Ben Rhodes (White House staffer)

Early life and education

Rhodes was born on November 14, 1977, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He is the son of an Episcopal father from Texas and a Jewish mother from New York. He attended the Collegiate School, graduating in 1996. Rhodes then attended Rice University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 2000 with majors in English and political science. He then moved back to New York, attending New York University and graduating in 2002 with an MFA in creative writing. His brother, David Rhodes, is a former president of CBS News.

Career

In the summer of 1997, Rhodes volunteered with the Rudy Giuliani mayoral campaign. In the summer of 2001, he worked on the New York City Council campaign of Diana Reyna. In 2002, James Gibney, editor of Foreign Policy, introduced Rhodes to Lee Hamilton, former member of the House of Representatives and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was looking for a speechwriter. Rhodes then spent five years as an assistant to Hamilton, helping to draft the Iraq Study Group Report and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

In 2007, Rhodes began working as a speechwriter for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

Rhodes wrote Obama's 2009 Cairo speech "A New Beginning." Rhodes was the adviser who counseled Obama to withdraw support from Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, becoming a key adviser during the 2011 Arab Spring. Rhodes supported Israel in the 2012 Israel–Gaza conflict.

Rhodes was instrumental in conversations that led to Obama reestablishing the United States' diplomatic relations with Cuba, which had been cut off since 1961. The New York Times reported that Rhodes spent "more than a year sneaking off to secret negotiations in Canada and finally at the Vatican" in advance of the official announcement in December 2014.

After leaving the Obama administration, Rhodes began working as a commentator. He began contributing to Crooked Media, NBC News, and MSNBC. In 2018, he co-founded National Security Action.

In 2018 he criticized Trump administration's involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. He also looked back at the actions of the Obama administration, he wrote of the war in Yemen, "Looking back, I wonder what we might have done differently, particularly if we'd somehow known that Obama was going to be succeeded by a President Trump." After the publication of the article he was criticized for his inaction while working for the Obama administration.

Rhodes said Obama's administration was too worried about offending Turkey. He said Obama should have recognized the Armenian genocide.

In 2018, Random House published Rhodes's memoir, The World as It Is, a behind-the-scenes account of Barack Obama's presidency and a New York Times bestseller. In 2021, Random House published his After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made, which examines the state of democracy around the world and also a New York Times bestseller.

Rhodes has written opinion articles for newspapers and magazines including the New York Times and The Atlantic. Rhodes was featured in the HBO documentary The Final Year, along with John Kerry, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice. The documentary portrays Obama's final year in office, with a focus on his foreign policy team.

In the Spring of 2020, Rhodes was a fellow at the USC Center for the Political Future.

Opinion on Netanyahu government

Rhodes took a relatively critical stance toward Israel during his experience working in the Obama White House, for which he was called "Hamas" by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. After leaving the White House, Rhodes made public statements criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for failing to engage in good faith toward a diplomatic resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Rhodes said it had become clear to the Obama administration that the Netanyahu government was not interested in working in earnest toward a peace treaty based on a two-state solution. According to Rhodes, "nevertheless we act like somehow Bibi Netanyahu believed in the two-state solution. We pretended to my shame at times in the Obama administration that he was interested in that. When I don't think he was, ever." In a 2021 podcast discussion with Peter Beinart, Rhodes expressed his concern that the Biden administration was making the same mistake.

Controversies

In a controversial profile in The New York Times Magazine, Rhodes was quoted "deriding the D.C. press corps and boasting of how he created an 'echo chamber' to market the administration's foreign policy", including the international nuclear agreement with Iran. The piece resulted in a wave of criticism, with numerous news organizations calling out Rhodes' apparent flippancy and cynicism in "pushing a 'narrative to media to sell the Iran nuclear deal". A blog commentary on the Foreign Policy magazine (which had named Rhodes as one of the top 100 global thinkers in 2015) website, criticized him for the alleged lack of formal education in international relations and "real-world experiences".

Personal attack

In 2017, it was alleged that Israeli private intelligence agency Black Cube attempted to manufacture incriminating or embarrassing information about Rhodes and his wife, as well as about fellow former National Security Council staffer Colin Kahl, in an apparent effort to undermine supporters of the Iran nuclear deal. Rhodes said of the incident, "This just eviscerates any norm of how governments should operate or treat their predecessors and their families. It crosses a dangerous line." The effort continued well after the Obama administration ended.

