Obama appointing Israel-basher to head intelligence thinktank

A former ambassador with a history as a fierce critic of Israel will be named to a top intelligence post in the Obama administration, several publications have claimed.

ForeignPolicy.com reported Thursday that Chas W Freeman Jr., who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989-1992 and is currently the president of the Middle East Policy Council, will be the chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which plays the leading role in producing national intelligence estimates. The most infamous of the estimates is the one that claimed that Iran was not in fact pursuing nuclear weapons, an assessment that everyone now recognizes was incorrect. The publication reported that Freeman has told associates that in the role, he would occasionally accompany director of national intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair to give the president his daily intelligence briefing.

So what is the daily dose of "intelligence" that Obama can expect?

In 2005 remarks to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, Freeman said that "as long as the United States continues unconditionally to provide the subsidies and political protection that make the Israeli occupation and the high-handed and self-defeating policies it engenders possible, there is little, if any, reason to hope that anything resembling the former peace process can be resurrected. Israeli occupation and settlement of Arab lands is inherently violent."

He added, "And as long as such Israeli violence against Palestinians continues, it is utterly unrealistic to expect that Palestinians will stand down from violent resistance and retaliation against Israelis. Mr. Sharon is far from a stupid man; he understands this. So, when he sets the complete absence of Palestinian violence as a precondition for implementing the road map or any other negotiating process, he is deliberately setting a precondition he knows can never be met."

In 2008, in a speech to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program, he said: "We have reflexively supported the efforts of a series of right-wing Israeli governments to undo the Oslo accords and to pacify the Palestinians rather than make peace with them.

"The so-called 'two-state solution' is widely seen in the region as too late and too little. Too late, because so much land has been colonized by Israel that there is not enough left for a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel; too little, because what is on offer looks to Palestinians more like an Indian reservation than a country."

In remarks published by the MEPC, he wrote:

"And the problem of terrorism that now bedevils us has its origins in one region the Middle East. To end this terrorism we must address the issues in the region that give rise to it."

"Principal among these is the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by an Israeli occupation that is about to mark its fortieth anniversary and shows no sign of ending. Arab identification with Palestinian suffering, once variable in its intensity, is now total. American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their loathing to Americans. This has had the effect of universalizing anti-Americanism, legitimizing radical Islamism, and gaining Iran a foothold among Sunni as well as Shiite Arabs. For its part, Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them. Palestinian retaliation against this policy is as likely to be directed against Israel's American backers as against Israel itself. Under the circumstances, such retaliation form it takes will have the support or at least the sympathy of most people in the region and many outside it. This makes the long-term escalation of terrorism against the United States a certainty, not a matter of conjecture."

Freeman believes that the US should be engaging with the terror groups, not isolating them:

"Our backing of Israel's efforts to pacify the Palestinians rather than to negotiate peace with them has discredited us as peacemakers without gaining security for Israel. Our attempt to isolate the democratically elected Palestinian government has further discredited us as supporters of democratization in the region. Among other results, our policy has quite predictably left Hamas nowhere to go but deeper into the embrace of Iran."

Or this excerpt from a speech to the Pacific Council on International Policy in October 2007: "Meanwhile, we embraced Israel’s enemies as our own; they responded by equating Americans with Israelis as their enemies. We 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. This has convinced most Palestinians that Israel cannot be appeased and is persuading increasing numbers of them that a two-state solution is infeasible. It threatens Israelis with an unwelcome choice between a democratic society and a Jewish identity for their state. Now the United States has brought the Palestinian experience – of humiliation, dislocation, and death – to millions more in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel and the United States each have our reasons for what we are doing, but no amount of public diplomacy can persuade the victims of our policies that their suffering is justified, or spin away their anger, or assuage their desire for reprisal and revenge.” As these quotes illustrate, for Freeman the problems of the Middle East and terrorism are not nuanced. There is one "bad guy," and that "bad guy" is Israel, responsible for blackening America's name among Muslim. If that's not intelligence, then what is it?

