by Mark Silva
The first time that John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt published their argument – that only the political influence of a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington can explain decades of “unconditional’’ support for Israel and a misguided foreign policy in the Middle East – they faced a torrent of criticism.
This time – with the publication of their book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy – they face the same criticism. But this time, they have come prepared with a defense.
Mearsheimer, distinguished professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard and past academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government, came out last night in Washington with a robust defense for their own motivation in challenging unflinching U.S. support for Israel in the face of that nation’s “brutal’’ treatment of Palestinians and other Arab adversaries.
They are not denying Israel’s right to exist, they maintain, flatly rejecting any contention that anti-Semitism motivates their argument. Indeed, they believe that the U.S. should stand in the way of anyone seeking to destroy Israel. Yet, if the United States is to play the role of peace-broker for the Israelis and Palestinians – a role that the U.S. is uniquely positioned to play – it must start confronting both sides with an “even-handed’’ foreign policy, holding both accountable for unacceptable behavior.
After more than an hour of scholarly argument before an overflow audience packing the aisles of an overheated Politics and Prose bookstore – standing-room-only doesn’t adequately describe a crowd so thick that paramedics were summoned for a man who fell faint – Mearsheimer finally put it all in plain English:
“States do stupid things,’’ said Mearsheimer, perhaps the most renowned “realist’’ in modern American political science. And when they do, he said, reasoning people in other places need to hold them accountable for “knuckle-headed’’ behavior.
“What we really need to make peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is for the United States to act even-handedly,’’ Mearsheimer told the evening crowd at the Washington bookstore. “The United States need to be even-handed and put pressure on both sides.’’
Instead, the two authors contend, the U.S. has tolerated immoral behavior by Israel because of the pressure that a pro-Israel lobby has brought to bear on members of Congress, presidents and candidates for president – who display an uncanny agreement on U.S. policy toward Israel like no other issue. There is no other explanation for the blind eye that the U.S. has turned toward Israel in matters such as last year’s assault on Lebanon, they say.
At the same time, they maintain, U.S. policy toward Israel has worked against the United States’ own national interests – with unconditional support for Israel becoming a major contributing factor in radical Muslim terrorism against the United States.
When they first advanced their argument, the Atlantic Monthly, which had commissioned them to write an article about the Israel lobby in 2002, wouldn’t publish it. When the London Review of Books finally did in March 2006, the authors faced an onslaught of criticism that questioned their own morality.
They argued that U.S. material and diplomatic support for Israel, with direct foreign aid greater than that given to any other nation, “could not be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds.’’ Instead, they wrote, “it was due largely to the political power of the Israel lobby.’’ And their argument was borne out, they now write, by the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon in 2006.
With the publication of their book, they confront the same resistance that their article faced. “Questioning the practices and ramifications of the Israel lobby may appear to some to be tantamount to questioning the legitimacy of Israel itself,’’ they write in their book. As for their motivations, they write, “Let us be clear, we categorically reject all of these anti-Semitic claims.’’
Indeed, they are not suggesting that the Israel lobby in the U.S. is some sort of “cabal or conspiracy.’’ Instead, they contend, “it is engaged in good old-fashioned interest group politics, which is as American as apple pie.’’
Its power is measured in the support that the U.S. has given to Israel – some $154 billion of direct economic and military aid as of 2005, and more than $3 billion a year in continuing aid.
It started in earnest with John F. Kennedy, authorizing the first major sale of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles in 1963, continued with battle tanks in 1964 and then soared after the Six Day War in 1967. By 1976, Israel became the largest recipient of U.S. aid and has been ever since – with the volume of direct aid not even a fair measurement, because Israel also benefits in the way it is paid, annually, as opposed to quarterly, in multiple U.S. “loans’’ which are forgiven, and in the ways it is allowed to spend the money.
Yet, Israel has continued drawing U.S. assistance while carrying out policies which administration after administration has condemned – building settlements, and expanding them, in occupied territories, over the objections of American presidents, selling U.S. technology to potential adversaries such as China and using U.S. munitions in attacks against civilians in Lebanon.
“One might think that U.S. generosity would give Washington considerable leverage over Israel’s conduct, but that has not been the case,’’ they write. The reason? The lobby.
