Message: OBAMA SENDS PLO SUPPORTER MALLEY TO SYRIA !
While the friends of Israel have been busy kvelling over the appointment of
Rahm Emanuel as Barack Obama's Chief of Staff, little noted is the sudden
return of PLO-loving, anti-Israel Robert Malley, sent to Syria by
President-elect Obama to apparently begin negotiations over "change" in the
Middle East. Syria still has nuclear material, by the way, caught by
satellites.
Below, an article about Malley's sudden reappearance after supposedly being
"dropped" by Obama as we were told during the campaign. I checked Snopes.
Unfortunately, the following is absolutely true. Who Malley is, exactly,
and his ties to Arafat and the Hamas is discussed in a second article that
follows.
Naomi
------------------------------------...
O
bama's Road to Damascus
By John Perazzo
FrontPageMagazine.com
History will record that Barack Obama's first act of diplomacy as America's
president-elect took place two days after his election victory, when he
dispatched his senior foreign-policy adviser, Robert Malley, to meet with
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad—to
outline for them the forthcoming administration's Mideast policy vis-à-vis
those nations. An aide to Malley reports, "The tenor of the messages was
that the Obama administration would take into greater account Egyptian and
Syrian interests" than has President Bush. The Bush administration, it
should be noted, has rightly recognized Syria to be not only a chief
supporter of the al Qaeda insurgency in Iraq, but also the headquarters of
the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the longtime
sponsor of Hamas—the terrorist army whose founding charter is irrevocably
committed to the annihilation of Israel. Yet unlike President Bush, Obama
and Malley have called for Israel to engage in peace negotiations with
Syria.
A Harvard-trained lawyer and Rhodes Scholar, Robert Malley is no newcomer to
the Obama team. In 2007, Obama selected him as a foreign policy adviser to
his campaign. At the time, Malley was (and still is today) the Middle East
and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis Group (ICG),
which receives funding from the Open Society Institute of George Soros (who,
incidentally, serves=2
0on the ICG Executive Committee).
In his capacity with ICG, Malley directs a number of analysts who focus
their attention most heavily on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the political and
military developments in Iraq, and Islamist movements across the Middle
East. Prior to joining ICG, Malley served as President Bill Clinton's
Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998-2001), and as National
Security Adviser Sandy Berger's Executive Assistant (1996-1998).
Robert Malley was raised in France. His lineage is noteworthy. His father,
Simon Malley (1923-2006), was a key figure in the Egyptian Communist Party.
A passionate hater of Israel, the elder Malley was a close friend and
confidante of the late PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat; an inveterate critic of
"Western imperialism"; a supporter of various revolutionary "liberation
movements," particularly the Palestinian cause; a beneficiary of Soviet
funding; and a supporter of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
According to American Thinker news editor Ed Lasky, Simon Malley
"participated in the wave of anti-imperialist and nationalist ideology that
was sweeping the Third World [and] … wrote thousands of words in support of
struggle against Western nations."
In a July 2001 op-ed which Malley penned for the New York Times, he alleged
that Israeli—not Palestinian—inflexibility had caused the previous year's
Camp David peace talks (brokered by Bill Clinton) to fall apart. This was
one of several controversial articles Malley has
written—some he co-authored
with Hussein Agha, a former adviser to Arafat—blaming Israel and exonerating
Arafat (the most prolific Jew-killer since Adolph Hitler) for the failure of
the peace process.
Malley's identification of Israel as the cause of the Camp David impasse has
been widely embraced by Palestinian and Arab activists around the world, by
Holocaust deniers like Norman Finkelstein, and by anti-Israel publications
such as Counterpunch. It should be noted that Malley's account of the Camp
David negotiations is entirely inconsistent with the recollections of the
key figures who participated in those talks—specifically, then-Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, and then-U.S.
Ambassador Dennis Ross (Clinton's Middle East envoy).
Malley also has written numerous op-eds urging the U.S. to disengage from
Israel to some degree, and recommending that America reach out to negotiate
with its traditional Arab enemies such as Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah (a
creature of Iran dedicated to the extermination of the Jews and death to
America), and Muqtada al-Sadr (the Shiite terrorist leader in Iraq).
