Earlier today Chas Freeman withdrew his nomination to head the NIC, the agency that prepares the Daily Intelligence Brief. Chas was driven out by a relentless campaign from within and without that insisted he was not pro-Israel enough to be part of the administration.
Why? Because he said things like this:
...the U.S. has "abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel's efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations."
"We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists," he said.
Israel is still expanding it's "settlements"? Really? I thought they wanted peace, wanted a two-state solution. Including dividing East Jerusalem. Or maybe not.
Someone like Dennis Ross is seen as a fine envoy to Iran, even though he is the founding Chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute,with funding from the Jewish Agency, which is funded by the government of Israel. The JPPPI is incorporated in Israel and located in Jerusalem.
Mr. Ross's Chairman's Letter states:
Demographics, both in Israel and the Diaspora, needed careful consideration, particularly if Israel was to remain at the center of Jewish life. The rise of a new kind of antisemitism, one less geared to discrimination against the individual and more toward attempts to criminalize Israeli behavior, required recognition and strategies for contending with a dangerous new phenomenon.
Even though his hawkish views were on display in a 2007 YNet news interview:
Slow-motion diplomacy
Ross, the author of the recently published "Statecraft: and How to Restore America's Standing in the World", also said that the West had to ratchet up the sanctions against Iran to stop its nuclear program.
"We have slow-motion diplomacy matched against their fast-paced nuclear development," he said, arguing that Europe was not applying enough economic pressure "to get the attention of the Iranian leadership".
While he doubted that economic sanctions would deter Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he said others in the Iranian leadership would take notice and work towards changing the country's policy.
Conference for the Future of the Jewish People
The chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, Ross will be in Jerusalem next week for the Conference for the Future of the Jewish People, which the JPPPI has organized.
He said the aim of the conference was "to create a different type of conversation" between Israeli and Diaspora leaders and to identify the priorities that the Jewish world had to face. A third aim of the conference, he said, was to create an ongoing set of discussions to see how its recommendations could be implemented.
Dennis Ross is apparently not close enough to the government of Israel to be unacceptable as our new Envoy to Iran.
And someone like Chas Freeman has views that are not acceptable. Apparently no pragmatic view or our "special relationship" with Israel can be allowed. Not even a single, lone voice.
Our media never informs us of the stance of the rest of the world on Israel and Palestine. It never informs us that we are regularly on the losing end of UN votes, on the order of 150-6, on any vote concerning Israel. It's Israel, the US, and a few island nations on our side, and the rest of the world's nations on the other. Occasionally Australia and/or Canada will join us.
It doesn't inform us that Israel even now destroying "illegal" Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. Even as Secretary Clinton visited for the first time.
Enough already. This is ground we've tread many times, both here in DKos and in other venues.
What I wanted to share with you today is the statement from Chas Freeman concerning his withdrawal, in its entirety:
You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council.
I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign.
As those who know me are well aware, I have greatly enjoyed life since retiring from government. Nothing was further from my mind than a return to public service. When Admiral Blair asked me to chair the NIC I responded that I understood he was "asking me to give my freedom of speech, my leisure, the greater part of my income, subject myself to the mental colonoscopy of a polygraph, and resume a daily commute to a job with long working hours and a daily ration of political abuse." I added that I wondered "whether there wasn’t some sort of downside to this offer." I was mindful that no one is indispensable; I am not an exception. It took weeks of reflection for me to conclude that, given the unprecedentedly challenging circumstances in which our country now finds itself abroad and at home, I had no choice but accept the call to return to public service. I thereupon resigned from all positions that I had held and all activities in which I was engaged. I now look forward to returning to private life, freed of all previous obligations.
I am not so immodest as to believe that this controversy was about me rather than issues of public policy. These issues had little to do with the NIC and were not at the heart of what I hoped to contribute to the quality of analysis available to President Obama and his administration. Still, I am saddened by what the controversy and the manner in which the public vitriol of those who devoted themselves to sustaining it have revealed about the state of our civil society. It is apparent that we Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public discussion or exercise independent judgment about matters of great importance to our country as well as to our allies and friends.
The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.
There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government – in this case, the government of Israel. I believe that the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics has allowed that faction to adopt and sustain policies that ultimately threaten the existence of the state of Israel. It is not permitted for anyone in the United States to say so. This is not just a tragedy for Israelis and their neighbors in the Middle East; it is doing widening damage to the national security of the United States.
The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions about the Middle East and related issues. I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.
In the court of public opinion, unlike a court of law, one is guilty until proven innocent. The speeches from which quotations have been lifted from their context are available for anyone interested in the truth to read. The injustice of the accusations made against me has been obvious to those with open minds. Those who have sought to impugn my character are uninterested in any rebuttal that I or anyone else might make.
Still, for the record: I have never sought to be paid or accepted payment from any foreign government, including Saudi Arabia or China, for any service, nor have I ever spoken on behalf of a foreign government, its interests, or its policies. I have never lobbied any branch of our government for any cause, foreign or domestic. I am my own man, no one else’s, and with my return to private life, I will once again – to my pleasure – serve no master other than myself. I will continue to speak out as I choose on issues of concern to me and other Americans.
I retain my respect and confidence in President Obama and DNI Blair. Our country now faces terrible challenges abroad as well as at home. Like all patriotic Americans, I continue to pray that our president can successfully lead us in surmounting them.
At some point we have to face the reality that the Palestinian people have a right to a state, the right to their water and land and airspace. The right to the control of their own borders.
At some point we must realize that assisting Israel colonization efforts is not in the interest of the United States. That it is counterproductive, that it goes against everything we stand for as a nation.
But it's painfully obvious that such a day continues to elude our politicians, both in our Congress and our Administration.
Please read all of Chas Freeman's statement. It is a call for us to regain control of our nation's future.