“I want to acknowledge how difficult it can be to talk about this entire subject,’’ Walt said last night. “When the subject is U.S. Middle East policy and the topic is Israel, you are grabbing the third rail… We also think that this is a subject that people ought to be able to discuss openly.
“Giving Israel unconditional support in the Middle East actually makes our other problems harder to resolve,’’ Walt said, noting that “neither side owns the moral high ground here.
While unconditionally supporting Israel’s right to exist and the need to defend her, Walt said: “Past crimes against the Jewish people do not justify giving Israel a blank check now.’’
The lobby, as they explain it, is a broad-based coalition of groups and individuals who ensure that Washington is listening – with the well-funded American Israel Public Affairs Committee steering campaign contributions to those who do and punishing those who don’t. Ever since Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa won office with the help of a deluge of campaign contributions because the incumbent voted to provide AWACS aircraft for Saudi Arabia, they say, the message in Washington has been loud and clear.
“The bottom line,’’ Walt says, is that no one with an interest in success with political life in Washington will say anything “even remotely critical of Israel.’’ And the 2008 presidential campaign is bearing that out once again, he suggests.
The impact of all this is another problem, the two argue.
“I will argue that that influence has been largely negative,’’ Mearsheimer said last night –the lobby has pushed U.S. policy in directions that are inimical to the interests of the U.S. American support for Israel over the Palestinians “fuels terrorism against the United States,’’ he argues, citing an “abundance’’ of anecdotal and statistical evidence that Israel’s “brutal’’ treatment of Palestinians has angered large sectors of the Arab world. “Not surprisingly,’’ he says, “that anger fuels terrorism toward the United States.’’
Osama bin Laden has been concerned about the plight of the Palestinians since he was a young man, said Mearsheimer, citing an old interview with the al Qaeda leader. And Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, bin Laden’s architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, drew his animus toward the U.S. from American support for Israel’s handling of the Palestinians, as the 9/11 Commission reported.
The Israel lobby, aligned with the neoconservatives on this question, pushed for war against Iraq well before 9/11, he argues. They were pressing the Clinton administration in 1998. “It took the events of 9/11 to make the war happen,’’ Mearsheimer says – but even then, it was the Bush administration’s neoconservatives who made the call. “I believe that if Al Gore had been elected, the U.S. would not have gone to war with Iraq,’’ said Mearsheimer – eliciting a spontaneous round of applause from his audience.
In sum, Mearsheimer contends: “The U.S. should treat Israel like it treats a normal country… When Israel is acting in ways that support (our) national interest, we should support Israel, and when Israel is acting in ways that do not support (our) national interest, we should play hardball.
“None of that is to say that the U.S. should abandon Israel,’’ he says. “The U.S. should support Israel’s right to exist within the 1967 boundaries, with some minor modifications.’’
And here, we could hear some hisses among the audience that packed Politics and Prose this night. This book, and indeed their case, is not without controversy, which means it ought to play pretty well outside the overheated confines of one bookstore.
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Comments
These Jew haters couldn't BE more wrong.
The fallacy in their argument are the facts.
The Muslims have always supported America's enemies since before Isreal even existed.
They supported the Germans in WWI, Germans again in WWII , the Russians in the Cold War.
Israel, i think has always been an ally of America and we should support our friends and destroy our enemies.
That should include the 2 parasites who wrote this book.
Posted by: mike | September 6, 2007 8:18 AM
Perhaps the coverage is just limited for space, but the American government has sided with the Palestinians and Arabs in significant ways, especially when Carter and Clinton wanted to give large amounts of Israeli land to Arafat...who threw it back in their faces. And who are these
"neoconservatives" the authors mention? Or don't they know the meaning of the word, which is a former liberal now espousing conservative ideals?
Posted by: W. Harrison | September 6, 2007 8:18 AM
Thanks for the article, Mark. Too bad your career is finished unless you follow it up with a PRO-Israeli column debunking everything Mearsheimer and Walt said. But that's how it is here in the United States of Israel.
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Its power is measured in the support that the U.S. has given to Israel – some $154 billion of direct economic and military aid as of 2005, and more than $3 billion a year in continuing aid.
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And what do we get for that? 4000 dead soldiers in continuing war.
