[lbo-talk] The Banality of anti-Israel Lobby Doctrine

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Mon Aug 9 22:30:39 PDT 2010


On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 3:47 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:

I don't see any insinuations here, Joe: I thought it was a straight-out
> description of a serious analytic mistake.
>

Well, sure there were. Any number of critics of the Mearsheimer-Walt hypothesis are attacking it, not by pointing out its flaws (of which I'll acknowledge there are a few), but rather by calling its supporters anti-Semites. That's a sure-fire way to end a conversation on a sour note, without contributing anything of value to it.

As for me, I care very little whether someone promoting a theory I dislike is anti-Semitic (or any number of other nasty things) or not. Perhaps it might be fun to snicker about, behind their back and at their expense; but it doesn't, at this point in history, answer any important questions about the quality or usefulness of their ideas.

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."



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