Over the next six weeks, John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government will be touring to promote their blockbuster book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
Mearsheimer and Walt are currently scheduled for 17 appearances between September 16 and October 29, including an appearance on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Cities they will be speaking in include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Chicago, Cambridge, Cleveland, New York, Iowa City, Dallas, and Washington.
I live in Austin and may drive to Dallas to see these guys.
I’m looking forward to seeing them on the Colbert Report. Stephen really does promote some good people sometimes, even though it may seem to be the opposite due to his sarcastic style.
Although affecting public opinion in the U.S. is infinitely more important I’d like to see them here in Europe as well.
I live near cambridge but that thing is going to be way to crowded to go. Hopefully democracy now or voices of dissent or one of those shows will cover it. I doubt even the hardcore zionists from brandeis will be there. Cambridge is really the most liberal place probably on earth.
Real truthiness being delivered by two outstanding lecturers. What a feast for the audience.
Anyone know if they’ll be appearing in Toronto, Canada?
Errol
Too bad, they are not coming to Las Vegas
How about the South? Sarasota Florida would welcome these brave lecturers.
Are they coming to Minneapolis or St. Paul,MN?
I would travel anywhere in MN to hear them. They are a
courageous breath of fresh air.
Just mentioning the Israel Lobby brings down a storm of virulent invective as I found out on one online thread and how this “pegged” me as an anti-semite, how posts like mine should not be allowed, followed by comparisons of me to David Duke. So brave and courageous certainly applies to these two.
What should happen is that they be given a segment on 60 Minutes and on some talk shows (e.g., Larry King). But forget it. The Z-Lobby has enough clout to keep most of the media from daring to mention the book. I doubt the Neoconish programs, Fox programs especially, will even mention it; they would rather just ignore it and hope it “goes away.”
From the article here: http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110010582
“What’s so nefarious about Jews exercising their right to speech?
The potency of the Middle East-funded (i.e. Arab) anti-Israel lobby around the world and in the U.S. is difficult to ignore. Yet, Messrs. Walt and Mearsheimer and others who adhere to an anti-Israel line ignore it. In and of itself, this is not surprising. When at the same time they portray American Jews’ efforts to make the case for Israel as morally suspect, however, they open themselves up to reasonable charges of something far more troublesome than mere hypocrisy, and that is anti-Jewish bias, by whatever name.”
If the “Israel Lobby” and the “Z-Lobby” have as much control as you think then why have they been so successful in spreading their message, first in a paper now in a book and nationwide public appearances?
The fact is that you are all being manipulated and used like so many pawns and lemmings to the ultimate detriment of our country and yourselves.
It seems that this editorial was written by someone who either misunderstands or distorts Walt and Mearsheimer’s position. Walt and Mearsheimer do not “[take] American Jews to task for participating in the American political process.” Rather, their argument is that we support Israel to the detriment of our legitimate national interests. They never criticize anyone for participating in the political process. Nor do they dispute the existence of an oil lobby or an Arab lobby. It’s just that maintaining favorable relations with nations that provide us with oil would be construed as a legitimate national interest. They do not argue that Arab nations are morally superior. Walt and Mearsheimer are realists. They do not concern themselves with morality except to point out that the moral case for unconditionally supporting Israel is a weak one.
“The potency of the Middle East-funded anti-Israel lobby around the world and in the U.S. is difficult to ignore.”
Crocodile tears. The U.S. wars in the Middle East, the suffering of Iraqis, Palestinians and Lebanese, the blatant support for Israel in the international scene show that the role of such a lobby is negligible compared to the Zionist one.
Peter, To show the relative strengths of the Z-Lobby vs. the Arab lobby, The Arab lobby needs the Z-Lobby’s permission to get any aid.. military or otherwise.
The Israel lobby has enormous influence over the US government and society. However, this influence isn’t absolute, and even though it has been very difficult, the authors have been able to publish their ideas and discuss them. Let’s remember the first “Israel Lobby” paper was published by the London Review of Books because the Israel lobby is so powerful the authors were denied the ability to publish in America.
American Jews have the right to express their ideas and lobby their government, conversely other Americans also have a right to express their ideas and discuss Israel, and the way the Israel lobby influences their government.