Posted by: Bruce Y | September 6, 2007 8:56 AM
This is a valuable contribution to democratic discussion because the focus is so clear on the issues and the tendency to smear the authors by the kind of sweeping ad hominem attacks like Bush using "patriotism" loses some of its force. Isreal is not well-served by the coalition of hawkish, macho interests who dominate press coverage. Republicans cultivate the support of "Christians" who say, paradoxically, that God will bless America if America supports Isreal because after the Jews regain Jerusalum Jesus can return and "burn" Jews and other unbelievers. This Republican thinking is the really insidious nurturing of anti-semitism in popular political thought. The "slurs" against former President Carter for his latest book also show how difficult it is to reason together about how best to support Isreal. There are unreasonable fanatics in both Israel and "Palestine" as there are in the United States. Advancing the possibility of reason in policy discussions instead of letting "tribal" and nationalistic rhetoric dominate is all too rare, it seems to me.
Posted by: Dennis Renner | September 6, 2007 9:17 AM
The silence is deafing, no liberals' defending these idiots'
Posted by: Don B. | September 6, 2007 9:29 AM
The silence is deafing, no liberals' defending these idiots'
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On the other hand, it didn't take long for mike to type "Jew haters". I have little hope for a reasoned debate about this. I bet I will be called things too, by people who have no idea of my beliefs.
Posted by: Bruce Y | September 6, 2007 10:30 AM
mike proves the point that you can't say anything remotely critical of Israel without someone labeling you a "Jew hater". Wake up, mike. This is America, where we value honest discussion and debate. The name-callers simply have nothing intelligent to say about the issue.
Posted by: Andy C | September 6, 2007 10:32 AM
"The silence is DEAFING, no liberals' defending THESE IDIOTS'"
Oh, the irony.
So, what makes them idiots Don? Is it the fact that their opinion differs from yours? I happen to think that they make very good arguments in favor of changing America's policies.
Posted by: Andy C | September 6, 2007 10:45 AM
Discussions of alternative opinions about relations with Israel should be normal and noncontroversial. Perhaps, it only seems radical because the media, not just politicians, treat it as a third rail.
Posted by: Mark | September 6, 2007 10:58 AM
The Mersheimer/Walt statements are classicl propaganda because they are laced with half truths. Half truths are just that.They appear to be factual but are half factual.That means they are half a lie. Intellectuals of the ilk of these two, regrettably, distinguished academics, cannot have it both ways. A half truth is a lie. Under the guise of specious, academic investigation, they have lied to the people about the role of American supporters of Israel as well as the role of Israel in the Middle East.
Posted by: Martin Sokol | September 6, 2007 11:22 AM
Care to elaborate Martin?
Posted by: Andy C | September 6, 2007 11:33 AM
While a frequent critic of Israel myself, these two are anti-Semetic and many of the comments do border on Jew-hating.
While the U.S. does give lots of aid to Israel, we also give lots of aid to Egypt, the Palestinians (who steal and squander most of it) and a whole host of countries. Have there been times in which I thought this country sided too much with Israel regardless of which party was in power? Yes.
Having said that, Israel is a democracy and faces constant attacks of terror. Israel has done more to work with the Palestinians than the Palestinians. Then you have the troublemakers of Syria, Hezbollah and others. And you have the children cartoons in Palestine and other countries and areas that portray Jews in most hateful ways (Christians too) and advocate killing them to the children watching.
That needs to change, and change now!
Posted by: John D | September 6, 2007 11:35 AM
John, although it is true that we provide aid to many countries other than Israel, there is no other country that receives more aid than Israel, which has not only a comparably minute population, but also an average income that rivals many developed countries that receive no aid. Walt and Mearsheimer are not asking us to turn a blind eye to terror. They are asking us to look at the entire Middle East with some objective perspective. When Hamas came to power and declared their intention to wipe Israel off the map we rightly cut off their aid. Though we have rebuked and condemned Israel's abuse of Human Rights many times, as far as I know all we have ever done is increased their aid budget. We need to reevaluate this policy.
