Despite what Chas Freeman wants you to believe, what sank his nomination to chair the National Intelligence wasn't the Israel lobby: It was the pro-Democracy lobby. I don't mean American-flag wavers from flyover country (not that there is anything wrong with that). I mean folks repulsed by the human-rights violations of countries like China and Saudia Arabia.

Whether or not Freeman had the credentials for the job wasn't really the question. (Writing on Jewcy, Michael Weiss had much to say abour Freeman's "curious defenders.") It was whether his apologia for Saudia Arabia, where he served as U.S. ambassador, and China had disqualified him.

“This was not about Israel, it was about a revolving door through which Freeman rotated and was paid handsomely," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), after Freeman withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday. The New York congressman was referring to the idea of the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia going from serving the U.S. government, to being paid by foreign governments and then returning to government service.

“There was a steady revelation of financial conflicts of interest involving foreign powers that were troubling," said Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who along with Israel, led the opposition in Congress. “If it had simply been a dispute about Middle East policy, he would have survived."

To be sure, Freeman was no fan of Israel. Talking about the folly of invading Iraq in a 2007 speech, Freeman said:

"we embraced Israel’s enemies as our own; they responded by equating Americans with Israelis as their enemies. We abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel’s efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations. We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists."

But so what? Samantha Power, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the essential "A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide," has accused and said far worse things about Israel and she found a home in the Obama administration. And I'd argue she deserves it.

Still, Freeman wants the world to know it was the "Israel lobby" - or, as my friend Omri Ceren told me today, the Jews and those Christians they have corrupted - that derailed his nomination. He "exposed" this conspiratorial witch hunt Tuesday in a letter to Foreign Policy:

Click here to read the entire article: http://www.jewcy.com/post/chas_freemans_jewish_problem