Israel And AIPAC: We'll Respond To Walt And Mearsheimer When Their Vicious Anti-Semitism Gets Sophisticated Or Relevant (Plus: MR Is Suspicious About Leftist Pro-Mearsheimer Enthusiasm)
In a way they're absolutely right: when it comes to anti-Semitism Walt and Mearsheimer are total amateurs. They're still running the "we're being silenced argument" - even fanatical anti-Semitic imams have figured out that they sound silly screaming that from the podiums of talks they've been invited to give.
Anyway, JPost has a pretty decent article about how AIPAC and the Israeli government intend to counter Walt and Mearsheimer's The Israeli Lobby (subtitle: "how the Jews came from across the ocean, corrupted good Christian Americans, and tricked them into betraying their country"). The basic strategy: do nothing. Israel can't go around countering the claims of every vaguely disgruntled, largely discredited academic who discovers that "hey, these Jews make pretty good scapegoats". It's got all of its resources tied up dealing with the ones who are already on UN committees:
If you believe that Walt and Mearsheimer are beyond the reach of reason because reason has nothing to do with their book - and Walt and Mearsheimer are obviously beyond the reach of reason because reason has nothing to do with their book - then this seems like a pretty good strategy. What are you going to do? Point out that the US has acted against Israeli interests dozens of times? Talk about how the first crack in the wall of contemporary Israeli deterrence came when Bush I wouldn't let Israel respond to Iraq's missile launches? Go over the total inanity of their observations ("well no you see Professors, actually all interests have lobbies in Washington, DC - so the existence of a pro-Israel lobby isn't proof of anything at all"). How about this: if they really think that's a good argument, they take a junior high social science class and then, when they've learned about our three branches of government, we'll have a talk with them.
Now the conspiracy theory nuts will say that AIPAC isn't responding because they're scared of the overwhelming truth of the book (the classic claim of the irrelevant lunatic: "they're only pretending to ignore me because they're scared of me"). But if AIPAC answered all of the claims, then the conspiracy theory nuts would point to the organized public campaign - which would come complete with true rebuttals from politicians - as proof of AIPAC's power. That's the essence and the beauty of conspiracy theories - they already account for everything that might be used as disproof.
After the jump: how to see if your average anti-Israel academic is a provably anti-Semitic fraud.
So how do you counter conspiracy theories? Here's where things get a little muddy. What you really have to do - and literally the only way to do this, since by definition conspiracy theories corrupt good standards of proof and disproof - is to create a culture where really vicious libel is off-limits. But since any and all slanders against Israel have been taken as a badge of bravery in public discourse, those standards of decorum have long ago been left in tatters.
Nonetheless, there is a very easy test to see whether a pro-The Israel Lobby academic is being genuine in his or her new-found anti-Israel sophistication. For decades, the academic left has railed against Mearsheimer. There were times when, for the critical left, he was more or less the embodiment of everything that was wrong with "academic Orientalism". No part of his theory - from ideas like "national interest" to his description of the anarchy problematic - was spared from withering criticism. He was quite openly indicted as complicit with colonialism, imperialism, genocide, etc. So if you find an academic that spent the last few decades quite convinced that the realist description of the world was (a) wrong and (b) bad - and if suddenly that academic has found something redeeming about Mearsheimer, just as Mearsheimer has become to demonize living, breathing Jews - then yeah, it's probably appropriate to be suspicious about their change of heart. Just remember: it's not anti-Semitism, it's just anti-Zionism. Why their anti-Zionism is so entrenched, seething, and irrational - of course - is a different question.
References:
* Israel, AIPAC won't parry Walt-Mearsheimer book [JPost]
* Walt and Mearsheimer Publish Insipid Anti-Semiticish Book. MR Officially Takes Back Original "No Way They're Anti-Semites" Position. [MR]
Previously:
* Walt and Mearsheimer Week 3 - Enough With the "Oh But They're So Qualified" Thing
* Walt and Mearsheimer Publish Insipid Anti-Semiticish Book. MR Officially Takes Back Original "No Way They're Anti-Semites" Position.
* Walt and Mearsheimer's Best Defense For Their Anti-Semitic-ish Accusations Is In Trouble
Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit
