See the update below…
Laura Rozen has his own response to the controversy and explanation of his withdrawal. And I’ll tell you that based on this one paragraph alone, we dodged a major bullet today:
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.
I received no emails from AIPAC nor any Israli or Jewish organizations. I’m perfectly capable of reading the man’s recdord and raising my own concerns.
Even when he tries to exculpate himself – as he does in this ‘explanation’ of his comments on Tienamin Square – he presents himself as a tireless courtier for typrants wherever they may be.
For myself, I side on this — if not on numerous other issues — with Gen. Douglas MacArthur. I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be. Such folk, whether they represent a veterans’ “Bonus Army” or a “student uprising” on behalf of “the goddess of democracy” should expect to be displaced with despatch from the ground they occupy.
I hope Obama gets a genuine iconoclast in the role. But I’d like one not in the pocket of other countries, please – especially of other countries led by murderous tyrants. We must, by necessity, share a planet with them. But I’d rather not share my government with them.
Update: … it just gets better and better. Go check out Martin Kramer’s blog and read about how Freeman flatly misrepresented Saudi interviews with jihadi who – Freeman claimed in Congressional testimony – joined the jihad to fight Israel and then were diverted to Afghanistan (or Iraq, it implies). Kramer check the source, and…not so much.
Well, you won’t have Freeman to blame for the sequence of tut-tut more-bad-settlements posts I see you writing during the Netanyahu/Lieberman government.
If there’s going to be any progress on Israel/Palestine issues, someone is going to have to be the bad cop. George Mitchell? Maybe.
Gosh, that’s what they said about McCarthy. Except that smearing an entire generic “Israel Lobby” as conspiring against Freeman and the United States sounds a lot like McCarthy.
Their awful crimes are somewhat vague here, but if sending easily-traced e-mails critical of Freeman is the depths of dishonor and indecency then the water is awfully shallow in his end of the pool.
On the other hand, Chuck Schumer is taking credit for sinking Freeman. Obviously the left has another Lieberman on their hands, and must deal with him accordingly.
PS – George Mitchell for Israel/Palestine bad cop? I think the bad cop needs something resembling a personality …
Marc, we are of course in perfect agreement on when Israel needs to stop expanding settlements. They are, however, no more likely to do that without external pressure than were the South Africans to integrate. Even Prime Ministers who acknowledged a need for a two-state solution, such as Barak and (eventually) Sharon and Olmert were unwilling or unable to do so. The only exception, of course, was Rabin, and he paid the ultimate price, which may explain his successors’ behavior.
I would never suggest that Israeli expansionism is the root cause of the enmity of Malaysia or Iran, but don’t you think it goes a ways towards explaining the attitude of, say, the Netherlands? We can have a later thread for that, but to come back to Freeman: if American foreign policy has to be AIPAC-approved, our shared opinion of what has to be done is irrelevant in the extreme.
As I recall, after Obama gave his thunderous campaign pledge to AIPAC for Jerusalem to remain the undivided capital of Israel, the Palestinians asked Obama to stay out of Israeli/Palestinian affairs. I think that sounds like a good idea.
Freeman:
I think it will transpire that the real reason for Freeman’s withdrawal was not any Jewish Lobby, nor Chuck Schumer, but because the Inspector General’s Office has been probing Freeman’s foreign financial ties, and the results have made the White House crap a perfect rubber brick.
bq. …Israel’s increasing belligerence…
from AL @ #2 and
bq. …the Israelis need to stop building settlements today – not next month. But my guess is that won’t change the facts on the ground.
What if they do stop? What will change? Will the Pallies stop firing rockets at Sederot? Will Hamas change their charter? Will Fatah change their charter?
The cognitive dissonance is deafening here, Marc. But you and AJL can keep spouting the talking points from DNC and ‘State’.
I am back because I am tired of being nice and quiet. What is happening in this country is disgusting. I am not going to be quiet anymore. I am to misbehave. The right has to become vocal again and call wrong, wrong.
You know that you are being dishonest about Israel. If you do not know that then that does not say much good.
Israel sends food and Int’l aid thru Eretz DAILY. They supply most of the clean water to Gaza. They supply most of the electricity to Gaza. DAILY!
