From DC to Jerusalem

Two years ago, Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearshimer published a paper in the London Review of Books about the disproportionate influence of the “Israel Lobby” on US Foreign Policy. Mearshimer and Walt recently published a book-length version of this essay as The Israel Lobby.

William Grimes published a review of the book in the New York Times Book Review today.

Although I’ve had my disagreements with AIPAC over the years, they are not a nefarious group plotting the advancement of Israel at the expense of American interests. For the record, I disagree with AIPAC explicitly on many issues, but they are not bad people out to control the United States, I assure you.

A certain amount of debate about our relationship with Israel is healthy, but Mearshimer and Walt emphasize oversimplifications of the regional political climate at the expense of legitimate arguments more rooted in reality. Recent Israeli governments should shoulder the greatest proportion of responsibility for the failure in creating a Palestinian state. Israel also treats Palestinian civilians in a despicable manner – trust me, I’ve seen it first hand. This being said, the creation of a Palestinian state will not assuage the Islamists and end their jihad against America and the West. The Islamists will always hate Israel and the United States, no matter how we orient our foreign policy or how Israel treats the Palestinians. Instead of trying to placate the extremists, we should be working to lessen the appeal of their message by providing jobs and non-military aid to Muslim countries while simultaneously waging war against the physical manifestations of their hatred.

Further, despite paying lip service to Palestinian statehood, the broader Arab world uses the Palestinians as a political tool in their broader propaganda effort. Focusing the passions of their disaffected populations on Israel tidily draws attention away from their inability to provide jobs and opportunity to their own population. The removal of the Palestinian issue from the arena would only turn their ire inward and create a whole host of new problems. Islamists hate secular Arab countries almost as much as they hate the United States.

Mearshimer and Walt are essentially opportunist hacks. Their extremist arguments only lessen the available area for Jewish critics of Israel – like myself – to operate safely. While we point to similar problems in Israeli behavior, their extreme conclusions only allow right-wing thinkers to dismiss the legitimate concerns of more reasonable critics of Israel. In effect, they do more damage to the cause they purport to follow than they do good.