THE ARTICLE
TITLED
“THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND US FOREIGN POLICY”
This month we
felt like sharing with you an article written by two
American professors titled “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign
Policy”, and the consequential developments. There is
nothing new indeed in the mentioned article, a total of 83
pages including the footnotes. What has been written are
familiar facts that have been repeated several times.
However, the timing of the report when Israeli lobby
institutions are accused of espionage and the US escalated
the crisis with Iran through the instigations of Israel
aggravated the discussions.
The article
titled “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy”, prepared by
John Mearsheimer, a professor of political sciences
from the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, a
professor of international relations from Harvard
University, had extensive repercussions in the Middle East,
while irritating the Israel lobby and the US Congress.
Containing “striking facts” such as how the US foreign
policy has been held hostage by Jewish lobbies; the foreign
policy represents the Israeli interests, not the interests
of the American people; Iraq has been occupied for Israel;
Iran and Syria have been threatened for Israel; Israel and
AIPAC, its most powerful lobby institution, have been
preparing to have the US attack Iran; and these circles are
not genuine allies of America, the writers of this article
have been subject to a merciless lynching campaign.
In their joint
article, exposing the Israeli influence on the policies of
Washington by striking figures and arguments, Mearsheimer
and Walt “declared Israel a strategic burden for the US.”
The first reaction came from the Harvard University, one of
the most important educational institutions of the world. As
a start, the University removed its logo from the article
that was launched in its website. Describing that the Israel
lobby has been diverting America, the report has been
despised, in a way confirming everything its writers argued.
Assessing the articles as a “scandal”, certain Senators
conveyed the argument to the US Congress. Labeling the
article as “ignorant propaganda”, Alan Dershowitz, the
Jewish lawyer of Harvard, announced that he would respond
with a counter article. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat
Congressman from New York, accused the writers of “searching
for a Jewish conspiracy under every single bed.” The New
York Sun compared the findings of the article with the
anti-Jewish words of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
Walt and Mearsheimer, on the other hand, expressed their
satisfaction for the fact that their work is being argued,
backing it up.
The
writers could not find a single publishing house in the US
to publish their work. The article was published in Britain.
Succumbing to the consequential reactions to the article on
the March 26 issue of the London Review of Books, Prof.
Stephen Walt, the academic dean of the Harvard Kennedy
School of Government and known to be a prominent figure of
the “realist” school, announced that he would “leave his
position.”
Striking facts
from the article are presented in our page…