Posted by: Eric S | September 6, 2007 12:46 PM
This is a long over due book and discussion for the entire American public but will it get any serious media attention, I think not. Israel and their supporters continue to resort to the tactic of calling any critisim of their actions "anti semitic". That statement gets the ball rolling and then the discussion trails off to just defending yourself as Jimmy Carter and many before him found out. There seems to be little one can do to get to the concerns we have about the interests of the United States! Our Middle East foreign affairs agenda is not ours!
Posted by: Lee M | September 6, 2007 12:46 PM
So, what makes them idiots Don? IPosted by: Andy C | September 6, 2007 10:45 AM
Well for openers Andy, they never bother to mention the years of suicide bombers, Munich Olympics, lobbing missiles at their children almost on a daily basis for the past few years, and of course their long standing "mantra" to drive the Jews into the sea. If the Palestinians are so terrific how come no Arab nation absorbed any of them ?
They did mention this though Andy,
challenging unflinching U.S. support for Israel in the face of that nation’s “brutal’’ treatment of Palestinians and other Arab adversaries.
Posted by: Don B. | September 6, 2007 12:51 PM
Osama bin Laden wouldn't piddle on Palestine if it were on fire. He and others in the region happen to find this conflict useful to their larger ends, which is why they show no interest in actually improving the lot of the Palestinians.
I'm waiting for one of The Swamp's resident Jello heads to attribute the War in Iraq to US propping up Israel, in spite of the fact that there is no causal relationship.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 6, 2007 1:12 PM
No one here is claiming that terrible things have not happened to Israel and the Jewish people. To do so would be wrong. In fact the authors of this book advocate for the defense of Israel from all of the attacks that Don mentioned. Although the media excels at blurring the lines, we need to frame and define our arguments. Criticism of Israel does not equate to Antisemitism and every time Arab violations are rebuked, it only strengthens the argument that Israel should be held accountable for theirs as well. People are people no matter what their ethnicity or nationality and when their rights are violated, the perpetrators should be justly punished.
Posted by: Eric S | September 6, 2007 1:38 PM
Hey Don, the issue is whether US support of Israel should be freely discussed and debated.
It is not who is better, Israel or Palistine. Both groups have blood on their hands.
Posted by: Pat | September 6, 2007 1:41 PM
"If the Palestinians are so terrific how come no Arab nation absorbed any of them ?"
Posted by: Don B. | September 6, 2007 12:51 PM
Don B, that sentence is far more idiotic than anything Mearshimer and Walt have to say.
There's no difference between your question and asking "If the Jews are so terrific, why did the Germans try to kill them all."
Hate can never be the anwer to hate.
Posted by: Tony | September 6, 2007 2:13 PM
Don, the Israelis have a mantra too--"from the river to the sea." Not a day passes that the Israelis don't seize more land, cut down more olive groves and build more settlements. The Arabs talk about driving out their enemies but it is the Israelis who actually succeed.
Posted by: Gene | September 6, 2007 2:16 PM
Funny, we spend about 20 billion a year from our defense budget defending South Korea from the North.
So .. does this mean our politicians are not only krypto Jews, but also closet Koreans putting Korea's interest ahead of America's? Or is the Korea Lobby 5x as big as the so-called Israel Lobby?
No, we simply have history of forming alliances with demacracies and supporting them.
So, why the double standards? Well that's something that's really taboo to discuss - anti-semitism...Shhhhh. You can't mention it; its been a cultural bias for 2000 years influencing attitudes towards Jews, but we must pretend it doesn't exist.
Oddly enough, 10 years ago two other highly regarded professors - Herrenstein and Murray - came out with a book called "The Bell Curve" which claimed that Blacks really were genetically more stupid than whites.
Everyone recognized it for what it was - racist bias with a thin veneer of academia. Same with Mearsheimer & Walt...only we're not allowed to say so.
Posted by: APS | September 6, 2007 3:00 PM
The fury and cacophonous response of those disagreeing with Walt and Mearsheimer should be some indication as to the veracity of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." If what the authors say isn't fact then the Zionists would allow this volume to quietly slip into obscurity. Unfortunately the authors barely scrape the tip of the iceberg when dealing with Israel's more than tainted 59 year history.
