Zinni was offered the position after an interview with Hillary Clinton at the end of January and even
received a call from Joe Biden congratulating him on the next day, but the assignment was derailed in
the following week. Christopher Hill received the ambassadorship instead of Zinni and Zinni received no
explanation why he had been passed over, which reportedly irritated the hell out of him.
I have been informed by a State Department contact that Zinni was rejected after Clinton came under
pressure from some major supporters in New York State who told her that the appointment was
unacceptable to Israel because Zinni is perceived as “hostile” to the Jewish state. Zinni has,
indeed, been critical of Israel on a number of occasions. Another source in the intelligence community
has told me that Zinni was perceived as bad for Israel’s security because Israel regards Iraq as a
“front line state” in its confrontation with Iran. If Israel were to attack Iran it would need
overflight approval over Iraq, something that Zinni would be unlikely to approve, possibly even
submitting his resignation to stop such a development. It is not clear if Hill would necessarily be
more amenable, but as a career diplomat not known for being outspoken or independent minded he would be
unlikely to rock the boat if Washington wanted to look the other way to enable an Israeli attack.
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