Opinion: “Almost” appointee Freeman conspiring with anti-Israel Cabal to soil Hagel opponents

According to emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, a group of anti-Israel activists and journalists are engaged in a coordinated campaign to stifle criticism of controversial secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel by attacking the former Republican senator’s critics, according to emails obtained by the Free Beacon.

One of the leaders of this cabal is Chas Freeman former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia;

“Elliot [sic] Abrams is an ardent armchair Zionist who thinks that a commitment to Israel is an essential qualification for public service in the United States,” wrote Freeman, a vociferous Israel critic who has dubbed Israel’s supporters in America a “fifth column.”

“Abrams doubts that Hagel has such a commitment. Abrams thus ‘has a problem’ with Hagel,” Freeman wrote, according to the January 10 email chain obtained by the Free Beacon. “Abrams is a Jew. Ergo, he asserts, Jews have a problem with Hagel. Logically, therefore, Hagel has a problem with Jews. What slimy nonsense!”

If the name Chas Freeman sounds familiar, he was nominated to a key national security position by President Obama in 2009, but some enterprising blogger (me) led the charge to expose some of his strange positions regarding the Middle East and China, got members of Congress involved, and forced him to renounce the nomination. Freeman responded by attacking the Jews: “I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country.” Ambassador Chas Freeman Jr. 3/10/09

I call it enterprising, he called it unscrupulous people with dual loyalty (his son, a China scholar, threatened to punch me in the nose).

It was an interesting debate about Freeman, and it mirrored that of Hagel in a way. Just like Hagel, the debate was about the wide-expanse of Freeman’s bad positions and, just like Hagel, the media and his supporters are focusing on Israel and the Jews.

Freeman’s detractors talked of his Saudi ties, while his supporters talked of an Israel Lobby. We exposed that he was on the board of a Chinese company that broke the U.S. embargo against Iran, they answered by blaming the Israel lobby. We talked about his statements supporting Chinese human rights violations, they countered with Israel lobby.

I half expected a Freeman supporter to claim those 87 Chinese dissidents who asked President Obama to reconsider the Freeman appointment were secretly Jewish (or at least supporting the Jewish position because you know how those Jewish people love Chinese food).

Chas Freeman on the violent response to peaceful protests at Tiananmen Square in China: “In this optic, the Politburo’s response to the mob scene at “Tian’anmen” stands as a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not as an example of rash action. For myself, I side on this -- if not on numerous other issues -- with General Douglas MacArthur. I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be.”

And throughout the entire two-week-long Freeman debate, we knew exactly what the Freeman supporters were really saying, “We can’t defend his lack of judgment, instead we will just blame the Jews. Heck, when he was Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State James Baker (who once commented “F**k the Jews, they won’t vote for us anyway”) said Freeman was too pro-Saudi--that’s like the Pope saying someone is too Catholic.

Freeman was head of The Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) that produced some pretty extreme stuff. It pushed an anti-Israel agenda that goes beyond the pale of normal thinking, even for someone who is anti-Israel. Freeman ran a magazine that claimed the Iraq war was waged to help Israel. Like Hagel, he subscribes the “Walt and Mearsheimer contention that the Israel Lobby (a nice way of saying Jews) controls the U.S. foreign policy, although unlike Hagel, he wasn’t dumb enough to call it the Jewish Lobby. Freeman’s MEPC political action group published a workbook, teaching our children that the Muslims discovered the “New World” and the “Indians” who met the English Explorers all had Muslim names (Ablaa Pocahontas?)

My mother, of blessed memory, used to tell me to select only nice people as friends, because one of the ways people judge others is by the company they keep. There are tons of policy reasons why Chuck Hagel is not a good choice for Secretary of Defense; many of them have been outlined on these pages. But I believe my mother was correct, and the people who conspire to slander those fighting his nomination are also an indication of what is in Hagel’s heart.

Chas Freeman is a radical, with radical anti-Israel views--just like his buddy Chuck Hagel. But Freeman’s anti-Israel views were only a small part of why he was not right for his National Security job, just as Hagel’s views are just one item that should disqualify him for Secretary of Defense. Others include his views on Iran, terrorism, how he wants to practically disembowel our military defense and nuclear deterrence and much, much more.

Hagel, like his buddy Chas, is bad for the U.S. and should not be confirmed as Secretary of Defense.