Somehow it is acceptable to criticize the Bush administration, Tony Blair, the French, damn near anyone or any government's policies except Israel. Any critique of Israel that doesn't laude the county 100% is instantly met with accusations of anti-semitism. A recent NPR interview with ADL head Abraham Foxman had the man hurling accusations of anti-semitism like Joe McCarthy pointing a finger and seeing Reds under every bed and in every closet.
Zionism predates Communism, Fascism and the National Socialist Party. It is a political philosophy that incorporates the tenants of European colonialism with the belief in a religious superiority over all others.
Israel has spied on the U.S. (Pollard and most recently members of AIPAC) Israel slaughtered 33 servicemen and 1 NSA worker as well and wounding 171 more servicemen (USS Liberty) Israel has violated international law and countless U.N. resolutions for well over 40 years and yet the U.S. does nothing. We went into Korea, Vietnam and Bosnia for far less.
If the evidence wasn't so indicting the fanatical followers of Zionism wouldn't be screaming as loud as they are. Oddly for a country that professes to be the only democratic country in the Middle East Israel and its supporters have worked overtime to curtail the free speech of anyone who dissents from their fascist party line. Norman Finkelstein and most recently Mehrene Larudee's denial of tenure at DePaul University are just two casualties of the Israeli Lobby. Like Mearsheimer both Finkelstein and Larudee are Jewish. the Israeli Lobby makes no distinction between Jews and gentiles in its iron boot attempt to silence any who seek to even question Israel's apartheid policies and countless war crimes.
It is time for the U.S. to cut all ties with a rogue country like Israel and allow it to stand on its own. If Israel is such a tough country then they can take on Iran themselves since Iran posses no danger to Americans. Unfortunately a recent poll in Haaretz showed that 74% of all Israelis want the U.S. to bomb Iran. Talk about playing into a stereotype by expecting someone else to pick up the check on this one. Sadly history has aptly demonstrated that whatever Israel wants they get. If anyone dares to even question this policy they are beaten over the head with the events of WWII as if this is some lifetime pass on adhering to international law.
Posted by: J Olson | September 6, 2007 3:21 PM
To those Americans who trot out the pathetic "Jew Hater" and anti-semite smears: Where does your loyalty lie--to Israel or the USA?
Posted by: George | September 6, 2007 4:53 PM
J. Olson's comments hit the nail on the head. I have read this book along with many others and it is clear that as long as the U.S. gives Israel unconditional support, we will never have peace in our country or the Middle East.
Posted by: William J Burgess | September 6, 2007 11:47 PM
I hope that finally, the US public is mature enough and has enough control over its media to discuss this issue. I only learned about this well by living in Europe, where every broken or decapitated body of a Palestinian kid would be shown on TV. In addition, they would of course show the effects of Palestinian Suicide bombers. What became clear to me was that Israel was killing at least 10 times the number of civilians that Pal. suicide bombers were killing. This was when the suiciders were at their worst. At present, it is probably closer to 100 times the number of Israelis killed. If you follow the BBC, you will see Pal. civilians being killed by Israelis every single day of the year.
And the Israelis are using planes, tanks, and bombs made in the good ol USA. I remember one Italian reporter picking up the remnants of a missle that had killed a family in Gaza, and reading the serial number and showing to the cameras where it said "Made in USA" on it-- and US citizens wonder why they hate us. One other thing-- Italian journalists use the proper term for the homes of the land-thieves described by our press as settlers, as if they were in an episode of "Little House on the Prarie". Italian journalists call them "colonie," which means colonies.
I hope Israel and its supporters here get the picture real quick and realize that if they want it to survive, they better make a deal-- every year that ticks away, the terms will become more and more disadvantageous for them. As oil goes up in price, the Middle East becomes more and more crucial to every country's survival, and the rest of the world (which really is hostile to Israel) will get more and more involved. We live in interesting times.