In addition, Malley has advised nations around the world to establish
relationships with, and to send financial aid to, the Hamas-led Palestinian
government in Gaza. In Malley's calculus, the electoral victory that swept
Hamas into power in January 2006 was a manifestation of legitimate
Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect20because
of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's incursions,
[and] Western lecturing …"
Moreover, Malley contends that it is both unreasonable and unrealistic for
Israel or Western nations to demand that Syria sever its ties with Hamas,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Iran. Rather, he suggests that if Israel were
to return the Golan Heights (which it captured in the 1967 Six Day War, and
again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War—two conflicts sparked by Arab aggression
which sought so permanently wipe the Jewish state off the face of the earth)
to Syrian control, Damascus would be inclined to pursue peace with Israel.
Malley has criticized the U.S. for allegedly remaining "on the sidelines"
and being a "no-show" in the overall effort to bring peace to the nations of
the Middle East. Exhorting the Bush administration to change its policy of
refusing to engage diplomatically with terrorists and their sponsoring
states, Malley wrote in July 2006: "Today the U.S. does not talk to Iran,
Syria, Hamas, the elected Palestinian government or Hezbollah…. The result
has been a policy with all the appeal of a moral principle and all the
effectiveness of a tired harangue."
This inclination to negotiate with any and all enemies of the U.S. and
Israel—an impulse which Malley has outlined clearly and consistently—has had
a powerful influence on Barack Obama.
It is notable that six months ago the Obama campaign and Malley hastily0D
severed ties with one another after the Times of London reported that Malley
had been meeting privately with Hamas leaders on a regular basis—something
Obama had publicly pledged never to do. At the time, Obama campaign
spokesman Ben LaBolt minimized the significance of this monumentally
embarrassing revelation, saying: "Rob Malley has, like hundreds of other
experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no
formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future."
But indeed, within hours after Obama's election victory, Malley was back as
a key player in the president-elect's team of advisors—on his way to Syria.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, received a most friendly communication from Hamas,
congratulating him on his "historic victory."
====================================...
Who is Robert Malley?
• Middle East and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis
Group
• Formerly served as President Bill Clinton's Special Assistant for
Arab-Israeli Affairs
• Son of Simon Malley, a key figure in the Egyptian Communist Party
• Blamed Israel for the failed Camp David peace negotiations with Yasser
Arafat in 2000
• Has co-written a number of op-ed pieces with Hussein Agha, a former
adviser to Arafat
• Consistently condemns Israel,=2
0exonerates Palestinians, urges
U.S. disengagement from Israel, and recommends that America reach out to
negotiate with its traditional Arab enemies
• Became foreign policy advisor to presidential candidate Barack Obama in
2007
A Harvard-trained lawyer and Rhodes Scholar, Robert Malley is the Middle
East and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis Group
(ICG), which receives funding from the Open Society Institute (whose
founder, George Soros, serves on the ICG Board and Executive Committee).
In his capacity with ICG, Malley directs a number of analysts based in
Amman, Cairo, Beirut, Tel Aviv, and Baghdad. These analysts report
periodically on the political, social and economic factors which they
believe have the potential to spark conflict in those regions, and they make
policy recommendations in an effort to defuse such threats. Covering events
from from Iran to Morocco, Malley's team focuses most heavily on the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the political and military developments in Iraq, and
Islamist movements across the Middle East.
Prior to joining ICG, Malley served as President Bill Clinton's Special
Assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998-2001); National Security Advisor
Sandy Berger's Executive Assistant (1996-1998); and the National Security
Council's Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Affairs
(1994-1996).
In 2007, Malley -- one of the most frequently quoted commentators on U.S.
Middle East policy and Arab-Israeli strife -- bec
ame a foreign policy
advisor to Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Malley was raised in France by his mother -- a native New Yorker named
Barbara Silverstein -- and his father, Simon Malley, a key figure in the
Egyptian Communist Party. Rabidly anti-Israel, Simon Malley was a confidante
of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat; an inveterate critic of "Western
imperialism"; a supporter of various leftist revolutionary "liberation
movements," particularly the Palestinian cause; a beneficiary of Soviet
funding; and a supporter of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In a July 2001 op-ed (titled "Fictions About the Failure at Camp
David") which was published in the New York Times, Robert Malley (whose
family, as noted above, had close ties to Yasser Arafat) alleged that
Israeli -- not Palestinian -- inflexibility had caused the previous year's
Camp David peace talks (brokered by Bill Clinton) to fail. This was one of
several controversial articles Malley has written -- some he co-wrote with
Hussein Agha, a former adviser to Arafat -- blaming Israel and exonerating
Arafat for that failure.
