Political Insider: Is Baker Better for Israel Than Brzezinski?
Posted By Adam DickterPolitical Insider: Is Baker Better for Israel Than Brzezinski?
We've heard plenty of complaints on Israel's behalf about Democrat Barack Obama's advisers, like Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former Jimmy Carter aide, and Robert Malley.
But doesn't evenhandedness require as much vigilance in the pro-Israel crowd about Republican John McCain's buddy James Baker, who endorsed the Arizona senator this week?
It was Baker who as secretary of state to George Bush Sr., took a notably snarky jab at Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, reading out the state department's phone number and saying "call us when you want peace."
Wasn't it also Baker who said Jewish settlements, not Palestinian terrorism or Arab intransigence, are "the greatest obstacle to peace in the Middle East"?
And didn't McCain say two years ago, in an interview with Haaretz, that he'd consider Baker as a Middle East envoy, while even acknowledging that "you in Israel don't like Baker."
Shouldn't it sound some warning bells that a major presidential contender says he would appoint to a sensitive, "honest-broker" job someone he acknowledges off the bat does not have the trust of one side?
Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America says "there are few public officials more hostile to Israel than Jim Baker and Brent Scowcroft" (another former Bush Sr. advisor and McCain backer). Klein added "any presidential candidate who states or even hints at utilizing such people in the Arab-Israeli conflict represents a serious concern."
But Klein is optimistic that McCain won't really use Baker. "He said that on the run to a journalist when he was going from one meeting to the next," said Klein. "[McCain] told me it was a two minute interview and he did not have time to give serious thought to who he would use."
Is "he hasn't given serious thought" to the Middle East and absent-minded name dropping really the best defense for McCain here?
Anyway, says Klein, Obama's crowd is worse.
"The advisers on foreign policy that apparently surround him may be even more hostile," said Klein. "At least McCain is making Islamic terrorism a priority."
The appointment of a U.S. Middle East envoy is, of course, a very serious matter. Look how much those envoys have accomplished so far.