watching the rapid barrage of smears directed against charles freeman in the past week, i'm reminded just how narrow the path of acceptable discourse about israel in this country is. as andrew sullivan points out "having the kind of debate in America that they have in Israel, let alone Europe, on the way ahead in the Middle East is simply forbidden." unless you advocate uncritical backing of everything israel does, you simply are not allowed to hold any foreign policy related position in the federal government. it's an effective blacklist.
i'm not sure that i agree with everything freeman does about the middle east, but this entire spectacle is an absolute embarrassment. apparently, president obama is allowed to have a "team of rivals" among his advisors, indeed he is actively encouraged to appoint republicans and people who have completely different views on just about everything to various positions, except when it comes to this one issue.
freeman's statement about his withdrawal is here.
ADDED: i pretty much agree with what stephen walt has to say about what this all means. his analysis strikes me as a lot more plausible than MJ rosenberg's silver lining post.
