Dan Fleshler exults that the great Rob Malley is an adviser to Obama.
Martin Peretz says, with relief, that he is not:
There are all kinds of spooky rumors that a man named Robert Malley is
one of Obama’s advisers, specifically his Middle East adviser… Malley, who has written several deceitful articles in The New York Review of Books,
is a [further hogwash removed for the sake of the tranquility of the Sabbath]… Malley is not and
has never been a Middle East adviser to Barack Obama. Obama’s Middle
East adviser is Dan Shapiro.
I wonder what the truth is. (I emailed Malley thru his assistant at the International Crisis Group; haven’t heard anything)
Oh wait: here’s the answer: Fleshler now posts the following, from politico:
An Obama spokesman, Tommy Vietor, says, “Rob Malley has no day-to-day
advisory role in the Obama campaign. He is among many people who has
[sic] given his advice to the campaign. The actual day-to-day Middle East
advisor is Dan Shapiro.”
Oh well. I’d been hoping that Malley’s role would finally ignite the explosion over Middle East policy that absolutely should envelop the Democratic presidential campaign (and maybe even allow Fleshler’s great Jewish opium dream, an alternative Israel lobby, to take form)…
But for some strange reason, Obama’s campaign doesn’t want to go near this one. It seems to care more about Peretz’s opinion than Fleshler’s. Huh. Wonder why.
