C-Span filmed Walt and Mearsheimer’s event at Politics and Prose on September 5 and has not yet aired it. The event was so jammed, reports the WSJ (fairly), with 500 people, that people were turned away on the sidewalk. Why hasn’t C-Span aired this important talk so that we the people can see it?
Right now the media are in some consternation about The Israel Lobby. They are not sure where the matter is going. The advance word on the book, the piece that set the tone, was David Remnick’s in the New Yorker, and it was a split decision: respectful, but saying W&M are playing into hysteria. Now the book is bumping up the bestseller list even as it is proving deeply upsetting to some people. The Washington Post has run columns by Michael Gerson (a Christian conservative!) and Richard Cohen that savaged it. Gerson says it contains the seeds of anti-semitism. Cohen says the case was so overwhelming it seemed to deny Israel’s right to exist and made him want to break out into Hatikvah. (For all pre- or post-Zionists, here are the words from the card the Zionist Organization of America distributes: "As long as deep in the heart/A Jewish soul yearns/And to the furthest edges of the east/An eye looks, towards Zion…")
Others, including progressive Zionists Dan Fleshler and MJ Rosenberg, differ with the book’s conclusions but are actively engaged in the discussion. They are not trying to marginalize the book. Nick Goldberg of the LA Times gave the authors a fair hearing. As did the Dallas Morning News. And then there are the lovers of the book. Like myself…
When Christopher Hitchens published his diatribe against religion, God Is Not Great, Chris Matthews put him on air. Now W&M are right next to Hitchens on the bestseller list. There is only one answer to this muddle. Goethe’s last words. More Light! Put the authors on C-Span please…