In their August 9, 2001 piece, "Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors," Malley
and Agha again dismissed claims that the Camp David talks had failed when
"Ehud Barak's unprecedented offer" was met with "Yasser Arafat's
uncompromising no." They wrote that Barak had taken an unnecessarily
hard-line approach in negotiating with Arafat. According to Malley and Agha,0D
Arafat believed that Barak was intent on "either forcing him to swallow an
unconscionable deal or mobilizing the world to isolate and weaken the
Palestinians if they refused to yield."
Malley's identification of Israel as the cause of the Camp David failure
has been widely embraced by Palestinian and Arab activists around the world,
by Holocaust deniers like Norman Finkelstein, and by anti-Israel
publications such as Counterpunch. According to American Thinker news editor
Ed Lasky, Malley "was also believed to be the chief source for an article
[dated July 26, 2001] by Deborah Sontag that whitewashed Arafat's role in
the collapse of the peace process, an article that has been widely
criticized as riddled with errors and bias."
Malley's account of the Camp David negotiations is entirely inconsistent
with the recollections of the key figures who participated in those talks,
most notably then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, U.S. President Bill
Clinton, and U.S. Ambassador Dennis Ross (Clinton's Middle East envoy).
According to Ross, the peace efforts failed for one reason only: because
Arafat wanted them to fail. "[F]undamentally," said Ross, "I do not believe
he [Arafat] can end the conflict. We had one critical clause in this
agreement, and that clause was, this is the end of the conflict. Arafat's
whole life has been governed by struggle and a cause ... [F]or him to end
the conflict is to end himself…. Barak was able to reposition Israel
internat
ionally. Israel was seen as having demonstrated unmistakably it
wanted peace, and the reason it [peace] wasn't … achievable was because
Arafat wouldn't accept."
Over the years, Malley has penned numerous op-eds condemning Israel,
exonerating Palestinians, urging the U.S. to disengage from Israel to some
degree, and recommending that America reach out to negotiate with its
traditional Arab enemies such as Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Muqtada
al-Sadr. Ed Lasky enumerates and summarizes some of these Malley writings as
follows:
• "Playing Into Sharon's Hands": In this January 2002 piece, says Lasky,
Malley "absolves Arafat of the responsibility to restrain terrorists and
blames Israel for terrorism. He defends Arafat and hails him as '… the first
Palestinian leader to recognize Israel, relinquish the objective of
regaining all of historic Palestine and negotiate for a two-state solution
based on the pre-1967 boundaries.'"
• "Rebuilding a Damaged Palestine": This May 2002 article accuses Israel's
security operations of deliberately weakening Palestinian security forces
(which themselves are replete with terrorists and thus make little or no
effort to prevent terrorism), and calls for international forces to keep
Israel in check.
• "Making the Best of Hamas's Victory": In this March 2006 piece, Malley
recommends that nations worldwide establish relationships with, and send
financial aid to, the Palestinians' newly elected, Hamas-led government.
Malley also alleges that
Hamas' policies and Israeli policies are
essentially mirror images of one another. Writes Malley: "The Islamists
(Hamas) ran on a campaign of effective government and promised to improve
Palestinians' lives; they cannot do that if the international community
turns its back." In Malley's calculus, the Hamas victory was a manifestation
of Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect
because of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's
incursions, Western lecturing and, most recently and tellingly, the threat
of an aid cut off in the event of an Islamist success." In addition, Malley
counsels the U.S. not to "discourage third-party unofficial contacts with
[Hamas] in an attempt to moderate it."
• "Avoiding Failure with Hamas": This April 2006 article not only advocates
international aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, but also suggests
that a failure to extend such aid could trigger an environmental or public
health crisis for Palestinians.
