Updated 11/25/07. See below.
This book, written by so-called historians Stephen Walt and John Mearshimer, has been called little more than a thinly-veiled anti-Israel screed.
They’ve proven it in a public appearance dated 9/5/07 that I happened across while channel surfing.
First – Mearshimer makes the irrational claim that Israel is creating an apartheid state by taking more and more of the West Bank – which is not happening. In fact, Israel gave control of the West Bank back to the Palestinian Authority this year, and it was promptly taken over by Hamas, which uses it to launch daily rocket attacks into Israel. UPDATE: I am, in fact, quite wrong about this – Israel forcibly removed settlements from, and ceded control of Gaza. It is, in fact, Gaza that has been taken over by Hamas and used as a launching pad for rocket attacks. The settlements in the West Bank remain. But if the US is so compromised by the Israel Lobby, then why are we pressuring Israel to cease settlement activity prior to yet another joke of a “peace” conference? I stand by my characterization of his claim as irrational, unless he also accuses Israel of acting in bad faith (which he may, I’ve not read the book) by not disbanding all settlements, whose existence still doesn’t prove an apartheid state.
He follows this up by saying that Israel “is going to end up looking a lot like South Africa”, and that “many Israelis and many American Jews are deeply concerned about the direction that Israel is headed, just like Jimmy Carter was.” Remember that the head of Jimmy’s own “think” tank resigned over the number of false statements contained in Jimmy’s own book on Israel.
Then a question from the audience – should Israel attack Iran to prevent them becoming a nuclear power. Walt replies that even if Iran were to attack Israel, they’d be wiped out, and maybe Iran is just getting nukes to counter Israel’s nukes. Apparently he missed the memo – Iran’s official policy is that “one or two nuclear weapons would completely destroy Israel, but even if they destroy Iran, most of the Muslims would survive.” In other words, Iran doesn’t care if they get wiped out, so long as the Jews take it in the ass.
So, either these guys are apologists for the Islamists, or they just don’t have a clue.
Tags: Politics, Society by Brian Corbino
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