quote:

---

In an interview with the Israeli daily Ma'ariv , Emanuel's father, Dr Benjamin Emanuel, said he was convinced that his son's appointment would be good for Israel. "Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel," he was quoted as saying. "Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."

---

quote:

---

Although the appointment of Emanuel as chief of staff was widely welcomed - by some Republican members of Congress as well as Democrats - the Chicagoan has also been criticised as a fiercely partisan veteran of Bill Clinton's White House.

Some have cast the choice of Emanuel as a retreat on Obama's campaign promise to bring a post-partisan era to Washington.

Emanuel's reputation for histrionics and temper tantrums were also seen as a deviation from the disciplined and low key nature of the "no-drama Obama" campaign.

Politico reported today that Peter Rouse, who was Obama's Senate chief of staff, would serve as Emanuels's deputy.

---

Funny that 2 inverse opinions are being expressed, some republicans are happy with the appointment, a nonpartisan indication, while others say he is partisan.

quote:

---

Originally posted by remind:

Funny that 2 inverse opinions are being expressed, some republicans are happy with the appointment, a nonpartisan indication, while others say he is partisan.

Moroever, it seems Obama is not going to allow Emanuel to have free reign, as he put his cheif of staff in place to watch dog him. Aka the deputy position. Is it a case of keeping your friends close and enemies closer?

---

Or a good cop, bad cop set-up.

quote:

---

In the first major appointment of his administration, President-elect Barack Obama has named as his chief of staff Congressman Rahm Emanuel, an Israeli citizen and Israeli army veteran whose father, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, was a member of Menachem Begin's Irgun forces during the Nakba and named his son after "a Lehi combatant who was killed" -- i.e., a member of Yitzhak Shamir's terrorist Stern Gang, responsible for, in addition to other atrocities against Palestinians, the more famous bombing of the King David Hotel and assassination of the UN peace envoy Count Folke Bernadotte.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Frustrated Mess:
From the father of Obama's new chief of staff:

Change you can believe in?

---

quote:

---

So the sins of the father are visited upon the son?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Frustrated Mess:

The Israeli media and lobby is accepting this appointment as a signal that Obama's policy toward Israel and the Islamic world will remain on the same path uneven, brutal, racist, and murderous path. Why shouldn't we also?

---

Perhaps because the Israeli media and lobby has a vested interest and bias in promoting that interpretation?

It doesn't make it true, just because they say so.

It *could* be just as true that the appointment was made in order in a symbolic attempt at appeasing and making them *think* that is going to be the case but in practice a somewhat different course will be taken.

It could be for a number of other political reasons that I could come up with surrounding the diplomatic and political game both internationally and internally.

And it could be exactly for the reasons they think it is.

Right now, we just don't know and won't know until they actually do something.

[ 09 November 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]