Paul Woodward, Online Correspondent
In Washington, the Israel lobby, a loose conglomeration of organisations and individuals who throw their weight behind what they perceive as Israel's strategic interests, has until recently enjoyed an unparalleled level of political influence. Nowadays, its power is clearly waning. The appointment of veteran diplomat and uber-realist Chas Freeman as chairman of the highly influential National Intelligence Council is seen by many as a major setback for the lobby.On Friday, Muckety reported: "Despite intense, behind-the-scenes lobbying by some Jewish groups, the Obama administration yesterday tapped veteran diplomat Chas W Freeman Jr to head the National Intelligence Council in what may be its most controversial appointment yet.
"As chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Freeman will be responsible for producing the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) - the classified document given to the president and senior intelligence officials that analyses threats to US security."
In The National, Tony Karon observed: "If Israel and its backers are to persuade the Obama administration to accept their views on Iran, it is a less than helpful for the NIE be the province of a sceptical, independent thinker who believes that Israel's interests are not necessarily those of the US. Renowned as a brilliant diplomat and analyst, even-handed in his assessments of the Middle East and not bound by the Israel-first consensus that the Israel lobby has fought so hard to establish in US Middle East policy, Mr Freeman was denounced by Steve Rosen, a former top American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) official, as 'a profoundly disturbing appointment'.
"Last October Mr Freeman castigated President Bush for 'writing blank cheques to Israel, which harms it by depriving Israelis of any immediate incentive to make the hard choices they must make to achieve long-term security for themselves and their state… it benefits no one for the United States to continue to underwrite the injustices, indignities, and humiliations of the occupation'.
"His appointment was all the more remarkable given such statements, and the ire they provoked among Israel's traditionally influential backers."
In Arab News, Barbara Ferguson wrote: "Pro-Israeli publications are attacking his appointment as something close to betrayal - Why? He's been called everything from 'a Saudi puppet,' 'Chas of Arabia' to being 'linked to Saudi cash'.
"The 'link' goes back to 2007, when as president of the Washington-based Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) he accepted a $1 million donation from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for the council.
"Not only is he is being attacked for being pro-Saudi, but also for his calls for a more balanced US foreign policy between Israel and the Arab world.
"Back in 2007, Freeman addressed the pro-Israeli Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, and said: 'Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them.' "
At Nieman Watchdog, Dan Froomkin said: "Chas Freeman's selection to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council (first reported by Laura Rozen of Foreignpolicy.com) is notable not just for his surprising (and, to some, disturbing) even-handedness about the Middle East.
"The man is one of a rare breed: He is a Washington insider, and yet he is also a ferociously independent thinker, a super-realist, an iconoclast, a provocateur and a gadfly. He has, as I wrote in a Niemanwatchdog.org article about him in 2006, spent a goodly part of the last 10 years raising questions that otherwise might never get answered - or even asked - because they're too embarrassing, awkward, or difficult.
"For him to be put in charge of what Rozen calls 'the intelligence community's primary big-think shop and the lead body in producing national intelligence estimates' is about the most emphatic statement the Obama Administration could possibly make that it won't succumb to the kind of submissive intelligence-community groupthink that preceded the war in Iraq."
In a speech titled Can American leadership be restored? delivered in 2007 after Hamas had won Palestinian parliamentary elections and Israel had imposed economic sanctions on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Mr Freeman said: "The Palestine problem cannot be solved by the use of force; it requires much more than the diplomacy-free foreign policy we have practiced since 9/11. Israel is not only not managing this problem; it is severely aggravating it. Denial born of political correctness will not cure this fact. Israel has shown - not surprisingly - that, if we offer nothing but unquestioning support and political protection for whatever it does, it will feel no incentive to pay attention to either our interests or our advice. Hamas is showing that if we offer it nothing but unreasoning hostility and condemnation, it will only stiffen its position and seek allies among our enemies. In both cases, we forfeit our influence for no gain.
"There will be no negotiation between Israelis and Palestinians, no peace, and no reconciliation between them - and there will be no reduction in anti-American terrorism - until we have the courage to act on our interests. These are not the same as those of any party in the region, including Israel, and we must talk with all parties, whatever we think of them or their means of struggle. Refusal to reason with those whose actions threaten injury to oneself, one's friends, and one's interests is foolish, feckless, and self-defeating. That is why we it is past time for an active and honest discussion with both Israel and the government Palestinians have elected, which - in an irony that escapes few abroad - is the only democratically elected government in the Arab world."
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