Israel Matzav

Obama on his foreign policy advisers: 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'

Robert Malley, a "key foreign policy adviser" to Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, resigned on Friday after reports surfaced that he had met with representatives of Hamas. Malley made no apologies for meeting with Hamas.

"To do my job, I have to meet with savory and unsavory people," he said, but added that after receiving yet another inquiry on the matter on Friday morning, he finally chose to step away from his advisory role.

"This was a distraction for me; this was a distraction for them," he said Friday night. "It is absurd, but that is what this campaign is about."

Once Malley resigned, the Obama campaign tried to disown him (Hat Tip: Ace of Spades).

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Mr Obama, responded swiftly: “Rob Malley has, like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future.”

But Malley is just one link in a chain of Obama foreign policy advisers who have led Hamas to endorse Obama. And there was plenty in Malley's background that should have tipped Obama off to the likelihood that Malley had these kinds of links, if he had bothered to check that background.

A little family history may be in order to understand the genesis of Robert Malley's views. Normally, one should be reluctant in exploring a person's family background -- after all, who would want to be held responsible for the sins of one's father? However, when close relatives share a strong current of ideological affinity, and when a father has a commanding persona, it behooves a researcher to inquire a bit into the role of family in forming views. That said, Robert Malley has a very interesting father.

His father Simon Malley was born to a Syrian family in Cairo and at an early age found his métier in political journalism. He participated in the wave of anti-imperialist and nationalist ideology that was sweeping the Third World.

He wrote thousands of words in support of struggle against Western nations. In Paris, he founded the journal Afrique Asie; he and his magazine became advocates for "liberation" struggles throughout the world, particularly for the Palestinians.

Simon Malley loathed Israel and anti-Israel activism became a crusade for him-as an internet search would easily show. He spent countless hours with Yasser Arafat and became a close friend of Arafat.

He was, according to Daniel Pipes, a sympathizer of the Palestinian Liberation Organization --- and this was when it was at the height of its terrorism wave against the West. His efforts were so damaging to France that President Valerie d'Estaing expelled him from the country.

Malley has seemingly followed in his father's footsteps: he represents the next generation of anti-Israel activism. Through his writings he has served as a willing propagandist, bending the truth (and more) to serve an agenda that is marked by anti-Israel bias; he heads a group of Middle East policy advisers for a think-tank funded (in part) by anti-Israel billionaire activist George Soros; and now is on the foreign policy staff of a leading Presidential contender. Each step up the ladder seems to be a step closer towards his goal of empowering radicals and weakening the ties between American and our ally Israel.

The McCain campaign has apparently chosen to attribute Malley's presence on Obama's team to Obama's inexperience and not - as I would - to indifference or worse regarding Israel.

Randy Scheunemann, Mr McCain’s foreign policy chief, suggested that Mr Malley was part of an emerging pattern in which other advisers had been repudiated after throwing confusion over policies on trade and Iraq. “Perhaps because of his inexperience Senator Obama surrounds himself with advisers that contradict his stated policies,” he said.

I think there's more to it than that. But either way, it would not bode well for - God forbid - an Obama Presidency.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:52 PM