• "How to Curb the Tension in Gaza" (July 2006): Here, Malley and co-writer
Gareth Evans condemn Israel for its military's efforts (in 2006) to recover
Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped and held hostage by
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The authors classify Israel's
retaliatory actions as "collective punishment" that stands in "violation of
international law."
• "Forget Pelosi: What About Syria?": In this April 2007 piece, Malley
advocates U.S. and
Israeli outreach to Syria, notwithstanding the
latter's close affiliations with Hezbollah, Hamas, and al Qaeda in Iraq. He
further contends that it is both unreasonable and unrealistic for Israel or
Western nations to demand that Syria sever its ties with the aforementioned
organizations or with Iran. He suggests, moreover, that if Israel were to
return the Golan Heights (which it captured in the 1967 Six Day War, and
again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War -- two conflicts sparked by Arab
aggression) to Syrian control, Damascus would, as Lasky puts it, "somehow
miraculously" pursue peace -- "after they get all they want."
• "Containing a Shiite Symbol of Hope": This October 2006 article advocates
U.S. engagement with the fiercely anti-American Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical
Shiite leader of the Mahdi Army in Iraq.
• "Middle East Triangle": Co-written with Hussein Agha, this January 2008
piece calls for Hamas and Fatah to end their bitter disputes and to join
forces in an effort to derail what the authors view as Israel's attempt to
"perpetuate Palestinian geographic and political division." Malley and Agha
predict that such a strategy would prompt Hamas to: (a) abandon its
longstanding quest to destroy Israel; and (b) encourage Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (a leading member of Fatah) to negotiate
for a lasting peace with Israel.
• "The U.S. Must Look to its Own Mideast Interests": Co-written with Aaron
David Miller, this Se
ptember 2006 article urges the U.S. to engage with
Syria and Hamas, rather than to "follow Israel's lead." Malley and Miller
add: "A national unity government between Fatah and Hamas appears within
reach, and the Europeans seem prepared to resume assistance to such a
government once it takes shape. Should this happen, America shouldn't stand
in the way -- regardless of whether Hamas recognizes Israel or formally
renounces violence. Instead, the United States should see this as an
opportunity to achieve what is achievable: a Palestinian cease-fire
involving all armed organizations, a halt to all Israeli offensive military
actions, and the resumption of normal economic life for the Palestinian
government and people."
• "A New Middle East": In this September 2006 article, Malley contends that
Hezbollah's infamous attacks and kidnappings targeting Israelis (two months
earlier) were motivated partly by that organization's desire to liberate
Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, and partly by pressure from Hezbollah's
close allies, Syria and Iran.
In July 2006 Malley criticized the U.S. for allegedly remaining "on the
sidelines" and being a "no-show" in the overall effort to bring peace to the
nations of the Middle East. Exhorting the Bush administration to change its
policy of refusing to engage diplomatically with terrorists and their
sponsoring states, Malley stated: "Today the U.S. does not talk to Iran,
Syria, Hamas, the elected Palestinian government or Hizballah…. The re
sult
has been a policy with all the appeal of a moral principle and all the
effectiveness of a tired harangue."
In February 2004 Malley testified before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and recommended that the Arab-Israeli "Road Map for Peace" be
abandoned because neither side had confidence that the other was bargaining
in good faith. As Ed Lasky writes, "[Malley] advocated that a comprehensive
settlement plan be imposed on the parties with the backing of the
international community, including Arab and Moslem states. He anticipated
that Israel would object with 'cries of unfair treatment' but counseled the
plan be put in place regardless of such objections; he also suggested that
waiting for a 'reliable Palestinian partner' was unnecessary."
According to Lasky, Malley's overarching political objectives include "a
radical reshaping of decades of American foreign policy and a shredding of
the role of morality in the formulation of American policy." "These
policies," says Lasky, "would strengthen our enemies, empower dictatorships,
and harm our allies."
One U.S. security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, states
that Robert Malley "has expressed sympathy to Hamas and Hezbollah and [has]
offered accounts of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that don't jibe with
the facts."
In 2008, the Barack Obama presidential campaign severed its ties with Malley
after the latter told the Times of London that he had been in regular
contact with Hamas as part of&n
bsp;his work for ICG.
