President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, has been a tough spot in recent weeks. Politically, his nomination has held up, but his performance in his testimony was received with less than stellar reviews. In addition, rumors have spread that he gave a speech to a group called “Friends of Hamas.” But the claim is exactly that – a rumor.
That fabrication has been bouncing around the internet ever since a conservative blogger, Ben Shapiro, reported a story that the White House refused to comment on the allegation. The story was further spread by Shapiro’s 40,000 followers. Shapiro’s story and the idea that there is a group called “Friends of Hamas” and that Hagel might have given a speech to it, may have had another source. And that source is not happy about how he surmises the rumor came to the surface of the internet.
Dan Friedman says his mention of a hypothetical, fictitious “Friends of Hamas Group” might have set this whole, Hagel, anti-Israel, headache in motion. Friedman reports for the New York Daily News Washington Bureau.