Washington's Middle East War
Released: 12 Mar 2009
by Nadia Hijab
Freeman’s appointment was one of three key Administration appointments relevant to the Middle East. The first two were General Jim Jones as National Security Advisor and George Mitchell as special envoy. Unlike past envoys (Dennis Ross leaps to mind) and National Security staff (think Elliot Abrams), Jones and Mitchell are not pro-Israel. Nor are they pro-Arab, though both had previous assignments that involved the occupied Palestinian territories and have been critical of Israel’s actions there. Simply, they will put US interests first.
The Jones and Mitchell appointments were the first signs that the Obama Administration does not believe US interests are necessarily in tandem with Israel’s. There are other signs, coming out of Congress, of a loosening of the Israel lobby’s hold on Washington.
For example, Jon Kyle of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, tried to attach three anti-Palestinian amendments to the omnibus appropriations legislation. After criticism by several senators, he withdrew one and the other two were defeated.
The senators criticizing the amendments included John Kerry, who recently visited Gaza, and Patrick Leahy who made an especially passionate statement that recalled his own Irish heritage: “If the Irish were fighting to keep their land...their rights... the ability to vote... they were considered terrorists.”
The Leahy speech highlights the beginning of another important shift, an expansion of what it is permissible to say about Israel in the US mainstream. Freeman too issued a passionate statement about his withdrawal from the NIC, and both the Washington Post and New York Times quoted it. This was the Times quote: 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.”
In the battles to come to reframe US policy in a way that better serves American interests, those who care about peace and justice in the Middle East would be advised to learn from this Administration’s approach: Lie low, see how far you can go, keep your powder dry, and live to fight another day.
more
by Nadia Hijab
Freeman’s appointment was one of three key Administration appointments relevant to the Middle East. The first two were General Jim Jones as National Security Advisor and George Mitchell as special envoy. Unlike past envoys (Dennis Ross leaps to mind) and National Security staff (think Elliot Abrams), Jones and Mitchell are not pro-Israel. Nor are they pro-Arab, though both had previous assignments that involved the occupied Palestinian territories and have been critical of Israel’s actions there. Simply, they will put US interests first.
The Jones and Mitchell appointments were the first signs that the Obama Administration does not believe US interests are necessarily in tandem with Israel’s. There are other signs, coming out of Congress, of a loosening of the Israel lobby’s hold on Washington.
For example, Jon Kyle of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, tried to attach three anti-Palestinian amendments to the omnibus appropriations legislation. After criticism by several senators, he withdrew one and the other two were defeated.
The senators criticizing the amendments included John Kerry, who recently visited Gaza, and Patrick Leahy who made an especially passionate statement that recalled his own Irish heritage: “If the Irish were fighting to keep their land...their rights... the ability to vote... they were considered terrorists.”
The Leahy speech highlights the beginning of another important shift, an expansion of what it is permissible to say about Israel in the US mainstream. Freeman too issued a passionate statement about his withdrawal from the NIC, and both the Washington Post and New York Times quoted it. This was the Times quote: 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.”
In the battles to come to reframe US policy in a way that better serves American interests, those who care about peace and justice in the Middle East would be advised to learn from this Administration’s approach: Lie low, see how far you can go, keep your powder dry, and live to fight another day.
more
posted by willtotruth @ 9:51 AM
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