John Mearsheimer on Philadelphia radio:
The idea that [Charles Freeman] is some kind of lone ranger wandering around making irresponsible statements is the typical smear campaign that the lobby makes of anyone who is critical of Israel…
Barack Obama pandered to the Israel lobby coming and going. What did he do during the recent Gaza war… He kept silent. The idea that Barack Obama has backbone on this issue is laughable. Barack Obama is not going to challenge the lobby. He did absolutely nothing to save Charles Freeman. And if anybody thinks that Barack Obama is going to put pressure on Israel to give the Palestinians a state, they're living in Disneyland…
Can't argue with any of that, but I hold Mearsheimer to a higher standard then others who miss the same point he does – what America most needs now and what Obama most needs to do is to allow for benign neglect of Israel/Palestine and act around them in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. as though they don't exist.
The Glickster has an article in today's JPost widening the attack to include Adm. Blair, but otherwise not too interesting.
Yep, that's what I've been saying for a while now — not in re Freeman, as that's a recent development, but with reference to Obama generally. He talks well, but talk is all he's got. There's no change or hope here.
I know this is from DEBKAfile, which carries more disinfo than most, but it sounds quite plausible to me:
Netanyahu may settle for interim government until early election
DEBKAfile, Mar 13 2009
Having failed to draw Kadima and Labor into a unity government, DEBKAfile's political sources report that Israel's prime minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to settle for a provisional administration serving six months before calling another early election. Loth to rest his government's stability on right-wing and religious parties (61 out of 120 Knesset members), Netanyahu prefers to take his chances on a new ballot. But he rejected the recommendation from of his close advisers to notify the president next week that he is throwing in the sponge in the belief that he can use the extra six months to good advantage. His main consideration is that Israel expects to be embroiled in a major military confrontation in the next few months with Iran, Hamas or Hizballah – or all three at once – a compelling scenario for a national emergency government against which Kadima and Labor will find it hard to hold out. With this eventuality in mind, the Likud leader keeping the senior portfolios of security, treasury and justice open for members of those two parties or deposited with Likud ministers who will step aside and make way for them in an emergency. A prominent example of this tactic is the new Likud legislator, the former chief of staff Moshe Yaalon. He is penciled in for defense in the interim administration on the understanding that if Labor joins, he will step down and accept the No. 2 position. Uri Yogev, a former treasury official, likewise expects to stand down for a Labor or Kadima candidate in finance. Netanyahu is not waiting for a war emergency; he is quietly pursuing Labor and Kadima in informal conversations with defense minister Ehud Barak of Labor and Kadima's Shaul Mofaz and Tzahi Hanegbi. His offer of the foreign ministry to Israel Beteinu's controversial leader Avigdor Lieberman is not yet signed and sealed. The prime minister-designate calculates that if the ongoing police probe into his financial affairs culminates in an indictment, Lieberman will have to withdraw, but his party will continue to support the government. Lieberman's exit will ease the path of Kadima and Labor to government. Netanyahu closest circle of advisers, our political sources report, consists of his wife, Sara Netanyahu, the lawyer-politician and former justice minister, Yaacov Neeman and Likud lawmakers Reuven Rivlin, Gideon Saar and Gilead Erdan.
MOre speculative Mearsheimer. In the name of "realism". Prediction is NOT the same as observation.
Mearsheimer also, like Walt, did NOT state that Freeman was an appropriate person for the post, but ONLY that the Israel Lobby smeared him.
The process has been a great embarrassment to Obama, ANOTHER prospective appointment (this one entirely within staff) rationally describable as insufficient recruitment and vetting.
IF there was a groundswell of "Freeman was the individual uniquely qualified and capable in all respects for this job", then the idea of smear might have grounds. But, the VAST MAJORITY of comments published did not address his appropriateness for the job, but ONLY in response smeared the reputations of selected pro-Israel figures.
Maybe they ALL deserved criticism.
Richard, I heard nothing but good things about Freeman's long service and qualifications. The only dirt his enemies came up with were quotes that seemed completely sensible to me in context.
I didn't hear any real challenge to Freeman's qualifications, only that he was unforgivably "realist" towards Israel.
I did not get the impression that his critics really cared about his qualifications at all. I suspect they would not be complaining if a former AIPAC director of far lesser qualfications were appointed to the post.
