A reader writes:
Goldberg seriously misrepresents the arguments made by Walt and Mearsheimer in their book. “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy” is a work written by two prominent Defensive Realists who were trying to understand why the US-Israeli relationship is still the way it is – they accepted Israel’s profound usefulness during the Cold War – when everything they know academically should now predict the US-Israeli relationship to be at least something less than a “special relationship”.
They do not blame the “special relationship” – or Israel’s American supporters – for most of the bad things that have happened to the US abroad in the last decade, as Goldberg claims, although they do blame it for skewing our perceived interests in a very critical region in the world and thus making our foreign policy less efficient and more costly. That stretch is a deliberate attempt to smear Walt and Mearsheimer as anti-Semities. Such attacks against men who have clearly and consistently stated their support for Zionism has done nothing but confirm their central thesis.
Besides, what makes a lobby powerful is not mass support. It is in fact a lack of mass opposition. That is why single-issue lobbies are so successful, and so much more so when the effect of such a lobby is something that happens overseas where American citizens are largely unaffected. That is why 2-1 support for even-handedness amongst the populace results in unanimity favoring Israel in Congress. Israel would not be friendless in Washington without a lobby. Israel would be a more responsible power without a lobby, because they would face the true costs of their actions without so much of their defense budget funded by Washington and without UNSC resolution-immunity. Without such a guarantee of US support, for instance, they would probably be falling over themselves to patch up their (critically) important relationship with Turkey.
Walt and Mearsheimer will be remembered by history as two of the truest friends of Israel. Their book is a huge reason there is even an American debate about this, and that could end up saving Israel from the Likud lobby in America. And if it is too late, they will be remembered as the only ones with the courage to try to do anything about it.
The Dish 