If you’re interested in how the vaunted foreign policy community is circling its wagons around professional Israel hater Chas Freeman, you can check out this endorsement in the guise of an article by pro-Freeman partisan Laura Rozen:
A source close to Freeman said that among the critics taking shots at the would-be appointee, several “opposed Obama on the spurious ground that he wanted to do in Israel. He doesn’t.” The source noted that some critics of Obama’s appointments had also targeted national security advisor James L. Jones… “It seems to be the president these guys are after,” the source said… Some sources noted that among Freeman’s most outspoken critics, are those who have accused many other administration officials of being insufficiently pro-Israel or too even-handed, such as NSC senior director for multilateral affairs Samantha Power, U.S. Middle East peace special envoy Sen. George Mitchell, and indeed, during the election campaign, Obama himself… Pillar continued. “The kind of ‘anti-Israeli’ perspective getting criticized is of course not new criticism or by no means unique to this particular target.“… The source close to Freeman said that the former ambassador was recruited for the post by Admiral Blair and had not been seeking a return to government service, which Freeman had retired from in 1994. In this person’s view, Freeman would be brought in “not to reverse the polarity of U.S. intelligence analysis but to de-gauss it.” … He also disputed that Freeman’s views were anti-Israel, noting a 2000 New York Times op-ed by Freeman entitled, “A U.S. Role is Crucial for Peace.”
So: (1) it’s out of bounds to claim that Obama is appointing anti-Israel advisers because he’s appointing too many obviously anti-Israel advisers and (2) it’s absurd to claim that Freeman is hostile to Israel because his editorial about how the US should pressure Israel had a positive-sounding title. This is the level of argumentative acumen being used to prove that there’s a vast Lobby of Jews – and the Christians whom they’ve flipped – undermining the United States. Objective and professional, these sophisticates.
And while it’s true that “among Freeman’s most outspoken critics… [are] those who accused Obama” of seeking to degrade the US-Israel relationship, it’s also true that among Freeman’s most outspoken critics are those who defended Obama against those charges. Marty Peretz, for instance, vociferously backed Obama during the election but thinks Freeman is a bigot. Pointing that out might dilute the “far-right pro-Israel neocons are trying to tear down a great American” party line. So better not to mention it.
In any case, Freeman has spent the last few years feverishly spinning conspiracy theories about the US-Israel relationship at the behest of his Saudi funders. Now he’ll get the chance to spin them from the top of the US intelligence network:
As Mr. Freeman acknowledged in [2006]… MEPC owes its endowment to the “generosity” of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.… [Freeman] was “delighted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has, after a long delay, begun to make serious public relations efforts.” Among MEPC’s recent activities in the public relations realm, it has published what it calls an “unabridged” version of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. This controversial 2006 essay argued that American Jews have a “stranglehold” on the U.S. Congress, which they employ to tilt the U.S. toward Israel at the expense of broader American interests. Mr. Freeman has both endorsed the paper’s thesis and boasted of MEPC’s intrepid stance: “No one else in the United States has dared to publish this article, given the political penalties that the Lobby imposes on those who criticize it.”
Mr. Freeman believes, as he said in a 2007 address to the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, that “Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them.” The primary reason America confronts a terrorism problem today, he continued, is “the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by an Israeli occupation that is about to mark its fortieth anniversary and shows no sign of ending.”… if those complaining loudest about politicized intelligence have indeed placed a China-coddling Israel basher in charge of drafting the most important analyses prepared by the U.S. government, it is quite a spectacle. The problem is not that Mr. Freeman will shade National Intelligence Estimates to suit the administration’s political views. The far more serious danger is that he will steer them to reflect his own outlandish perspectives and prejudices.
He seems to have a pretty good sense for how the world works, no? At least when he’s not doing business with the Bin Laden family. I can’t wait to see the kind of intelligence that he puts on the President’s desk. It’ll undoubtedly be very nuanced. And it’s not like the Saudis haven’t already moved into the White House anyway.
So no worries.
References:
* Former Ambassador To Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman To Be Appointed To Top Intelligence Post, Join Obama’s Anti-Israel Intel Team (Plus: He Blames US-Israel Ties For 9/11) [MR]
* The controversy over Chas Freeman [FP The Cable]
* Struggle over Intelligence Council pick intensifies [Obama Mideast Monitor]
* Puncturing peretz’s balloon x 3 [Soccer Dad]
* Chas Freeman Is Bigoted And Out Of Touch [The Spine]
* Obama’s Intelligence Choice [WSJ]
* Likely Obama Appointee Had Ties to Bin Laden Family [The Daily Beast]
* Saudi Arabia Moves In [LGF]
Previously:
* Obama: Since We All Know That Engagement With Iran Won’t Work, How About A US Nuclear Umbrella For Israel?
* Marty Peretz: Based On All Available Evidence I Disagree With Susan Rice, Who Is Nonetheless Awesome In Every Way (Plus: Misguided Victim-Complex Paranoia On The Pro-Israel Right)
* Obama Foreign Policy Appointees: Israel To Blame For Mideast Instability, Sweeping Concessions Necessary
