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.