So long as we're discussing Chas Freeman, it's worth clearing up this dispute between Andrew Sullivan and Jamie Kirchick. Sullivan links to a speech Freeman gave in October of 2006 and quotes Freeman saying, "Tragically, despite all the advantages and opportunities Israel has had over the fifty-nine years of its existence, it has failed to achieve concord and reconciliation with anyone in its region, still less to gain their admiration or affection." Kirchick, predictably, pounces. In a post entitled "Freeman's elementary mistakes," Kirchick terms Freeman's statement "patently false," and says that "it's shocking that a man who's being presented to us as a Middle East expert could be so historically illiterate. In 1979, Israel signed a peace treaty with its neighbor Egypt, known as the 'Camp David Accords.' It's was a pretty monumental moment in the history of the region. And in 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan, another of its once-hostile neighbors." Kirchick is right. It would be pretty shocking. If it were true. This is one of those teachable moments, however. If a gotcha looks to good to be true -- i.e, the former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia is unaware of the Camp David accords -- it probably is. Kirchick doesn't seem to have read beyond Sullivan's quote. A few paragraphs earlier, Freeman says, "For almost forty years, Israel has had land beyond its previously established borders to trade for peace. It has been unable to make this exchange except when a deal was crafted for it by the United States, imposed on it by American pressure, and sustained at American taxpayer expense." It's not particularly controversial to claim that the Camp David accords were a product of American pressure and sustained by American money (Egypt is, to this day, our second largest recipient of foreign aid -- right after Israel). Freeman's whole speech, incidentally, is here. It's worth a read for folks who want to get a sense of his thinking on the region.
