Obama has begun to show signs of weakness and
instability, his recent appeasement of the
Israel lobby over the Freeman
falala being an
ominous example of his impotence. Will
this limp-wristed and laissez-faire president be
able to halt the headlong rush to a new war in
the Middle East?
Speaking to a
Jewish friend the other day about the Freeman
debacle and its significance, I ventured to
express my concern over the formidable power of
the Israel lobby. “Where’s it all going to end?”
I sighed. He fixed me with a baleful eye.
“Iran!” he crowed. “That’s where it’s going to
end!”
Make no mistake:
Iran was what the Freeman imbroglio was all
about. Freeman was merely an irritating obstacle
that had to be kicked out of the way on the road
to Iran. The lynching of this loyal public
servant is a chilling proof that the Israel
Lobby is now in control of America. Nor will the
Lobby rest until Iran, like Iraq, lies in ruins.
[1]
Let’s review the
basic facts.
On February 19 an
important announcement was made. Charles W.
Freeman, a distinguished
Arabist whose love for Israel was
insufficiently ardent, was appointed to the key
post of chairman of the National Intelligence
Council (NIC). He had been selected for this
post by Admiral Dennis Blair, director of
national intelligence. Blair had made the
mistake of assuming that Freeman’s stellar
talents and fitness for the job — his fluency in
several languages, his experience of diplomacy,
his judicious realism, his perspicacity and his
patriotism — would all somehow compensate for
his tepid feelings toward a foreign country
built on stolen land.
Within hours of
the announcement of Freeman’s appointment, the
American agents of this foreign country, Israel,
went into action.
It is perhaps
unfortunate that the first of these agents,
though he owns an American passport, had already
given ample proof that the interests of Israel
meant more to him than the interests of
America. A former official of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the
man’s name is Steve Rosen; and he is currently
on trial for violations of the Espionage Act.
[2]
This impudent
traitor was soon to be joined by other agents
for Israel. Launching a “thunderous, coordinated
assault” [3] against Freeman, this swarm of
hissing hornets included such luminaries as
Jonathan Chait of
the New
Republic, Michael Goldfarb of the
Weekly Standard,
Jeffrey Goldberg of the
Atlantic,
Gabriel Schoenfeld
of the Wall
Street Journal, Jonah Goldberg of the
National
Review, and Martin
Peretz of the
New Republic.
What these Israel
Firsters said
between them was enough to bring Freeman down.
It didn’t matter that what they said was untrue.
What mattered only was that it was sufficiently
nasty; that is to say, nasty enough to produce
the desired effect of enforcing silence and an
ignominious surrender to its dictates. “The
tactics of the Israel lobby,” Freeman was to
complain later, “plumb the depths of
dishonour and
indecency and include character assassination,
selective misquotation, the
wilful distortion of
the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and
an utter disregard for the truth.” [4]
And so Freeman
resigned. Or was given the
push. The scenario probably goes
something like this:
Senator Chuck
Schumer, a stern critic of Freeman — “wrong man
for this position” [5] — conveys his concerns to
White House Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel. Proud son of an
Irgun terrorist and Obama’s chief minder,
Emanuel naturally has identical “concerns” and
needs no reminding that Freeman is bad news. [6]
Emanuel then
whispers honeyed words in Obama’s ears. Obama
understands his instructions. Picking up the
phone, he calls DNI Blair and speaks in the dull
monotone of a well-trained Manchurian candidate.
Blair gets the message. Blair then calls Freeman
and breaks the news. “Chas, Obama’s wimped out.
He’s thrown you to the wolves. He says you
gotta spend more
time with your family.”
Freeman starts
writing his resignation statement.
Meanwhile, back at
the White House, Emanuel is on his cell phone to
‘Bibi’ Netanyahu in
Israel. Bibi punches
the air when he hears about Freeman’s
castration. He calls
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s own answer to
Hitler [7], and gives him the happy tidings.
Avigdor dances with
delight. “Iran, we gotcha now!” he drools.
And so there’s
gloating all round in
high places.
An absurd
scenario?
Of course. But who
knows to what extent reality has begun to
resemble the febrile fantasies of a Hollywood
scriptwriter?
Isn’t it strange
that those who have denounced Freeman as a shill
for Saudi Arabia should think it quite
acceptable to shill for Israel, a country that
has constantly spied on America?
Having vociferated
so loudly about Freeman’s lack of
“evenhandedness” in regard to
Israel, isn’t it odd
that the same hotheads should raise no
objections to Dennis Ross landing the Iran
portfolio? — Ross who hangs out at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy,
itself a creation and front for AIPAC — which in
turn, as everyone knows, is no more than an ad
agency for Israel.
