by Chas Freeman
via the Middle East Policy Council
It is a privilege to have been asked to join this discussion of Jacob Heilbrunn’s account of Israel’s fraying image. His article seems to me implicitly to raise two grim questions.
The first question is [...]
by Mitchell Plitnick
via IPS News
The Oslo peace process has failed and Europe must take stronger leadership in the Middle East, according to a distinguished group of former European leaders that is pushing for a stronger and more independent European stance on the Israeli occupation.
And some United States analysts believe the [...]
via Lobe Log
by Jasmin Ramsey
I wanted Iraq to dominate our postings this week, the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of the country. The work of Daniel, Jim and James received ample attention, though Americans don’t appear to have much of an appetite for remembering the disastrous [...]
via Lobe Log
Amb. Chas Freeman (ret.) spoke to a Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) forum on U.S. Grand Strategy — or, in his words “Grand Waffle” — in the Middle East on Capitol Hill yesterday and has graciously agreed to have the text posted on Lobe Log. Readers of the blog are already [...]
via Lobe Log
As readers of this blog know, I have the highest regard for Amb. Chas Freeman (ret.) not only as one of this country’s most accomplished diplomats, but also as a extraordinarily insightful analyst of current global developments and their impact on U.S. foreign policy. This is undoubtedly why former Director of [...]
All four of the ambassadors who received recess appointments from President Obama were considered fully qualified by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who approved their nominations and sent them to the full Senate for confirmation. All have been kept from taking up their diplomatic posts on by unilateral actions on the part of one or two senators, who prevented their appointments from reaching the Senate floor for the votes that almost certainly would have confirmed them.
The U.S. media has been quick to accept that Arab countries share a hawkish view on Iran after the release of the WikiLeaks cables. The New York Times was at the front of this push to portray Arab leaders as just as hawkish as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party on Iran.
“The cables [...]
Chas Freeman, who served as assistant secretary of defense from 1993 to 1994 and ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War, had a letter in Saturday’s New York Times which explains why the WikiLeaks cables are good for Tehran and bad for the U.S.’s efforts to form an alliance against Tehran.
Freeman [...]
The Clarion Fund–a group whose ties to prominent neoconservatives and Aish HaTorah we have written about recently–just sent out an email promoting their latest film, Iranium, and suggests that the WikiLeaks cables prove Iran is a destabilizing influence on the Middle East. The film’s producer, Raphael Shore, in an email titled “The [...]
Earlier this week, Ambassador Chas W. Freeman offered some invaluable insights on WikiLeaks, which Jim Lobe and I wrote about in this IPS piece and I shared here. I thought I’d take another chance to empty my notebook of more of Freeman’s observations. (And check out his new book.)
Freeman, who has extensive [...]
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