James Kirchick's
concern-trolling over the various spurious attacks against
Barack Obama's campaign (
some launched, of course, by Kirchick's co-bloggers) reminded me to link to
this post by the
Magnes Zionist on a recent
letter from some Middle East policy heavyweights in support of
Robert Malley. Malley is a Middle East scholar and part-time Obama adviser who has been a frequent target of neoconservatives for having produced
work that challenged their preferred pro-Israel narrative. The letter states, in part:
Over the past several weeks, a series of vicious, personal attacks have been launched against one of our colleagues, Robert Malley, who served as President Clinton’s Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli affairs. They claim that he harbours an anti-Israeli agenda and has sought to undermine Israel’s security. These attacks are unfair, inappropriate and wrong. They are an effort to undermine the credibility of a talented public servant who has worked tirelessly over the years to promote Arab-Israeli peace and US national interests. They must stop.
Attempted character assassination against legitimate critics of Israeli policies has long been a favored tactic of neocons (something which fellow conservative
Jacob Heilbrunn acknowledges in his recently published history of that faction,
They Knew They Were Right). It's nice that we're starting to see some push-back. -
--Matthew Duss 
