US President Barack Obama is set to name Chas W. Freeman, Jr. as the new head of the National Intelligence Council, according to sources cited by Foreign Policy Magazine.

Freeman, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, made himself known to Israel and the pro-Israel community when he told a conference at the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs in 2007 that supporting Israel is not in America's best interests.

At the time, Freeman said that the Muslim world's loathing of America could be blamed solely on the Bush Administration's perceived support of the Jewish state, which in turn had legitimized "radical Islam" and allowed regimes like Iran to gain power.

Freeman went on to accuse Israel of "no longer even pretending to seek peace with the Palestinians," and said that Americans should not be surprised when Palestinian terrorists start to target them for backing Israel.

The solution, said Freeman, is to treat all the parties equally, from Israel to Hamas, which he held up as "the only democratically-elected government in the Arab world."

As head of the National Intelligence Council, Freeman would have considerable influence over all intelligence briefings to reach the president, and would often be called upon to personally advise Obama.