The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy | John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy | John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt | Every myth about Israel fully exposed! A masterpiece!

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The Israel Lobby a...

	The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 197 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

True to the US, true to Canada

Walt and Mearsheimer's book is an extremely important and cannily argued exposition of the war that has been waged against academics in the US and elsewhere -- including, to name a few, the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe, Norman Finkelstein and Michael Scheuer -- who have dared question the uncritical support that Western governments have given Israel as it continues its oppression of Palestinians (and Lebanese). While some of the individuals mentioned above (Pappe, Finkelstein) have seen their careers affected because of their views, Said, Scheuer, Walt and Mearsheimer, for their part, have been accused of being ant-Semitic, in what often was more an emotional response that precluded rational thinking than a well-formulated counterargument. Finkelstein's recent brush with Israeli authorities, which resulted in his deportation from Israel and his being barred entry for 10 years, serves as the epitome of the treatment reserved academics who tell truth to power.

My own experience, as a Canadian who worked in security intelligence and now as a writer/academic, has been similar. At the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), where I worked as an analyst from 2003-2005, my views on Israel and Canada's unquestioning support for its policies often went against the organizational paradigm, and on more than one occasion I was told, in no uncertain terms, that my career as an intelligence officer would suffer if I continued to criticize that support. The callousness of some Israeli agents I met in the course of my work, or the manner in which they completely overestimated the Palestinian or Hezbollah threat, was nothing less than shocking. As such, the official and tacit Israeli lobby is also very much alive in Canada, a subject I touch on in my book Smokescreen: Canadian security intelligence after September 11, 2001 .

Now a writer and editor in Taipei, Taiwan, I have published some articles on Israel, which for some reason many like to see as facing a plight similar to Taiwan's -- a false analogy that I have sought to dispel on a number of occasions. There, too, far away from Western circles, the attacks came, more often than not in the form of character assassination rather than arguments worthy of the name.

It took great courage, I am sure, for Messrs. Walt and Mearsheimer to write their article, and then turn it into a book. But it is a worthy polemic which, if heeded not only in the US but elsewhere, would ironically help ensure that Israel faces the prospects of a better, safer future, which its people certainly deserve -- only not at the expense of Palestinians, Lebanese and academic freedom.

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Every myth about Israel fully exposed! A masterpiece!

I'm not the typical guy interested in politics. In fact, I'm the typical father who goes to work from 9 to 5, comes home really tired and watches whatever CNN dumps on my TV. But based on a suggestion from my brother, I started reading this book. As soon as I finished reading the introduction, I immediately got addicted to it! Not only I bought the audio version but also a copy of the printed version! The audio version has been the radio station in my car for the last two months. I'm already listening to the whole thing the second time.

Based on this book, I praise Mr. Walt and Mr. Mearsheimer for being two of the most intelligent, open-minded scholars in the world. They're literally human encyclopedias. Rather than empty opinions and vague assumptions, they provide an UNBELIEVABLE amount of facts and evidence to explain the damage that the Israel lobby has been inflicting in the United States, the nation that we, Americans, love.

Now I understand why it's really hypocritical to see all presidential candidates always praising Israel for its democracy and supposed strategic value, when in fact, it's a country whose government commits many human rights violations against the Palestinians and has helped increase anti-American sentiment around the planet. And based on Mr. Walt's and Mr. Mearsheimer's detailed explanation, including facts and numerous quotes from officials, there's no doubt that (1) 9/11 happpened partially because of Israel's policies against the Arabs, and (2) the United States invaded Iraq more because of Israel than our own national interests.

But rest assured that Mr. Walt and Mr. Mearsheimer are only criticizing the pro-Israel lobby and our bad foreign policies. This book has nothing to do with anti-semitism and senseless criticism against Jews or any other group. In fact, the authors clearly argue that many Jews in Israel are also against the policies their government endorses. This book is a must-read for everyone worried about the future of our nation in the international arena.

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AIPAC INFLUENCE IS VERY BAD/LETHAL FOR AMERICA'S SAFETY AND IMAGE

The book is based on pure fact. This book is like the Bible of correcting America from all the danger AIPAC has subjected it to. Yes, Israel should have the right to exist. However, Israel must stop the oppressive and brutal daily genocide of the hopeless and helpless Palestinians. Israel must go to the '67 borders and stop violating human rights, as well as, convention rules. If AIPAC does not knock it off, we'll be paying $20 for a gallon of gas. More importantly, is Americas saftey which AIPAC does not have near the top of THEIR priorites. America needs to get some real leadership and integrity back, since Cheney, Rice and Dumbya have let it go down the toilet, along with America's image. America is coming back, but we need to get th wolfs out of the chicken coupe! This book will be very upsetting, so remember that there are good/bad in all peoples. By the way, I was promted to read this book after viewing President Carter's Movie: JIMMY CARTER: THE MAN FROM PLAINS. The movie will move you and inspire you forever. Highly Recommended - Superb! Adios!

