From Israel Today, via Middle East Newsline…
Robert Malley, a top Middle East advisor that US President-elect Barack Obama promised months ago would play no role in his administration due to ties to Hamas, has reportedly been sent out on the next administration’s first diplomatic mission.
According to a report in Middle East Newsline, Obama dispatched Malley to Egypt and Syria late last week with a message that the he intends to mend and bolster relations with both nations, and to give greater weight to their concerns regarding regional conflicts than did President George W. Bush.
START UPDATE: From Hotair’s Allah Pundit… with the questionable word “Debunked?” He refers to a Forbes article on Oct 21st talking about confusion by a Syrian website, crediting Malley as Obama’s Senior Advisor on the Middle East.
The Forbes article covers a meeting between Malley and the Syrian president Oct 16th. According to the article dated Nov 10th from Israel Today, linked here, Malley was dispatched last week. This doesn’t jive with the meeting dates in the Forbes article.
True? Or not? Depends on where Malley is, and on who’s orders he is there… the ICG’s or Obama’s. So for now I’ll let this remain in the “maybe” category. It will not be the first time I have picked up Middle East news reports and found them inaccurate.
Then again, we’ve had the same with our western press. END UPDATE
[continued from Israel Today article:] During the Democratic Party primaries, Obama was lashed by critics for having Malley on his team after the latter admitted to being in regular contact with Hamas as part of his work with the International Crisis Group.
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt quickly responded at the time that Malley had provided “informal advice to the campaign in the past,” but insisted that he had “no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future.”
So much for that promise. And how about that “one President at a time” bit?
As a reminder of just whom Robert Malley is, he was one of those bodies under the bus Obama dumped back in May of this year after it was found out that he was in regular contact with Hamas leaders for “his work for a conflict resolution think-tank “.
Back then, the old familiar refrain reverberated… he was a “respected commentator on Middle Eastern issues”…. but evidently not respected enough to remain an official Obama advisor.
Malley, present at the Clinton Camp David negotiations between Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, has penned his accounts of that last desperate attempt by Clinton to get the two leaders on the same page. He remains controversial for his intimate family ties to the Palestinian cause as the son of, Simon Malley – champion of “liberationr” causes of the day, (i.e. 20 hr interviews with Fidel Castro), founder of the Afrique Asie journal, and a close friend of Yasser Arafat.
Whether or not Malley could be effective for an Obama administration has much to do with how the other side – Israel views – Malley. Lukewarm about the man, they are not.
But perhaps more telling is that Obama resurrected his Middle East adviser from the campaign bus axels, and sent him on to be his mouthpiece during his President-elect period. Will we see a few more of Obama’s discarded compadres rise as well?
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
More back pedaling from the community organizer cum prez elect?
i can’t wait for him to make ayers the nat security advisor, he could have wright be is spitial advosr again. he could lead prayer groups, woo hoo. wonder how many more bodies will be pulled out? it was getting crowed under there.
that’s really kind of scary for Israel. What is this guy thinking??
I saw that this was a hoax. i think from hotair
??????
“that’s really kind of scary for Israel. What is this guy thinking??” (Joel)
I agree. But what were the Jews thinking when they voted for that bum. I don’t understand the Jews anymore. I thought they would have all voted for McCain. Obama is clearly pro-Palestinians. Couldn’t they see that?
janniesgotagun… thanks for the heads up. It’s hard to follow media nowadays, eh? They print, then verify. And that’s not only the Middle Eastern press, as Israel Today picked this up from Middle East Newsline… a subscription site for news.
As far as debunked or hoax? Not exactly. Hotair references a Forbes article dated 10/31/08. The meeting they were discussing was Malley and Assad, the Syrian president in the middle of October. The confusion stemmed from a Syria site, lauding a Malley Yale speech, and describing him as the Obama Senior Advisor for the Middle East. That’s the past, and I do believe the Obama camp said he never really was an advisor… who knows at this point.
However the Israel Today report is today’s date, and said Malley was dispatched last week. That would be post election, post the Forbes published date, and certainly post his mid-October meeting with Assad.
So I can’t say that the Forbes story proves this false, as they are different incidents if the articles today are correct.
Who knows, eh? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Maybe someone, somewhere, will know what Malley’s doing, and on who’s dime.
Dear Craig:
In re to Obama & the Jews; yes, McCain is a friend of Israel, but look at what he did to Pastor Hagee, who is a very, very sincere friend of Israel, even tho he is flamboyant and controversial. There are lots of Jews, myself & Sen. Joe Lieberman amongst them, who are very Pro-Hagee & his group CUFI. We would love to see better relations between our friends in Christian Evangelical churches. Hagee is a constantly evolving sort of person. I do see people of color in his audiance, for example, both Afro-American and Latino. It’s easy to take him out of context; but you have to look at Hagee 100% to even get a glimpse. I saw McCain, with my eyes, attending CUFI 07 where he was treated like a Prince by everyone. A year later and he is calling Hagee all kinds of names, just to avoid controversey. As a result of the negative publicity for Hagee, a very powerful Jewish Lobby has been trolled into by a group of Anti-Zionist Jews called J. Street. United we stand, divided, Little David will fall!
Obamma just appointed a very devout Jew & Zionist named Rham Emanuel to a very, very high position in his administration. I know Rhambo will be a very powerful gatekeeper for Israel. I suggest you go to Wikipedia and look his biography up. It will stun you! Emanuel also has close ties to another big Obama aide named Axlerod who is another pro-Zionist Jew. I feel pretty safe. I am aware there are nasty people around Obama, as well. Jews have antiSemites in ea. administration. This was not an easy election, but I wish our new president all the best. If he does not do well, I will suffer. Look at our economy! Do we help ourselves out of the ditch by blaming Bush? No. We just have to try to understand it & get it resolved. Was Bush a better, more responsive president as a result of people deriding and humiliating him? I think not. OUr morale was way down and that does not help us.
I just urge my Republican-Conservative friends to focus on issues of importance to them, and work on getting better solutions. I think we can do without lots of name-calling and nasty hissing. I read Ann Coulter today and she was just disgusting. If an enemy of ours wants to know some deep dark secrets, they can read the far-right blogs where the Obama haters go, and perhaps come across good ideas of how to do their nasty work better.
Frosty 7530,
I like Jews, my sweatheart is an American Jews from New-York. I have always defended Israel in every blog I have written on. I think it is the greatest country on earth besides the USA. But I sure do hate the new-anti-Zionist Jews. Those despicable people hate Israel, they are not better than Palestinians, as a matter of facts, they are much worse. They are traitors.
I do not trust Obama, he is clearly pro-Palestinians. I don’t care that Obama got Rham Emanuel, that Chicago politician… this is only a cover-up. You will see soon enough. I think that the Jews made the biggest mistake of their life by voting for this bum who hangs around with terrorists, Marxists, communists, socialists, anti-Semites, American’s haters and crooks.
Israel will probably be wiped out of the map with that idiot as President. Jews have to leave in a hurry the stinking Democrat party and join the values of Republicans. This is what I hope for them and I wish that Israel will attack Iran before it is too late for them. Because they won’t be able to count on THE ONE who only cares about himself. You Jews have been fooled by the greatest manipulator of all times. Good luck with that inexperienced idiot!