On this edition of Parallax Views, Ambassador Chas Freeman, a retired diplomat with a stories career and a visiting scholar at the Watson Institute for International Relations and Public Affairs, returns to discuss the bombing of Gaza by Israel in retaliation for the October 7th Hamas attack. We also discuss his critique of the U.S.-Israel special relationship, which he argues is harmful towards to both the interests of the United States and Israel. In the final portion of the conversation Amb. Freeman discusses how pro-Israel lobby elements, namely the Zionist Organization of America, applied a pressure campaign against his being the chair of the National Intelligence Council in the Obama administration.

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. is a senior fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm), acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Chargé d'affaires at both Bangkok and Beijing.  He began his diplomatic career in India but specialized in Chinese affairs.  (He was the principal American interpreter during President Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.)  

Ambassador Freeman is a much sought-after public speaker (see http://chasfreeman.net) and the author of several well-received books on statecraft and diplomacy. His most recent book, "America's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East" was published in May 2016. "Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige," appeared in March 2013. "America’s Misadventures in the Middle East" came out in 2010, as did the most recent revision of "The Diplomat’s Dictionary," the companion volume to "Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy." He was the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on "diplomacy."

Freeman is a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, ambassador to Saudi Arabia, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, chargé d’affaires a.i. at Bangkok and Beijing, acting U.S. commissioner for refugee affairs and director of program coordination and development at the U.S. Information Agency. He was the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon’s 1972 opening of U.S. relations with China.

Chas Freeman studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Taiwan and earned an A.B. magna cum laude from Yale University as well as a J.D. from the Harvard Law School. He chairs Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based firm that for more than three decades has helped its American and foreign clients create ventures across borders, facilitating their establishment of new businesses through the design, negotiation, capitalization, and implementation of greenfield investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, franchises, one-off transactions, sales and agencies in other countries.