Finally, isn’t it
like something out of Alice in Wonderland to
think of Avigdor
Lieberman — a man “who out-Sharons
even Ariel Sharon” and whose solution to the
Arab-Israeli problem includes drowning
Palestinians in the Dead Sea [8] — isn’t it
weird to think that this Jewish Hitler will soon
be visiting America to break bagels with Hillary
Clinton? And this the lady who, when witnessing
the recent destruction of 4000 homes in Gaza and
the death of 1300 Palestinians (as opposed to 13
Israelis) could find nothing better to say than
that these Israeli war crimes were — wait for it
— “unhelpful”.
The question we
need to ask ourselves is: who runs the madhouse?
Is Obama in control of America? Or is he a
puppet on an Israeli string?
*****
Shortly before
Freeman’s defenestration, foreign policy analyst
Chris Nelson had this to say: “If Obama
surrenders to the critics and orders Blair to
rescind the Freeman appointment, it is difficult
to see how he can properly exercise leverage,
when needed, in his conduct of foreign policy in
the Middle East.” [9]
Some commentators
believe that Obama did not in fact “blink”. He
simply decided to humor the Israel lobby this
one time — to sacrifice a pawn, so to speak, the
better to improve his position on the
chessboard. Deep down, Obama is seething. The
Freeman affair has stiffened his sinews and
hardened his resolve. Next time the Lobby had
better watch out!
“This was a real
pyrrhic victory,” an insider is reported to have
told political pundit MJ Rosenberg. “One, the
administration is pissed off. And two, Obama is
going to be more determined than ever to take a
strong stand on settlements, Gaza relief, and
negotiations. They shot their wad on Freeman.
They will not think that was so smart a few
months from now.” [10]
Wishful
thinking, methinks.
Whether the Lobby
is trembling in its boots or not, the simple
fact remains that they have chalked up another
victory. Not only have they savaged Freeman, but
they have now begun to snap at DNI Blair’s heels
[11]; and to view Obama with increasing
malevolence.
What kind of nut,
they are asking, could have appointed Freeman in
the first place? And how come Obama didn’t do
something about Freeman at the outset — this
“fanatic” (Jonathan Chait),
this “bought man” (Martin
Peretz), this “shill for the Saudis
(Michael Goldfarb), this “China-coddling Israel
basher” (Gabriel Schoenfeld),
this “lapdog” and “blinkered ideologue” with his
“odious” views (Rich Lowry) [12] — hey, how come
Obama didn’t whack this monkey as he went
scrambling up the palm tree, before he got
himself into a position to lob political
coconuts at nice Americans with Israeli
passports? [13]
Obama has an
answer to that one. He knew nothing about
Freeman’s appointment to one of the most
important posts in his administration. Nobody
told him. They didn’t run it past him.
Hey boys,
gimme a break, I’m
only the President!
It would appear
that AIPAC and the Jewish neoconservatives who
blow the trumpet for Israel in the
Weekly Standard,
the New
Republic, the
Washington Post,
the Wall
Street Journal, and other such organs
of hasbara for
Israel, have a weak point. Their Achilles heel
is their very Jewishness.
This exposes them to constant accusations of
disloyalty,
of putting Israel’s interests before America’s.
[14]
The convicted spy
Jonathan Pollard, though he remains their secret
hero, is also their nemesis. If Steve Rosen,
Freeman’s most implacable attacker, should end
up sharing a prison cell with his accomplice in
crime, Larry Franklin, more salt to the wound.
It is significant
that Freeman, in his resignation statement,
makes the disloyalty accusation no fewer than
three times:
“I do not believe
the National Intelligence Council could function
effectively while its chair was under constant
attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate
attachment to the views of a political faction
in a FOREIGN country.” (My emphasis)
Again: “There is
a special irony in having been accused of
improper regard for the opinions of foreign
governments and societies by a group so clearly
intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of
a FOREIGN government – in this case, the
government of Israel.”
And yet again: “I
regret that my willingness to serve the new
administration has ended by casting doubt on its
ability to consider, let alone decide, what
policies might best serve the interests of the
United States rather than those of a Lobby
intent on enforcing the will and interests of a
FOREIGN government.” [15]
Foreign, foreign, foreign!
Every repetition of that word is like a hammer
blow to those who would like to convince the
world that Israel is NOT a foreign country. That
it is a loyal little outpost of America. Its
fifty-first state in all but name. What is good
for Israel is good for America. They have
identical interests. The are
joined at the hip like Siamese twins. Or so we
are told by those who want America to continue
to subsidize Israel, arm it to the teeth,
condone its atrocities, connive at its
landgrabbing, and
fight its cruel wars.
