A week after the release of “The Lobby,” the paper by two so-called academics that uses less thorough research techniques than the average freshman term paper, my take is a bit different from everyone else’s.
Many other sites wrote or linked to pieces that utterly negate the scholarship and veracity of the paper. Alan Dershowitz thinks they got much of their information from neo-Nazi sites; proof is pending.
But that isn’t the problem. That wasn’t even the purpose of the paper. The real purpose of the paper was to get the lies out there. To make people think less of Israel and Jews. To give the haters another source from which to quote. Watch as these quotes go unchallenged in more and more places. Watch as how, instead of critically examining the paper, people will simply take it at face value and use it as more ammunition against Israel. And more ammunition against American Jews.
The message is out there. The message carries the imprimatur of Harvard. David Duke has already declared himself “vindicated” by this paper, and the neo-Nazis and Jew-haters will continue to do so for decades to come. The Christian Science Monitor quotes uncritically rabid Israel-hater Justin Raimondo (and manages to misspell his name) in an article about reactions to the paper.
The damage has been done.
This is what our enemies are doing. They are trying to discredit Israel, and Jews, because there is no way of separating Israel and Jews. The charges of dual loyalty have now been laid upon American Jews by no less than two academics at two of our most prestigious American universities, with the implied blessing of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Now, even if the Kennedy School dumps the paper for lack of scholarship, those who hate will say that “The Lobby” got the paper thrown out. The haters will say that “The Lobby” couldn’t let the truth be known. The haters have won, no matter what happens. The truth? There is no truth. It’s all controlled by “The Lobby.”
The thousands of words written in response to this paper won’t mean a thing to those who already hate Israel, and will do little as an after-the-fact to anyone who is persuaded by this paper that “The Lobby” runs American foreign policy. Because now, the document that originally bore the seal of Harvard, has been downloaded, saved, and passed along the neo-Nazi network. Patrick Buchanan is chuckling himself to sleep. And Walt and Mearsheimer have achieved their goal.
It’s rather disingenuous of them to say they’re not anti-Semitic when devoting 83 pages to an anti-Semitic canard about the Israel lobby and American Jews. You know the saying: If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck….
Quack, quack, messrs. Walt and Mearsheimer. Quack, quack.
The message is out there. The damage has been done. Those at Harvard who allowed this paper to be published should be ashamed of themselves. Oh, wait. One of the authors is an academic dean of the Kennedy School. Funny how that paper managed to get published there, isn’t it?
Quack, quack.
Harvard’s just paying back the Saudi $20 million present.
Will Georgetown try and trump that?
Maybe you should give those who don’t hate Israel a little credit as far as intelligence goes?
So, this is what 20 Million dollars buys, another version of the Elders of Zion?
A recent story stated that the Belfers called Harvard to complain about the misuse of their endowment. They asked that Walt not be allowed to misuse their name in this way. The idiot is using the fact that he holds a chair endowed by and named for a prominent Jew to pretend that he cannot be an antisemite. Watch for the antisemites to use this fact as well.
Last week, leftist poet Juan Gelman excreted an “editorial” at the Pagina/12 Argentinian newspaper, vigorously praising the “findings” of the “paper”.
Apparently, he’s been proposed as a literature Nobel Prize candidate, and therefore he needs to brush up his anti-israeli credentials to improve his chances…
Caroline Glick, as usual, was right on the money. After pointing out some of the many flaws and outright lies in this “scholarly” study, she notes
“And herein lies the grave danger inherent their decision to publish their essay. Walt and Mearsheimer — who are both rational men — undoubtedly considered the likely consequences of publishing their views and concluded that the anti-Israel nature of their article would shield them from criticisms of its substandard academic quality. That is, they believe that hostility towards Israel is so acceptable in the US that authors of shoddy research whose publication would normally destroy their professional reputations, can get away with substandard work if it that work relates to Israel.”
(Not sure how you feel about posting links, so I didn’t; this was from Jerusalem Post via Jewish World Review.)
You can post a link. I read her take on it.
I think Surfer Dude got it just about right, though.
It just kills me. You Jews are still mostly liberal even though modern liberalism wants you dead … or just gone. Nonexistent. Your only friends on the planet are rightwing Christians. You’re still liberal. When are you going to learn that liberalism (The Left) is WRONG. About everything. I know I know you think being liberal is about being kind and caring about people and all that. Meanwhile you go about making folks stupid and dependent upon gubmint. Stop giving fish away and start teaching people to fish. Like we conservatives have been trying to tell ya for about 50 years. 3,050 actually. Liberal lefty Kadima is going to destroy Israel and yet most of you are going to go out and vote for them. Suckers.
Perhaps because modern liberalism doesn’t want us dead or gone.
My closest friend is a liberal. We disagree on nearly every Israel-related issue. But she doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in her body, because I couldn’t be friends with someone who did.
There are just as many conservative Jew-haters as there are liberal Jew-haters. Let us not pretend otherwise.
No? Patrick Buchanan. David Duke. Bob Novak. And James Baker is questionable.
Meryl, I agree with you sort of on #8 but not entirely. The growth of anti-Semitism on the left is in my opinion terrifying, whereas anti-Semitism on the right seems to be (SEEMS to be) decreasing. The Buchanans and Dukes have less and less influence in the GOP, while fewer and fewer Democrats seem to be willing to rebuke anti-Semites within their (formerly my, and that’s one reason for “formerly”)party. In the 2004 election, even Sen. Lieberman (for whom I have tremendous respect) kissed up to Al Sharpton. No anti-war demonstration is complete without signs equating Israel to the Nazis ym”sh. Maybe it’s a disagreement over what qualifies as liberal, but unlike 20 years ago, the anti-Semites seem to have found a home on the left that is closer to center and growing moreso as compared to their home on the right, where (Baker, Papa Bush, Novak and a few others aside) their base is diminishing and is increasingly further from center.
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Meryl,
No, your average lib is a nice enough person. They would never admit to hating anyone but George Bush (and most of those who voted for him). They just vote for those who would destroy Israel and advocate policies that would prostrate the West at the feet of islamists. Other than that they are just peechy.
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