WSJ: The Israel Conspiracy

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

March 25, 2006

EDITORIAL BOARD

The Israel Conspiracy

By BRET STEPHENS
March 25, 2006; Page A8

Imagine a conspiracy so vast the only person not in on it is you... According to professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard, it's called "The Israel Lobby." The professors make their case in an extensively footnoted "working paper" from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, a revised version of which is published in the current issue of the London Review of Books. Their premise is that Israel is a huge strategic liability for the U.S., which wrecks our reputation in the Arab world, complicates our diplomacy at the U.N., inspires Islamic fanaticism and terror, goads us into misbegotten wars and makes us complicit in Israeli human-rights abuses, all the while costing some $3 billion a year.

But here's a puzzle: If Israel is so damaging to U.S. interests, why do consistent and broad majorities of Americans support it?.. The answer, according to Messrs. Mearsheimer and Walt, is "the unmatched power of the Israel Lobby," which they define as a "loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction." They might have underlined the word loose. In their reading, the Lobby comprises much more than just the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel lobbies. It also pairs such opposites as the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times; the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute and the left-of-center Brookings Institution; Republican Tom DeLay and Democrat Joe Lieberman; Bush Administration ambassador John Bolton and Clinton Administration ambassador Martin Indyk. These aren't your usual political bedfellows. But for Israel, it would seem, they come together in a sordid cause.

What are the Lobby's methods? Money, political and academic infiltration and moral blackmail. Drawing on some boastful self-appraisals by AIPAC staffers, the professors paint a picture of an organization able to funnel untold sums of money to elect or defeat political candidates virtually at whim. Capitol Hill is said to be swarming with Jewish staffers, who all but write the script on Israel policy. The proliferation of "Israel Studies" curricula is seen as an insidious propaganda effort. Those who depart from the approved line on Israel are said to run the risk of being labeled anti-Semitic. Finally there is the Israel Lobby's control of the media, which in the Mearsheimer-Walt telling is near-total. "The Lobby doesn't want an open debate," they write, "because that might lead Americans to question the levels of support they provide ." Cowed or complicitous publishers and editors are alleged to act as gatekeepers for the Lobby.

By now the gist of the Mearsheimer-Walt hypothesis should be clear. So should its pedigree. The authors are at pains to note that the Israel Lobby is by no means exclusively Jewish, and that not every American Jew is a part of it. Fair enough. But has there ever been an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that does not share its basic features?.. No wonder former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke was quick to endorse the article, calling it a "great step forward."

(snip)

Robert Bartley (the late editor of the WSJ) was a man of modest Christian beliefs and principled political convictions. He supported Israel for much the same reason he supported Great Britain, Poland and Taiwan -- because they were friends of the United States, because they were democracies, because they were places where his core beliefs in free men and free markets held sway. In this respect, and like so many of us who are friends of the Jewish state, he was not privy to an Israeli conspiracy but part of an American consensus.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114325983069308278.html(subscription)

[Behind the Aegis]

1. The perfect summation...

This says it all...

...The authors are at pains to note that the Israel Lobby is by no means exclusively Jewish, and that not every American Jew is a part of it. Fair enough. But has there ever been an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that does not share its basic features?.. No wonder former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke was quick to endorse the article, calling it a "great step forward."

Dress it up anyway one wants, it is still the reemergence of the "Protocols!" Jews, have been and will continue to be, the consummate scapegoat. With the birth of Israel, a new anti-Semitism has emerged. While not all critiques of Israel are anti-Semitic, there are some that "bathe" in it!

I recently watched, for the 1000th time, the Chris Rock comedy show, "Never Scared." He really drove the point home... (this is a paraphrasing)...

"After 9-11, everyone was patriotic! It was used to justify all kinds of things. At the start of the war there was alot of accepted racism:

"I AM AMURICKAN,MAN! I AM AMURICKAN! FUCK ALL THESE FUCKING FOREIGNERS!" And that was cool.
"I AM AMURICKAN, MAN! I AM AMURICKAN! FUCK THE FRENCH!" And that was cool.
"I AM AMURICKAN, MAN! I AM AMURICKAN! FUCK ALL THESE ARABS!" And that was cool.
Then it was, "I AM AMURICKAN, MAN! I AM AMURICKAN! FUCK ALL THESE ILLEGAL ALIENS!"
Then I started listening because I knew "niggers and Jews" was next! Any day now, that train is NEVER late!"

As much as people may hate other groups, Jews are always the favorite!