Soccer Dad: MSM on "the lobby"

March 26, 2006

MSM on "the lobby"

It is just not true that the Israel "Lobby" has captured U.S. policy toward the Middle East. As David McCullough writes, Harry Truman recognized Israel in 1948 out of humanitarian concerns and in spite of pressure from Jewish groups, not because of it. Since then, 10 straight American Presidents have befriended Israel - not because they were under pressure but because they believed America had made a commitment to Israel's survival, just as we have to other threatened outposts of freedom like Berlin, South Korea and Taiwan.

Over the course of four tours in the White House, I never once saw a decision in the Oval Office to tilt U.S. foreign policy in favor of Israel at the expense of America's interest

Jeff Jacoby America takes side of Israel

If the truth be told, it isn't hard to understand why America's ardent support for Israel might strike some people as odd, or even suspicious. In so much of the world -- Europe, the Middle East, the UN General Assembly -- Israel is despised. Even if Americans don't share the anti-Semitism that is rife in other lands, wouldn't it be more practical for them to stop taking Israel's side? After all, there are 500 million Arabs in the world, and they control one-third of the world's oil supply. Why should Americans alienate them by continuing to support Israel, a country with no oil and just 6 million people?

As a matter of plain economic common sense, the United States has every reason to turn against the Jewish state. What accounts for its refusal to do so? If it isn't an ''Israel Lobby" pulling hidden strings, what on earth can it be?

Needless to say Jacoby has a different answer from the one provided by "the Lobby."

Nicholas Goldberg (whom I've strongly disagreed with in the past) Who's afraind of the Israel Lobby?

Jeffrey Herf, a University of Maryland professor, and Andrei Markovits, a professor at the University of Michigan, noted in a thoughtful response that Bush's closest war advisors weren't all Israel-obsessed Jews but also included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. They also took issue with the notion that the close U.S. relationship with Israel has been the "centerpiece of U.S. Middle Eastern policy" � that centerpiece, they maintain, "has been and remains access to oil for the United States and for the global economy."

Herf and Markovits cautioned that "American Jewish citizens have a right to express their views without being charged with placing the interests of Israel ahead of those of the United States," and that "turning one's back on one's good friends when times are tough has never been, is not now and will never be a realistic, decent or wise foreign policy."

Boston Herald editorial Academic Israeli Path goes Astray

The fact is, Americans long have overwhelmingly supported Israel, a democracy that tries to live by the rules of civilized society in the face of enemies who don�t. A new poll by Quinnipiac University shows that Americans have a higher opinion of Israel than all other countries save Canada and Britain. The Israel Lobby is not changing minds; it is plowing prepared ground.

To blame Israel for American terrorism problems ignores the evidence that Osama bin Laden himself gave citing the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia as the chief provocation of his work, and ignores terrorist attacks in Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and France in recent years, all totally unconnected with Israel. The West would face terrorism even if Israel didn�t exist.

The Washington Post Of Israel, Harvard and David Duke This is an synopsis of the controversy.

Harvard's Paper on Israel Drew From Neo-Nazi Sites BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun

Mr. Dershowitz said that he and his research assistants were currently working on a comparative chart showing the parallelism between parts of the Walt-Mearsheimer paper and quotes available on neo-Nazi Web sites.

While Mr. Dershowitz stressed that the comparison project was a "work in progress," one particularly noticeable example of the authors' alleged culling from hate sites was found in the Walt-Mearsheimer paper's use of a quote from a former executive editor of the New York Times, Max Frankel.

Under the section "Manipulating the Media," on pages 19 and 20 of the paper, Messrs. Walt and Mearsheimer write: "In his memoirs, for example, former Times executive editor Max Frankel acknowledged the impact his own pro-Israel attitude had on his editorial choices. In his words: 'I was much more deeply devoted to Israel than I dared to assert.' He goes on: 'Fortified by my knowledge of Israel and my friendships there, I myself wrote most of our Middle East commentaries. As more Arab than Jewish readers recognized, I wrote them from a pro-Israel perspective.'" The footnote cites Mr. Frankel's 560-page book, "The Times of My Life and My Life with the Times," published in 1999.

Yet the Frankel quote used by Messrs. Mearsheimer and Walt, Mr. Dershowitz said, is nearly identical to the quote used by a neo-Nazi Web site in its own take on Jewish press influence, "Jewish Influence in the Mass Media." The document, posted on Holywar.org, quotes more extensively from the same section in Mr. Frankel's memoir.

"Here's Max Frankel [for years the Executive Editor of the New York Times] and his thoughts about Israel in his work," the document proclaims. "'I was much more deeply devoted to Israel than I dared to assert. ... Fortified by my knowledge of Israel and my friendships there, I myself wrote most of our Middle East commentaries. As more Arab than Jewish readers recognized, I wrote them from a pro-Israel perspective....'" Holywar.org also cites Mr. Frankel's memoir.

"He quotes Max Frankel, as if he read the whole 500 pages of Max Frankel?" Mr. Dershowitz said. "I promise you they did not read Max Frankel's whole book," the law professor said of the paper's authors. "How do I know that? We found the same exact quote on various hate sites."According to Mr. Dershowitz, other parts of the Walt-Mearsheimer paper bear striking similarities to postings on other anti-Jewish Web sites, including Nukeisrael.org, which purports to be the Web site of the "National Socialist Movement Northwest."

If Dershowitz can make his charge stick, antisemitism wouldn't be the only sin Walt and Mearsheimer committed; plagiarism might be involved too.

Technorati tags: John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, the Lobby, Israel, AIPAC.