Maybe this will make it plain. How about I move next door? Then I start randomly tossing M-80’s over the adjoining fence? How long before you call the cops or start shooting? ‘Bout 10 minutes, maybe?
Armed Liberal:
I suggest first you give evidence for the existence of what you propose to explain. Otherwise you risk writing a post on why Jewish men’s tails curl clockwise while Jewish women’s tails curl counterclockwise.
I agree that the world is abandoning Israel, but other people may disagree. You might want to point to some evidence that this is happening. (I wouldn’t expect it to convince the likes of Mr. Freeman, who seems to suggest that the Israeli lobby is growing in strength and choking out alternate perspectives.)
I’m uncertain about Israel’s purported growing belligerence. (Though again, it seems a good bet Mr. Freeman would agree Israel is growing more aggressive.) Is knocking out a Syrian nuclear reactor recently more belligerent than having knocked out an Iraqi one many years ago? In territorial terms, does the record suggest that Israel is growing hungrier for others’ lands, or does it suggest that the Jews are standing still or even going backwards while perhaps the Muslims become more avid aggressors?
Before you decide which of your two variables drives the other, you might consider other possibilities, such as independent causes and coincidence, or a third variable causing both.
A ‘global community’ that is increasingly Muslim is automatically more hostile to Israel and less favorable for many peaceable solutions that do not tend to the humiliation and ultimate destruction of the house of war. The ethics and atmospherics of Islam lend themselves to the abrogation of treaties where this will facilitate Islamic expansion, and the infliction of subordination, humiliation and violent menace to those who are not good Muslims wherever the Koran holds sway.
That, plus demographics and the wearing down effect of protracted low level warfare, is sufficient to explain both a world that grows more hostile to Israel as the forces of Islam grow, and a correct perception by some Israelis that for them ‘middle ground’ will not be available or will prove to be a trap, a mere preliminary stage in a process that will end only when Israel is wiped from the page of time.
_”I would never suggest that Israeli expansionism is the root cause of the enmity of Malaysia or Iran, but don’t you think it goes a ways towards explaining the attitude of, say, the Netherlands?”_
Probably not. If Israel pulled all their settlements back to the Green Line tomorrow, I wouldn’t expect Europe to suddenly change their tune much. Think about it- one side is building settlements and the other side is using abandoned settlements as launch platforms to lob rockets at schools. The fact that the Netherlands (or whoever) has any kind of moral equivalence (probably too strong, sheer condemnation of Israel and support for the Palestinians is closer) tells you all you need to know.
If the settlements didn’t exist Hamas would have to invent them. In the form of water rights or the right of return, whatever. But the rockets would continue to falls and the Euros would continue to hand wring and wish Israel would just conveniently disapear.
And Israel should abandon their settlements today. But not in the hopes of appeasing Europe or anyone else.
Robo/David – I’m talking in no small part about the increasing marginalization of the Israeli peace movement, and by the fact that the political decision facing Israel today is between someone who (reputedly) has expressed willingness to deport disloyal Arab citizens, and someone who was generally considered too right-wing militarily in the past.
Personally, if I was a small country surrounded by people who wanted me dead, and my security blanket – in the form of support from the Industrialized West – was being withdrawn, I might well decide that it was better to be belligerent. meaning that our Western posturing vis a vis Israel destabilizes the situation.
But that’s the subject for a longer post.
Marc
Joe Klein’s comment on the victimization and assassination of Mr. Freeman by the Jewish neoconservative mob: (link). It was a scalp-taking, a hit, a political killing in the name of closed-mindedness. And the Jew thugs who did this are out to get the President too.
The reason I have much less interest in American politics nowadays is: people like this know very well what they voted for, they proved they have a majority, and they have the democratic right to get what they want, including national intelligence reports prepared by a servant of Saudi Arabia and Red China, and many things far worse and vastly more consequential than that.
They won. It’s their party now, and if you don’t like the way they roll, it’s a good time to go home, live quietly to the extent that you’re allowed to do so, and pray more than perhaps you have.
I don’t think that Chas Freeman’s withdrawn nomination constitutes a bullet dodged – not with Jeremiah Wright’s most famous spiritual pupil being United States President regardless. Let him be advised by who he wants.
I wanted to check David’s paraphrase of Joel Klein’s article. I found it hard to believe that it was accurate. It is accurate.