Rahm Emanuel as Barack Obama's Chief of Staff, little noted is the sudden
return of PLO-loving, anti-Israel Robert Malley, sent to Syria by
President-elect Obama to apparently begin negotiations over "change" in the
Middle East. Syria still has nuclear material, by the way, caught by
satellites.
Below, an article about Malley's sudden reappearance after supposedly being
"dropped" by Obama as we were told during the campaign. I checked Snopes.
Unfortunately, the following is absolutely true. Who Malley is, exactly,
and his ties to Arafat and the Hamas is discussed in a second article that
follows.
Naomi
------------------------------------...
O
bama's Road to Damascus
By John Perazzo
FrontPageMagazine.com
History will record that Barack Obama's first act of diplomacy as America's
president-elect took place two days after his election victory, when he
dispatched his senior foreign-policy adviser, Robert Malley, to meet with
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad—to
outline for them the forthcoming administration's Mideast policy vis-à-vis
those nations. An aide to Malley reports, "The tenor of the messages was
that the Obama administration would take into greater account Egyptian and
Syrian interests" than has President Bush. The Bush administration, it
should be noted, has rightly recognized Syria to be not only a chief
supporter of the al Qaeda insurgency in Iraq, but also the headquarters of
the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the longtime
sponsor of Hamas—the terrorist army whose founding charter is irrevocably
committed to the annihilation of Israel. Yet unlike President Bush, Obama
and Malley have called for Israel to engage in peace negotiations with
Syria.
A Harvard-trained lawyer and Rhodes Scholar, Robert Malley is no newcomer to
the Obama team. In 2007, Obama selected him as a foreign policy adviser to
his campaign. At the time, Malley was (and still is today) the Middle East
and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis Group (ICG),
which receives funding from the Open Society Institute of George Soros (who,
incidentally, serves=2
0on the ICG Executive Committee).
In his capacity with ICG, Malley directs a number of analysts who focus
their attention most heavily on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the political and
military developments in Iraq, and Islamist movements across the Middle
East. Prior to joining ICG, Malley served as President Bill Clinton's
Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998-2001), and as National
Security Adviser Sandy Berger's Executive Assistant (1996-1998).
Robert Malley was raised in France. His lineage is noteworthy. His father,
Simon Malley (1923-2006), was a key figure in the Egyptian Communist Party.
A passionate hater of Israel, the elder Malley was a close friend and
confidante of the late PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat; an inveterate critic of
"Western imperialism"; a supporter of various revolutionary "liberation
movements," particularly the Palestinian cause; a beneficiary of Soviet
funding; and a supporter of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
According to American Thinker news editor Ed Lasky, Simon Malley
"participated in the wave of anti-imperialist and nationalist ideology that
was sweeping the Third World [and] … wrote thousands of words in support of
struggle against Western nations."
In a July 2001 op-ed which Malley penned for the New York Times, he alleged
that Israeli—not Palestinian—inflexibility had caused the previous year's
Camp David peace talks (brokered by Bill Clinton) to fall apart. This was
one of several controversial articles Malley has
written—some he co-authored
with Hussein Agha, a former adviser to Arafat—blaming Israel and exonerating
Arafat (the most prolific Jew-killer since Adolph Hitler) for the failure of
the peace process.
Malley's identification of Israel as the cause of the Camp David impasse has
been widely embraced by Palestinian and Arab activists around the world, by
Holocaust deniers like Norman Finkelstein, and by anti-Israel publications
such as Counterpunch. It should be noted that Malley's account of the Camp
David negotiations is entirely inconsistent with the recollections of the
key figures who participated in those talks—specifically, then-Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, and then-U.S.
Ambassador Dennis Ross (Clinton's Middle East envoy).
Malley also has written numerous op-eds urging the U.S. to disengage from
Israel to some degree, and recommending that America reach out to negotiate
with its traditional Arab enemies such as Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah (a
creature of Iran dedicated to the extermination of the Jews and death to
America), and Muqtada al-Sadr (the Shiite terrorist leader in Iraq).
