Two years ago this week, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt released their essay "The Israel Lobby" and kick-started a much-overdue discussion of America's relationship with Israel.
For those not in the know, Mearsheimer is a prominent political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Walt is a political scientist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (at the time the paper was released, Walt was the KSG Academic Dean, but he had planned to leave the post and has since done so). In 2002, the Atlantic commissioned an article on the Israel lobby by the two profs, but, despite their making extensive revisions and edits to the piece, the magazine ultimately passed on it. Instead, Mearsheimer and Walt published the essay in the London Review of Books. Simultaneously, they released a Harvard working paper on the same topic, an extended version of the LRB essay, on the KSG website.
And then all hell broke loose. The Harvard working paper was downloaded nearly a million times, an astounding number for any academic text, let alone a political science working paper posted on a university website. The Israel Lobby sparked outrage among defenders of Israeli policy--I refuse to call them pro-Israel because they harm Israel--who declared Walt and Mearsheimer to be nothing less than Jew-haters with good resumes. The Anti-Defamation League called the paper "a classical conspiratorial anti-Semitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control." Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz said the men had "destroyed their professional reputations," and released a detailed response. The furor was covered in the Washington Post Magazine, the New York Post, the New Yorker and other national publications. As Michael Massing put it, without hyperbole, "Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington's 'The Clash of Civilizations?' in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force as 'The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.'"
Mearsheimer and Walt alleged that "the United States has been willing to set aside its own security in order to advance the interests of another state [Israel]", and that U.S. Middle East policy is driven primarily by the "Israel Lobby," defined as a "loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction." The Lobby set terms of acceptable debate on Israel in America, and intimidated those who stepped outside the consensus. Most immediately, they charged that the Lobby--they later lower-cased the L--had been instrumental in driving the U.S. toward an unnecessary, self-destructive war in Iraq. Along with 9/11, they said, the Israel lobby was the key factor that influenced the Bush administration to invade Iraq.
None of these charges was especially novel. Writers operating closer to the fringe had said much the same thing for years. Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, Pat Buchanan, Edward Said, Patrick Findley, George Ball--all had written at length about an Israel lobby and its influence on US foreign policy. But all of these writers were marginalized, discredited or controversial voices. "The Israel Lobby" struck a chord not because of the contents of the paper itself, but because of the reputations of its authors. Mearsheimer and Walt were not fringe professors, operating on the edges of academia. They were two of the most prominent political scientists in the country, advocates of the 'realist' tradition that has dominated international relations theory since the 1940 and 1950s. A November/December 2005 survey of international relations scholars released in Foreign Policy magazine (subscription required but the list is here) listed Mearsheimer and Walt as the fifth and the 22nd most influential profs in their field, respectively. In other words, these guys were establishment big-wigs. They were attacking the establishment from the inside.
CONTINUED ON WEDNESDAY
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The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) today called on Sen. Barack Obama to remove Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak as his military advisor and national campaign co-chairman.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Jewish_Group_Wants_Obama_/2008/03/25/82924.html
The Audacity of Chutzpa
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702440.html
Since when is it anti-semitic to want peace on this planet? It used to be a free country. Now it's not.
Connect the dots. The U.S. politicians vote to give Israel $10 billion of my tax dollars. Israel takes 10% of that off the top, launders it back into the U.S. through various front groups, and gives that 10% back to the U.S. politicians. So they will vote again next year to give Israel $10 billion of my tax dollars. This is a bigger financial fraud than the medallien coke cartel, and much more corrupting of our government.
Excellent beginning to an enlightening subject. I read Mearsheimer and Walt's book and can attest that it is extremely well documented. There's over 150 pages of notes and most of their sources are from Israel. Those who have slandered them have not disproven any of their well sourced facts.
The Iraq war was about *OIL* and lucrative contracts for Halliburton and other corporations. This hatred of Jews and Israel is nearly as bad as the Right blaming all our problems on homosexuals.
It's not a hatred of Jews. It's about recognizing that neo-cons are Zionist Zealots. If you don't believe me then do some research on all the architects of the Iraq War. Check out the papers they wrote in the 1990s. They've devoted most of their lives to Israel's national security.
If you don't want to offend Jews, maybe you should stop referring to it as the Israel Lobby. Even if you argue that they're not pro Israel, it is implied. Most American and Israeli Jews support the peace process. Jews make up only 2.5% of the U.S. population and to imply that we have some unseen influence over American foreign policy or that we vote in a singular block is ludicrous. At this point you might be saying that we're too sensitive and that your argument is highly nuanced. While you might believe this, I urge you to read the comments written in this post and similar posts and witness that hate filled people who you attract.
OSUM, the Israeli Lobbyists and organizations don't have an "unseen" influence on American foreign policy and no one is cliaming so. It has a very seen and very loud influence in American foreign policy. Look what happened when Bush I quit giving aid to Israel until it quit its blatanly illegal settlements and ethnically cleansing Palestinian land. (Sorry to call it what it is, but forcibly removing a group of people, from their homeland, based on their ethnicity is ethnic cleansing.) Bush I was simply saying quit breaking ur numerous peace agreements and several U.N resolutions or no more of our aid. How long did that last? 2.5% of the people didn't change that policy??? I'm not anti-semitic- I am anti-genocide and anti-ethnic cleansing, as are many Palestianins. These people don't hate Israeli's because their Jewish, they hate them for kicking them off their land, bombing civilians, stealing the very rare potable water, ignoring U.N. resolutions, ignoring previous agreements and destroying their food supply and economy. We took out Saddam for less than that.
Wow!! It never fails that Alan Dershowitz comes out and slanders anyone who questions Israel and the zionist lobby in America and Europe. I mean even remote criticism is not allowed in his eyes. And somehow he is promoted as some sort of legitamate voice in this discussion when he has often proven to be irrational and an ugly example of genuine debate and intellectual culture especially for a professor(its disgusting really). He demgogues an issue and slanders anyone who does not agree(with statements such as "destroyed their professional reputations"). He cunningly uses the intellectual credibilty given to him by reputable scholarly instituions such as Harvard. He is about as legitamate an unbiased intellectual on the matter as say Dick Cheney on environmental policy. Let me add that you will find that jews themselves are often the harshest critics of the Israeli lobby operating in this country.
It's so bad right now that a politician in America can't advocate for balance in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but there does seem to be a concerted effort to drum up hatred for Muslims in America. If it's true, it is a truly foolish strategy that will likely end up back-firing big time.
The reaction to The Israel Lobby is why so many people can't speak up. If you say anything bad about Israel, you're labeled anti-Semitic. But the fact is our foreign policy would be a lot different if we didn't worry so much about the wishes of Israel.
Get ready for the anti-Semite charges. Any attempt at a discussion about the Israeli influence on US foreign policy always ends up there.
Why does part of my posts get lost so frequently?
Seems we can't have multiple paragraphs anymore. Hit Return or Enter and your done.
They make a persuasive case in their book by the same name, published a few months ago.
I am going to download and read this paper. I am always interested in lobbyist that lobby on the behalf of a nation. I just want to who is more important to America...America? or Israel? I think it is not a leap of faith to say that America can be conscious of both while not allowing us the become the "yes" men in every fight that Israel has. Israel has the right to defend itself just as America does but has America become the ultimate muscle behind Israel? I just want to ask questions without being labeled "anti-semitic"
You raised at least one question about Israel.
Why can't people see what is in plain sight? Why have so few noticed what has been obvious since 1948?
Why do some humans boast of being Homo sapiens sapiens? SAPIENS!?
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Posted March 23, 2008 | 12:54 PM (EST)