Awards and honors

In 2011, Rhodes was on Time magazine's "40 Under 40" list of powerful and prominent young professionals. Rhodes was number 13 on Fortune magazine's "40 Under 40" list of the most influential young people in business in 2014.

In 2015, Rhodes was named one of Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 global thinkers.

Books

Personal life

Rhodes is married to Ann Norris, who was chief foreign policy adviser to former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. They have two daughters.

References

References

1. Gearan, Anne. (February 27, 2018). "Democrats marshal strike force to counter Trump on national security in 2018, 2020 elections". [[The Washington Post]].
2. (June 4, 2018). "Former Obama Adviser Ben Rhodes Joins NBC News and MSNBC".
3. "Crooked Media Announces New Site, Pod, Store, and Network of Very Fine People on Both Sides".
4. Landler, Mark. (March 16, 2013). "Worldly at 35, and Shaping Obama's Voice". [[The New York Times]].
5. (October 27, 2008). "Election 2008: Ben Rhodes '96, Speechwriter and Advisor to Barack Obama". Collegiate School.
6. Jason Horowitz. (January 12, 2010). "Obama speechwriter pens a different script for the world stage". The Washington Post.
7. Fields, Sarah. (October 22, 2018). "Summary: Ben Rhodes' The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House". HSP via PublishDrive.
8. (October 27, 2008). "Election 2008: Ben Rhodes '96, Speechwriter and Advisor to Barack Obama". Collegiate School.
9. Brian Steinberg. (November 20, 2014). "David Rhodes To Take Over CBS News As Jeff Fager Steps Down". Variety.
10. "White House Profile: Ben Rhodes". [[whitehouse.gov]].
11. Samuels, David. (May 5, 2016). "The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama's Foreign-Policy Guru".
12. Samuels, David. (May 5, 2016). "The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama's Foreign-Policy Guru".
13. (June 5, 2009). "Who Wrote Obama's Cairo Speech?".
14. Landler, Mark. (March 15, 2013). "Worldly at 35, and Shaping Obama's Voice". The New York Times.
15. (November 17, 2020). "White House says Israel 'has a right to defend itself' in Gaza". [[Politico]].
16. De Young, Karen. (November 16, 2016). "How Obama's Trip to Havana finally ended the cold war". The Washington Post.
17. (August 13, 2015). "A Secretive Path to Raising U.S. Flag in Cuba". The New York Times.
18. Rhodes, Ben. (October 12, 2018). "A Fatal Abandonment of American Leadership".
19. "National Security Action — Who We Are".
20. (October 22, 2018). "When Will Obama Aides Come Clean About U.S.-Saudi War Crimes?". [[In These Times (publication).
21. (October 12, 2018). "A Fatal Abandonment of American Leadership". [[The Atlantic]].
22. (January 19, 2018). "Top Obama aides 'sorry' they did not recognize Armenian genocide". Politico.
23. (November 25, 2018). "Opinion {{!}} How to Check Trump and Repair America's Image". The New York Times.
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28. (May 19, 2021). "Time to call for a ceasefire in Gaza".
29. (February 16, 2021). "Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes with Peter Beinart". Foundation for Middle East Peace.
30. Farhi, Paul (May 6, 2016). "Obama official says he pushed a 'narrative' to media to sell the Iran nuclear deal". ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved May 11, 2016.
31. (May 8, 2016). "White House aide Ben Rhodes responds to controversial New York Times profile, cleans up his mess". Politico.
32. Levitz, Eric. (May 10, 2016). "10 Problems With That New York Times Magazine Profile of White House Aide Ben Rhodes".
33. "The Leading Global Thinkers of 2015 - Foreign Policy".
34. (28 December 2017). "A stunning profile of Ben Rhodes, the asshole who is the president's foreign policy guru".
35. Farrow, Ronan. (May 6, 2018). "Israeli Operatives Who Aided Harvey Weinstein Collected Information on Former Obama Administration Officials".
36. (May 7, 2018). "Opponents of Iran Deal Hired Investigators to Dig Up Dirt on Obama Aide". The New York Times.
37. (October 14, 2010). "Ben Rhodes: 40 Under 40".
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39. Jack Shafer. (March 18, 2013). "Beat sweetener: The Benjamin J. Rhodes edition". reuters.com.
40. Julian Borger. (January 13, 2017). "Ben Rhodes: 'Obama has a serenity that I don't. I get more exercised'". [[The Guardian]].