Walt, Mearsheimer go to Israel

Walt, Mearsheimer go to Israel

Dina Kraft

In Israel for the first time since publication of their controversial,
critical book about the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, Profs.
Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer were met with praise and rebuke.

TEL AVIV (JTA) - American professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer,
authors of a critical book on the pro-Israel lobby, had just finished
their lecture Thursday in a packed, airless Tel Aviv hall when audience
members rushed the stage, engulfing the pair with a mix of accusation
and praise.

First up was a woman who shook Walt's hand and called him a hero. Then
came a student with a handheld video camera asking Walt how he felt that
the book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," was on the Hamas
Web site and had been endorsed by David Duke.

As Walt and Mearsheimer made their way out of the hall and onto the
street below, the rapid-fire questions and comments continued on the
authors' first trip to Israel since publication last year of their
controversial book
<http://www.jta. org/cgi-bin/ iowa/news/ article/20070911 israellobby. html>
.

Assailed by the American Jewish establishment as having written a poorly
researched and reasoned book with an anti-Israel agenda that taps into
age-old, anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish power, Walt said he and
Mearsheimer had not encountered a markedly different reception in
Israel.

In addition to the Tel Aviv event, the two spoke at Jerusalem's Hebrew
University, and Walt spoke at Al-Quds University, an Arab school, in
eastern Jerusalem.

"Some people come who agree with us and some people come who don't agree
with us, and we have a lively conversation, " Walt, a professor of
international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University, told JTA. "I think some people who don't know Israel
very well would think it radical or brave or controversial to come to
Israel, but there is a vital discussion here in Israel and I don't find
it surprising that we've had a very interesting and enjoyable time."

In their talk in Tel Aviv, which was organized by the Israeli peace
group Gush Shalom, the two authors took turns defending the central
thesis of their book: that a coalition of pro-Israel groups succeed in
pushing through policies in the United States that often are at odds
with America's and even Israel's best interests. They cite the Iraq war
as one example, a claim critics have called patently untrue and poorly
argued.

Echoing that claim, the pair argued in Israel that the same forces are
now pushing the country into attacking Iran.

"There is only one country in the world that is putting any pressure on
the U.S. to attack Iran, and that is Israel," Mearsheimer told a packed
lecture hall at Hebrew University, according to the Jerusalem Post. "And
it is putting enormous pressure on the US."

He added, "Inside the United States, it is pro-Israel individuals and
groups who are almost wholly responsible for pressure being brought to
bear on Bush and Cheney to use military force on Iran. The idea that the
lobby and Israel don't put huge amounts of pressure on the U.S. is
contradictory to the evidence."

Walt said he believed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad' s call for
Israel to be wiped off the map is not actually a call for genocide. "I
don't think he is inciting to genocide," Walt said in Jerusalem,
according to Ha'aretz.

The authors maintain the United States coddles Israel and reject
accusations that their work is unfair, poor scholarship or anti-Semitic.

As an example of his thesis, Mearsheimer, a political science professor
at the University of Chicago, talked in his Tel Aviv lecture about how
Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, though contrary to U.S.
policy, continues because no U.S. president has the temerity to stand up
to Israel and the pro-Israel lobby in Washington to stop it.

The head of Gush Shalom, Uri Avineri, who invited the two to Israel,
said, "We want to start a discussion in Israel about whether or not the
Israel lobby is good for us or not."

At both the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv talks, members of the pro-Israel
advocacy group Stand With Us passed out glossy booklets denouncing the
professors' book <http://www.standwit hus.org/pdfs/ flyers/WM_ Booklet.pdf>
, citing critical reviews and providing four pages of counterpoints to
the author's claims.

"They are very convincing in terms of presentation because they are very
articulate, but their argument that Israel has caused so much damage to
America does not stand up and is causing anti-Zionism around the world,"
Michael Dickson, director of the group's office in Israel, said. "They
used the academic freedom Israel provides to all to attack Israel and
those who support her. So we made sure we were there to speak up against
their lies."

The authors say they have learned to shake off such criticism.

"When you cannot attack someone's facts or evidence, you call them
names," Walt said.

A young Israeli who recently completely his service in the IDF's
strategic planning division talked to Walt after his lecture about
Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, saying he regretted having to
restrict the free movement of Palestinians but for the time being
checkpoints are necessary security measures.

He walked away disappointed with Walt's response. "The Israel lobby is
successful and strong," he said Walt told him. "All I could think was:
It's not strong enough."

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