US President Barack Obama is to nominate controversial Chuck Hagel as his next Defence Secretary, administration sources said.
Hagel, a 66-year-old former Republican Senator from Nebraska, has faced tough criticism from fellow Republicans and Jewish leaders about his perceived anti-Israel stance and softness on the Iranian nuclear programme issue.
The nomination is expected to be announced by the White House on Monday.
Hagel, who would replace retiring Pentagon chief Leon Panetta, has criticised discussion of a military strike by either the US or Israel against Iran. He also irritated Israel supporters with his reference to the "Jewish lobby" in the US.
"I think a lot of Republicans and Democrats are very concerned about Chuck Hagel's positions on Iran sanctions, his views toward Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, and that there is wide and deep concern about his policies. All of us like him as a person," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Sunday on Fox News.
Officials in Netanyahu's office have privately voiced concern over the possibility that Hagel might become head of the Pentagon.
Hagel reportedly encouraged US President Obama to negotiate directly with Hamas and he objected to call by several members of the US Senate for the European Union to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
A leading American Jewish group last week expressed fierce opposition to the selection of Hagel.
“Chuck Hagel would not be the first, second, or third choice for the American Jewish community’s friends of Israel,” Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) told the Washington Post. “His record relating to Israel and the US-Israel relationship is, at best, disturbing, and at worst, very troubling.”
“The sentiments he’s expressed about the Jewish lobby border on anti-Semitism in the genre of professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt and former president Jimmy Carter,” Foxman said.
Even the respected Washington Post, in a recent editorial, argued against the choice of Hagel, mentioning especially his statements on Iran.
"Mr. Hagel was isolated in his views about Iran during his time in the Senate. He repeatedly voted against sanctions, opposing even those aimed at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which at the time was orchestrating devastating bomb attacks against US troops in Iraq. Mr. Hagel argued that direct negotiations, rather than sanctions, were the best means to alter Iran's behavior," the liberal newspaper wrote.
The National Chairman of the Board of the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA), Michael Goldblatt said, "Chuck Hagel has accrued perhaps the worst record of any senator in recent years in terms of supporting Israel, sanctioning hostile regimes like Iran and Syria and isolating terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezballah, both of which have the blood of Americans as well as Israelis on their hands."
The nomination of a new Secretary of Defense is part of the forming of a new cabinet by Barack Obama after his reelection for a second term.
Two weeks ago, the President nominated John Kerrythe Massachussets Senator as Secretary of State to replace Hillary Clinton.
Obama is also expected to nominate counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).