notion that the world is controlled by well-organized and malevolent forces. And for a subset of these people, Jews are a handy explanation for everything.”

I think this one best explains Dana Milbank's use of the word.