No Need to Distort on Ron Paul Institute

ron_paul_michael_scheuer

At The Daily Beast, James Kirchick blasts the new Ron Paul Institute for being “comprised of anti-Semites, 9/11 truthers, and dictator lovers.” Kirchick goes astray on a number of claims, but at one point he links to a piece by former CIA official Michael Scheuer published at Antiwar.com in 2008. Since this is our turf, I thought I’d point out that Kirchick pretty blatantly distorts what Scheuer wrote.

Also on Paul’s board are prominent former government officials who claim that American Jews constitute a “fifth column” aimed at subverting American foreign policy in the interests of Israel. Michael Scheuer, a former CIA intelligence officer, has used this precise phrase, alleging that a long list of individuals, organizations, and publications are “intent on involving 300 million Americans in other people’s religious wars.”

This re-litigates the controversy in the lead up to Chuck Hagel’s confirmation over his comments about “the Jewish lobby” intimidating legislators on Capitol Hill. That opened up a can of worms about whether it should instead be called the “Israel lobby.” That’s a fine debate to have, but Kirchick makes it seem like Scheuer wrote/believes that “American Jews” constitute a fifth column aimed at promoting a pro-Israel foreign policy. This is a distortion.

Here is Scheuer’s quote in full:

American Israel-firsters have long since dropped any pretense of loyalty to the United States and its genuine national interests. They have moved brazenly into the Israel first, last, and always camp. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Norman Podhoretz, Victor Davis Hanson, the Rev. Franklin Graham, Alan Dershowitz, Rudy Giuliani, Douglas Feith, the Rev. Rod Parsley, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woolsey, Bill Kristol, the Rev. John Hagee, and the thousands of wealthy supporters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) appear to care about the United States only so far as Washington is willing to provide immense, unending funding and the lives of young U.S. service personnel to protect Israel. These individuals and their all-for-Israel journals –Commentary, National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the Wall Street Journal – amount to nothing less than a fifth column intent on involving 300 million Americans in other peoples’ religious wars, making them pay and bleed to protect a nation in which the United States has no genuine national security interest at stake.

Half of the names Scheuer mentioned are not Jewish, and last time I checked, one doesn’t need to be Jewish to donate to AIPAC. Scheuer even criticizes the predictable habit of his detractors to “identify their critics as anti-Semites.” Kirchick no less predictably satisfies that propensity five years after the piece was written.

Scheuer’s argument is clear enough without being distorted by Kirchick – namely, that the pro-Israel lobby is one of the most powerful, influential, and effective in Washington. Realists like Scheuer, as well as equally highly respected academics like John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, among countless others, merely point out that the systematic compliance with Israel’s interests in US foreign policy and American politics generally conflicts with core US interests.

That is a political argument. It is an academic argument. It is not some spooky, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, as Kirchick might have us believe.

34 thoughts on “No Need to Distort on Ron Paul Institute”

  2. You know….don't people EVER get sick of throwing out the race card? Or maybe I should ask, why does anybody ever believe it when it is thrown out?

    Gag me with spoon.

    1. Mike,

      It's ok to throw out the race card. It just depends on the dealer. In this case, the libertarians will have arrived morally when they are less concerned with various insults against Ron Paul branded products and more concerned with discovering why exactly they give a damn what the protegee (Kirchick) of a virulent racist (Martin Peretz) thinks.

      Anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and nationalism are real things which exist. They are part of the root causes of empire.

      Some insight into the moral character of James Kirchick:
      1.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-alterman/marty…
      2.) http://prospect.org/article/how-peretz-undermined…

      Harvard lefties treating Peretz as if he were David Duke. Courageous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3hLOO3YFM8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqiMKEWUAeM

      For comedic purposes: Kirchick complaining about gay men who don't wish to be romantically involved with someone who champions mass murder. http://prospect.org/article/shorter-james-kirchic…

      1. Err, it's not insults against Ron Paul I'm concerned about. It's like having someone come up to your ear and repeat word or words over and over and over again. After awhile it just becomes so boring and grating as to be extremely irritating. Not only that but it is so cowardly that I just have ZERO respect for idiots who do that kind of thing.

        I don't think racism is the cause of of empire at all (that's true with some regular people I'm sure), the love of MONEY and POWER is. Islamophobia is just an excuse to justify it just like old European colonialism. Racist attitudes towards Africans and Indians in those days were just an excuse to justify the conquest and confiscation of the wealth of the New World and other places. Over time they actually came to believe though. If you lie to yourself enough I guess you start believing it.

        The US government created an empire due to the coalition of big government and big business (especially the banks). It's all a crony money making scheme for the politically connected and of course a boon for the sociopaths in government who foam at the mouth for more power. Want to know where all of this crap started? Read Thomas DiLorenzo's book "Hamilton's Curse". We live in Alexander Hamilton's America; empire.

  3. I was disappointed in The Daily Beast. I'm a stickler for integrity and after a lot of research came to a different conclusion about the character and intent of Dr. Paul.

  4. There is no powerful Israel lobby, and if you say otherwise, they will hunt you down crush you like a bug.

  5. I'm surprised Abe Foxman of the ADL, Mossad's enforcement arm in the US, and Mark "SPLC" Potok haven't chimed in with their usual hysterical noise about "anti-semitism".

  6. Kirchick is claiming that Sheuer claims (paraphrasing): "Jews represent a fifth column."

    Sheuer actually claims: "The Weekly Standard et al (where Kirchick posts his attack) represent a fifth column."

    Hilarious.

  7. It's kind of sad. Kirchick did damn good work uncovering and exposing Paul's disgusting use of race-baiting, gay-baiting, etc. filth in his newsletters to build a fundraising list. Then he got lazy and has been riding on a wagon of straw ever since.

    2. As you say, it's easier on the bandwagon instead of standing in front of it. The pay is probably better also.

  8. Can you believe that an expert in his field like Scheuer thinks that Muslims dislike AmeriKKKa because of repeated wars and killing (and supporting dictators) in the Middle East? What a CRAZY theory!!! He must really hate the USA. And be a racist for not loving Israel enough! (before I'm misinterpreted, that was sarcastic)

  9. But what's Dennis Kucinich doing on the board of the Ron Paul Institute if the group's anti-semitic?

    1. What I find hilarious is how Ron Paul is called anti-Semitic despite the fact that his two greatest philosophical and economic influences are Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, both Jews. LOL! Talk about idiotic.

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