that President Change (who I voted for) isn't going to offer much in the way of serious reform, or even serious discussion, on the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
Charles Freeman, who seemed to be qualified for a post on the National Intelligence Council if you evaluate these things by, you know, actual ACHIEVEMENTS, has been run out of town because He Does Not Love Israel. Or more accurately, he's been hounded, harassed, and character-assassinated out of viability for this position because he doesn't believe in unquestioning, unthinking, slavering, blind, self-destructive (and in my opinion, Israel-destructive) loyalty towards Israel's systematic mass murder and robbery.
These are truly degraded times.
From Freeman's statement:
I am saddened by what the controversy and the manner in which the public vitriol of those who devoted themselves to sustaining it have revealed about the state of our civil society. It is apparent that we Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public discussion or exercise independent judgment about matters of great importance to our country as well as to our allies and friends.
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 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. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.
This is especially appalling after all the recent signs that American discussion of Israel and the Palestinians was finally opening up. The visit by several congressmen to destroyed Gaza, Hillary Clinton's demand that Israel let in humanitarian aid, Roger Cohen's recent columns in the New York Times about the Iranian Jewish community and his "shame" over Israel's incineration of Gaza, the fact of President Obama himself: remember, once upon a time he was friends with Rashid Khalidi, a thoughful and humane spokesman for Palestinian dignity if there ever was one. All of these things looked to be breaking the stranglehold of militarist, expansionist "Israel can do wrong even whe she does wrong" Zionism on the public conversation in the United States. It looked like we were beginning to have the same freedom of discussion on this issue that they have in Israel itself.
Unfortunately, it looks like it's not to be. Charles Freeman holds forbidden ideas. He's failed the Blind Loyalty Test. He has to go.
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