Home > "Israel Lobby" Essay Creates Firestorm in US
Discriminations-Minorit. International UK
IslamOnline.net
CAIRO, March 31, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) - An essay by two prominent American professors challenging the pro-Israel lobby in the United States and its sway over the US foreign policy has created a firestorm, drawing immediate anti-Semitism accusations and scathing criticism, a leading British newspaper reported Friday, March 31.
"Accusations of powerful Jews behind the scenes are part of the most dangerous traditions of modern anti-Semitism," Jeffrey Herf and Andrei Markovits, two academics at the reputable Harvard University, wrote in a letter to the London Review of Books, according to the Guardian.
Two weeks ago, Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, published an essay about the impact of Israel Lobby in the United States.
They said that the US has been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies to advance Israeli interests.
The essay said the US willingness was largely as a result of pressure from Jewish American groups such as the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) allied to pro-Zionist Christian evangelists and influential Jewish neo-conservatives.
Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz also denounced in the university newspaper the essay’s authors as "liars" and "bigots".
Anti-Semitism
Challenging accusation of being anti-Semite, professor Mearsheimer said the ongoing furor over the essay proved the strength of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
"We argued in the piece that the lobby goes to great lengths to silence criticism of Israeli policy as well as the US-Israeli relationship, and that its most effective weapon is the charge of anti-Semitism," he told the Guardian.
He said that they expected of being accused of anti-Semitism after publishing the essay.
"Huge numbers of people know this story to be true but are afraid to say it because they would punished by pro-Israeli forces."
Two versions of the essay were published in the London Review of Books and on the Kennedy School website.
But soon the school removed its cover page from the online version of the essay, denying that the move was to distance itself from its professors.
Also after the essay’s publication, it was announced that Walt would step down from his job as academic dean at the end of June.
But the Kennedy School and Walt’s colleagues claimed that the move had long been planned.
’Identical"
In their March 10 essay, professors Walt and Mearsheimer said that the US foreign policy has been influenced by the pro-Israel Lobby to serve the Israeli interests.
"Instead, the overall thrust of US policy in the region is due almost entirely to US domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the ’Israel Lobby," they wrote.
"Other special interest groups have managed to skew US foreign policy in direction they favored, but no lobby has managed to divert US foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise’s suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US and Israeli interests are essentially identical."
They attributed the powerful impact of the Israel lobby to its effectiveness in the US Congress.
"One reason for the Lobby’s success with Congress is that some key members are Christian Zionists like Dick Armey, who said in September 2002 that ’My No. 1 priority in foreign policy is to protect Israel.’
"One would think that the number 1 priority for any congressman would be to ’protect America,’ but that is not what Armey said.
"There are also Jewish senators and congressmen who work to make U.S. foreign policy support Israel’s interests," they said.
The two US professors maintained that the Israel Lobby has also a significant leverage over the US executive branch.
"That power derives in part from the influence Jewish voters have on presidential elections. Despite their small numbers in the population (less than 3 percent), they make large campaign donations to candidates from both parties."
They added that the US media was also dominated by the Israel lobby.
"The Lobby strives to shape public perceptions about Israel and the Middle East. It does not want an open debate on issues involving Israel, because an open debate might cause Americans to question the level of support that they currently provide."
"Accordingly, pro‐Israel organizations work hard to influence the media, think tanks, and academia, because these institutions are critical in shaping popular opinion."