These seemingly
innocuous words that form the coda of Freeman’s
swan song are perhaps freighted with a hidden
meaning : “I retain
my respect and confidence in President Obama and
DNI Blair. Our country now faces terrible
challenges abroad as well as at home. Like all
patriotic Americans, I continue to pray that our
president can successfully lead us in
surmounting them.” [16]
What “terrible
challenges” face the President “at home” — apart
from dealing with an economic disaster set in
motion by Wall Street moneymen and by a man now
facing a lengthy prison sentence for siphoning
$65 billion out of the American economy and into
mysterious offshore accounts, many of them
reportedly in Israel? (17)
I asked an
anti-Zionist correspondent
of mine to speculate on what these
domestic “challenges” facing Obama might be. His
emailed response to me was so vitriolic that I
quote it only with trepidation: “Can these
challenges have anything to do with getting
rid,” he raged, “of an EVIL INCUBUS that is now
using America, as it once used Germany, as its
ravishing concubine and RAPE VICTIM? How many
senators and congressmen are being bribed and
blackmailed right now? Are there no
honourable men left
in America, no
patriots, no dragonslayers
to deliver it from this scourge? And when is
Netanyahu going to move into the White House and
start giving the orders?”
As a bemused
philosemite, I can
only say that such sentiments — straight out of
the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion [18]
— are inappropriate and regrettable
[19]
*****
That the Zionists
and their ideological antagonists now face each
other across a narrow divide, fangs bared and
hackles bristling,
can be inferred from this ominous exchange
between DNI Blair and his inquisitor Senator Joe
Lieberman.
Asked by
Lieberman, during a United States Committee on
Armed Services hearing, why Blair had seen fit
to appoint Freeman head of the National
Intelligence Council, Blair replied blandly: “I
think I can do a better job if I’m getting
strong analytical views to sort out and pass on
to you and to the president than if I’m getting
precooked pablum
judgements that
don’t really challenge.”
“Precooked
pablum
judgements” is one
of those rapier phrases calculated to pink a
Zionist opponent. Lieberman must have winced.
He knew well enough that this was a sly dig at
Israeli “intelligence” and the neoconservative
propagandists who had misled the previous
president into an illegal war on fabricated
evidence, forgery, and a farrago of lies.
Blair was in
effect saying that the same liars who had pushed
America into a foolish war in Iraq were now
doing their damndest to push America into a
foolish war in Iran. And he, Blair, wasn’t going
to stand for it! Well, we’ll see about that,
Lieberman replied in so many words, not without
a smidgen of insolence. “I guess I would say,
‘to be continued’”, he sneered. [20]
Lieberman was to
get his way. Freeman bowed out, and Blair got
his nose bloodied in the process. As for Obama,
did he lift a finger in support of his own men?
No, Obama sat twiddling his thumbs by the White
House windows, humming a little tune to
himself: “Nobody is
suffering more/than the Palestinian people...!”
[21]
When all is said
and done, the buck stops with Obama.
“Obama faced the
lobby eyeball to eyeball and blinked.” [22] He
tucked his tail between his legs and then rolled
over and let Rahm
Emanuel tickle his tummy.
Political maestro or Manchurian candidate?
President of America or
Zionist puppet? Take your pick.
*****
Retired CIA
officer Ray McGovern does not mince his words
when talking of America’s pusillanimous new
president. Obama, he says, “is afraid to take on
the Lobby. Most will interpret the new
president’s acquiescence in this charade as a
sign of weakness — of his not being his own man.
This is a distinct liability as Obama prepares
to meet next month with the likes of Vladimir
Putin who will take his measure....Obama will
have to beat Putin at his own game — and Obama
has now shown himself easy to push around.” [23]
If Obama can’t
stand up to the son of an Israeli terrorist and
the Zionist firebrands who buzz around him like
a swarm of angry bees — if he can’t tell the
Boltons and the
Kristols, the
Podhoretzes and the
Perles, the
Frums and the
Krauthammers, to go
take a hike — how is going to stand up to the
most powerful man in Russia?
What if Putin
should decide to build a base on Cuba? Or plant
America-bound missiles on a small island off the
coast of Venezuela, courtesy of Hugo Chavez?
[24] Would Obama
have the guts to stand up to Putin as Kennedy
once stood up to Kruschev?
Or would he wilt at the knees and send for the
smelling salts?
“From the
president down, no one is safe!” the inimitable
Taki tells us. [25]
So this is where
we are. Storm clouds on the
horizon. Iran in the
cross-hairs. And the
lunatics running the asylum.
————
REFERENCE NOTES
1.Norman
Podhoretz,
The Case for
Bombing Iran.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-case-for-bombing-iran-10882
2. Justin
Raimondo,
AIPAC,
Espionage, and Legal Sabotage.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11856
3. Robert Dreyfus
(The Nation), Chas
Freeman for NIC: Lots at Stake.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/411714/chas_freeman_for_nic_lots_at_stake
4. Charles W.
Freeman’s resignation statement in full.
