Report:
Kerry may hire controversial diplomat for advisory
post
Robert
Malley
BY:
An anti-Israel
diplomat who was kicked off the 2008 Obama campaign after he was caught
negotiating with the terror group Hamas is under consideration for a State
Department advisory post, the Washington Free
Beacon has learned.
Robert Malley, a
longtime government insider who worked for former President Bill Clinton and
advised then-Sen. Barack Obama, is said to be on Kerry’s shortlist for deputy
assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, according to reports and sources. He currently serves
as the Middle East director of the International Crisis Group
(ICG).
If tapped for the
job, Malley would be in charge of the Israel-Palestinian peace process,
according to Al Monitor.
Another source
familiar with the issue told the Washington Free Beacon that Malley has
quietly been confirming that the Al-Monitor report is
accurate.
Malley has a controversial
anti-Israel history that includes chastising the Jewish state while
negotiating with Hamas. He also has defended
Hezbollah, as well as other violent
and illiberal Middle East factions.
A State
Department spokesman did not respond to a request for
comment.
Malley’s most
prominent misstep came in 2008 when he was fired
from his post as an adviser to then-Sen. Obama after he entered into direct
negotiations with Hamas.
“He was one of
literally hundreds of informal, outside advisors,” Obama’s then-spokesman Bill
Burton told ABC News at the time after controversy erupted over Malley’s
diplomatic visit.
One source close
to the issue told the Free Beacon that the likely appointment
“certainly raises eyebrows—not about Malley, but about
Kerry.”
“It is surprising
that Kerry would pick such a high profile choice who has been involved in so
many controversies,” said the source. “He’s been surprisingly slow to identify
who his [Middle East peace] team is going to be. It’s a surprising decision
from Kerry.”
Malley has long
said that any Middle East peace deal would have to receive the terror group
Hamas’ endorsement despite the terror group’s commitment to destroying the
Jewish state.
“Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert will need to negotiate a political deal with Abbas, who
will have to receive a mandate to do so from Hamas,” Malley wrote
in 2008 in the Washington Post.
“Otherwise, no
matter how many times President [George W.] Bush travels to the region, there
is no reason to believe that 2008 will offer anything other than the macabre
pattern of years past,” he said.
When Hamas took
control of the Gaza Strip in 2006, Malley said an opportunity had
arrived finally to achieve peace.
“Even on the
diplomatic front, Hamas’ victory is not necessarily a fatal setback,” Malley
told the Common Ground News Service in 2006. “The Islamists’ approach is
more in tune with current Israeli thinking than the [Palestinian Authority’s]
loftier goal of a negotiated permanent peace ever was.”
The Hamas victory
was a direct result of “Israeli settlement expansion,” Malley claimed at the
time.
“The vote
expressed anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect because of
Israeli settlement expansion, Yasser 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,” he
said.
Hamas later
severed Palestinian Authority influence in Gaza through a violent coup and in
the area under its control has implemented extremist policies such as
gender segregation,as well as continuing acts of violence against
Israelis.
Malley, who serves on the
advisory council for the liberal fringe group J Street, has repeatedly blamed
Israel for the failure to achieve peace despite the Palestinian peoples’
continued support of terrorism.
“For the
Palestinians, to accept today a cessation of hostilities while gaining only an
end to the Israeli encirclement of their territory, that means that they
fought four months to return to the preceding status quo,” he said in a 2001
interview.
“It is the
impossibility of accepting that for Arafat which condemns the strategy of
Sharon. A political opening (immediate concessions of Israel on the colonies
or a transfer of the territories and resumption of the peace process) is
essential.”
Malley
also chastised
the Jewish state for defending itself during the Second Intifada, or
Palestinian uprising, during which Israel was subjected to a campaign of
suicide bombings.
“Security
concerns can legitimately explain some of the Israeli Army’s actions,” he
wrote in the New York Times in 2002.
“But in more than
one instance, that rationale would be difficult to sustain,” Malley added,
alleging that Israel had intentionally destroyed Palestinian medical
facilities and “school records” in order to further “its political
goals.”
Malley has taken
aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent years, claiming the
Israeli leader’s warnings about Iran are meant to distract from the
Israel-Palestine peace process.
“Virtually the
entire international security conversation has become monopolized by Iran,
turning Netanyahu’s 15-year obsession into a global one,” Malley wrote
in Foreign Policy in 2012.
Malley also has
criticized President Barack Obama for not considering a policy of nuclear
containment regarding Iran.
Obama “took
containment of a nuclear-armed Iran off the table—even before any serious
discussion of this option has taken place and just as influential U.S. voices
had begun making the case for it,” Malley wrote.
One prominent
Jewish official familiar with Malley’s history called the possible pick
concerning.
“Rob Malley has a
history of distorting history,” said the source. “As someone who is not
trusted by the parties, having him work on these issues, when there are so
many better choices, seems counterproductive. … If history is any guide,
Malley will do his best to fault Israel,
regardless.”
A spokesperson at
Malley’s ICG did not return a request for comment about the possible
posting.
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