Chas Freeman throws in the towel

Last month Chas Freeman was selected to be chair of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman thinks true things about Israel and US-Israel relations, and in the past has even been so bold as to give voice to those thoughts. This was cause for great concern to the "pro"-Israel lobby. As a result, Freeman became the target of intense smear campaign. This campaign was idiotic. And it worked. Says Freeman:

I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign

So that all sounds very reasonable. But surely this will serve to encourage this, the ugliest side of "pro"-Israel lobby.