Posted by: Madrid | September 7, 2007 12:53 AM
Let's play a mind game and assume that Walt, Mearsheimer, Burgess, Olson and the others get their way and Israel is obliterated tomorrow. (There are millions of dead Jews and the rest refugees but that's a detail to paraphrase Le Pen.) Now there is a state of Palestine from the sea to the river. Does this mean that Iran will not continue to try to get nuclear weapons? Does this mean the Russians won't continue to challenge American interests? Does this mean Chavez won't continue to use his oil wealth to provoke the US? Does this mean Saudi Arabia won't continue to fund Madrassas that teach Islamic supremacy and terror? Does this mean that terror against American occupying armies in Germany, Iraq and Korea won't continue? Does this mean that Sunnis and Shiites will stop massacreing each other? That Egypt will stop brutally persecuting Coptic Christians? That Jordan will suddenly tolerate the building of new churches in its land? That inter-confessional warfare will end overnight in Lebanon? America will not be loved because it jettisons Israel nor will its foreign interests be served by doing so. Militant Islam will not stop its Jihad because Israel no longer exists. It will only become emboldened. The growth of Islam in the West will not cease because Israel has been exiled again. The real political realists understand that Israel is a bulwark -- not a burden. As long as oil is a strategic resource, America will need to maintain a presence in the region to protect its interest -- directly or through friendly proxies. And the only proxy that America can count on is Israel.
Posted by: Ilan | September 7, 2007 10:39 AM
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That needs to change, and change now!
Posted by: John D | September 6, 2007 11:35 AM
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So how will invading and occupying Iraq going to accomplish that?
Posted by: BC | September 7, 2007 3:28 PM
It is quit ironic that we claim to defend human rights, yet we turn blind eye against the flagnant violations of human rights done by the Israelis. Human Rights Watch just published a report today how Israel, using US weapons, intentionally target Lebanese civilians last summer. 1400 civilians killed. One only needs to look at the over 70 United Nations resolutions condemning Israel to realise that Israel is an immoral state.
guess what though! Our politicians are arguing to pull out of Iraq so they concentrate for Iran, for Israeli's sake. The housing industry is in shame, so many families can not find enough food for their kid, 1/3 of US citizens are uninsured, and yet our government is giving Israel $30 Billion over the next 10 years.
Who is the enemy?
Posted by: Brian | September 7, 2007 7:27 PM
At last somebody has the courage to discuss Israeli power in America.the fact is america has been hijacked by the Israeli jewish lobby for years.america has supported israeli terror and inhumanty for years, thats why America is hated all over the world.Insane foreign policy has produced insane people in the islamic world.the neocons, who are mostly jewish had complete power over Bush and his team, they lied and created evidence to force America to do to war in iraq for the sake of Israel and nothing else.we need to take America back
Posted by: adam | September 7, 2007 8:25 PM
Wonder why the main-stream media has no coverage of this book. Media=jew=pro-israel
Posted by: Kahn | September 8, 2007 9:42 AM
After thinking this over carefully, I don't think these professors are really anti-Semitic. I believe what they are is far worse. Read on.
Walt and Mearsheimer are utilizing the same anti-Semitic tactics as despots who wish to distract their subjects from the malignant social ills that they themselves foster, but unlike despots who fabricate Jewish conspiracy theories out of a combination of opportunism and actual hate, these professors have written their essay and book based on the former motivation alone, opportunism.
Like bank robbers, their motivation for this outrage is primarily because “the Jews are there”, are the target du jour of the Islamofascists (for now!), and have proven useful as punching bags to countless others in history.
The professors’ writings show no respect for the Jewish people and for their past persecutions, but the professors are not anti-Semitic, just amoral and opportunistic. Accusations of anti-Semitism are a distraction from the real issues.
Walt and Mearscheimer know full well there is no super-powerful "Jewish Lobby”, that the pro-Israel lobbyists have competing counterparts representing many other causes and countries, and that the pro-Israel lobby is not particularly remarkable in this environment. They know full well that the misrepresentations of fact, omissions, things taken out of context, logical errors, etc. in their prior paper and this book are indeed risible, the trash produced by dilettantes, not by serious researchers.
But they don't care.
What would make them produce such garbage?
Fear of Islamofascism, and the standards of (mis)conduct that come right from the halls of academia with which they've lived their lives, notably amorality and betrayal of friends when some self-interest is served. (For professors, it's usually money and status.) They are clearly enthralled with university culture and attempting to export that pathologic "culture" to the rest of the world.
What is the "gain" here? In the main, I do think the reason d'atre of their book is one of appeasement and surrender to Islamofascism.