In addition, Malley has advised nations around the world to establish
relationships with, and to send financial aid to, the Hamas-led Palestinian
government in Gaza. In Malley's calculus, the electoral victory that swept
Hamas into power in January 2006 was a manifestation of legitimate
Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect20because
of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's incursions,
[and] Western lecturing …"
Moreover, Malley contends that it is both unreasonable and unrealistic for
Israel or Western nations to demand that Syria sever its ties with Hamas,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Iran. Rather, he suggests that if Israel were
to return the Golan Heights (which it captured in the 1967 Six Day War, and
again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War—two conflicts sparked by Arab aggression
which sought so permanently wipe the Jewish state off the face of the earth)
to Syrian control, Damascus would be inclined to pursue peace with Israel.
Malley has criticized the U.S. for allegedly remaining "on the sidelines"
and being a "no-show" in the overall effort to bring peace to the nations of
the Middle East. Exhorting the Bush administration to change its policy of
refusing to engage diplomatically with terrorists and their sponsoring
states, Malley wrote in July 2006: "Today the U.S. does not talk to Iran,
Syria, Hamas, the elected Palestinian government or Hezbollah…. The result
has been a policy with all the appeal of a moral principle and all the
effectiveness of a tired harangue."
This inclination to negotiate with any and all enemies of the U.S. and
Israel—an impulse which Malley has outlined clearly and consistently—has had
a powerful influence on Barack Obama.
It is notable that six months ago the Obama campaign and Malley hastily0D
severed ties with one another after the Times of London reported that Malley
had been meeting privately with Hamas leaders on a regular basis—something
Obama had publicly pledged never to do. At the time, Obama campaign
spokesman Ben LaBolt minimized the significance of this monumentally
embarrassing revelation, saying: "Rob Malley has, like hundreds of other
experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no
formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future."
But indeed, within hours after Obama's election victory, Malley was back as
a key player in the president-elect's team of advisors—on his way to Syria.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, received a most friendly communication from Hamas,
congratulating him on his "historic victory."
====================================...
Who is Robert Malley?
• Middle East and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis
Group
• Formerly served as President Bill Clinton's Special Assistant for
Arab-Israeli Affairs
• Son of Simon Malley, a key figure in the Egyptian Communist Party
• Blamed Israel for the failed Camp David peace negotiations with Yasser
Arafat in 2000
• Has co-written a number of op-ed pieces with Hussein Agha, a former
adviser to Arafat
• Consistently condemns Israel,=2
0exonerates Palestinians, urges
U.S. disengagement from Israel, and recommends that America reach out to
negotiate with its traditional Arab enemies
• Became foreign policy advisor to presidential candidate Barack Obama in
2007
A Harvard-trained lawyer and Rhodes Scholar, Robert Malley is the Middle
East and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis Group
(ICG), which receives funding from the Open Society Institute (whose
founder, George Soros, serves on the ICG Board and Executive Committee).
In his capacity with ICG, Malley directs a number of analysts based in
Amman, Cairo, Beirut, Tel Aviv, and Baghdad. These analysts report
periodically on the political, social and economic factors which they
believe have the potential to spark conflict in those regions, and they make
policy recommendations in an effort to defuse such threats. Covering events
from from Iran to Morocco, Malley's team focuses most heavily on the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the political and military developments in Iraq, and
Islamist movements across the Middle East.
Prior to joining ICG, Malley served as President Bill Clinton's Special
Assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998-2001); National Security Advisor
Sandy Berger's Executive Assistant (1996-1998); and the National Security
Council's Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Affairs
(1994-1996).
In 2007, Malley -- one of the most frequently quoted commentators on U.S.
Middle East policy and Arab-Israeli strife -- bec
ame a foreign policy
advisor to Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Malley was raised in France by his mother -- a native New Yorker named
Barbara Silverstein -- and his father, Simon Malley, a key figure in the
Egyptian Communist Party. Rabidly anti-Israel, Simon Malley was a confidante
of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat; an inveterate critic of "Western
imperialism"; a supporter of various leftist revolutionary "liberation
movements," particularly the Palestinian cause; a beneficiary of Soviet
funding; and a supporter of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In a July 2001 op-ed (titled "Fictions About the Failure at Camp
David") which was published in the New York Times, Robert Malley (whose
family, as noted above, had close ties to Yasser Arafat) alleged that
Israeli -- not Palestinian -- inflexibility had caused the previous year's
Camp David peace talks (brokered by Bill Clinton) to fail. This was one of
several controversial articles Malley has written -- some he co-wrote with
Hussein Agha, a former adviser to Arafat -- blaming Israel and exonerating
Arafat for that failure.
