In a recent post, Try harder, Mr. Beinart,1 I subjected Peter Beinart to brief ridicule for perpetuating now ancient myths from John F. Kennedy’s half-forgotten “New Frontier” when he expressed the wish, in a column for the New York Times, that more Republican senators would present “profiles in courage”, so to speak, and vote the way Mr. Beinart (and I) think they should. Well, thanks to the indefatigable and indispensable Daniel Larison, in his post “Iran Hawks’ Latest Smear Campaign Has Already Failed”, I have learned that Pete isn’t always so simple.
In Dan’s piece, he defends the Biden Administration’s choice of Rob Malley as envoy to Iran, the person who is the subject of the “smear campaign” alluded to in Dan’s headline. Dan links to a much expansive piece on Mr. Malley, “Why Rob Malley Matters”, appearing on Mr. Beinart’s “The Beinart File”. Commenting on the attacks on Malley, Beinart says
At one level, the venom is absurdly overblown. Malley has exhibited neither “sympathy” for the Iranian regime nor “animus” toward Israel. In fact, as veteran Middle East hand Aaron Miller has noted, “Malley’s views on Iran parallel [other] senior folks” Biden has hired.
But dig deeper and you can understand why people like [Arkansas blowhard Senator Tom] Cotton are worried. Because Rob Malley has shown the capacity to do something Beltway militarists find deeply threatening: See beyond America’s self-congratulatory self-conception and grasp how the US and its allies look to their victims. That’s what makes Rob Malley special.
Read further and you’ll learn a lot about how the Israeli lobby operates in the U.S., something that, alas, Mr. Beinart seems rarely to have the opportunity to write about in the New York Times. For which reason, I’ll give you an extended sample:
In 2008, the Obama campaign disavowed Malley—who had been serving as an informal advisor—for the sin of merely meeting with members of Hamas. Malley had not praised or aided the Islamist group. He merely argued that, “you’re going to have to find some way of neutralizing Hamas’s spoiling capacity and that means to some extent, engaging with it.” But even though Malley had met Hamas representatives in his private capacity as a researcher for the International Crisis Group, he was blocked from entering Obama’s administration until late in his second term. Meanwhile, Obama’s strategy of isolating Hamas in the hopes that people in Gaza would overthrow it, failed miserably. More than a decade later, Hamas remains in control in Gaza, the Palestinian national movement remains divided, and the US continues to support an Israeli blockade that, in the words of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, has created a “manmade humanitarian disaster” for almost two million people. Yet, in Washington, suggesting that the United States should talk openly to Hamas remains a career-killer.
That’s why the fight over Rob Malley’s appointment matters. It constitutes a test of whether someone who sees beyond the smug and blinkered narrative that dominates Beltway discourse—and tries to elevate the voices of people who Washington policymakers often ignore—can win an important job in even a Democratic administration. Ambitious young wonks will take note and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Afterwords
The Times doesn’t always pull its punches when talking about the Israeli lobby. In an earlier piece, “Uh, so I guess it was just LARGELY about the Benjamins”, I congratulated the Times, heavily, for running a long piece by Nathan Thrall, “How the Battle Over Israel and Anti-Semitism Is Fracturing American Politics”, which talked far more candidly about the influence of the Israeli lobby in U.S. politics than you are likely to find in the mainstream media, something I have complained about, several times.
1. In his Times piece, Mr. Beinart wished, earnestly, that more Republican senators could be “brave” and defy Donald Trump. As I have pointed out, endlessly, elected Republican officials cannot be “brave”—cannot stand up to Trump—because the Republican Party is owned, lock, stock, and barrel, by Donald Trump. Contrary to popular belief, Donald Trump did not take over the Republican Party; he completed it.
