Cause I’m Freeeeeeee, Freeee Man
Chas Freeman won’t be the head of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman’s appointment, per se, didn’t really seem like the best hill to die on. Beyond hyperbolic, out of context descriptions of his work by his opponents and then testimonials by his son and this good, yet totally hypothetical, piece by James Fallows, there wasn’t very much disinterested looking at this record, and beyond the fact that he won the ire of Michael Goldfarb and Steve Rosen, there wasn’t a whole lot of great discussion about the positive reasons for why he should be appointed.
But I think this entire incident has been instructive in clarifying two things. One, there is an “Israel-lobby” that is very good at ensuring that a rather narrow band of thought about Israel is ever expressed by anyone with any power or influence in the government. Two, due to the existence of said lobby and their effectiveness at going after their designated targets, there is high probability that anyone looking to rise up through the national security, intelligence or diplomatic ranks will do their best to never run afoul of them.
I guess what I would like to see is some of the more moderate Israel Lobby defenders — i.e. those who recognize that it exists — like Jon Chait and Jeffrey Goldberg defend the results of its ability to so fully shape the discourse and discussion around issues of Israel policy.