"Freeman was the individual uniquely qualified and capable in all respects for this job"
This is a standard no appointee has ever been held to–did all those diplomats who went on record in support of Freeman mean nothing? Witty must be talking about the vast majority of email comments orchestrated by that AIPAC flunky.
@ Witty
Was Richard Perl properly vetted under your appointment standard?
…sounds like a radio host that knows which side his bread is buttered on.
The Mearsheimer interview, followed by one hasbara lady caller and then David Harris, is quite fascinating. Mearheimer wins the debate easily when it's one on one, but then it's followed by tons of words by Harris, mostly false, some half truths. What's a listener to think? David Harris never has a negation squad there following after to rebut his every word, usually with half truths ("all Israel governments have expressed interest in a two state solution"–that's a pretty easy one to rebut) but that is the kind of stuff that fills the airwaves.
Mearsheimer is brilliant enough to do very well, despite being outnumbered 3-1 and having 30 percent of the time, by most people can't be that effective.
Regrettably I agree with JM's lack of hope in Obama.
It's nonetheless excellent that he's on big time talk radio.
David F,
Any references stating for the positive? I haven't seen ANY, literally, in spite of repeated requests at multiple blog sites.
Any references stating for the positive? I haven't seen ANY, literally, in spite of repeated requests at multiple blog sites.
There is a very simply reason for this. You only read the message from one side, you don't want to hear, see, read the other's. Case closed: guilty, biased, ill-mannered (he should have offered the other cheek, right?).
Did you enjoy Mearsheimer's voice vibrating,in anticipation of being the next lamb on the (archaic) shambles, Richard? I've never heard him like that. That has real McCarthy dimensions, because you are already guilty before you start.
Richard, you keep hammering in the same old statements. It is obvious that he is a career diplomat with decades of experience.
What do you want to hear. What's wrong about this data?
Life and work
Freeman was born in Rhode Island, and lived and was educated in the Bahamas where his father was in business, returning to the United States at age 13. After studying at Yale University under a scholarship, he studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and entered Harvard Law School.[3]
After law school, he left to join the United States Foreign Service in 1965, working first in India and Taiwan before being assigned to the State Department's China desk. There he was assigned as the principal interpreter during United States President Richard Nixon's 1972 first visit to the People's Republic of China. He later became the State Department Deputy Director for Republic of China (Taiwan) affairs.[3] The State Department also sent Freeman back to Harvard during this time in order to complete his J.D.[citation needed]
After various positions within the State Department he was given overseas assignments as deputy chief of mission in Beijing, China and then Bangkok, Thailand, before being selected as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs in 1986. During these assignments he attained a working knowledge of several languages. He became United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in November 1989, serving during Operation Desert Storm, until 1992.[3]
From 1992 to 1993 he was a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies. From 1993 to 1994 he was Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs. From 1994 to 1995 he was Distinguished Fellow, United States Institute of Peace. In 1995 he became Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm arranging international joint ventures. For four years, from 2004, he served on the board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation which met only yearly; he was not involved in issues like the company's dealing with Iran or its attempt to buy the U.S. oil company Unocal.[4] He also is a member of the board of several diplomatic institutes, as well as of several corporate and non-profit advisory boards.
In 1997, Ambassador Freeman succeeded George McGovern to become the president of the Middle East Policy Council[5] which "strives to ensure that a full range of U.S. interests and views are considered by policy makers."[6] In 2006, Freeman earned $87,000 as president of MEPC. The organization received $1 million from a Saudi prince.[7] The organization has received one twelfth of its funding from the Saudi Arabian government.[8]
In the fall of 2006 the Council was the first American outlet to publish (a slightly revised version of) University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer and Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Professor Stephen Walt's working paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy."[9] According to an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Freeman endorsed the paper's thesis and said of Middle East Policy Council's 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."[10]
Freeman speaks fluent Chinese, French, Spanish, and conversational Arabic.[11]
RE: "…if anybody thinks that Barack Obama is going to put pressure on Israel to give the Palestinians a state, they're living in Disneyland"
ME: But, the U.S. is Disneyland! And Israel is Disneyland M.E.
And Chris's Stools are the Mouseketeers.