Walt-Mearsheimer and the war over the Israel Lobby, round two

Preemptive strike

Even if the United States had "five CIA's" it would not be able to get the high-quality information it received from Israel. That's what General George Keegan, a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence chief, said in 1986. "The ability of the U.S. Air Force in particular, and the army in general, to defend whatever position it has in NATO owes more to the Israeli intelligence input than it does to any single source of intelligence," he said.

This is a winning quote, dropped into the battle that will shortly break out once more over the nature of the strategic relationship between Israel and the United States. That comment and many similar ones appear in a new position paper published by Dore Gold, the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and political adviser to then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who now heads the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Gold recently hired the services of American public relations firm Shirley and Bannister to market his wares in Washington. He will be visiting the United States next week to talk about his paper. Think of it as a preemptive strike ahead of the publication of the controversial book "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," by two political science professors, Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer.

And Gold will not be alone. September 4th will see the American release of a book by Anti-Defamation League national director Abe Foxman called "The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control." In his book, Foxman warns of the possible consequences of such theories of Jewish influence which he calls "old anti-Semitic canard" in respectable disguise. Foxman succeeded in getting former U.S. secretary of state George Shultz to write an introduction to the book:

"The United States supports Israel, not because of favoritism based on political pressure or influence, but because both political parties and virtually all our national leaders agree with the American people's view that supporting Israel is politically sound and morally just," Shultz wrote. "Scholars at great universities should be ashamed to promulgate it."

Walt and Mearsheimer - who are said to have received more than $700,000 as an advance for their book from respected publishing company Farrar, Straus & Giroux - do indeed work at highly esteemed universities. Mearsheimer teaches at the University of Chicago and Walt is at Harvard, proving once again that an academic seal of approval is no guarantee of wisdom.

Scandalous article

The two authors have been here before. Their Israel lobby argument won a lot of exposure last year, when they published what they called a "study" in the London Review of Books.

Walt and Mearsheimer's basic argument is simple: The U.S. lobby that supports Israel - a Jewish lobby as well as an evangelical Christian one - is very powerful and is charting a foreign policy for the United States that is favorable to Israel, but is not in America's interests.

Former administration officials, experts and columnists have poked numerous holes in this dubious article, but all the same, the identity of the authors, who come from the heart of the academic establishment, has left readers of the article in shock. Much has been written about the authors' motives. U.S. State Department counselor Eliot Cohen didn't hesitate to say that the article was anti-Semitic, pure and simple. Others were more forgiving, saying that Walt and Mearsheimer were venting their frustration at having no one heed them.

There were some who hoped that the book would redress some of the distortions, but the chapters I have read indicate that this didn't happen.

Silenced Professors

It's hard to predict how well "The Israel Lobby" will do. Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior editor at the conservative Jewish magazine Commentary, said "there is reason to think that the Walt-Mearsheimer phenomenon has already peaked," since the book doesn't go much beyond the original article, which has already made its mark. But others are less optimistic. The professors have managed to get a new wave of articles about being silenced, as they put it.

The Forward, a Jewish American liberal newspaper that cannot be accused of excessive support for the organized Jewish establishment, is publishing an editorial today that succinctly describes the tactics of the two on their way to cashing in on the book.

"The trick follows a typical pattern," writes The Forward. "Step one: Publish your views in as provocative a manner as possible? Step two: Dare the Jewish community to lash out at you, then whine about being victimized by bullies. Step three: Implore fair-minded liberals to line up behind you, forcing them to choose between endorsing your vision - however skewed - or becoming part of the censorship juggernaut."

Public opinion

Walt and Mearsheimer's view has not yet trickled down to public opinion. Opinion polls show the Israeli position to be as stable as ever, and the administration and Congress are no less friendly than before. Only a week has passed since a new, generous, 10-year aid agreement was signed.

Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, as Gold notes in his position paper, was the first to refer to Israel as a "strategic asset." Reagan was a popular president whose legacy even Democrats are happy to rely on occasionally, in recognition of the value of his stock in the
political market. In addition, the introduction to Foxman's book that was written by Shultz, Reagan's secretary of state, is particularly important. That's because if there is anything that is worth doing better than it was done in the previous round of the war over the good name and position of the Israel lobby, this is it: It is appropriate that the Jews themselves are not the only ones to fight the battle.

This blog is the shortened version (1000 words) of my weekend print edition column which you can read it in full (2200 words) here.

More on this topic:

Dore Gold: Understanding the U.S.-Israel Alliance: An Israeli Response to the Walt-Mearsheimer Claim
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt: The Israel Lobby
Forward editorial: The wrong guys
NYT: Backlash Over Book on Policy for Israel

Previous Rosner's Domain blogs on this topic:

March 2006: Exclusive!!! The secret weapon of the pro-Israeli lobby
April 2006: The Walt-Mearsheimer study and the Haaretz factor
June 2006: The unappreciated love of Walt and Mearsheimer