Soccer Dad: Into the depths

March 27, 2006

Into the depths

A couple of writers have dug up past views of John Mearsheimer (co-author with Stephen Walt of "The Lobby")

Martin Kramer in Front Page Magazine writes about an ad a group of academics took out fearing that Israel would use the Iraq war to "ethnically cleanse" the Palestinians.

About a thousand academics did sign the letter, including Noam Chomsky and Edward Said. The expulsion obviously never took place, and I revisited the petition after the war. I wrote that the signatories "are now collectively in the moral position of owing apologies to the Israeli people and the Israeli government--of Ariel Sharon."

Not only did Mearsheimer sign the petition; he defended it to the Chicago Maroon, the campus newspaper. "The precedent is there [to expel Palestinians], and it behooves us to make sure it does not happen again," he said. "Expulsion of the Palestinians is often discussed [in Israel] as a solution to this conflict between democracy and demography." Only someone entirely ignorant of contemporary Israeli politics and the U.S.-Israeli relationship could have uttered these words. Indeed, to believe them, you would have had to have slept through the Kuwait war, when Israel scrupulously sat on its hands in deference to the United States. Anyone who thought Israel would or could have done otherwise in 2003, is someone who'll believe anything about Israel.

Deja Vu has revisited a different article by Mearsheimer.

To understand their realism it is necessary to revisit an August 1990 article John Mearsheimer wrote for The Atlantic Monthly entitled "Why We Will Soon Miss The Cold War." In it he bemoans that fact the Washington may not be able to stop the USSR from leaving Eastern Europe. No, he did not trust the people of the East Europe any more than he trust the people of the Middle East.

To be sure not everyone agrees that Walt and Mearsheimer are radicals in their beliefs about Israel. A number of writers see the criticism of "The Lobby" as proof that "the Lobby" is as powerful and pernicious as they believe.

Believe it or not, Helena Cobban argues that "the Lobby's" shortcoming in that it doesn't mention enough examples of the Israel lobby's influence

Levy expresses a couple of criticisms of the M-W paper. (I agree with him completely that M&W should have mentioned the Lobby's conflict with Bush I and Baker over loan guarantees, in 1991-92. Notable, because as I wrote in this book, (1) B&B "won" on the immediate issue of the loan guarantees; but then (2) they were majorly punished by the Lobby in the 1992 election; and Bush I's defeat in that election stood thereafter for the Clintonites and for Bush II as an object lesson in why they shouldn't even dream of confronting the Lobby... This, even though many solid analysts of US politics pointed out at the time that "it's the economy, stupid!" was even more central to Bush's electoral defeat. But the Lobby's ideological enforcers managed to get their view of things very "forcefully" across to all the pols... )

I think it's important to remember that there were many reasons by George H. W. Bush lost the election to Bill Clinton. I would argue that the most important one was the economy. (Remember "It's the economy, stupid." It wasn't "It's the Jooooos, stupid.")

The Levy she quotes in Daniel Levy, who's article is reproduced at TPMCafe. Though not directly about "The Lobby" Levy writes

In Congress, the AIPAC-supported Lantos/Ros- Lehtinen bill, which places unprecedented restrictions on aid to and contacts with the Palestinians, is stalled. Moderate American organizations such as the Israel Policy Forum, Americans for Peace Now and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom - each with their own policy nuances - have led opposition to the bill and Quartet envoy Wolfensohn has seemed to caution against it.

What is unprecedented about the Lantos/Ros- Lehtinen bill? That it demands accountability for the Palestinians? That it demands if the Palestinian vote a terror organization into power, undermining one of the premises of the two state solution, that the United States no longer support it financially? And to call IPF, APN and BTS "moderate" organizations is laughable.

Levy bio says

Daniel Levy was an advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, a member of the official Israel negotiating team at the Oslo B and Taba talks, and the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative.

The Geneva initiative was undertaken to undermine the democratically elected government of Israel led by Yossi Beilin who had left politics because his views rendered him too extreme for Israeli voters.

I think that Maryland Conservatarian had one of the best comebacks Jonathan Pollard, Larry Franklin & "The Lobby" to the charges of Cobban, Levy and their fellow travelers.

If �The Lobby� was the influential juggernaut that the professors claim it is, Jonathan Pollard would long ago have been sitting in Tel Aviv, recounting for anyone who would buy him a drink (or a snort) his years of �mis-treatment� by the Lobby-run US government.

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