Should White House reinstate Chas?

[Liberty Star]

Should WH reinstate Chas Freeman to the post he was nominated for?


http://themoderatevoice.com/27102/considering-the-who-and-how-of-criticizing-israel/

He had said this:


"To end [Middle Eastern] 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 ... 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."

[Liberty Star]

There is rumor going around that Glenn Beck is going to talk about this next week.

[Zippyjuan]

Didn't he withdraw his own name?

[Liberty Star]

Didn't he withdraw his own name?


Yep, just like he had put up his own name for nomination earlier.
That's how Washington works.

[Liberty Star]

CF made some good points in this interview but "monkey" analogy was not really necessary, or was it:


Q. The Israel lobby wasn't too happy with other Obama appointments, such as James Jones, George Mitchell, Samantha Power. Why do you think they went after you and let them slide by?

A. Because I was seen as particularly vulnerable. I'm precisely not the things they accuse me of being. I'm not a lobbyist. I haven't had a profile on the Hill. I think they probably very early figured out that this appointment, while presumably known to Jim Jones – well, I know it was known to Jim Jones – that there wasn't a specific White House buy-in because there didn't need to be anybody in the White House to buy in, and it was a nice way of, as the Chinese say, killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.

Q. Do think that's working? Are the ‘monkeys' scared? Is the administration deterred?

A. By ‘monkeys' in this analogy I mean people who might accept an appointment in the administration who are independent, who have an open as opposed to a closed mind on these matters. I don't think it's working. But, I mean, I'm the last person to be able to judge that.

Q. Have you heard from members of the Jewish community and Israelis?

A. Yes, of course, quite a few. Including many of those who are themselves concerned about Israel's settlement activities and other aspects of the occupation. What it shows is that despite efforts by the ‘Lieberman lobby' to make it seem like members of the American Jewish community speak with one voice, on behalf of Liebermanesque policies in Israel, in fact the American Jewish community has a broad diversity of opinion, and a good deal of it, maybe a majority, doesn't agree with this particular perspective and feels terribly afraid that it can't speak out without being trashed. So you're either anti-Semitic or you're a self-hating Jew. Either way it's an awful accusation to have to endure.


http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/417420?rel=hp_picks