Juan Cole's piece was far more informative. It should have been the lead story.

If the authors of this piece actually distorted quotes in the way Michelle Goldberg describes, then they deserve to lose the respect of academia; and, indeed, their motivations for doing so must then be questioned. I would hope that they would rise to the occasion and explain these misquotes; certainly those people whom they slandered through omission of context deserve an apology from them. As far as the question of Israel is concerned, I know that many people I know see it in pretty black and white terms: when the Twin Towers were destroyed, Israel mourned. Palestinians were dancing in the street. Anyone who thinks that that that last image isn't more powerful than a thousand academic arguments doesn't understand human psychology very well.

Check out the Robert Dreyfuss article over at the American Prospect this month titled, "Vice Squad" about Dick Cheney and the secretive Office of the Vice President. It goes into the best detail that I have seen yet of who the players are in the executive branch that wield the disproportionate power of the OVP—hard information to get since the OVP won't even reveal who works in the office. I won't quote anything for fear of being pummeled for taking something out of context.

I have to ask reading this—where then, are the liberal and Progressive American and Israeli jews that are stepping up in an organized way to represent themselves and their ideas, and to combat their misrepresentation by hard-liners and zealots?

Among American jews of all political strips, is it the difference between belief systems and values as expressed by Ms. Goldberg, or is it the difference between "hard" and "soft" support for Israel?

I was surprised by the authors' downplaying of the importance of oil in the decision to invade Iraq. The relationship of America to Israel seems to function on a number of levels as a series of de facto arrangements of convenience. Israeli hardliners want America to support Israel for nationalist and ethnic reasons. Christian hardliners are pro-Israel for religious reasons. American militarists use Israel as a strategic wedge against the Arab nations and their oil.

Different groups with different reasons for supporting Israel, but they end up supporting each other as marriages of convenience. I have to believe, however, that without the oil America would not give a shit about Israel or the entire Middle East. The oil is the material driver of these relationships, because the Christian Right and Israeli hardliners wouldn't be able to wag the American military without the bone of oil out there to be fetched. The oil drives all Western economic power, and without that none of the religious and ethnic considerations would mean anything.

So, I would prefer to see an explanation of the strategic use of Israel in the colonization of Arab oil.

Someone should remind Juan Cole this is not 1930s Germany. Jews will not be silent in the face of the anti-Semitic screed that is the Measheimer and Walt's paper. It is ingenious to claim that the charge of anti-Semitism is proof that your not anti-Semitic and that those who accuse you really have secret powers. That Professor Cole does not see the Papers clear anti-Semitism raises a question about Professor Cole's perceptiveness and honesty.

The Paper does not criticize "Israel's powerful U.S. Lobby" rather after making short work of Israel as a worthy and deserving ally Mearsheimer and Walt ask how is it that so many Americans and American policymakers support Israel anyway. Their answer is not AIPAC or a lobby they initially define as so broad as to include everyone, but American Jews. They try to play fancy games with their defintions but how do they say the Israeli Lobby gets its power? Jews vote and contribute money to Democratic candidates. Meirsheimers, Walt and Cole's lobby includes the well known hostile to Israel New York Times and the well know rightwing Washington Times. Think tanks as disparate as the Heritage Foundation and Brookings. What links all these groups but that American Jews work at them?

That is not enough for the authors and apparently Professor Cole. Presidents Clinton and Bush are both tools of the Israeli Lobby. How is this? They have Jewish adivisors.

When it comes to the war in Iraq and possible wars with Syria and Iran Mearsheimer and Walt revert to all the old anti-Semitic canards. The Jews are getting America to fight Israels wars. American leaders, the American people are all being fooled to do the bidding of the lobby.

Professor Coles views are often held up as an alternative to the Bush Administration's. Unfortunately as Professor Coles defense of this terrible scholarship which contains all the ancient anti-Semitic charges illustrates he is not someone who should be taken seriously.

It disturbs me to see as prolific and intelligent a writer as Ms. Goldberg soft-pedal, to a certain extent, some of the points she brings up about Walt and Mearsheimer's paper. When she says that she finds it "odd" that they dont back up a claim against Israel's morality, for example. Or when she is "amazed" that they dont mention Fatah, Black September, Munich, etc. And that their "haphazardness" is..."weird".

Ms. Goldberg, is it so hard for you to accept the fact that intelligence (genius, even) and Anti-Semitism are not mutually exclusive constructs? And that Anti-Semitism can come from many different guises, many different colors and stripes, from so many different arena's? Now, am I saying that this paper (which I'll admit I haven't read) is Anti-Semitic, and further, that these two academics are Anti-Semites? Well, guess what: It sure as hell looks like that's a real possibility.

As far as whose interests are best served by a more even-handed approach from the US in it's dealings with Israel, let me me come out and state something that I've yet to really see fleshed out in print. It is in ISRAEL'S best interest, ladies and gentlemen, to have the US begin to lessen it's ties/re-think it's aid packages/etc to Israel. As a Jew, I find it incredibly sad to continue to realize just how much a puppet of the USA Israel has been, and continues to be. Yeah, I know all my lefty friends and relatives would tell me to wake up and smell the reality of the situation; that doesn't make it any easier, when you have a connection and a sense of love for your heritage and history.

In a perfect world, Israel and Palestine would live side by side, as the cousins that we are, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, and with little or no financial reliance on the USA or the West. But as is so blatantly obvious, we live in a far from perfect world.

And finally, as a parting shot of sorts, for those who would blanch and cry foul over my suggestion that perhaps Walt and Mearsheimer might actually be Anti-Semites: You, and them, and Juan Cole for that matter, can kiss my Jewish ass.