Braindrops

Whoever Disqualifies...

In this morning's Baltimore Sun, Norman Solomon argues in defense of the Mearsheimer/Walt paper. As you will recall (if one obsesses over these things, as I do), Mearsheimer and Walt present a fairly one-sided perspective of the current conflict, in which Israel is always to blame. If this inaccuracy were correct, their conclusion (namely, that America's positions vis-a-vis Israel are unfair and unwise) might make more sense. It isn't, so it doesn't, but such is the nature of academia.

Since they were published, though, a host of folks have presented the facts ignored by Mearsheimer and Walt, including the manifold sins of the current and past Palestinian leadership. Interestingly, despite their call for debate, Mersheimer and Walt have yet to defend their position. This, though, is not my point.

The accusation behind which they're hiding is that any criticism of Israel is greeted as Anti-Semitic by the all-powerful Israel Lobby (note the upper case). In fact, these folks are describing any dispassionate response to their imbalanced work as an accusation of Anti-Semitism, freeing them from the onerous burden of having to respond. It's not accurate - Dershowitz in particular has never been a blind defendor of Israeli policies - but it's ironic, nonetheless.

- Moishe Potemkin