- Two professors from Harvard University
and the University of Chicago have just released an 81-page study on "The
Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" that concludes that the "overall
thrust of U.S. policy in the [Middle East] is due almost entirely to U.S.
domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the 'Israel Lobby.'"
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- The study is currently available as a
Harvard "working paper" with extensive footnotes or as a shorter
version published in the London Review of Books.
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- The authors systematically examine the
facts of the U.S.-Israel relationship, concluding that Israel is neither
a strategic asset nor a "compelling moral case for sustained U.S.
backing," and point a finger squarely at the Israel lobby for "[managing]
to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest
would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that
U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical."
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- The authors examine the entire scope
of the Israel lobby's efforts, from its intimidation of the press, think
tanks and academia into presenting a misleading image of Israel to its
success at co-opting the Congress and the Executive Branch into implementing
Israel's policy aims.
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- The paper is significant not just for
its substance but also for the fact that it was published at all. The authors
note in their section on the lobby's intimidation of the press: "Newspapers
occasionally publish guest op-eds challenging Israeli policy, but the balance
of opinion clearly favours the other side. It is hard to imagine any mainstream
media outlet in the United States publishing a piece like this one."
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- Stephen Walt is Academic Dean and Professor
of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University. His latest book is "Taming American Power: The
Global Response to U.S. Primacy" (W. W. Norton & Co., 2005). According
to his faculty website, he has previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace and as a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution,
in addition to consulting for the Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center
for Naval Analyses, and the National Defense University.
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- John Mearsheimer is a Professor of Political
Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy
at the University of Chicago, where he is an authority on security affairs
and international politics. He graduated from West Point in 1970 and served
five years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.
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- Both authors previously wrote "An
Unnecessary War," which argued against invading Iraq, in the January/February
2003 edition of Foreign Policy magazine.
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-
- Council for the National Interest Foundation
- 1250 4th Street SW, Suite WG-1
- Washington, District of Columbia 20024
- http://www.cnionline.org/
- http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/
- Phone 202-863-2951
- Fax 202-863-2952
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- Comment
- Bob - Wyoming
- 3-20-6
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- Now here is a real shocker!!! And, you
will not see this on the CBS evening news. Five years ago, who would
have ever thought that control of American foreign policy had been hijacked
by a foreign power, and for the purpose of advancing an alien agenda?
I mean who knew?
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- All along I thought we were over there
killing Arabs because "they hate our freedom." This was supposed
to be all about the "war on terror." Whatever that means. And,
then let's not forget all those scary weapons of mass destruction. (Those
must be the ones we gave to Iraqis to use on the Iranians?) Now, we are
told that that we have to teach the Iraqis about democracy? What's next?
Well, what's behind door number three? Those darned Iranians, we are
told, are building an atomic bomb. Whew!!!! You know what that means.
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- Hundreds of thousands of innocent people
have been slaughtered, and it will be generations before this nation recovers,
if ever, from this madness. Soon the bombs will be falling on Iran like
a spring rain and thousands more innocents will die. More of our sons
will come home in rubber bags.
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- And I can't help but wonder whether anyone
in Washington will have the moral courage to tell the truth? Perhaps we
should take a stab at it right now: "They gave their lives advancing
the cause of International Zionism."
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