Obama Picks Israel Critic for Senior Intelligence Post

To be confirmed but it looks like Obama is appointing a critic of Israel to head the National Intelligence Council. Chas Freeman, a former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia had this to say in 2005:

In 2005 remarks to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, Freeman said that “as long as the United States continues unconditionally to provide the subsidies and political protection that make the Israeli occupation and the high-handed and self-defeating policies it engenders possible, there is little, if any, reason to hope that anything resembling the former peace process can be resurrected. Israeli occupation and settlement of Arab lands is inherently violent.

And as long as such Israeli violence against Palestinians continues, it is utterly unrealistic to expect that Palestinians will stand down from violent resistance and retaliation against Israelis. Mr. Sharon is far from a stupid man; he understands this. So, when he sets the complete absence of Palestinian violence as a precondition for implementing the road map or any other negotiating process, he is deliberately setting a precondition he knows can never be met.”

In 2008, in a speech to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program, he said, “We have reflexively supported the efforts of a series of right-wing Israeli governments to undo the Oslo accords and to pacify the Palestinians rather than make peace with them.

“The so-called ‘two-state solution’ is widely seen in the region as too late and too little. Too late, because so much land has been colonized by Israel that there is not enough left for a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel; too little, because what is on offer looks to Palestinians more like an Indian reservation than a country.”

"Occupation", "Israeli violence against Palestinians", "colonized by Israel"??? These aren't terms one would expect to hear from a senior administration official. Further evidence of the changing wind?

Update:

Mad Mel Phlips is seriously pissed off about it (in my book that's always a good sign!): "An American addition to the Islamists' armoury?" she calls it. Phwooaaar!!!!

As always, reading Mad Mel's soapbox tirades is never complete without perusing the comment section, manned by a bunch of Paladins of the Clash of Civilisations:

Truthtriumphs
February 22nd, 2009 11:08pm
It is an established truth that
former ambassadors to the Saudi regime remain permanently in their pay, and so to earn their pay off they continue to spout anti-Israel propaganda for as long as they are able.
I sincerely hope that Netanyahu's coalition partners will include Avigdor Lieberman's party, and so safeguard Israel's security. It will be a source of great pleasure to see the Obama/Clinton overtures to Hamas going precisely nowhere.

Yehuda
February 23rd, 2009 2:58am
Dave and Robert: We have reached the stage where "critics" of Israel are a camp comprising non-Jewish Jew-haters, as well as Jews by background, who share this hatred. All the objective evidence proves this.
But, don't worry so much: it's become academically,socially and politically acceptable.
Oh, by the way, re-read the Biblical Samson story.

Original Tony
February 23rd, 2009 12:46pm
[snip]
On a more serious note, Israel will never be wiped off the face of the map so I look forward to a long future visiting those fine people and the Arabs will never prosper outside of oil revenue. They follow a fanatical religion that is like a two-headed snake that is always biting the other head, compounded by lies, more lies and deceit. America is falling prey to their trap so God help the USA, the best thing to do is prove Obama is not a citizen and get him out of office!