--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> New York Times - August 16, 2007
>
> Backlash Over Book on Policy for Israel
> By Patricia Cohen
>
> "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" is not
> even in bookstores,
> but already anxieties have surfaced about the
> backlash it is
> stirring, with several institutions backing away
> from holding events
> with the authors.
>
> John J. Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the
> University of
> Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor at the
> John F. Kennedy
> School of Government at Harvard University, were not
> totally
> surprised by the reaction to their work. An article
> last spring in
> the London Review of Books outlining their argument
> — that a powerful
> pro-Israel lobby has a pernicious influence on
> American policy — set
> off a firestorm as charges of anti-Semitism, shoddy
> scholarship and
> censorship ricocheted among prominent academics,
> writers,
> policymakers and advocates. In the book, published
> by Farrar, Straus
> & Giroux and embargoed until Sept. 4, they elaborate
> on and update
> their case.
>
> "Now that the cold war is over, Israel has become a
> strategic
> liability for the United States," they write. "Yet
> no aspiring
> politician is going to say so in public or even
> raise the
> possibility" because the pro-Israel lobby is so
> powerful. They credit
> the lobby with shutting down talks with Syria and
> with moderates in
> Iran, preventing the United States from condemning
> Israel's 2006 war
> in Lebanon and with not pushing the Israelis hard
> enough to come to
> an agreement with the Palestinians. They also
> discuss Christian
> Zionists and the issue of dual loyalty.
>
> Opponents are prepared. Also being released on Sept.
> 4 is "The
> Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of
> Jewish
> Control" (Palgrave Macmillan) by Abraham H. Foxman,
> the national
> director of the Anti-Defamation League. The notion
> that pro-Israel
> groups "have anything like a uniform agenda, and
> that U.S. policy on
> Israel and the Middle East is the result of their
> influence, is
> simply wrong," George P. Shultz, a former secretary
> of state, says in
> the foreword. "This is a conspiracy theory pure and
> simple, and
> scholars at great universities should be ashamed to
> promulgate it."
>
> The subject will certainly prompt furious debate,
> though not at the
> Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center at
> the City
> University of New York, the Chicago Council on
> Global Affairs, a
> Jewish cultural center in Washington and three
> organizations in
> Chicago. They have all turned down or canceled
> events with the
> authors, mentioning unease with the controversy or
> the format.
>
> The authors were particularly disturbed by the
> Chicago council's
> decision, since plans for that event were complete
> and both authors
> have frequently spoken there before. The two sent a
> four-page letter
> to 94 members of the council's board detailing what
> happened. "On
> July 24, Council President Marshall Bouton phoned
> one of us
> (Mearsheimer) and informed him that he was canceling
> the event," and
> that his decision "was based on the need 'to protect
> the
> institution.' He said that he had a serious
> 'political problem,'
> because there were individuals who would be angry if
> he gave us a
> venue to speak, and that this would have serious
> negative
> consequences for the council. 'This one is so hot,'
> Marshall
> maintained."
>
> Mr. Mearsheimer later said of Mr. Bouton, "I had the
> sense that this
> phone call pained him deeply."
>
> Mr. Bouton was out of town, but Rachel Bronson, vice
> president for
> programs and studies at the council, said, "Whenever
> we have topics
> that are particularly controversial or sensitive, we
> try to make sure
> someone from another point of view is there." In
> this case, she said,
> there was not sufficient time to set up that sort of
> panel before the
> council calendar went out. There are no plans to
> have the authors
> speak at a later date, however.
>
> "One of the points we make in the book is that this
> is a subject
> that's very hard to talk about," Mr. Walt said in an
> interview from
> his office in Cambridge. "Organizations, no matter
> how strong their
> commitment to free speech, don't want to schedule
> something that's
> likely to cause controversy."
>
> After the cancellation Roberta Rubin, owner of the
> Book Stall, a
> store in Winnetka, Ill., offered to help find a site
> for the authors.
> She said she tried a Jewish community center and two
> large downtown
> clubs but they all told her "they can't afford to
> bring in somebody
> 'too controversial.' " She added that even she was
> concerned about
> inviting authors who might offend customers.
>
> Some of the planned sites, like the Sixth & I
> Historic Synagogue, a
> cultural center in Washington, would have been host
> of an event if
> Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt appeared with
> opponents, said Esther
> Foer, the executive director.
>
> Mr. Walt said, "Part of the game is to portray us as
> so extreme that
> we have to be balanced by someone from the 'other
> side.' " Besides,
> he added, when you're promoting a book, you want to
> present your
> ideas without appearing with someone who is trying
> to discredit you.
>
> As for City University, Aoibheann Sweeney, director
> of the Center for
> the Humanities, said, "I looked at the introduction,
> and I didn't
> feel that the book was saying things differently
> enough" from the
> original article. Ms. Sweeney, who said she had
> consulted with others
> at City University, acknowledged that they had begun
> planning for an
> event in September moderated by J. J. Goldberg, the
> editor of The
> Forward, a leading American Jewish weekly, but once
> he chose not to
> participate, she decided to pass. Mr. Goldberg, who
> was traveling in
> Israel, said in a telephone interview that "there
> should be more of
> an open debate." But appearing alone with the
> authors would have
> given the impression that The Forward was presenting
> the event and
> thereby endorsing the book, he said, and he did not
> want to do that.
> A discussion with other speakers of differing views
> would have been
> different, he added.
>
> "I don't think the book is very good," said Mr.
> Goldberg, who said he
> read a copy of the manuscript about six weeks ago.
> "They haven't
> really done original research. They haven't talked
> to the people who
> are being lobbied or those doing the lobbying."
>
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