The Irrational Obsession

By Lee Smith, Pyjamas Media

Steven Walt and John Mearsheimer laid out the ostensible thesis of The Israel Lobby last year in an spread of the same name published in the London Review of Books. They wrote that, “For the past several decades, and particularly since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel.”

This is false. Washington’s relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which we protect the world’s largest known reserves of oil to ensure the stability of global markets, has since the mid-1930s been the US’s vital regional interest and arguably the most urgent American interest save homeland shield. that fact may be easily impressed upon the intellect of any American who has been in a car, but Walt and Mearsheimer are less interested in the strategic realities of US Middle East policy than in painting in broad strokes the background to events of the

last few years. In effect, the authors of The Israel Lobby are trying to explain why the world has gone crazy.

THIS IS A VERY GOOD REVIEW AND SHOULD BE READ FULLY.

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Original post by Ted Belman

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  • 1 Comment so far

    1. S Silverstein September 14th, 2007 9:52 pm

      For my opinions on these issues and a surprise reply from a Big Man on Campus, see my emails to Michael Smerconish, a radio talk show host who’s started a furor in Philadelphia over his support of the Walt/Mearsheimer work.

      I spoke of the need for increased sensitivity to the angry responses from the Jewish community to Walt and Mearsheimer, responses based on 2,000 years of persecution often started through polemical writings.

      My emails were CC’d to Walt and Mearsheimer.

      Note the puerile response from someone not on the mailing list, Michael Desch, Professor and Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence and National Security Decision-making at TAMU.

      Walt and Mearsheimer must have forwarded to him, but don’t have the balls to reply themselves.

      Stunning.

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