Juan Cole,
Chas Freeman
forced by Israel Lobbies to withdraw from NIC
Chairmanship.
http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/chas-freeman-forced-by-israel-lobies-to.html
5. Glenn
Greenwald,
Chares Freeman fails the loyalty test.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/10/freeman/index.html
6. Christopher
Bollyn,
Son of a Zionist Terrorist:
Rahm Emanuel’s Dirty
Secret.
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi/read/95806
7. Justin
Raimondo,
A
Jewish Hitler? The Rise of
Avigdor Lieberman.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9923
8. Robert Fisk,
Why
Avigdor Lieberman is
the worst thing that can happen to the Middle
East.
http://thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=10357
9. Ray McGovern,
Obama Caves
to Israel Lobby.
http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=14389
10. MJ Rosenberg,
Freeman’s
Opponents’ Pyrrhic Victory.
http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/blog/freeman-opponents-pyrrhic-victory
11. Caroline
Glick,
Disturbing D.C. developments exposed by
Freeman’s appointment.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0309/glick031309.php3
“America’s top
intelligence officer [DNI Bair] is willing to
take Iran’s word on everything,” Glick
complains. “On the other hand, he is not willing
to take Israel’s word on anything.” Glick is
suggesting that Blair is an anti-Semite for
failing to accept that Israel always tells the
truth.
12. Patrick J.
Buchanan,
UnAmerican
Activities:
The Israeli Lobby’s Assassination of Chas
Freeman.
http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090316_freeman.htm
13. Melanie
Phillips,
Exit, Spraying Venom.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3429641/exit-spraying-venom.thtml
Phillips rages
thus: “Given the unhinged hatred towards Israel
and the Jews coursing through the west, which
was given rocket fuel in the US by the Walt/Mearsheimer
travesty which invested Jewish conspiracy theory
with a wholly spurious aura of academic
respectability, it was inevitable that if
Freeman bit the dust the Jews would be blamed.”
Kevin McDonald notes mildly,
making use of understatement, that
Phillips sounds a bit “unhinged”.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/articles/MacDonald-Freeman.html
Here is Phillips
in fine frenzy, giving full vent to her
hysteria: “The Obama administration is
preparing the ground TO THROW ISRAEL TO THE
WOLVES OF IRAN. The dominant faction in DC has
decided that a nuclear Iran is something America
will have to live with; to live with it, America
must do a deal with it; that deal will consist
of ISRAEL DELIVERED TO IT BOUND AND GAGGED, IN
EXCHANGE FOR WHICH IRAN WILL LEAVE THE US ALONE.
Except that of course it would
not
leave the US alone. On the contrary, AN
INCINERATED ISRAEL WOULD BE THE GALVANIC IMPETUS
FOR A NUCLEAR IRAN TO FINISH OFF BOTH AMERICA
AND EUROPE”.
(It’s Payback Time]. http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3439651/payback-time.thtml
14. Kevin
McDonald,
Charles Freeman’s Disloyalty Accusations.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/articles/MacDonald-Freeman.html
15. Charles W.
Freeman’s resignation statement.
Juan Cole,
Chas Freeman
forced by Israel Lobbies to withdraw from NIC
Chairmanship.
http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/chas-freeman-forced-by-israel-lobies-to.html
16.
As above.
17. Christopher
Bollyn,
Who is Bernie
Madoff, the man
behind the $50 billion fraud?
(Online access
temporarily denied — “bandwidth limit
exceeded”).
18.
Protocols of
the Elders of Zion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion
“The Protocols has been proven
to be a
forgery, a
fraud and a
hoax, ” Wikipedia
tells us; so be warned.
19. Wikipedia,
Antisemitic
Canard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitic_canard
20. Daniel
Luban and Jim Lobe,
Freeman
Withdrawal Marks Victory for Israel Lobby.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/lubanlobe.php?articleid=14386
21 Obama,
“Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian
people.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/obama_and_carter_and_israel.html
22. Richard
Silverstein,
The
Israel lobby’s Lexington and Concord.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/11/chas-freeman-israel-lobby-obama/print
See also: Andrew
Sullivan,
The
Freeman Precedent. “The fact that
Obama blinked means no one else in Washington
will ever dare to go through the hazing that
Freeman endured.”
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/the-freeman-pre.html
23. Ray McGovern,
Obama Caves
to Israel Lobby.
http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=14389
24. David Nowak
(Washington Post),
Kremlin shoots
down general’s musings.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/15/general-muses-over-basing-bombers-near-us/
25.
Taki,
Fear of the
Smear.
http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/fear_of_the_smear