Unfortunately, what we see in America today is a near-Orwellian suppression of thought, and the forced imposition of false narratives – the media is cowed, politicans are silenced, and all are smeared as anti semitic nazis if they dare raise any points about Israel unless they happen to glow with admiration.
It’s impossible for Americans to engage in a civil discussion regarding the incomprehensible (some say grotesque) bias America shows for a foreign power such as Israel. Israel happens to be carrying over a dozen UN Security Council Resolutions condemning its behavior, and it is this behavior which drives so many to revile it and accuse America of protecting a mini-rogue state.
Fernando – Can you tell which publications refused to publish Walt and Mearsheimers initial paper? How many actually turned them down? 1? 10? 100?
If it was only one publication that was reluctant to publish it, can we honestly say that the Israeli Lobby has a stranglehold on the media? Afterall,the authors did get a $700,000 advance from an American publisher and they have had no difficulty getting exposure for their book. Most of the websites I go to read commentary on major issues devote a significant portion of time and space to issues critiquing Israeli policy and complaining about the effectiveness of the Israeli Lobby. I’m not sure that the argument that these conversations are not tolerated is really accurate.
I do know that many people are reluctant to discuss some of these issues because while they are not anti-jewish, there are many genuine anti-semites who distort these same arguments in order to demonize Jewish people. They don’t want to ask the non-logical, but likely question – If David Duke is right about the Jews, does that make him right about the Blacks, Latinos, and Gays?
What will be interesting to see is that now that the taboo about talking about the Israeli lobby and Israel has been removed, what will also become easier for people to discuss.
“The potency of the Middle East-funded (i.e. Arab) anti-Israel lobby around the world and in the U.S. is difficult to ignore.”
Excuse me, who exactly are you referring to?
“The fact is that you are all being manipulated and used like so many pawns and lemmings to the ultimate detriment of our country and yourselves.”
Now that sounds like AIPAC’s job to me.
The power of the US AIPAC/Israel Lobby seems undeniable, but what about similar groups parasitising other members of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ who joined GWB’s invasion with such alacrity?
What pressure was applied to Blair’s government in the UK, or Howard’s government in Australia where an AIJAC exists?
And when will such heavy pressure be recognised as perhaps involving threats of (?personal) blackmail?
I think it would be more accurate to label what is called the Israel Lobby the Likud Party Lobby. AIPAC and other groups of their ilk are not interest groups lobbying on behalf of a pro Israel foriegn policy, rather they are interest groups that lobby on behalf of furthering the political agenda of the radical Likud Party, and other extreme right wing political factions in Israel.
I agree with you 100%. We might also agree that this Likud Lobby is not going to be significantly stopped so long as it is characterized as an “Israeli” lobby because too many people conflate “Israeli” with “Jewish.” Americans must understand that fighting the Likud Lobby is not at all anti-Semitic.
Mearsheimer & Walt may well play an important in driving a much needed debate on the issue. But I’m forced to agree with Chomsky, et al, in that the “Israel lobby” and “support for Israel” in traditional terms are a relatively small part of a much larger problem — namely, the ongoing manufacture of crises in the Middle East (and everywhere else) for the sake of domestic political power-grabbing and the fleecing of US taxpayers by the defense and security industries.
The radical Israeli power-elites may have been big winners in the process, but that’s not at all the engine that drives this juggernaut. Investigating the power of the “Israel lobby” is only valid inasmuch as it leads to exposing the much more pervasive root-system that increasingly corrupts both foreign and domestic policy. “Defending Israel” has never been much more than a cynical pretext, and so long as the debate is allowed to remain framed in those terms, the Really Big Crimes will continue to be swept under the rug with impunity.
In “The Political Economy of US Militarism” the author points out America projects it’s imperial ambitions whenever a critical mass of power elites coincides. This is a DIFFERENT ISSUE, as it involves the overall American government posture and its drive to dominate the world – using violent means if necessary.
However, the current crisis in the Middle East is indeed driven by the Israel lobby. It seems your argument is weakened by the presence of US troops in Iraq, and their absence in Myanmar and Congo. Neocons can’t invade Myanmar because their Zionist wing doesn’t see the gain – even though those who sell bullets do. When the Israel firsters and the militarists (including the military industrial complex) coincide, the USA goes to war.