Tags: Chas Freeman, anti-israel wonks

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Comment by Lanis on February 24, 2009 at 6:12pm: Shlomo, your comments may have an answer in this article. It explains why Jews voted for Obama.
http://israelinsider.ning.com/forum/topics/torah-codes-predict-and-warn

Comment by wharold on February 24, 2009 at 4:04am: This is merely consistent with the arc of Obama's biography. With a university education financed by the advisor to Saudi Prince Awaleed, Obama is just doing what he was bought to do.

Also consider that the death of journalism was an inside job.

Comment by RonaldH on February 23, 2009 at 5:44am: Michael Ballantine, you say that there is a lot of mud-slinging on this site. There is some, no doubt. But there also is a lot of fact, informative articles, and productive discussion. I've been to a lot of other sites, non-Israeli sites and even Arab (English) sites. I know that it is a jungle out there. I find myself returning here, more often than not, because it is easier, more informative, and more productive than others. I don't think there is another country in the world about which more falsehoods, fallacies, and misinformation is written than Israel. Total garbage passes as fact. In general, if one is not reading and listening to what Jews are saying about their country, it is very difficult or impossible to understand Israel and the Israeli-Arab conflict. I have to leave now. But I can summarize the conflict quickly. I have never met a Jew who said that he didn't want peace with the Arabs and was willing to do everything possible, within reason, to make that happen. And although I can't think of one Arab that I know, I have read and listened to hundreds of Arab spokespersons over the years. They almost always say the same thing which goes something like, Israel can have peace AFTER they withdraw from every inch of post-1967 territory, divide Jerusalem and make the Arab section the capital of Palestine, and allow the return of millions of Arabs into Israel. Now I know that everyone comes to this issue at some time in their life when they know little or nothing about it. I am not ashamed to say that a few years ago I knew little or nothing about this issue. But I can say with a great deal of conviction, that when one side says over and over again that they will do whatever it takes to arrive at peace (including returning legally acquired land, oil wells, etc.) and the other side says over and over again that there will not be peace until AFTER you give us land and half of your capital, and jobs and a million more concrete things which we will name later, than I can deduce with a great deal of certainty which side is defending itself justifiably and which side is the cause of violence.

Comment by RonaldH on February 23, 2009 at 4:43am: Michael Ballantine,
You sound like a very objective (detached) guy, comfortable with logic. You say, 'What Chas Freeman is saying is what the Europeans, Asians, Africans and Arabs are saying(80% of the world). He is not some lone wolf.'
What comes to my mind right now is that it doesn't matter what Freeman and 80% of the world are saying. It is far more important what the Jews in Israel are saying; it is their country. No one has the right to dictate Israel's policies for her. Jews is the diaspora have the legal and G-d given right to return to Israel. Israel belongs to the Jews, period, end of story. G-d created the earth. All of it belongs to him and he gives it to whomever he chooses. He doesn't consult the UN and 80% of the world; he doesn't call on Obama to find out how he feels.

Comment by Irwin Ruff on February 22, 2009 at 7:06pm: During the campaign Obama made a great point about being friendly to Israel. When the large number of anti-Israel people in his campaign was pointed out, he "fired" them from his campaign. However, as soon as he was elected, all these "fired" people miraculously reappeared as members of his administration. It is really no surprise that B. Hussein's administration is probably the most anti-Israel one that we've had since Carter. (And 78% of American Jews voted for this man?!) I just wonder if he plans to put Samantha Powers' plan into effect, and invade Israel in order to bring justice to the poor suffering Arab terrorists.

Comment by Benyamin on February 22, 2009 at 6:25pm: Maybe all this guy wants is to turn back the clock to 1944 and have a leap year. 2 1944's so not 1 Jew would have been left alive in Europe. Then, no guilt about creating a Jewish state, cheap oil from the Arabs, no Jewish lobby in the US, and the world would be a much happier place. Osama Obama has more then just this anti-Zionist in his regime, alongside some of his homies like rev. wright, ayers, and screwy Louis Farrakhan.
Change is what he promised you, change is what you will get. The years 2009-2012 will indeed be interesting times.