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A much needed criticque

I saw this book at a bookstore and thought that lobby is something on which comment is necessary to promote intellectual honesty. I listened to the recorded version, hence the "only" 4-stars.

While I've said in other reviews, the jury is still out on recorded books, they're great for those of us with limited time to read a volume as long as this one. The major objection I have of the recorded media is that, while listening, one has less time to absorb the facts, let alone a written page to which one may return and refer. Aside from that, the book is a masterpiece.

While I don't deny that some ethnic groups have suffered more than others, I've always had problems with a few who base their entitlement on their degree of victimization. (My inlaws insist that they, as Catholics are perpetually victimized. I remind them that we haven't had a candidate in the Know Nothing Party for a few years anyway!) Indeed, I've been afraid that the Israel lobby has triumphed at that art: we were bigger victims than anyone, therefore are entitled, to military aid, to a human rights record to put others to shame, etc., etc., etc. And the moment one challenges that entitlement, s/he is labled as an anti-Semite, even a Nazi sympathizer (!) or (?) a holocaust denier. That always struck me as at least intellectual dishonesty, if not worse.

(An irony of that too is that, as someone reminded me years ago, most of the Arabs who are shunned and demonized by the lobby are Semites too!)

The authors start with the fact that they'd been commissioned to write an article on the subject by a noted periodical, which, once the article was completed, turned them down. So eventually they wrote the book.

Again, I don't have a "text" here to review the specifics--hence my criticism of the "recorded" medium. But I do recall that they repeat several times that they do support a Jewish state. In other words, they're not "anti-Isreal." Yet they too, when critical of the subject which makes up the book's title, are called anti-Semitic.

The text allows for countless examples of how one-sided the "lobby" tends to be. In the US, we hear constantly of how victimized the Israelis are, yet hear little of the suffering of the Palestinians--colonized by Isreal with little if any regard for the rights of the colonized--or how the PLO, for example, WAS interested in treaties, yet the Israelis refuse to even consider them.

I wish I had the "hard copy" of the book here to refer to, but it does confirm my suspicion of the lobby. The authors provide ample evidence that even American Jews do not support much of what the lobby represents. And many who're stalwart supporters of the lobby are not Jewish. (There are some reviewers who've mentioned that many of the neocons who make up the spine of the lobby are Jewish, and infer anti-Semitism. I didn't know that many are Jewish, consider the fact irrelevant, and remind many that some of the strongest supporters, e.g., John Bolton, are NOT Jewish, but inflexibly neoconservative. Which label is more significant, Jewish or neocon?)

I also point out something that the authors remind the reader: that some of the harshest critics of Israeli policy are in the Israeli press. Those in Israel are more exposed to much of the absurdity of the lobby than we are here in the country whose credibility is under attack BECAUSE of our unwavering support of repressive Israeli policies.

I think it's very important that we be able to open doors to the discussion of the lobby's policies and US support of them, without being labled as evil entities. This book may have begun to open those doors, one hopes anyway. But I recommend you read it rather than listen to it, so you have more specifics in arguing with the lobby--and particularly challenging those many "lawmakers" who succumb to the lobby without challenge (some of those lawmakers are Jewish, many are neocon "Christians.")

By the way, I don't agree with everything the authors state. For example, they attribute our invasion of Iraq as having more to do with the lobby than that of the oil companies. That claim may be challengable. But let's at least talk about it!

I'm reminded of a conversation I had with the local Islamic Student Association late in 2001. After Bush gave his rousing speech after 9/11, one of the members of that association, with the agreement of others, said it was a pretty powerful testament, until Bush added, "and our support for Israel." At that point, the students suggested, Bush lost the support of a billion people.

Perhaps it's about time we're at least honest with each other about the inordinate power of the Israel lobby. Maybe it should fit more tightly within parameters of need--How much aide to we give to a relatively developed and small state?--and of credibility worldwide. Denying the open discussion may at least be a challenge to democracy, and our nation's credibility!

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