A few hundred million insane bloodthirsty Arabs and other followers of the death cult of Islam calling for Death to Israel and Death to America: what better way to appease them than writing a book that the authors hope will cause the U.S. to hang Israel out to dry in the face of genocidal maniacs, groups and countries like Hezbollah, Hamas, Ahmadinejad, Syria and Iran?
In fact, they are not anti-Semites. Rather, they are equal opportunity amoralists. If the Islamofascists were chanting “Death to Mexico! Death to America!”, Walt and Mearsheimer would undoubtedly craft conspiracy theories that might justify allowing Osama and his minions to relocate from Waziristan to Acapulco.
University professors are renowned for turning on their friends, students and colleagues at the drop of a hat, if they see a personal gain in doing so. They could care less about ruining careers and lives. See for example, “Academic Tyranny: The Tale and the Lessons”, Robert Weissberg, Review of Policy Research, Vol. 15 no. 4 P. 99-110, Dec. 1998, and especially "Authorship: The Coin of the Realm, The Source of Complaints" by Wilcox, Journal of the AMA, Vol. 280 No. 3, July 15, 1998 that describes how stealing of others’ work and career-ending professorial retaliation against those who complain is common at Walt's university, Harvard. Of course see www.thefire.org as well.
So, Walt and Mearsheimer wrote this book in all its faux-academic glory in the cowardly and academic-culture-inspired hope of spearheading a U.S. betrayal of its friend, Israel, in their hope that this will satiate the Islamofascists' appetite for blood and "honor."
They are incredibly reckless in this regard. Their book is quite socially irresponsible (not a new thing for academia). Their whole theme, abandonment of friends for supposed secondary gain, i.e., the appeasement of a brutal terrorist killer culture, is explicitly amoral (and likely immoral as well for those of us not prone to moral relativism) as well as anti-American.
They are using this book and likely their educational pulpits with students as a weapon, with the desired collateral damage of weakening the U.S. (Does anyone even need to ask anymore why Ivy professors might be against a strong United States?)
Walt and Mearsheimer, through their arrogance, stupidity, and exportation of academia’s amoral tyranny, are tacitly working for our enemies.
These professors are out of control, like a runaway locomotive, thanks to the cheerful support of opportunistic anti-Semites and the MSM (I’m not sure those two are entirely separable). They need to be stopped – however, accusations of anti-Semitism are a distraction and they know it.
Walt and Mearsheimer have more in common with Arthur Neville Chamberlain than David Ernest Duke or Alfred Charles Sharpton.
That said, as Abraham Foxman, Alan Dershowitz, and many others as well have observed (documented at the CAMERA - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America story “Updated Roundup of Coverage of the Walt/Mearsheimer Israel Lobby Controversy” at http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=189&x_article=1105), Walt & Mearsheimer's faux-scholarship is "riddled with errors" that tend to slant it "in the exact same direction, thus we are dealing not with a little unfortunate carelessness but with a culpable degree of bias."
I submit again that their "carelessness and bias" is most likely knowing and deliberate, but not due to anti-Semitism. Its purpose is promoting appeasement and the weakening of America, at a cost to Israelis and Jews the professors are indifferent to and simply don't care about, typical of Ivy professors who want their way, period.
There is a term for deliberate and knowing falsification in academia for any secondary purpose:
Academic Fraud.
Walt and Mearshiemer have placed themselves in the same league as Finkelstein, Chomsky, and other academic fabricators.
Charges of anti-Semitism are a distraction from their motivations. Charges of academic incompetence are not highly credible considering the experience, resources and positions of these professors.
Charges of deliberate academic fraud are, I believe, closer to reality, and perhaps hold the key to successful challenging of this dangerous charade.
In summary, Walt and Mearsheimer’s distortions are knowing and deliberate, in the interest of appeasement of Islamofascism and the weakening of the “imperialist AmeriKKKa.” The Israelis and Jews make good cannon fodder because “they’re there” and have a historical track record of serving this purpose for despots. W&M malign the Jews not out of anti-Semitism but out of amoral academic convenience.
This is worse than run-of-the-mill professorial anti-Semitism due to its generalized, nihilistic stupidity.
My only hope is that these professors are doing this of their own volition, and that there are no “handlers” involved.
