Obama's appointees
Some of Obama's appointees give reason for concern. The most recent is Amb. Charles Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council. Freeman, the former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, has been for the last twelve years President of the Middle East Policy Council (formally the American Arab Affairs Council) a lobbying group for the Arab world. They publish a quarterly Middle East Policy which is filled with anti-Israel articles that do not reflect US policy, until now. The appointment of Freeman as the gatekeeper for U.S. intelligence is a very disturbing matter.
Other problematical appointees are Dr. Vali Nasr as senior advisor to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke for Afghanistan/Pakistan issues, and Dr. Susan Rice as Ambassador to the United Nations. Rice is a well-known figure in anti-Israel US foreign policy studies and her elevation to this significant US posting can only be a sign of accomodationist attitudes towards US and Israeli enemies at the UN. Both Nasr and Rice are known to believe in US conciliation towards Iran.
The appointment of Dennis Ross to the position of Special Advior to Secty. of State Hillary Clinton for the Gulf and South West Asia (i.e Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India) is not unexpected, since he was a former Clinton Administration appointee and Obama advisor on the Middle East. But, his switch from Middle East to the Gulf/Iran/Afghanistan region indicates that Obama does not want to have him interfering with Sen. George Mitchell's activities in the Middle East. Ross, who is Jewish, is not a bad appointment, but although the anti-Israel crowd regard him as too pro-Israel, and he was responsible for inserting a more pro-Israel statement into the Obama platform, nevertheless he has not been considered overtly pro-Israel by former Israeli leaders.
In Ross's memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace of his time as the US negotiator for peace between the PA and Israel during the 1990s he admitted that the US was deliberately "soft" with Yasir Arafat, accepting his terms when they knew (from intelligence) that he was lying and paying him millions of dollars in "walk around money", i.e. funds that they knew he would appropriate for himself and dole out to his friends and associates, to maintain his position. What is most troubling is that the US knew that he was using some of this cash to fund terrorist groups, he would pay them a fee for specific kinds of terrorist actions against Israel. At the time, of course, the US denied any knowledge of this kind of connection.
The recent reports of Iran firing a space missile and the opening of the Bushehr nuclear plant with Russian cooperation give cause for concern. Even the US has admitted that this can be a source of nuclear weapon's grade uranium and certainly enhances Iranian nuclear know-how. Given Obama's stated proclivity for "dialogue" with Iran, and his reduction of concern about Iran (for instance Iran was not mentioned in his speech to Congress a few days ago) then these appointments of the Obama Administration are not surprising. Howerever, their cumulative effect could presage a bumpy ride for future Israel-US relations.
Other problematical appointees are Dr. Vali Nasr as senior advisor to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke for Afghanistan/Pakistan issues, and Dr. Susan Rice as Ambassador to the United Nations. Rice is a well-known figure in anti-Israel US foreign policy studies and her elevation to this significant US posting can only be a sign of accomodationist attitudes towards US and Israeli enemies at the UN. Both Nasr and Rice are known to believe in US conciliation towards Iran.
The appointment of Dennis Ross to the position of Special Advior to Secty. of State Hillary Clinton for the Gulf and South West Asia (i.e Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India) is not unexpected, since he was a former Clinton Administration appointee and Obama advisor on the Middle East. But, his switch from Middle East to the Gulf/Iran/Afghanistan region indicates that Obama does not want to have him interfering with Sen. George Mitchell's activities in the Middle East. Ross, who is Jewish, is not a bad appointment, but although the anti-Israel crowd regard him as too pro-Israel, and he was responsible for inserting a more pro-Israel statement into the Obama platform, nevertheless he has not been considered overtly pro-Israel by former Israeli leaders.
In Ross's memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace of his time as the US negotiator for peace between the PA and Israel during the 1990s he admitted that the US was deliberately "soft" with Yasir Arafat, accepting his terms when they knew (from intelligence) that he was lying and paying him millions of dollars in "walk around money", i.e. funds that they knew he would appropriate for himself and dole out to his friends and associates, to maintain his position. What is most troubling is that the US knew that he was using some of this cash to fund terrorist groups, he would pay them a fee for specific kinds of terrorist actions against Israel. At the time, of course, the US denied any knowledge of this kind of connection.
The recent reports of Iran firing a space missile and the opening of the Bushehr nuclear plant with Russian cooperation give cause for concern. Even the US has admitted that this can be a source of nuclear weapon's grade uranium and certainly enhances Iranian nuclear know-how. Given Obama's stated proclivity for "dialogue" with Iran, and his reduction of concern about Iran (for instance Iran was not mentioned in his speech to Congress a few days ago) then these appointments of the Obama Administration are not surprising. Howerever, their cumulative effect could presage a bumpy ride for future Israel-US relations.
posted by Jack Cohen at 1:23 PM
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