The Crusade to Defeat Obama Intelligence Pick Hurts All Jews

[IndianaGreen]

The Crusade to Defeat Obama Intelligence Pick Hurts All Jews

MJ Rosenberg
Director of Policy for the Israel Policy Forum

The effort to force President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council is getting creepy.

Initially, it was just typically ugly. The forces that support the Likud line on Israel always try to block any appointment of anyone who opposes Israeli policies in the occupied territories. During the past eight years they got accustomed to having their people in virtually every foreign policy post. They were called neocons and one of that group's many successes was manipulating the intelligence that got us into Iraq (see Feith, Douglas).

So it was natural that when President Obama apointed someone who was on the record as strongly opposing the occupation they would go ballistic -- and they did.

Steve Rosen, the indicted former AIPAC official, organized a full-court attack on Freeman, enlisting all the usual suspects (the New Republic crowd, the Weekly Standard crowd, and their various and sundry camp followers). Journalists all over Washington were contacted not only by Rosen but by his former employers to take down Freeman.

It was all about Israel, of course. Everyone involved in the anti-Freeman effort are staunch allies of the lobby.

But focusing only on Israel did not look good. So the "get Freeman" bunch decided to feign interest in his alleged ties to Saudi Arabia (of course, that is all about Israel, too) and, get this, his supposed lack of sympathy to Chinese dissidents. The latest is that they are accusing him of taking Saudi money for his foundation and are demanding that this be investigated in the name of good government.

But it's all about Israel.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/the-crusade-to-defeat-oba_b_172417.html

[azurnoir]

1. So the ProIsrael groups represented here

seem pretty focused on the "growth" of Israel of in the interest of "security" of course.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Think of being pro-Israel as the equivalent of being pro-American

I'm a pro-Israel Jew, who has visited Israel 50 times in 40 years. But I am, like 99.9% of American Jews, first an American.

The idea that the anti-Freeman crowd is running all over town demanding that anyone not close to Israel be banned from working in an American intelligence agency leaves me nauseated.

How dare they? It has taken 20 years to get over the Pollard spy scandal. Good Jewish American kids cannot get jobs in various US government agencies because some people who provide (or withhold) clearances think that American Jews have divided loyalties.

We don't. But crusades like this, not surprisingly, leave the impression that we do.

This isn't about Freeman.

It is about a group that has decided to go after him to warn the administration that only friends of the lobby are acceptable appointees. It is about a group that is so oblivious to Jewish history that it believes it can recklessly put their interests in Israel above everything else and not expect to build strong resentment in Washington (it was strong enough, even before this).

How dare they? My children are first generation (their mom, my wife, was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany after her parents survived the Holocaust). We love this country and will be damned if we allow anyone to convey the impression that we take it for granted.

For us, this is the "goldeneh medina" (the golden land), the best homeland Jews ever had. How dare they imply that for us it's only second best.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/the-crusade-to-defeat-oba_b_172417.html

Pro-American. We know who they are. They are the uber-nationalists, flag-waiving, 'Support the Troops' magnetic ribbon crowd. They are the ones that cheered as our troops invaded Iraq. They are the ones that furiously attacked anyone questioning the government's rationale for the war.

What has Iraq done to our country? It has bankrupted our nation. It has left us a legacy of wounded and emotionally damaged veterans. It has filled our cemeteries with the graves of men and women too young to be dead.

A reasonable argument can be made that those that fit the above description of 'Pro-American' were enablers of the destruction of America, for they supported policies and politicians that led to our debacle in Iraq. The sensible conclusion being that those that opposed the war in Iraq were the true pro-Americans for they foresaw the harm that such a war of aggression would cause to Iraqi society, its people, and to our own people.

Now replace the label 'Pro-American' with the "Pro-Israel' label, and you can draw a similar analogy that those that most fiercely defend Israel's policies and governments are indeed enabling the destruction of Israel, while those that call for a return of the pre-1967 borders and for justice for Palestinians are the true 'Pro-Israel' advocates.

[Jefferson23]

3. Very good article here, thanks for posting.

Will be telling strategically, the how and when Obama uses his political capital. Right now, the economy and health care are overwhelmingly and appropriately his front and center but I truly hope he doesn't cave on this.

Supporting Freeman, for what it is worth to you, e-mail Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

[Jefferson23]

4. I wonder why this thread has garnered so little response.