Below the jump I append an email being circulated by Israel lobbyists to attack the appointment of a good man, and an Arabist, Charles Freeman, as the head of the National Intelligence Council under Obama. The email was sent out by "US 4Israel." I wonder what they want? The money quote:
Note that Freeman is being attacked at the Wall Street Journal, by neocon Gabriel Schoenfeld, as a "China-coddling Israel-basher." Since when did Schoenfeld care about China? I think he's just using that issue to gain a wider audience. US 4Tibet. US 4Darfur. Another Israel-firster leading the charge against Freeman is Steve Rosen, the former AIPAC guy charged with giving secrets to you-know-who. And it appears that Jeffrey Goldberg is on the Freeman case, too. The neocons/neolibs regroup, but they're a lot closer to the margin now, praise the lord.
2 additional thoughts. 1, Freeman's meaning: By dragging their feet forever on the 1967 parameters (2 states), the Israel lobby has allowed the 1948 conversation to boil up in the discourse–basically, why the hell did we recognize partition in the first place when the Arabists in our own government told us it would guarantee generations of bloodshed?
2, You know I can't get enough of Jeffrey Goldberg, as the most important Jewish journalist. It's interesting to me that he is sacrificing his chance to be the Tom Friedman of his
generation, i.e., leader of mainstream liberal Jewish opinion, notwithstanding his high platform; because his views are just too
unreconstructed, Holocaust-tinged. The new wave is the Josh
Tenenbaum-Dennis Gaitsbory Jews, the guys who literally lose sleep over the idea of Avigdor Lieberman making policy; these agonized people are the new fulcrum of American Jewish attachment to Israel. The scribe who leads them must also lose sleep over Lieberman. Goldberg doesn't. He loses sleep over Father Coughlin and the Gestapo. That's how he sees the world. And slowly but surely he will become less important.
Pls
fw this email to pro-Israel friends in California, Georgia, Indiana,
Maine, Montana, Maryland,Oklahoma & Utah. Thank you.
was U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989-1992. Here are quotes
(emphasis added) which are characteristic of his hostile attitude
towards Israel:
Saudi Ambassador to America" because of his promotion of the interests
of Saudi Arabia and informed that: "He shares Board membership with
executives from major multinationals with major markets in Saudi Arabia
and the Arab world…" http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/12/personnel_is_policy_the_case_o.html
chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Freeman would have the
major influence on the intelligence briefings presented to the
president (remember the damage caused by the National Intelligence
Estimate, the NIE, in 2007, which erroneously downplayed the dangers of
Iran), and would be called upon often to give direct briefings to the
President.
president who seeks to maintain an Israel policy that is even passively
benign (not out to hurt Israel) simply does not select someone like
Freeman to the top intelligence post — someone like Freeman to depend
upon for securing intelligence information.
members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence know how
concerned Americans are by the possible appointment of Freeman. Please, address them with courtesy; some are very warmly predisposed to Israel. Phone or fax are better than email. Explain:
- Freeman's appointment would be detrimental to the true interests of the US and the Western world.
-
Freeman would seriously undermine support for the only democracy, and the bastion of Western values, in the Middle East.
-
Israel
is at the forefront of the fight against radical jihadism, which is of
concern to all democracies. Israel should not be weakened, as Freeman
would seek to do. -
Freeman's perceptions of Israel are badly skewed and dangerous.
