{"id":320,"date":"2007-07-27T11:20:19","date_gmt":"2007-07-27T15:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=320"},"modified":"2007-07-27T11:22:39","modified_gmt":"2007-07-27T15:22:39","slug":"david-wurmser-and-the-eclipse-of-right-zionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to Wurmser"},"content":{"rendered":"
Robert Dreyfuss says David Wurms<\/title><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/bob-dreyfuss\/another-cheneylinked-haw_b_57538.html\"> Robert Dreyfuss says<\/a> David Wurmser is on his way out.\u00c2\u00a0 (Not for the first time, I am obliged to tip my hat to Bernhard at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moonofalabama.org\/\">Moon of Alabama<\/a> for calling to my attention to something crucial that I missed).<\/p>\n<p>Wurmser–Cheney’s top Middle East advisor and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10185\">author of a blueprint for de-Baathification and Shiite empowerment in Iraq<\/a>–is one of only two significant Right Zionists who continue to serve in a key Bush administration post.\u00c2\u00a0 If Wurmser leaves, Elliott Abrams will be “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/15896208\/\">the last man standing<\/a>.”\u00c2\u00a0 There are plenty of other<em> hawks<\/em> (not least the vice president), but no major Right Zionist hawks who Meyrav Wurmser would consider part of what she calls “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=212\">the family<\/a>.”<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Dreyfuss story is certainly plausible, although I note that the blog post is a little vague about sources.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>According to multiple sources, Wurmser will leave the office of the vice \tpresident (OVP) in August…<\/p>\n<p>Wurmser’s departure is not totally a surprise. “He’s been looking for a way \tout for a year,” said a conservative friend of Wurmser’s…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dreyfuss also appears to have original quotes from\u00c2\u00a0 Meyrav Wurmser in response to the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=301\">Helene Cooper <em>New York Times<\/em> story<\/a> that helped put David Wurmser in the public crosshairs.\u00c2\u00a0 Dreyfuss doesn’t say anything about the source of the quotes, but they seem to be exclusive:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Meyrav Wurmser, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the \tHudson Institute and David’s wife, ridiculed the stories from Clemons and \tthe Times. “They are all categorically wrong, and there not one thing in \tthose articles that is correct.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Meyrav seemed to be hinting at her husband’s imminent departure <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=212\">in December 2006<\/a> when she predicted that, along with John Bolton’s departure from the UN, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there are others who are about to leave.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=319\">my most recent post<\/a>–written <em>after<\/em> Dreyfuss posted his report but <em>before<\/em> I saw it–mentioned Wurmser’s departure as a potential harbinger of a new, decisive, Right Arabist direction for US policy in Iraq.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I sincerely doubt that we have heard the last of factionalism regarding \tthe future of Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll believe it when Wurmser resigns…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If Wurmser is on his way out, can it be taken as a sign that Cheney has now abandoned his erstwhile Right Zionist allies and returned to the (very hawkish corner of) Right Arabist fold?<\/p>\n<p>Does it mark the end of administration factionalism?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe.<\/p>\n<p>But I was probably <em>way<\/em> off the mark when I said that “we have heard the last” of such factionalism.<\/p>\n<p>Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because Meyrav Wurmser has <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=212\">explicitly warned<\/a> that <em>once “the family” was out of the administration<\/em>, they would not hesitate to <em>speak out<\/em> against the administration that–from their perspective–betrayed them.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We expressed ideas, but the policy in Iraq was taken out of neocon hands \tvery quickly….<\/p>\n<p>The State Department opposed the neocons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stances… There was a lot of \tfrustration over the years in the administration because we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel we \twere succeeding.<\/p>\n<p>Now Bolton left (the UN \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Y.B.) and there are others who are about to leave. \tThis administration is in its twilight days. Everyone is now looking for \twork, looking to make money\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We all feel beaten after the past five years\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \tWe miss the peace and quiet and writing books\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>When you enter the administration you have to keep your mouth shut. Now many \twill resume their writing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 <strong>Now, from the outside, they will be able to \tconvey all the criticism they kept inside<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Maybe they’ll give Wurmser <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/news\/releases\/2004\/12\/20041214-3.html\">a medal of freedom<\/a>–the primary currency of hush money for this administration, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crooksandliars.com\/2007\/07\/10\/leahy-bush-bought-scooters-silence-with-commutation\/\"> unless you are facing jail time<\/a>–on his way out the door.