Kamin and Lefkowitz: On Israel, Mearsheimer misleads
A small group of Jews exerts disproportionate control over the government. Using power and money, it steers the country toward the disasters of our time — wars and a crumbling economy — disregarding the better interests of the nation and the world at large.
If this idea had not come from The New York Times best-selling book written by an acclaimed professor of international relations, one might have thought it was lifted from a work of 19th-century anti-Semitic European propaganda.
But professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, who spoke at Tuesday evening’s...
I am so impressed with the elegance and eloquence of that comment that I have immediately decided to switch sides. Thank you for enlightening me.
Thank you for that comment, Senator McCarthy.
Why is it that I can find this lengthy "rebuttal", but I can find nothing of the orginal argument being "rebutted"? There is a fragment of an introductory paragraph about the debate, with links that lead nowhere. Is this your idea of the way in which a free press functions?
Your article begins with a strawperson. Walt and Mearsheimer argue that a number of powerful and public lobbying groups (and not a small group of jews) steer US policy in a pro-Israel position. Many of these interest groups have no links to Judaism.
Your claim that the US-Israel relationship is mutually beneficial is doubtful. The US's disproportionate aid to Israel makes us a target of terrorism and delays the two-state solution. The US holds a tremendous amount of leverage over Israel ($3 billion in direct, unconditional aid), and it could successfully pressure Israel to stop settlement in Palestinian territory -- the biggest obstacle to the two-state solution. Yet it does not. Terrorist organizations cite the US's disproportionate support for Israeli policy as a primary motivating factor for their attacks against us, particularly 9/11.
The two-state solution is critical to Israeli interests. Olmert said it himself: "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished." <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929439.html> Again, the US's disproportionate aid to Israel essentially endorses bad Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories.
The US and Israel can and probably should still be allies. But a normal ally does does not receive one-fifth of our foreign aid. Israel does. Interest groups push and maintain this bad policy. This is bad for the both Israeli and US interests. That is the argument.
You are mistaken, Christian. That is the watered down argument that he gave to the Yale audience. In his and Walt's working essay, he argues that the Zionist Jewish community does exert control over the government.
The argument that American support is unconditional is ridiculous. American only offers support in military aid, which serves to further America's interests by maintaining its position as the leading weapons supplier to Israel. In addition, Mearsheimer himself said that every American president since 1967 has opposed the building of new settlements and has worked to convince the Israeli government to stop. While America also does not support everything that other countries do, we still often support them, especially when it is in our interest.
Also, America has been a help, not a hinderance, to a two state solution, constantly trying to bring both sides to the bargaining table. Of course a two state solution is in Israeli interests. Israel (whose political right is often undermining the wants and needs of the state and of peace) needs America to help facilitate that. That is why the relationship between the two countries is crucial. You, like Mearsheimer, are arguing based upon assertions and not facts. There was no connection between Israel and 9/11 until much later, and terrorists do not hate America because it supports Israel. America has done plenty of nasty things in the Middle East (propping up the Shah) that had nothing to do with Israel.
Make us proud Shai.
The best part about all of this is that had people actually read the book, they would understand that every single argument just raised both in the actual piece and all of these comments are addressed and, more importantly, refuted entirely. Read the book. And because we are all intelligent Americans, act in the AMERICAN interest. Israel should get a relationship just like any other American ally, but we can all see that it clearly does not. Go America
I reject the idea that the writers of this series of lies are patriotic Americans.