Letters to the Editor
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What should Israel do
To say that there is a taboo against critisizing Israel does not make sense. There is constant unrelenting unfair criticism. At the same time, however, underlying the negativity is the knowledge that the US is Israel's faithful ally and will not allow it to be destroyed - which is good. When people say that the US should not support Israel, what they seem to mean is that the US should be neutral in regard to or even support its destruction. Whether the state of Israel should continue as a jewish state, that is what the entire fight is about.
The Palestinians have had many chances to create a state. The last was under Clinton when the Palestinians got almost everything they asked for, but refused to accept it at the last moment. They refused because the think they really want they did not dare ask for in such a forum, which is the state of Israel.
The question is, what should be done. Muslims come out openly and say Israel should be destroyed. That is at least honest, compared to those western liberals who skirt around the subject, ignoring the implications of what they are recommending, and pretending that what muslims say they want is not what they really want. The liberal viewpoint, at least the viewpoint that is not openly anti semitic, seems to be that muslims will come to see "reason" and accept a compromise. But there is no evidence that they will ever feel that way.
In the meantime, I believe the israelis are very restrained in defending themselves. They target or attempt to target those responsible for violence, instead of randomly shooting up the palestinians. Of course violence is ugly and always has unintended consequences. But if the situation was reversed, every single israeli or even jew would be dead. Look at what jordan did to the palestinians in the seventies, when they expelled them, or what is going on in Sudan and Chad now. Furthermore, the muslims living in israel are treated far better than followers of nonmuslim religions in muslim countries. Of course this sort of thing never satisfies the anti israelites. But everything that humans do has evil in it. It's just a question of how much. The israelis do far less evil than they could. If the muslims had one tenth the power of israel, there would be no israel.
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Obfuscation and Diversion
I don't think I read the same paper as many of the people here purport to have read. One can criticize the research or the selective use of quotes, but it can be argued that the quotes in question faithfully represented what was implied.
If this is a paper about U.S. foreign policy and how it is heavily weighted in Israel's favor both financially and militarily. I agree with an opinion in Ms. Goldberg's article that what has really happened is an allignment between the right wing elements in the U.S. and the hard line Likud belief system in Israel. It's a fine line; Democrat presidents have been as willing to support Israel as Republicans, but just barely. The paper doesn't pretend to address the U.S. relationships with other allys other than to show how much money and assistance flows from the U.S. to Israel - out of proportion to what one would think based on it's size and relative importance.
Any talk of "cabals", "protocols", "secret societies" is dismissed on it's face in the scope of the paper, so anyone bringing that silliness up here is simply obfuscating and being disingenuous. Furthermore, asserting that Americans see only the bad part of Israel's policy in the occupied territories, and see nothing of Arab atrocities is patently false. We hear about every suicide bomber or attempted suicide bomber on a daily basis in the MSM - there is no coverage of what goes in where houses and Arab settlements are being razed. I'm not going to capitulate to the notion of political correctness here and justify Israel's assymetrical responses as natural in the face of terrorism.
It's just too bad that the U.S. doesn't demand more concessions/negotiations on the part of both sides instead of blindly backing Israel on almost every matter. Then, assuming a two state solution is realized and Arab violence continues against Israel, we simply move in in support of our ally and crush those making war. Is that just too simplistic?
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What is antisemitism?
"This treatment of Jewish money as a monolithic force is both ugly and misleading;"
"But to conflate this movement with American Jewry is dangerous, and that is what Walt and Mearsheimer sometimes do, albeit inadvertently. "
Dangerous, ugly, misleading--but not at all antisemitic?
How then is antisemitism defined?
Blaming rightwing supporters
of Israel is commendable; but by blaming Jews, the authors have
crossed the line, and they deserve to be called on it.
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Why can't we debate the same questions that are debated in Israel
I've noticed since I moved to the states 6 years ago, that nothing seems to get people hot under the collar than critism of Israel. Any attempt to point out un-justifable actions, such as the bulldozing of Palinstian homes (and the murder of non-violent protesters who try to stop the demolitions by sitting in front of the bulldozers), or the masscure of civilans by forces under Israeli command in lebonnon (see Robert Fisk: Pity the Nation, Lebonan at War for details) shortly receives the acusation that you are anti-semitic and are not looking at actoricities caused by arab regimes.
Why can't we in the US debate same questions about Israel (such as what action to take against the Palinstians, whether Israelis should commit torture to discover suspected sucide attacks) that are debated in Israel? I've met some Palinstians who spent 12 years in jail for being members of the PLO, and were tortured during their incarseration, which has made them very anti Israeli. I've met others who try and work with Israelis. I've met some Israelis who believe Arabs are the lowest form of life, and others who have respect for their neighbors. In most cases there was still a dialogue between all parties.
If you can't debate whether a particular action is right, or even whether it will impact your conscience, how can be surprised when the rest of the world believes you're in the pocket of one particular group? I think its very healthy for Israeli democracy to debate these issues.
I've stopped discussing the issue myself in the US simply because I found that although I was speaking, no one was listening.
PS. I also agree that oil security should have also been mentioned as a major driving force of US policy in the area. However, you can only publish so much before the eassy gets long enough to form a book.