<\/p>\n<p>One note on the substance of US policy going forward:<\/p>\n<p>In the same <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=319\">comment to this blog<\/a> that alerted me to the Dreyfuss post, Bernhard (“b”) predicts a new direction for US policy in the Gulf.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[A] strategic decision against the Sunni\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Saudi Arabia and \tpro-Iran…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This would be a surprising development, indeed.<\/p>\n<p>Right Zionists like Wurmser, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Michael Ledeen, Michael Rubin, are the leading advocates for a pro-Shiite tilt combined with unrelenting war against both Arab nationalism and Sunni Arab religious radicalism.<\/p>\n<p>Wouldn’t it be strange if the Bush administration finally made a truly decisive move in this direction at the very moment that the key architects of such a strategic shift departed the scene?<\/p>\n<p>Cheney <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=300\">might seek warmer relations with the Iranian regime<\/a>, but when he last advocated such an orientation, he did so as a “pragmatic” oil industry executive–and a Russia hawk determined to win Iran away from Russian influence in the Caspian.\u00c2\u00a0 Neither of these positions would demand a “decision against the Sunnis and Saudi Arabia…”<\/p>\n<p>Right Arabists are <em>nothing<\/em> if not loyal to the US-Saudi alliance.\u00c2\u00a0 Some seek to <em>contain<\/em> Iranian power within a more or less formal regional security framework.\u00c2\u00a0 Others can only be described as extremely <em>hawkish<\/em> on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Who is left within the administration who would or could overcome the significant influence of the traditional Right Arabist establishment and revolutionize the strategic orientation of US policy in the Gulf?<\/p>\n<p>The Right Zionists <em>were<\/em> those revolutionaries.\u00c2\u00a0 If Dreyfuss is correct about Wurmser’s departure, it would appear that the eclipse of the Right Zionists (in <em>this administration<\/em>, at least, if not in Congress or a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forward.com\/articles\/11195\/\">future administration<\/a>) is near complete.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Elliott Abrams will try to use the administration’s upcoming Middle East conference to marginalize the Saudis.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Satloff at the pro-Israel Washington Institute <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtoninstitute.org\/templateC05.php?CID=2637\">recently suggested as much<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a fascinating passage outlining the terms of reference for the \tinternational meeting that the president said he will convene in autumn \t2007, the president said he would invite “representatives from nations that \tsupport a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel’s right to \texist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties.” While one \tassumes Bush would not call an international meeting merely to replicate the \tsort of modest neighborhood gatherings Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak \tperiodically hosts in Sharm al-Sheikh, the only Arab countries that meet \tthose terms today are Egypt and Jordan.<\/p>\n<p>Was Bush sending a message to Saudi Arabia that its moment in the regional \tdiplomatic sun, which reached its zenith with the abortive Mecca accords, \thad reached an end and that Washington would now only consider Saudi \tcontribution positive if Riyadh meets these benchmarks? So far, White House \tspokesmen say no, there is no special message directed at Saudi Arabia in \tthis passage. But reporters will be wise to revisit this language when \tinvitations to the “international meeting” are delivered later this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So noted.<\/p>\n<p>But there are plenty of other signs that even with regard to Israeli-Palestinian issues, the President may be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cjnews.com\/TOPScnCJN\/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12876&Itemid=86\"> drifting toward David Welch<\/a>, the key Right Arabist with whom Abrams shares the Middle East portfolio.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Israel and the United States are also signaling willingness to discuss an \tissue Palestinians believe has long been neglected: settlement expansion.<\/p>\n<p>“Unauthorized outposts should be removed and settlement expansion ended,” \tBush said in his speech, his strongest call in years to contain settlements.<\/p>\n<p>“This was a deliberate choice of words,” David Welch, the top State \tDepartment official dealing with the Middle East, said afterward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With Wurmser out, any major anti-Saudi effort undertaken by Abrams at this late date will be a very lonely battle.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Dreyfuss says David Wurms Robert Dreyfuss says David Wurmser is on his way out.\u00c2\u00a0 (Not for the first time, I am obliged to tip my hat to Bernhard at Moon of Alabama for calling to my attention to something crucial that I missed). Wurmser–Cheney’s top Middle East advisor and author of a blueprint for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3,10,11,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}