Recently I came across an article titled "The Israel Lobby" (March 23rd, 2006), authored by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from Harvard and U Chicago. The topic is one not very foreign to many, the "influence of the Israel lobby on the American foreign policy'.
Apparently, and unlike several other books and articles on the same subject (see Findley, Chomsky, Finklestein, Shlaim, etc.), this one is making a lot of noise. Just go to news.google.com and you'll see.
Why? it seems to be the stature of the authors within the think-tanks in Washington and political thought in ivy universities. The authors are known 'centerists' and 'realists', thus they are harder to discredit than the 'socialist & leftist' authors. It'll be interesting to follow the 'sobre followup' (not the angry reactionary) posts on this subject. I found this recent article in The Nation to be very interesting:
Ferment Over 'The Israel Lobby' by Philip Weiss (April 27th, 2006)
Do not despair. A Palestinian Lobby is been constructed as we speak in DC. It wil be an organization that is almost a mirror of the powerful Israel Lobby.
ReplyDeleteIt will take years for it to be effective, but we have to start somewhere. ADC, AAI, ATFP and other Arab-American organizations are not lobbies and and not built to effectively influence legislative initiatives. That is what the Israel Lobby does that we have never done.
ALl it takes is understanding the system, implementing the solution (proper lobbying) and raising the money to do it.
Knowing that this is in the works helps me sleep at night.