Two for the Road

One more visit with Mearsheimer and Walt, this one prompted by a new review linked by Arun: Walt-Mearsheimer's Best Seller: Why the Hysteria? by M J Rosenberg. Another important review is The New York Times review by William Grimes. Grimes (or his headline writer) calls the book a "A Prosecutorial Brief Against Israel and Its Supporters." I don't believe his review supports this title:

Slowly, deliberately and dispassionately Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt lay out the case for a ruthlessly realistic Middle East policy that would make Israel nothing more than one of many countries in the region. On those occasions when Israel’s interests coincide with America’s, it should count on American support, but otherwise not. What Americans fail to understand, the authors argue, is that most of the time the two countries’ interests are opposed...

The reason they do not realize this, Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt insist, can be explained quite simply: The Israel lobby makes sure of it...

There is nothing underhanded or devious about this, the authors say. Like the National Rifle Association or the AARP, the Israel lobby relies on the traditional political weapons available to any special-interest group in pressing its agenda. It just happens to be unusually skillful and effective...

Grimes concludes the M&W don't make their case:

The general tone of hostility to Israel grates on the nerves, however, along with an unignorable impression that hardheaded political realism can be subject to its own peculiar fantasies. Israel is not simply one country among many, for example, just as Britain is not. Americans feel strong ties of history, religion, culture and, yes, sentiment, that the authors recognize, but only in an airy, abstract way.

It's a balanced review, hostile to M&W but not hysterical. Rosenberg likes M&W a lot more. He goes beyond M&W to argue that the Israel Lobby, in its current incarnation, is hazardous to Israel as well as to the US. I am somewhat sympathetic to this notion myself. I don't think Israel is morally equivalent to Iran or Syria, but I do think American leaders need to put US interests first, and I'm very suspicious of lobbying on behalf of any foreign power, even Israel and Britain.

A lively debate breaks out in the comments section of Rosenberg's article. After a dozen or so comments, somebody congratulates everybody in not calling each other anti-semites. Naturally, the very next comment calls everybody on the other side anti-semitic! And so it goes.