Step By Step Neocon Return

Neocon strategy was so successful under Bush that Obama is now hiring them back one by one to help with the mess that he is creating.

Why would Hilary Clinton pick someone like Tamara Cofman Wittes? (See also [Mondoweiss] When Will Harvard Shake Its Neocon Migraine?)

Even though the Harvard MESH Symposium "After Bush: America's Agenda in the Middle East" hosted speakers that seemed even more psychotic, Tamar's comments were definitely substandard for a Harvard freshman seminar (as Phil points out in the Mondoweiss comment above), and her responses to audience questions were worse.

If Tamara really completed a BA in Judaic and ME Studies at Oberlin, I have to express some serious doubts about Oberlin's program

Is she a Dennis Ross choice?

If only patriotic Americans had an organization that could scorch this sort of thing the way the Israel Lobby scorched Chas Freeman!

Because of the absence any genuine pro-USA leadership on the American political scene, yet another racist Jewish Zionist subversive has taken a senior position in the Obama administration.

Subj: Middle East Strategy at Harvard

Date: 11/09/2009 11:07:06 AM Eastern Standard Time

From: Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH)

Middle East Strategy at Harvard

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Farewell and thanks Posted: 08 Nov 2009 09:11 AM PST From Tamara Cofman Wittes

This will be my last post on MESH for the foreseeable future. On Monday I will take up new responsibilities that will take me away from the wonderful discussion that unfolds on this page. I’ll be serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, with specific policy responsibilities that include democracy and human rights (and, yes, the Middle East Partnership Initiative) along with public diplomacy.

MESH has done what some thought impossible: built a successful and well-read group blog on Middle East affairs, one that produces a sustained, relatively unpoliticized, thoughtful, and empirically grounded discussion among academics and policy analysts on the politics of the contemporary Middle East. I’ll admit that, at the start, I was skeptical about the project Stephen Peter Rosen and Martin Kramer proposed—but they convinced me to give it a try, and they, along with my excellent colleagues on this blog, have built a rich conversation that brings together multiple perspectives and disciplines in a way that is always fresh, and very often truly enlightening, even for experts in many regional policy topics. I have learned a lot here, and for that I am grateful to Stephen, Martin, and all my smart and dedicated fellow MESH members.

The associated paper series, conferences, and other activities have built on the value of this unique forum and demonstrated the payoff from continued dialogue between the ivory tower and those inside the Beltway over Middle East policy. That’s a lesson I’ll certainly bring with me into the State Department, and I look forward to reading and learning from my MESH colleagues in the months and years to come.

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