In their August 9, 2001 piece, "Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors," Malley
and Agha again dismissed claims that the Camp David talks had failed when
"Ehud Barak's unprecedented offer" was met with "Yasser Arafat's
uncompromising no." They wrote that Barak had taken an unnecessarily
hard-line approach in negotiating with Arafat. According to Malley and Agha,0D
Arafat believed that Barak was intent on "either forcing him to swallow an
unconscionable deal or mobilizing the world to isolate and weaken the
Palestinians if they refused to yield."
Malley's identification of Israel as the cause of the Camp David failure
has been widely embraced by Palestinian and Arab activists around the world,
by Holocaust deniers like Norman Finkelstein, and by anti-Israel
publications such as Counterpunch. According to American Thinker news editor
Ed Lasky, Malley "was also believed to be the chief source for an article
[dated July 26, 2001] by Deborah Sontag that whitewashed Arafat's role in
the collapse of the peace process, an article that has been widely
criticized as riddled with errors and bias."
Malley's account of the Camp David negotiations is entirely inconsistent
with the recollections of the key figures who participated in those talks,
most notably then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, U.S. President Bill
Clinton, and U.S. Ambassador Dennis Ross (Clinton's Middle East envoy).
According to Ross, the peace efforts failed for one reason only: because
Arafat wanted them to fail. "[F]undamentally," said Ross, "I do not believe
he [Arafat] can end the conflict. We had one critical clause in this
agreement, and that clause was, this is the end of the conflict. Arafat's
whole life has been governed by struggle and a cause ... [F]or him to end
the conflict is to end himself…. Barak was able to reposition Israel
internat
ionally. Israel was seen as having demonstrated unmistakably it
wanted peace, and the reason it [peace] wasn't … achievable was because
Arafat wouldn't accept."
Over the years, Malley has penned numerous op-eds condemning Israel,
exonerating Palestinians, urging the U.S. to disengage from Israel to some
degree, and recommending that America reach out to negotiate with its
traditional Arab enemies such as Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Muqtada
al-Sadr. Ed Lasky enumerates and summarizes some of these Malley writings as
follows:
• "Playing Into Sharon's Hands": In this January 2002 piece, says Lasky,
Malley "absolves Arafat of the responsibility to restrain terrorists and
blames Israel for terrorism. He defends Arafat and hails him as '… the first
Palestinian leader to recognize Israel, relinquish the objective of
regaining all of historic Palestine and negotiate for a two-state solution
based on the pre-1967 boundaries.'"
• "Rebuilding a Damaged Palestine": This May 2002 article accuses Israel's
security operations of deliberately weakening Palestinian security forces
(which themselves are replete with terrorists and thus make little or no
effort to prevent terrorism), and calls for international forces to keep
Israel in check.
• "Making the Best of Hamas's Victory": In this March 2006 piece, Malley
recommends that nations worldwide establish relationships with, and send
financial aid to, the Palestinians' newly elected, Hamas-led government.
Malley also alleges that
Hamas' policies and Israeli policies are
essentially mirror images of one another. Writes Malley: "The Islamists
(Hamas) ran on a campaign of effective government and promised to improve
Palestinians' lives; they cannot do that if the international community
turns its back." In Malley's calculus, the Hamas victory was a manifestation
of Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect
because of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's
incursions, Western lecturing and, most recently and tellingly, the threat
of an aid cut off in the event of an Islamist success." In addition, Malley
counsels the U.S. not to "discourage third-party unofficial contacts with
[Hamas] in an attempt to moderate it."
• "Avoiding Failure with Hamas": This April 2006 article not only advocates
international aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, but also suggests
that a failure to extend such aid could trigger an environmental or public
health crisis for Palestinians.