- ERIS
Posted by: Eris | September 8, 2007 7:21 PM
Some criticism for Israeli policies may be due; but the trouble is, among the fair-minded critics, the anti-semites take the opportunity to crawl out of the woodwork to pour out their venom; really! America's staunchest and closest ally is Israel and has been for a long time; Hezbollah is Israel's enemy; is it the friend of the U.S.? Do you remember Lebanon in 1983? If we have the same enemies, it must be our friend. So yes, criticize what's wrong, but don't leave our closest friends swinging in the wind. Don't forget Taiwan either!
Posted by: ramon utagawa | September 9, 2007 10:53 AM
It's too bad this legacy the Jews are leaving in Gaza and Lebanon after all the pity and good will they have 'collected on' from their ad nasaum use of the Holocaust events of WW II.
Today, the holocaust is but a faded memory and the world must rely on the Jews behavior 'after' the holocaust to decide what they learned and how these experiences have made Jews better humen beings for all the God awful experiences of their past.
Indeed, their behavior in Palestine and Lebanon has been shameful and demeaning to the decent Jews that lost their lives in the great war.
Today, the Jew's behavior is nothing less than a warmed over V5.0 of the Nazi's behavior in Germany and it begins to get worse as missiles, naplam and rockets are fired at innocent Palestinian civilians armed with only stones, their bare chests, and desperate national pride.
I believe in the Hezbollah warriors and their ability to teach the ZioNazi Jew some lessons they have missed along life's path.
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
Posted by: TheAZCowBoy, Tombstone, AZ. | September 9, 2007 3:42 PM
From the review:
Indeed, they are not suggesting that the Israel lobby in the U.S. is some sort of “cabal or conspiracy.’’ Instead, they contend, “it is engaged in good old-fashioned interest group politics, which is as American as apple pie.’’
Yeah. It's too bad that in their paper, the very first endnote read: 1 Indeed, the mere existence of the Lobby suggests that unconditional support for Israel is not in the American national interest. If it was, one would not need an organized special interest group to bring it about.
I guess someone pointed out that this exposed their noisome agenda.
... and that's just one item. These guys are so full of holes they float on water.
Posted by: Brad Brzezinski | September 11, 2007 6:28 PM
The problem is that no matter how reasonable, logical or fact based criticism of Israel and Zionism might be, Jews will DE FACTO respond with name calling because they sense that their interests are at stake. There are no higher principles involved beyond their interests. Americans, of course, are quite apathetic about the Middle East and Palestinians in particular, and it is that same apathy which Zionists exploit to perfection. Any hint that America has terrorist issues and the mass of hatred of the Muslim world because of its support of Israel MUST BE SILENCED lest the American masses wake up to their senses and reevaluate their relationship with Israel.
Posted by: Chris | September 17, 2007 6:59 PM
It should be clear by reading this debate that the problem is the propensity of adherents of the abrahamic religions
(judaism christianity and islam) toward radicalism and intolerance.
Israel and the settlements because God told them the land is theirs, and they are Gods chosen people. Doesn't leave much room for the palestinians does it?
Christians in the U.S. who don't give a damn about the United States as long as we support "Gods chosen people" and the random torched abortion clinic and book burning.
Muslims who put a bounty on the head of a cartoonist because he had a drawing that offended islam.
It is time for people who respect values like freedom of speech and press and yes, religion
be willing to fight for these beliefs.
Offensive cartoon about islam or christianity or judaism..yes....
If anyone tries to stop it with threats then stand up and pound your chest in defense of these values.
Be willing to "bust heads" to defend it.
Don't apologize for offending someone who doesn't give a damn about offending you.
Treat israel like any other country....yes,
Don't let the cries of anti-semitism stop you....
be fair and even handed in all foreign-policy matters.
Then point out with the same chest pounding that we intend to do what is best for the U.S. and they can shut up or we are done with them.
Tell the U.S. christians that would have us go down in flames as long as we support isreal that this United States belongs to all its people, even those who want a foreign policy not based on religion but based on reality
Christians who want to teach the bible instead of science in our public schools..no way.
Let them know that they can't use your tax dollars to proselytize.
Get all up in their grill and tell them about it..don't be scared...
These people have rights...but their rights end where my toes begin..."don't tread on me"
Posted by: D.B. | September 20, 2007 12:27 PM