Some time in the next few days the website israellobbybook.com will be activated–right now it’s a blank–and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, will be published by FSG. This is a…
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Monthly Archives: August 2007
‘New Yorker’ Editor: Israel and Lobby Bear Responsibility for Iraq War
In a remarkably-fair piece about Walt and Mearsheimer in the latest New Yorker, the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, summarizes part of the scholars’ argument: Israel and its lobby bear outsized responsibility for persuading the Bush Administration to invade Iraq and,…
Only the Jewish Press Calls a Spade a Spade: New Pro-Iraq-War Group Is a Jewish Group
With Walt and Mearsheimer’s Israel Lobby book about to burst onto the scene, the poverty of the existing debate over the Israel interest in American politics is demonstrated by the coverage of Freedom’s Watch, the new rightwing group spending millions…
New Pro-Iraq-War Organization Hides Its Pro-Israel Agenda
Last night Ari Fleischer was on Hardball speaking up for Freedom’s Watch, a new organization that is buying ads to support George Bush’s war “plans” in Iraq. Fleischer warns that if we don’t stay the course, the whole region will…
Alas, Vicious Anti-Arab Prejudice Is Not Newsworthy
Yesterday’s Times had a front-page piece on a telephoned threat to N.Y. Gov. Spitzer’s father, and the Republican consultant who’s accused of making it. Sadly, no one in the mainstream press has gone after the vicious anti-Arab telephone calls and…
Let Michael Vick Play Football Again (And Stop Criminalizing Black Youth)
Commenters on my favorite channel (ESPN) keep saying that Michael Vick may never play football again. Why? Because he committed heinous acts? It sure looks like he is going to be punished for them, and that he will apologize. I’m…
Will Recognizing Armenian Genocide in ’15 Open Books on Palestinian Expulsion in ’48
The true fascination of the ADL’s shifting line on the Armenian genocide of 90 years ago has little to do with Turkey or Armenians. It is about the Nakba, Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians in 1948. The issues surrounding Armenian genocide…
The Chicago Tribune Calls Silencing of Walt/Mearsheimer a Free-Speech Issue
Today’s Chicago Tribune finally covers the censorship of Walt and Mearsheimer at the Global Affairs Council and highlights the shocking fact that Abe Foxman–the denier of Armenian genocide out of concern for the state of Israel– was consulted by the…
ADL Says Protecting Israel Justifies Not Memorializing Armenian Genocide
In an ad in the Boston Globe, the Anti-Defamation League says the controversy over its nonrecognition of the Armenian genocide in Turkey in ’15-’18 has “nothing to do” with its program of fighting hatred and bigotry. Huh. It goes on…
The Armenian Horror, Cte’d; Is Foxman Finished?
The Globe reports that the ADL fired its regional director in New England over his statements calling for an acknowledgment of Armenian genocide. And Foxman states in his letter “explaining” the decision that the security of Israel is paramount. Ergo,…
Bravo Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz has a nice piece in The Boston Globe telling the truth about Armenian genocide in 1915 (I said WWI in an earlier post; my bad). It would have been better if he had lit into the ADL for…
How the State of Israel Has Compromised Jewish Identity
Activist Hilda Silverman has a wonderful letter in the Boston Globe, attacking the Anti-Defamation League for refusing to acknowledge the Armenian genocide by the Turks in the First World War. Silverman points out that the ADL position springs from support…
The Islamic World Needs to Practice Free Speech. So Does the Jewish World.
When I was in Syria last year I tried to have a conversation in a restaurant with an Arab friend, a woman, about women’s rights in the Arab world and she held up her hand. “Let’s have this discussion back…
The Meaning of Tough: Eddie Murray
When Cal Ripken Jr. was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame a few weeks back, he thanked his teammate Eddie Murray ahead of a lot of others, and Murray, seated on the Cooperstown stage because he entered the Hall…
Toward A New Definition of Family
Last night on NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams opened a report on Chinese toys by saying it was a story a lot of “families with children” have been watching. I think Williams is being demographically-correct and offering a wider definition…
Coming Soon to a Television Near You
According to this Amazon list, The Israel Lobby by Walt and Mearsheimer was #18 in sales for new and forthcoming books this a.m. Just a bounce from yesterday’s piece in the Times, or are things changing? Someone better get these…
Will the Israel Lobby Issue Go Mainstream?
My network is buzzing about Walt and Mearsheimer’s book. I can’t tell you how excited folks are. They have the feeling that it’s High Noon at last for the Israel lobby–that the issue will be mainstreamed at last. I’m getting…
J.J. Goldberg’s Regrettable Decision to Turn His Back on Walt and Mearsheimer
Hurray for The New York Times. Today it covered Walt and Mearsheimer’s forthcoming book fairly (a piece penned by the wonderful Patricia Cohen, who broke the AJC anti-Zionism fatwa story last winter). The story is demoralizing. We learn that many…
Left and Right Make Same Argument Re Israel Lobby
Here’s a link to Glenn Greenwald’s brilliant defenestration of O’Hanlon and Pollack for their comments on Iraq. Read it. I have one addendum. Greenwald states the following about Pollack’s sock, the Saban Center: The above-the-political-fray Pollack is employed by the…
‘This One Is So Hot’: The Censorship of Walt and Mearsheimer
I now have a copy of the letter John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt sent to the board of the Chicago Global Affairs Council after it cancelled their September appearance there under political pressure. The letter follows, below. A couple of…
‘Be Careful of Little Lives’: E.O. Wilson
The great biologist and student of ants, E.O. Wilson, was on C-Span the other day, endorsing, among other ideas, Einstein’s belief that we must all become vegetarians or turn the earth to powder. There are more than 500 vegetable species…
A (Jewish) Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Today’s Times performs the great service of describing the separate road system that Israel has built for Arab and Jew in the West Bank. Bless the editors, a stark 4-column photo at the top of page 1 shows us the…
Walt and Mearsheimer Banned in Chicago
Unbelievable that Walt and Mearsheimer have been banned from speaking in Chicago. Again proving the profs’ argument about the strength of the Israel lobby. Where is Alan Dershowitz? Even he ought to decry this censorship, which is only forcing the…
Assimilation as a Goal–For Irish-Americans and Shi’ite Iraqis
Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican and a sharp guy, addressed the Heritage Foundation last week and said there has to be a political solution in Iraq–Shi’ites and Sunnis both have to feel that they have a stake. Democracy is…
Was the Iraq War Mishandled? (No. It Was a Bad Idea From the Start)
The other day I went to see No End in Sight, the documentary on Iraq that has gotten all kinds of critical praise. You have to hand it to independent filmmaker Charles Ferguson. The movie gives you a better idea…