Security First: Obama's choice for Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel

Democratic Change we can count on: multilateral U.S. Special Forces in a public-private partnership with private Israeli counter-terrorism contractors.

"We need to use all the roots of American power to make our country safe. America must lead the world's fight against the spread of evil and totalitarianism, but we must stop trying to win that battle on our own. We should reform and strengthen multilateral institutions for the twenty-first century, not walk away from them. We need to fortify the military's "thin green line" around the world by adding to the U.S. Special Forces and the Marines, and by expanding the U.S. army by 100,000 more troops. We should give our troops a new GI Bill to come home to. (More material incentives to induce the financially strapped to sign up as cannon fodder.) Finally we must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic counter terrorism force like Britain's MI5." Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats, The Book of Rahm, By JOHN WALSH October 24, 2006 http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh10242006.html

"In carrying out their work, agencies such as the CIA, MI5 and the Mossad work closely with one another,.." Amitai Etzioni, Enforcing nuclear disarmament. 22-DEC-04, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18525274_ITM

What a coincidence. Obama's choice for Secretary of Staff holds dual Israeli-US citizenship. (Once a holder of an Israeli passport-always a holder: according to Obama's Communitarian guru, the Israeli government refuses to give them up.) Rahm Emanuel is the son of an Irgun Israeli terrorist. Amitai Etzioni served in the underground Israeli revolutionary forces too. His military unit (the Etzioni Brigade?) was assigned to force the Irgun to join the Palmach. Rahm himself did not serve in the Israeli military. http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/11/rahm_emanuel_and_israel.php.

"Rahm did serve as a volunteer for Israel in 1991."Of Israeli origin, he obtained the United-Stator nationality at the age of 18. As a volunteer engaged during Desert Storm operation ( 1991 ), Rahm Emanuel (then 32-years old) has served for Israel defence against a possible Iraqi attack.

"Accused afterwards of being a Tsahal officer and of being subjected to a double allegiance, Mr Emanuel pointed out that he had not served in the uniform. In fact, according to our information, he would be a member of Amal, Tsahal’s military intelligence service."

From Talking Points Cafe review of Etzioni's work we get a brief introduction to Etzioni's military past, from Etzioni himself:

"To digress briefly: prior to Israeli independence in 1948, the Jewish community in British Palestine was engaged in a war of national liberation. Its diplomatic representatives and underground forces sought to make the British cede control of the area to the Jewish community, and thus accord it an opportunity to invest the Jewish people, as an ethnoreligious community, in a state. The underground forces were politically divided. One, called the Palmach, in which I served, was close to the social-democratic labor party, Mapai, to which David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meier belonged. The other, Irgun, was close to the right-wing Heruit, predecessor to Likud. The Palmach's strategy was to destroy the bridges and police stations and other assets that the British used, but often only after they were warned to leave. The Irgun, on the other hand, directly attacked British personnel; in one of its major operations it blew up part of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which served as a British headquarters.

"Soon after the founding of the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion feared that these political factions would follow their own agendas. He therefore decided--in the midst of a war against seven invading Arab armies, during which casualties were very high and the survival of Israel was far from assured--to send my unit to surround the main contingent of the Irgun, demanding that they disarm and join the newly formed Israeli Defense Force. The Irgun very reluctantly disbanded. Next the Palmach was dissolved, leaving only one Israeli armed force--one loyal to the national, democratically elected, government." Amitai Etzioni, Security First, Part I

The official Hagana site has lists of all the soldiers in the revolution and the 1948 war against the 7 Arab nations, but those pages won't load in English: http://www.hagana.co.il/

This is how the discussion at TCP begins:

From: Coffee House
Excerpts from Security First
By Amitai Etzioni - July 17, 2007, 6:50AM

From the Preface:

Rarely have more profound changes in American foreign policy been called for than today. Democratization as the rallying cry of America's mission in the world has essentially failed, and global respect for American power has dwindled. This book, however, is not one more lengthy criticism of past policies--whether those of the Bush administration or of its predecessors, or of the conflicting Democratic agendas. I file here a brief for the future, about that which must next be done on the international front.

Here's a sample of the level of the comments. I liked this one a lot:

"Essentially, it's cuddly fuzzy fascism, although Etzioni has so attenuated his message it's difficult to discern any meaning at all. He's reduced himself to the level of vague generality that goes:

""Hmmm, mothers are great, don't you think so? I'm going to go out on a limb, I don't care how controversial it is, motherhood as a broad and general principle is on the balance of the whole a good thing for the most part."

"It's hard to beat a guy up for that. It's hard to come up with anything substantive in response to that, except perhaps 'sure dude, whatever.'

"Having reduced his thesis to mush, Etzioni must back up to his significant ideas.

"He does this by recasting past and current foreign policy as an unrealistic idealistic quest to spread democracy like pollen around the world.

"Of course, most of the actions he refers to have more to do with realpolitik than democracy, but he's perfectly willing to adopt the usual windy speechifying as credible motives.

"Thus the Iraq action was not motivated by oil, regional oil/resource issues, need to dominate the persian gulf, or even wmd's. Instead, it was motivated by the desire to bring the gift of Democracy.

"Etzioni would have us believe that the Bush administration is nothing but a bunch of pot smoking bare footed hippies, wandering from country to country not taking baths, growing their hair long and twaddling to irritated locals and cynical opportunists about 'peace and lurve.'

"All this while at the same time cautioning us not to spend too much time blaming or dissecting current and past policy mistakes."

Here's Kurt Nimmo's take on the appointment:
http://memes.org/alex-jones-infowars-rahm-emanuel-and-obama%E2%80%99s-civilian-security-force