Comment by Robert Bernier on February 22, 2009 at 10:24am: Israel needs to stand firm and look out for its own interests for a change.
Tiny Israel is too small for two states, especially when the Arab group takes joy in massacring Jews. The Arabs own 99.9% of the Middle East. They have the space to place ALL the Arabs who claim to be Palestinian –– without cramping. They have the money to settle the Palestinians, especially if the money now spent on the Arab "refugees" is added in. And why should there not be room in the Middle East with its 22 Arab states for a single Jewish State? In fact, when you think about it, the major question is: where should the Palestinian arabs be resettled? that and the need for Israel to stand firm and look out for its own interests for a change. More at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-paradigm-for-israeli-palestinian_19.html

Comment by Robert Bernier on February 22, 2009 at 10:23am: Legitimacy : Chas W Freeman Jr. should be correctly informed about Israel and the 22 Arab League countries.
It should be remembered that in 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France were handed 5,000,000 square miles to divvy up and 99+% was given to the Arabs to create countries that did not exist previously. Less than 1 % was given as a Mandate for the re-establishment of a state for the Jews on both banks of the Jordan River. In 1921, to appease the Arabs once again, another three quarters of that was given to a fictitious state called Trans-Jordan. (Jack Berger, May 31, 2004.) The total for all the 22 Arab League countries is 6,145,389 square miles (SM). By comparison, all 50 states of the United States have a total of 3,787,318 SM. Israel has 8,463 SM, about one-sixth of that of the State of Michigan. Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan are Muslim but not Arab and are not included. World Arab population: 300 million; World Jewish population: 13.6 million; Israel's Jewish population: 5.4 million. More at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/myths-hypotheses-and-facts-concerning_3280.html

Comment by Michael D. Ballantine on February 22, 2009 at 9:12am: Freeman's calling Israel the bad guy is probably not very useful. Neither is all the mud slinging that goes on at this site. What Chas Freeman is saying is what the Europeans, Asians, Africans and Arabs are saying(80% of the world). He is not some lone wolf. I imagine that Pres. Obama wants to have both sides of the argument when he listens to his advisers. So he has representatives from all sides. If a child is playing with matches and someone says, Hey, he's playing with matches, it doesn't make him an anti-child, nor does it make Freeman an anti-semite.

Ronald Reagan supported South Africa because we needed chromium. When Russia became a "democracy" the US could get the chromium from somewhere else. Bill Clinton dumped South Africa. Why is it that everyone here believes in some manifest destiny where the US will always move lockstep with Israel? When the Jewish voters are not relevant, you can bet Arab oil will be.

It's time to get constructive ideas beyond the road-map or two-state solution. It's time to go beyond the pettiness of he won't recognize me so I won't recognize him. We are adults. If Israel and Hamas were children someone would bang their heads together. That doesn't make them anti-semites, just adults. Unless one side is prepared to commit genocide, they are going to be living together a very long time.

The Arabs want all the land, the Israelis really want all the land. Two people and one land. It seems pretty obvious. Israel is a democracy. If Israelis are worried about demographics there is an easy solution. It's called sex. Palestine is not a state. It is an occupied territory of Israel. Incorporate it and give the Palestinians the vote, equal treatment under the law and enshrine religious freedom and tolerance. Gosh, that sounds like the US.

Following Lieberman's philosophy, anyone that can't live with that, there's the door. Welcome to Egypt, welcome to Jordan.

Comment by RonaldH on February 22, 2009 at 5:38am: Normally, stupidity is not a quality in a government advisor that one likes to see, but in Chas Freeman's case, I think it is quite alright. I can't imagine anyone listening to him and taking his advice seriously, therefore he should be really ineffective. The statements that he has been quoted in the article as having made indicate that he doesn't know what he is talking about. He says that Israel is responsible for all the turmoil in the mideast. But when Jews began migrating to Palestine in the late 1800s, there were only a few hundred thousand Arabs and a few less thousand Jews in a lot of wide open desert. It is absurd and totally beyond reasonable to suggest that the modest Jewish migration to Palestine could be a reason for hundreds of millions of Moslems to become violent and hostile to the US. I'm sorry, but if Moslem culture is that crazy and easily unsettled, than G-d must be punishing them for a reason.