On Jan 9, 2009, at 3:15 PM, SA wrote:
> The fact that this was leaked to the Guardian - and within hours of
> the news of Ross's selection - tells me it's a bone being thrown to
> the Euros. US intelligence is no doubt already talking to Hamas one
> way or another. It means nothing unless Hamas' responses are
> factored into US policy and can lead to policy adjustments. But
> policy is made by diplomats and staffers, not by spooks. And who are
> the diplomats? Dennis Ross, Hillary Clinton and - little noticed
> yesterday - Obama's pick for Middle East director at the NSC: Dan
> Shapiro, former Mideast staffer for Bill Nelson, who on Israel is
> literally, no joke, to the right of AIPAC. When Fatah entered a
> national unity govt with Hamas, Shapiro drafted legislation to ban
> US contacts with *any* Palestinian Authority official, including
> Abbas, Fayyad, the whole Fatah gang. I think the Bush administration
> ended up out of desperation calling on some liberal Jewish groups to
> lobby against it and it was defeated. Obama's choices are deeply
> right wing, there's no "complex picture" so far except (if you look
> with a microscope) in PR terms.
Apologies for the vagueness of this memory, but there was a woman on MSNBC the other night - Maddow, I think, but it might have been Mad Dog Olberman's show - who served as a Middle East expert on Clinton's NSC. She said that Obama's ME team consists mainly of neocons who, and this is pretty much a direct quote, will make us look back fondly on the Bush years.
Doug