• "How to Curb the Tension in Gaza" (July 2006): Here, Malley and co-writer
Gareth Evans condemn Israel for its military's efforts (in 2006) to recover
Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped and held hostage by
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The authors classify Israel's
retaliatory actions as "collective punishment" that stands in "violation of
international law."
• "Forget Pelosi: What About Syria?": In this April 2007 piece, Malley
advocates U.S. and
Israeli outreach to Syria, notwithstanding the
latter's close affiliations with Hezbollah, Hamas, and al Qaeda in Iraq. He
further contends that it is both unreasonable and unrealistic for Israel or
Western nations to demand that Syria sever its ties with the aforementioned
organizations or with Iran. He suggests, moreover, that if Israel were to
return the Golan Heights (which it captured in the 1967 Six Day War, and
again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War -- two conflicts sparked by Arab
aggression) to Syrian control, Damascus would, as Lasky puts it, "somehow
miraculously" pursue peace -- "after they get all they want."
• "Containing a Shiite Symbol of Hope": This October 2006 article advocates
U.S. engagement with the fiercely anti-American Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical
Shiite leader of the Mahdi Army in Iraq.
• "Middle East Triangle": Co-written with Hussein Agha, this January 2008
piece calls for Hamas and Fatah to end their bitter disputes and to join
forces in an effort to derail what the authors view as Israel's attempt to
"perpetuate Palestinian geographic and political division." Malley and Agha
predict that such a strategy would prompt Hamas to: (a) abandon its
longstanding quest to destroy Israel; and (b) encourage Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (a leading member of Fatah) to negotiate
for a lasting peace with Israel.
• "The U.S. Must Look to its Own Mideast Interests": Co-written with Aaron
David Miller, this Se
ptember 2006 article urges the U.S. to engage with
Syria and Hamas, rather than to "follow Israel's lead." Malley and Miller
add: "A national unity government between Fatah and Hamas appears within
reach, and the Europeans seem prepared to resume assistance to such a
government once it takes shape. Should this happen, America shouldn't stand
in the way -- regardless of whether Hamas recognizes Israel or formally
renounces violence. Instead, the United States should see this as an
opportunity to achieve what is achievable: a Palestinian cease-fire
involving all armed organizations, a halt to all Israeli offensive military
actions, and the resumption of normal economic life for the Palestinian
government and people."
• "A New Middle East": In this September 2006 article, Malley contends that
Hezbollah's infamous attacks and kidnappings targeting Israelis (two months
earlier) were motivated partly by that organization's desire to liberate
Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, and partly by pressure from Hezbollah's
close allies, Syria and Iran.
In July 2006 Malley criticized the U.S. for allegedly remaining "on the
sidelines" and being a "no-show" in the overall effort to bring peace to the
nations of the Middle East. Exhorting the Bush administration to change its
policy of refusing to engage diplomatically with terrorists and their
sponsoring states, Malley stated: "Today the U.S. does not talk to Iran,
Syria, Hamas, the elected Palestinian government or Hizballah…. The re
sult
has been a policy with all the appeal of a moral principle and all the
effectiveness of a tired harangue."
In February 2004 Malley testified before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and recommended that the Arab-Israeli "Road Map for Peace" be
abandoned because neither side had confidence that the other was bargaining
in good faith. As Ed Lasky writes, "[Malley] advocated that a comprehensive
settlement plan be imposed on the parties with the backing of the
international community, including Arab and Moslem states. He anticipated
that Israel would object with 'cries of unfair treatment' but counseled the
plan be put in place regardless of such objections; he also suggested that
waiting for a 'reliable Palestinian partner' was unnecessary."
According to Lasky, Malley's overarching political objectives include "a
radical reshaping of decades of American foreign policy and a shredding of
the role of morality in the formulation of American policy." "These
policies," says Lasky, "would strengthen our enemies, empower dictatorships,
and harm our allies."
One U.S. security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, states
that Robert Malley "has expressed sympathy to Hamas and Hezbollah and [has]
offered accounts of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that don't jibe with
the facts."
In 2008, the Barack Obama presidential campaign severed its ties with Malley
after the latter told the Times of London that he had been in regular
contact with Hamas as part of&n
bsp;his work for ICG.
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