The Israeli Lobby - AIPAC

This is a piece I wrote regarding a paper written by well known two academics regarding the Israeli Lobby. They are John J. Mearsheimer; Department of Political Science, University of Chicago & Stephen M. Walt; John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Not exactly a couple of unknowns. There has been a fair amount of controversy over the paper they wrote. Predictably, in my opinion, the very phenomenon that the paper describes is happening to the authors. This is a piece I put up as comments on a couple of blogs and I adapt for use here.

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Its high time Americans began a dialogue over the long nightmare of human rights violations and abuse committed in our name. It doesn’t take a genius to discern that unqualified US support of Israel is undoubtedly one of the leading causes of anti-American sentiment around the world and one of the main reasons why America is targeted by the Islamic Jihadists. 9/11, to paraphrase Malcom X, was “the proverbial chickens coming home to roost.” Notwithstanding the hundreds of billions of dollars in no-strings attached aid to the Israelis this is the “net” loss in the relationship that Mearsheimer & Walt so eloquently describe. One must be a fool, willfully ignorant, completely uneducated or just hopelessly biased about this issue not to at least question the premise and accept a free exchange of ideas on the subject. What’s wrong with that? Discussion is the key. We are sentient beings with the gift of communication. Surely to stifle discussion is counter to reasons for our existence.

The publication of the paper by the two very well respected academics John J. Mearsheimer & Stephen M. Walt resulted in a predictable backlash by the pro-Israeli lobby in the American and world press. Sure as the sunrise, charges of anti-Semitism are leveled when anyone deigns to criticize the Israeli government. American Jews, while usually quite progressive, are for the most part committed to social justice except when it comes to the repression perpetrated by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people. Although I know progressive Jews who don't agree with the Zionist line, those that espouse the Zionist case - purposefully or not - are definitly in the majority. Apologists for the Israeli lobby such as Max Boot, Alan Dershowitz, Jonah Goldberg and the lobby itself smugly refute facts in the paper by pointing to organizations like CAMERA who attempt to debunk the paper; as if CAMERA had no axe to grind and is an objective source of information.

My tax accountant is Jewish – and a wonderful and a committed progressive - but when it comes to the Palestinians he understands they are oppressed, but as he stated to my face while in discussion over the subject, “I don’t care.” His position is; that after what the Nazis did to the Jews anything is justified, including oppressing an entire people. So be it. "So it is written and so it shall be done."

Next time you are checked and groped before boarding a commercial airliner think about the line of causality that extends from being a target of terrorism to the repression of a people. No - I mean really think about it. Don't just dismiss it as "propaganda." Violence is not justified in any form (except in extreme self defense) but one can understand a people, systematically repressed over half a century and without hope, resorting to violence against their oppressors and those who support the oppressor. It’s human nature. The policies of the Israeli government and the USA’s support of them are *the* root cause of the suffering of the Palestinian people. To paraphrase again “It’s the occupation stupid!” The facts of the matter are not really in dispute. Any position to the contrary is just blaming the victim just as it would be blaming a woman for being raped, the slave for being enslaved or the death camp survivor for being incarcerated. The US has almost without exception supported Israeli-Zionist interests ever since we recognized the government of Israel in 1948. The list of atrocities and complete disrespect for human rights by the Israeli government is far too long to write about here.

We say we support Israel because it shares our values? Obviously we share some values but wake up America! Israel is not a democracy any more than the USA would be if we expelled all non-Christians and declared that (except for a tiny minority who refused to leave) no one could be a citizen with full rights unless they were Christian. Unbalanced support for this quasi-theocracy is leading us down a path where we will forever spend our national treasure and blood defending that which is indefensible and justifying behavior which is unjustifiable. Please look at the history and the facts. The myth of the noble kibbutzim greening an empty desert and bringing truth, justice and freedom to a bunch of backward Arabs is just that – a myth. The Israeli government and its predessessors; among whom were terrorist organizations like the Stern Gang and the Irgun, has systematically engaged in ethnic cleansing even before 1948 and the gullible American taxpayer has unthinkingly supported the policy with blood and treasure.

Witness the lopsided UN Security Council votes and the wholesale gifting of arms. I could go on and on but this is not the forum. There are plenty of sources for this information. If you think my views extreme look to the debate raging in Israeli society now. The Israelis are more open on this subject than we Americans. Few dispute the Arabs are also guilty of human rights abuses and atrocities (principally against their own) as are the Israelis but the American government has not been an honest broker. The closest we got was under Bill Clinton but the petty impeachment and the end of his term came about before he was able to finish what he'd started.

This conflict, waged by two sides who base their beliefs and philosophy largely on “an eye for an eye” will not end until this cycle of violence is broken by pushing the parties to “turn the other cheek” or we will forever doomed to war, oppression and it’s consequences. Idealistic? Yes – but we have to start somewhere and an honest dialogue about and acknowledgment of America's addiction to its unbalanced support for Israel is the first step to recovery… and peace.