The Israel lobby's Lexington and Concord

[CHIMO]

The Israel lobby and Republican neocons have scored their first triumph of the Obama administration by derailing the appointment of Chas Freeman as director of the National Intelligence Council.

Freeman was a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and known as an outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation. Director of national intelligence Dennis Blair, an old friend, appointed Freeman to head the agency that produces intelligence estimates for nations that pose a danger of terrorism to US interests. During the Bush administration these estimates were quite controversial, and the report for Iran judged that the regime had suspended its nuclear programme, running counter to the claims of Dick Cheney and other Iran hawks.

Because of his strong, critical views on Israel's policy toward the Palestinians, knocking out Freeman was one of the lobby's top priorities. To his credit, the feisty Freeman went down swinging. He landed heavy blows on his detractors:

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 dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the wilful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.

The next time anyone qvells about how moderate a Republican Olympia Snowe is, just remember that she signed a highly partisan letter attacking Freeman that every Republican member of the Senate intelligence committee also signed. Given her status as a swing vote and party moderate, her participation may have sealed his fate. She caved to rightist pressure at the drop of a hat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/11/chas-freeman-israel-lobby-obama

[Jim Sagle]

1. Or maybe she's prosemitic.

:shrug:

[FiveGoodMen]

2. "prosemitic"? or pro "nation that kills it's neighbors at a ten to one ratio"?

[Jim Sagle]

3. 10 to 1 only because the other side hasn't enough armaments to reverse that ratio.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. You're sure of that

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. Obviously

oh gawd. . . .

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. a better example, Waterloo.

Not only has America rejected the neocon agenda, they are also rejecting the idiotic pro-Israel stance, that excludes fair-mindedness and rational thinking. Part of that is due to the israeli lobby, a well funded disgusting group of bribers and blackmailers who had way too much impact on our political system. Part of that is also due to the religious right that joined with AIPAC and others for the sole purpose of promoting their own policies.

Freeman's destruction won't be the first, nor the last victim of that powerful lobby. But the lobby fails to realize how thin the ice is below its collective feet. And it is growing thinner.

In some ways, that is too bad. Israel really should have had a chance to succeed. But given the probable PM and their FM, (Lieberman), I suspect that Israel is heading towards a path of self-destruction. But binary policies tend to do that. When you demand, "Either you are with us, or you are our enemy," you just placed your country on a road to failure. Israel is doing to itself what Bush did to us. It would be far better if Israel survived. But Israel must evolve and change, too.

[movonne]

7. I agree with you and feel that this will also bring this country down

too..there country had a good chance to survive and flourish but like we did we put the wrong leaders in office...they must move away from the hard liners..