(ck, I would be so grateful for an appropriate graphic here)
I was a little surprised today when a response I wrote on Juan Cole’s blog to a very lengthy post of his wasn’t published. I thought my comment was on point and relevant to the discussion. I guess he didn’t. He does say, in his commenting rules that “…the editor, having few enough prerogatives in life, may in fact persistently reject messages of people whom he simply does not like.” I have been disliked before, though I can’t imagine why, so I guess my ideas won’t be shared with his readers. Fortunately, I have Jewlicious to publish the comment.
Juan Cole, head of the Israel-bashing academic association MESA (neutral scholarship that has a whiff of considering Israel in a favorable light is not too welcome in this group, much less pro-Israel views; it is a mockery of what academia should be about and a number of scholars with a Mid-East scholarly emphasis have told me personally how uncomfortable they feel at MESA gatherings).
Anyway, true to form, he has become, surprise, surprise, one of the key advocates of the poorly researched diatribe research paper – the one with subtle antisemitic overtones that evoke the scent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – by Steven Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago. Their shorter, popular version of the paper was published initially by London Review of Books after The Atlantic, which had first commissioned the paper, rejected it because, as Mearsheimer himself has said “They said they thought the piece was a terrible–they thought the piece was terribly written. That was their explanation. Beyond that I know nothing. I would be curious to know what really happened.”
Mearsheimer apparently can’t take a hint from an Atlantic editor, so he dropped the mediocrity into the lap of a willing -surprise, surprise – British publication.
Both of these men, Walt and Mearsheimer are noted scholars in their field, (Walt is the academic dean at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard)and in fact belong to the Right generally, so it is interesting that many on the Left have hitched a ride on this paper. Of course, David Duke has also hitched a ride on this paper, which is telling, but all their supporters are trying to dismiss his support and what we can learn from it as “guilt by association.” Uh huh.
Anyway, the paper stinks for many reasons, but the key issue is that they identify a lobby that is so powerful, so pervasive within America’s foreign policy, that it actually drives what th US, with its non-Jewish President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and Pentagon do. What is the name of this incredible lobby? These wonderful authors call it “The Lobby.” That’s it, The Lobby. Catchy, isn’t it? Sounds like a Fox dramatic show, in fact. The Lobby.
Why, The Lobby? I guess because when they were writing, they decided that if they were going to make their point in an underhanded and sneaky fashion, they would pretend that there aren’t hundreds of other lobbies all vying to affect policy, but just this one. Who runs this impressive lobby? Guess! That’s right, Jews! Jews run The Lobby. Jews control it through their organizations, their political presence, their contributions, etc., etc. – you’ve heard it all before on white supremacist, far-Left and pro-Palestinian websites on the Internet. Which, by the way, it seems, is where our two intrepid, tenured professors with incredibly successful careers seem to have gone to dig up their information. That’s right, no primary sources, and no sources that go against their premise. Nope, just this monotony of sources that provide anti-Israel viewpoints and when reviewing history always find a way to lay the blame or the negative aspect of the event at Israel’s feet.
Now, who really controls The Lobby? Israel, of course. That’s right, the premise of these two celebrated academics is that Israel manipulates American foreign policy to a significant degree through the use of Jews, Jewish organizations and some Christian Zionists. But it’s Jews. Is it a few Jews who do this? Nope. Walt & Mearsheimer tell us that 36% of American Jews have no real interest in Israel. Therefore, they aren’t involved, it’s the rest of the Jews who are. Then again, since they also go on to blame Jewish organizations, chances are that even some of these enlightened 36% are involved in this plot to make the US do Israel’s bidding. It’s really an incredible piece of crap that I have avoided writing about on Jewlicious because it was hard to believe that prominent academics wrote it. What can I say, these guys have won. It’s all over the media these days and people are actually debating in favor of or against their premise. They, of course, are not debating anybody, are giving talks and interviews only to sympathetic publications, and they keep whining about how dangerous a career move this is for them. After all, they’ve attacked THE LOBBY. 🙄
Okay, so Juan Cole decided to defend their paper against some very light critique, and I chose to respond to his critique and he did not publish my response. So here it is, dear Jewlicious readers (pay attention to my name-calling, it really pisses everybody off – after all, it’s okay to accuse Jews of dual loyalty, but it’s improper to call the authors of such claptrap anything at all that might show disrespect):
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