Executive Director Tom Neumann on CIA Chief Leon Panetta becoming Defense Secretary in The Jerusalem Post, 4/28/11
‘US appointments don’t show change to Obama strategy’
By Hilary Leila Krieger
28/04/2011
As the US engages in 3 wars, experts say Obama’s national security team will keep individuals with Mideast experience, suggesting continuity.
WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama is set to reshuffle his national security team but will retain many familiar faces with Middle East experience, suggesting continuity as the US engages in three wars in the region and grapples with Iran.
‘US appointments don’t show change to Obama strategy’
By Hilary Leila Krieger
28/04/2011
As the US engages in 3 wars, experts say Obama’s national security team will keep individuals with Mideast experience, suggesting continuity.
WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama is set to reshuffle his national security team but will retain many familiar faces with Middle East experience, suggesting continuity as the US engages in three wars in the region and grapples with Iran.
CIA Director Leon Panetta and Gen. David Petraeus, head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, are expected to take on key new roles, with Panetta replacing current Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Petraeus filling Panetta’s vacated job.
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Obama himself has given no indication that these personnel changes represent a change in his own thinking, which he has asserted since the beginning, according to Tom Neumann, executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.
“What will change is that Obama’s going into election mode,” said Neumann, who described both Panetta and Petraeus as non-controversial choices who should win easy approval from the US Senate.
Neumann said that in addition to not making waves in Congress heading into the 2012 campaign, Obama will also not want to make waves among the Jewish community, leading him to be “more responsive” to Israel and its concerns.
Neumann described Panetta as having a strong record on Israel as a member of Congress and not having made any missteps on the issue. In addition, he pointed to close cooperation between the US and Israel on intelligence matters, which would have been part of his job at the CIA.
While Neumann noted controversial statements Petraeus has made linking Israel with dangerous anti-American attitudes in the Middle East – from which he later backed down – he characterized them as misinformed rather than malicious.
“I don’t think it came out of hostility but out of misperception,” Neumann said.
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