Can you take the time remind people that not all organizations and people that are included in the vague description "Israel Lobby" participated in the character assassination described.

Just so that the pendulum doesn't swing to silence a wider swath than necessary.

Great work.
I got a kick out of Joe Klein's statement:
"Barack Obama should take note. The thugs have taken out Chas Freeman. They will not rest. Their real target is you, Mr. President."
What a moron.

Here is a man indicted for espionage and he has a powerful platform to expound his ideas. If the shoe were on the other foot, and he were not in the Lobby camp and was making criticisms of Israel, he would be vilified to no end due to his indictment (yes, I know, innocent until proven guilty, but the fact is that the normal course for public figures who are indicted on such serious charges is to lay low and wait – certainly not to have such a prominent voice as evidently Rosen does).

Of course, if the shoe were on the other foot, Rosen wouldn't be in his position in the first place, because the only thing that keeps such a man in the position of influence he wields now is his loyalty to Israel.

There is no better example of the immense power of the Lobby in all its various forms, of the incredible shield being an advocate for Israel grants someone from the usual repercussions due to unethical behavior, alleged or proven.

Btw Richard, one needn't participate directly to partake in the character assassination described. And it is unfortunately necessary that the pendulum swing very wide indeed if you want the nation to have any hope of survival.
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It's not just the Democratic party that are a bunch of wimps, but the whole intellectual establishment. And they will be until they stop enabling this bullying. And that means starting to recognize that only those who draw fire from these bullies are pursuing truth, and the rest are just pretending.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031003026_pf.html

http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/030509/opedAIPACtwo.html

I'm glad this nasty fight between Islamist sympathizers and pro-Western forces is out on the table. It was long coming. Let's settle it once and for all.

"Can you take the time remind people that not all organizations and people that are included in the vague description "Israel Lobby" participated in the character assassination described."

I think this is spot on. This went beyond mere the "mere" lobbying and etc. that "the lobby" ordinarily engages in. It was in essence nothing less than an operation of a smaller cabal, who see themselves as soldiers essentially willing to engage in war-like tactics against even the most obvious American patriots and interests.

And people should recognize this; because they do see themselves as soldiers they didn't really care about their weapon, which is why they mostly tried to smear Freeman with allegations not connected to Israel, like his supposed fealty to the Saudis or the Chinese. They had a mission, and arguments or facts or whatever were totally irrelevant to them, like arguments and facts are to bullets. And every American, no matter how patriotic, ought to now know that they are threatened too. Indeed, making that threat as manifest as possible was no doubt another intended goal of the mission.