I was always puzzled by the American bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, and the way both Clinton and the US Media lied about the presumed genocide taking place in Kosovo (which we know wasn’t happening and didn’t happen). At the time I still held the naive thought that America could make mistakes, but there was no conscious power driving it. After the Kosovo event, I realized that indeed America today is the perfect example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Couple this with the citizenry’s inability to discuss the lobby which most drives it to war, and the result is the pro-nazi Germany of the 21st Century.
Fernando – Can you please elaborate on why the US lied about what was going on in Kosovo/Bosnia(?) and what if anything this had to with the Israeli Lobby.
Not to change the subject, but speaking of dictatorships, I see that you’re from Venezuela. Any concerns about Chavez’s continual concentration of power?
The Israel Lobby is not the only force in American politics, but is a one of the major ones. Particularly before 9/11, their influence was not as great.
I don’t believe that US involvement in wars in the Balkans were motivated by support for Israel. If anything, they were a remnant of US support for Jihadists that began with our involvement in Afghanistan.
Yes, bombing of Serbia is a puzzle.
There are a bunch of theories, but none of them make sense. All of them are painting US Govt. in a very bad light.
What is lacking is the rational explaination.
On the other hand the same can be applied to Iraq.
As a matter of fact the same reasoning can be applied to Germany’s aggression of Soviet Union. It did not end well for Hitler.
Quite simply – foreign aggression is always irrational and the resuls are very bad in the longer term, usually the victim of the agressor wins at the end.
Note, that excuses for the agression – be it spreading communizm, spreading democracy, spreading german race, protecting jews – all these exuses are quite irrelevant. There is no real justification for interventionism.
Not an accident that this point of view was reflected in the US Constitution, among other very fundamental points.
“defending israel” is the main goal of the israeli americans who’ve got this stranglehold on american foreign policy, for the simple reason that israel is the refuge of last resort for ashkenazi supremacist and religious radicals, not least of whom are the war criminals who staged 9/11 and have bulldozed us into these wars.
the motivating phenomena: global warming, caused by continuing use of fossil fuels that will result in co2 concentrations that will result in co2 atmospheric lifetime of thousands of years, which guarantees israel eventually will face an 80-meter sea level rise…. and peak oil, which means the high ground must be grabbed now before america is crippled by oil shortages.
even if effective resistence to the project somehow develops in america (unlikely, but possible), israel is still in the driver’s seat, since they still have the motive, means, opportunity and character to stage another 9/11 and blame it on the pasty of the day… iran, syria, whoever.
rabbi chertoff’s main function is to blame the patsy flavor-of-the-day for “events” that havent happened yet.
“gut feelings”, huh, mr chertoff?
Which proves the point that the location for Jewish state was chosen very badly.
But one can’t deny that Israel is not a good place to live – for a jew or for an arab :-) It’s in the state of war for 50 years since it’s inception.
Demography is weak over there. Arabs procreate very well though. Therefore the outcome of the Zionist project (which is basically to create the Jewish state in Palestince) is quite uncertain. Alienating 9/10th of the World population is not something to be proud about.
On the other hand it’s very true, that US people (as well as jewish people) should not pay for these gross miscalculations.
One important message has to be rooted in the public opinion – being anti-Zionist does not mean being anti-jewish at all. Jews are even in a worse position since they don’t have much freedom to reject Zionism. Also some Orthodox Judaists are not in favour of Zionst project. By any stretch Orthodox Judaizm does not equal Zionsm (visit New York if you doubt that). It’s time for people of the world to understand this.
Am I being blocked?? For what reason I wonder? Too religious?
For a concise overview of the problems with the Walt-Mearsheimer essay and book, see the 5 page pdf at this link.
This pdf is being widely disseminated in academia, industry and government.
Concise? Yes.
Cogent. No.
Seeds of Anti-Semitism
Every generation has seen accusations that Jews have dual loyalties, promote war and secretly control political structures. You may not believe that Walt and Mearsheimer follow their claims all the way to anti-Semitism. But this is the way it begins. This is the way it always begins.
Follow this link
for the rest of the editorial in the Washington Post.
from haaretz:
In the course of the past year, a new belief has emerged in the town: the belief in war against Iraq. That ardent faith was disseminated by a small group of 25 or 30 neoconservatives, almost all of them Jewish, almost all of them intellectuals (a partial list: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams, Charles Krauthammer), people who are mutual friends and cultivate one another and are convinced that political ideas are a major driving force of history.
White man’s burden