Click to Read the Israel Lobby Essay in Full
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2006-03/31/images/00
.pdf
:: Article nr. 22143 sent on 01-apr-2006 14:22 ECT
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Forum posts
2 April 2006, 18:37
They are NOT anti-Jewish! And I for one am Goddamn sick and tired of U.S. putting Israel before our own country! Or at least those corporate whores in D.C. who do! AIPAC is no. 1 lobbist group people! Putting America FIRST IS NOT ANTI-JEWISH NOR ANTI-ISRAEL! IT IS FOR OUR OWN SOVERIGHTY, FOR GOD’S SAKE! My no. 1 all time hero was Paul Wellstone for God’s sake! Who was AGAINST THESE WARS OF AGRESSION BY U.S. which is probably WHY he was murdered! It is HIGH TIME WE IN U.S. DEMAND ALL OF OUR POLITICIANS STOP PUTTING NOT ONLY ISRAEL BUT SAUDI’S AND OTHER NATIONS FIRST AND PUT U.S. FIRST, PERIOD! AND STOP SELLING OUR NATION OUT TO HIGHEST BIDDERS, AS MOST IN CONGRESS ARE NOTHING BUT TRAITORS AND CORPORATE WHORES! And this includes worthless, politicians on BOTH sides of isle who are LITERALLY DESTROYING AMERICA FROM WITHIN! THEM AND THEIR GODDAMN PURE EVIL POLICIES! IT IS NOT ANTI-SEMTIC TO PUT AMERICA FIRST AND NOT ISRAEL!
3 April 2006, 03:15
I am not sure what this article is talking about, there isn’t a firestorm in the U.S. over the "Lobby" article. A few academice and intelligencia are talk about it in terms that they articulate among themselves.
Secondly, I would think that a people and nation that is so focused as to mount such influnces over a wide range of departments, agencies, and policy over a long term should be studied for their abilities. Keep in mind that AIPAC’s influnces are not just a recent thing, but have been in effect for a long time.
And what is so wrong with a people looking after it’s interests? Can you blame the Jews for keeping their interests in focus? Don’t you wish you had a focus like they do?
As far as the first reply to this blog entry, I believe that s/he misequates the facts that America holds the interests of Suadi Arabia before its own.
In all cases, it appears that Isreal is in a win-win-win situation, who would not want to be in such a posture.
6 April 2006, 01:26
Hmm, if you actually go to AIPACs site and review their historial initiatives, as well as those of proIsraeli groups, the vast majority of them were in no way supported by the US, and often blocked. In fact, it is common knowledge in Israel that too many times has Israel put its national security second to American interests in the region. This is most evident today as Israel was pressured by a Bush/Blair deal to allow Hamas to participate in elections. History is full of such examples, like Israel being bombed by Saddam in the first gulf war and being blocked from defending itself because of US/Coalition interests. Further, there is quite a large movement within many political parties in Israel and among some of the strongest American supporters that the US should cut off all aid to Israel, even if aids her enemies, so to begin to sever the constant constraints put on Israeli self defense. Top war scholars argue that had Israel not been bound, there would be no Israel-Arab conflict today because Israel would have been allowed to "finish" her defensive wars rather than prolong them slowly into wars of attrition over 50 years. Can any of you name any nations who won defensive wars only to shrink in size, and give back the strategic lands used to invade and attack her over decades?
Lastly if you study opinions of Israelis vs American Jews, they vary quite a bit and are often at odds with each other. The most Hawkish Israelis resent the "naive" and dovish Americans who they deem as, how do you say, monday night quarterbacks?
I think all of you should never stop being so disproportionably critical of Israel. Because of you Israelis have learned that they must never rely on the reason of humanity, but rather on themselves. That is why, per capita, it leads the world in the number of scientists, twice that of Germany, the US, and Japan. It is why its people have the highest ratio of academic degrees per person, highest ratio of scientific peer-reviewed publications, highest rate of patents filed, the largest number of innovative start-ups per capita - in fact on average you 9 of 10 of you are using more than 5 Israeli-made technologies just to read this. If you’re on your cell phone, 8, including the cell technology itself.
Keep hating, cause once you stop they’ll get too comfortable.
6 April 2006, 12:28
You left out one category in which Israelis excel beyond all others and that is their ability to exaggerate and tell outright lies. How about some credible, i.e. non-Jewish propaganda, sources for all of those claims you made? Or, should we just take your word?