Making his list, checking it twice
Yes, I know, it's the wrong time of year for that song, but there's really no other way to describe what Israel Lobby author John Mearsheimer did in a speech at the 'Palestine Center' in Washington on Thursday. Mearsheimer classified American Jewry into 'Righteous Jews,' 'New Afrikaaners' and a middle category. The 'Righteous Jews' are all the Israel haters, while the 'New Afrikaaners' include just about anyone who is pro-Israel.But, as Noah Pollak points out, Mearsheimer went further than the usual 'dual loyalty' canard. This time, he accused what he calls the 'New Afrikaaners' of 'blind loyalty' (solely) to Israel.
These are individuals who will back Israel no matter what it does, because they have blind loyalty to the Jewish state. … I would classify most of the individuals who head the Israel lobby’s major organizations as new Afrikaners.Noah has a suggestion for another list Mearsheimer should make. Read the whole thing.
David Bernstein has much more here.
Alas, we have come to expect this sort of thing from Mearsheimer. One has to wonder why and whether anyone takes him and his co-conspirator Stephen Walt seriously anymore.
UPDATE 11:20 AM
More from Martin Peretz here.
There's another comment on the Mearsheimer speech, but that one is surprising enough that I will treat it in a separate post.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:04 AM
3 Comments:
If Israel was really as bad as the old South Africa, we'd see Israel's leaders pursue exactly the opposite of the policies they're following. If there's any one Netanyahu resembles, its De Klerk rather than Vorster. But where Mearsheimer's torturous analogy breaks down is there is NO Palestinian Mandela. But don't look for him and his colleague Stephen Walt to give up on their Israel-bashing any time soon.
There's more on Mearsheimer on Marty Peretz who observes that Mearsheimer's lecture was printed in the Monthly Review which seems to be a communist publication for communists whoever they are these days and that's where according to Peretz, one of the foremost realists of his age has published his latest anti-Israeli screed. Oh and who by the way is Hisham Sharabi? A Syrian Nazi, that's the guy in whose name Mearsheimer gave his lecture which makes it all the more fitting.
Finally, who are the "new Afrikaners" of whom Mearsheimer dismisses so tendentiously? Here's Peretz again:
"I am at the end of the Mearsheimer dozen, among whom are several friends. Not one of them fits his stereotype: Mort Zuckerman runs the New York Daily News, which has fought for black people in New York for years and years; Lester Crown is among the most progressive American businessmen of his generation (just ask Barack Obama); Abe Foxman runs the Anti-Defamation League to combat discrimination wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head; Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post runs the most sensible liberal editorial page in the country; Charles Krauthammer has never written (or said) a racist word, not one; Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal is not only brilliant but a real realist. He knows what the Palestinians and their Arab cousins intend for the Jews. And it is ugly."
With the exception of Krauthammer and Stephens, they are all liberal Jews. The very last people on earth any one could possibly suspect of harboring racist views. And that goes for Peretz himself, a bonafide old-school TNR liberal. But Israel-bashing means having to pretend that good liberals actually endorse the the Zionist fringe.
More here: Read it all
And for the record, Carl I think Peretz is right about one thing, you and him and yours truly do belong to the Opus Judaei in good standing. That ought to drive Mearsheimer nuts!
Heh
Mearsheimer is on the Saudi payroll, as is Husain Barak
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