So
who done in Chas Freeman, who almost got into a position to control the
intelligence information flowing to President Obama? Well, it was the sinister Israeli lobby,
according to Amitabh Pal,
writing in the oddly named Progressive.
Now, Freeman wasn’t above reproach. He made some weird
statements about the Tiananmen Square crackdown that could be taken as an
apology for the Chinese regime. (He insists they were taken out of context.) And
even Progressive Media Project contributor Professor Asad AbuKhalil
says that Freeman was too chummy with the Saudi royal family.
But make no mistake. Freeman was taken down for his past
criticism of Israel.
In
fact, Freeman’s statements about Tiananmen Square weren’t “weird,” as
I have shown. They were
disgusting. And they weren’t taken out
of context at all. The full text was
readily available at this blog and elsewhere.
Pal
is half right to say that Freeman’s criticism of Israel was what done him
in. But it wasn’t just criticism that
was at issue. It was the fact that
Freeman was a shill for the Saudis and accordingly friendly to any enemy of
Israel including Hamas. Is this really
the guy Obama wants to decide what kind of intelligence is important enough for
the President to be informed about? I
hope not.
Israel
has its defenders, like Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, and they defended
her. Of all the countless interest
groups lobbying Congress, it is only the
Israeli lobby that the Progressives regard as illegitimate. Funny how that happens.
Meanwhile
we have this story from progressive Malmö, in Sweden, by
Paul Neuding at the Weekly Standard:
"This
is how it was last time too," said a Holocaust survivor, when she was
escorted from Malmö's main square by the police. "We had to leave the
square, while they got to stay."
On
January 27th, it had been almost a month since the Israeli military operation Cast
Lead was launched in Gaza. A couple of hundred people, mostly Jews, had
gathered in Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, to show their support for
Israel. Their slogans--"Israel's right to self defense" and
"Compassion with all civilian victims"--were met with shouts of
"Sieg Heil" and "Damn Jews" by a group of mainly Arab and
left-wing counter protesters. Stones, eggs, and bottles were thrown, and when a
home-made bomb was fired at the Jewish group police finally decided to
evacuate. The pro-Israeli protesters fled, while children ran after them with
cell phones to report back into the crowd where the Jews were heading.
One
protester I spoke with was among those who refused to run. "I already left
Poland forty years ago," she said. "They will not chase me away this
time."
Last
Saturday, roughly a month after the mob met Jews off Malmö's main square, the
city was again shaken by riots. Seven thousand activists gathered to stop a
Davis Cup match between Sweden and Israel, and the demonstration march was also
a manifestation of the ideological confusion that has become the trademark of
the Swedish pro-Palestinian movement. Hamas flags and headbands could be
spotted next to banners supporting communist groups and feminist causes.
Okay. So at a public forum at Malmö, only the Jews
were removed from the scene by the police.
Then later, an Israeli tennis team arrives at Malmö to play a demonstration
match. What does the progressive
government of the city do?
After
war broke out in Gaza, a majority in the local Malmö council decided that no
audience would be allowed at the Davis Cup games between Sweden and Israel. The
representative of the Left Party (as the Communist Party was rechristened in
1990) made it clear that the decision was due to Israel's "genocide"
against the people of Gaza.
The
popular mayor of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, who is often referred to by the nickname
"Malmö's strong man," is one of the most influential figures of the
Social Democratic Party. He told the assembled media before the match that,
were it up to him, Israel wouldn't be allowed to participate at all. "This
is not a match against just anyone," he explained. "It is a match
against the state of Israel."
Sweden
hasn't subjected a country to a sports boycott since South Africa was barred
from playing in the country during Apartheid. But Malmö's "strong
man" has changing demography to consider. Of Malmö's 287,000 inhabitants,
50,000 are Muslim and 30,000 are of Arab origin. In 2004, the most common name
for baby boys in the city was Mohammed. These population changes, of course,
have far-reaching political implications. Or as Reepalu put it, when explaining
the motivation for the Davis Cup boycott, "A large part of Malmö's
population comes from the Middle East. Many have relatives in Gaza who have
gotten in trouble. They are frustrated and angry with Israel's
occupation."
Well,
there you have it. A tennis team is
tainted because it is an Israeli tennis team.
Gee, if only the American government were a progressive as the city of Malmö, Chas Freeman
would be in like flint. So the world
moves toward a final resolution of the pesky Jewish Question.
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