http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060320-124726-1902r

Quote :

"Pro-Israel lobby in U.S. under attack WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- Two of America's top scholars have published a searing attack on the role and power of Washington's pro-Israel lobby in a British journal, warning that its "decisive" role in fomenting the Iraq war is now being repeated with the threat of action against Iran. And they say that the Lobby is so strong that they doubt their article would be accepted in any U.S.-based publication. Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, author of "The Tragedy of Great Power Politics" and Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kenney School, and author of "Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy," are leading figures American in academic life. They claim that the Israel lobby has distorted American policy and operates against American interests, that it has organized the funneling of more than $140 billion dollars to Israel and "has a stranglehold" on the U.S. Congress, and its ability to raise large campaign funds gives its vast influence over Republican and Democratic administrations, while its role in Washington think tanks on the Middle East dominates the policy debate. And they say that the Lobby works ruthlessly to suppress questioning of its role, to blacken its critics and to crush serious debate about the wisdom of supporting Israel in U.S. public life. "Silencing skeptics by organizing blacklists and boycotts -- or by suggesting that critics are anti-Semites -- violates the principle of open debate on which democracy depends," Walt and Mearsheimer write. "The inability of Congress to conduct a genuine debate on these important issues paralyses the entire process of democratic deliberation. Israel's backers should be free to make their case and to challenge those who disagree with them, but efforts to stifle debate by intimidation must be roundly condemned," they add, in the 12,800-word article published in the latest issue of The London Review of Books. The article focuses strongly on the role of the "neo-conservatives" within the Bush administration in driving the decision to launch the war on Iraq. "The main driving force behind the war was a small band of neo-conservatives, many with ties to the Likud," Mearsheimer and Walt argue." Given the neo-conservatives' devotion to Israel, their obsession with Iraq, and their influence in the Bush administration, it isn't surprising that many Americans suspected that the war was designed to further Israeli interests." "The neo-conservatives had been determined to topple Saddam even before Bush became president. They caused a stir early in 1998 by publishing two open letters to Clinton, calling for Saddam's removal from power. The signatories, many of whom had close ties to pro-Israel groups like JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) or WINEP (Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy), and who included Elliot Abrams, John Bolton, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Bernard Lewis, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, had little trouble persuading the Clinton administration to adopt the general goal of ousting Saddam. But they were unable to sell a war to achieve that objective. They were no more able to generate enthusiasm for invading Iraq in the early months of the Bush administration. They needed help to achieve their aim. That help arrived with 9/11. Specifically, the events of that day led Bush and Cheney to reverse course and become strong proponents of a preventive war," Walt and Mearsheimer write. The article, which is already stirring furious debate in U.S. academic and intellectual circles, also explores the historical role of the Lobby. "For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel," the article says."

The "Israeli Lobby" has a "stranglehold on Congress" and "vast influence over Republican and Democratic administrations"? Fanatical pro-Israel Jewish neo-conservatives were the "driving force" behind the Iraq War? They work "ruthlessly" to suppress criticism and debate of Zionist/Israeli influence, including smearing critics with charges of "anti-Semitism"? And they have power over the press as to prevent publication of this article (and other similar criticism)?

I guess those "anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists" who allege powerful Zionist influence on our government and media may be RIGHT after all!

3/22/2006 11:34:06 AM

3/24/2006 1:57:14 PM

[old]

3/24/2006 1:57:33 PM

what happened here?

3/24/2006 1:57:35 PM

I blame the Zionists.

3/24/2006 1:58:49 PM

THE ZIONIST GOVERNMENT DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE THIS THREAD!!!

[Edited on March 24, 2006 at 2:03 PM. Reason : o]

3/24/2006 1:59:22 PM

i'm laughing out loud over here

i didn't mean for that to happen

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN

3/24/2006 2:02:00 PM

Full paper, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" from London Review of Books website:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

Link to paper in pdf format from Harvard's website:
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011

3/24/2006 2:28:50 PM

Scholars publish article on power of Israeli lobby

According to this topic, and it's contents, wouldn't that be contradicting?

*disclaimer

seriously dude, this is not an attempt to troll.


[Edited on March 24, 2006 at 2:44 PM. Reason : x]

3/24/2006 2:41:28 PM

Someone closed the comment tag from Woodfoot's first attempt to destroy the thread, and most of the posts went missing. They are all in the source though if you choose "view source".

3/24/2006 2:52:00 PM

Alan Dershowitz tries to link Mearsheimer and Walt to Neo-Nazis
http://www.nysun.com/article/29741

Quote :

"By MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun March 24, 2006 WASHINGTON - A prominent Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, is alleging that the authors of a Harvard Kennedy School paper about the "Israel lobby," one of which is the Kennedy School's academic dean, culled sections of the paper from neo-Nazi and other anti-Israel hate Web sites. "What we're discovering first of all is that the quotes that they use are not only wrenched out of context, but they are the common quotes that appear on hate sites," Mr. Dershowitz, who is identified in the paper as part of the "lobby," told The New York Sun yesterday."

Jews smearing their critics?! WHO could have seen that coming?

3/24/2006 4:57:18 PM

^^for the record

i wasn't trying to break the thread

i was merely trying to post an empty post

and i could have sworn i did

i would have iframed the thread if i had wanted to break it

3/24/2006 5:00:11 PM

question pending answer...4^

2^ how can you distinguish whats good and what's bad? What's tainted and what's not?

Is this subjective (the material, sources etc). It sounds like to me that, if someone focused

that much energy towards "smearing" information, they would do so to an extent of far outreach.

Totally misleading the masses, that is, if "they" control the media and all.

[Edited on March 24, 2006 at 5:07 PM. Reason : x]

3/24/2006 5:02:07 PM

3/24/2006 5:05:37 PM

I never noticed this got its own thread

4/27/2006 11:52:06 AM