Crossing The Lobby

As reported in yesterday’s Al Jazeera, President Barack Obama’s selection for the Head of the US National Intelligence Council, Charles “Chas” Freeman, has resigned from his appointment accusing the Israel Lobby in the United States of plumbing “the depths of dishonour and indecency” in its all-out character assassination campaign launched over the past several weeks.

Following a number of libelous e-mails sent in a rare ‘mass coordinated’ campaign to supporters sympathetic to the Israel Lobby, Freeman said on Tuesday:

“The tactics of the Israel lobby 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.

“The aim of this lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favours.”

The resignation is not only a setback for Barack Obama (as yet another chosen appointee has backed out of a high profile position), but again highlights that lobby organizations such as AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) retain considerable power and influence even within Obama’s radically updated administration.

As we have witnessed in elite American politics, crossing the interests of lobby groups like AIPAC can spell political disaster - with most pundits speculating the recent attacks were engineered to not only remind the adminstration of the group’s influence, but to serve as a ‘warning’ to undecided US Senators facing difficult re-election campaigns.

Freeman has been a target of the Israel Lobby since his 2007 ‘pro-Palestinian’ statements, including his remarks that “the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli occupation shows no sign of ending.”

It is worth noting that the above relatively ‘mild’ statements - which we in Europe would view as almost commonplace amongst journalists and politicans - can create such political turmoil in the United States. Moving forward, Barack Obama’s ‘New America’ will ultimately be defined by its ability to face harsh internal friction from lobby groups such as AIPAC - if not, the ‘new’ adminstration will look awfully similar to the old.