Robert Keohane, the international-relations scholar who debated Walt and Mearsheimer at Princeton Monday night, has supplied a copy of his opening comments to the assiduous James Morris, who passed them on to me.
Two excerpts:
"The charge of anti-Semitism is a
category mistake. It confuses opposition to a state’s policy with
prejudice against the ethnic groups that compose it. American liberals in
the 1930s opposed German policy, but this did not make them anti-German.
People who criticize US China policy on grounds of Chinese human rights abuses
are not thereby “Sinophobes.” Those who want to impose sanctions on Sudan or Zimbabwe are not
“anti-Black.” In contrast, Amreican attitudes toward Japanese
during World War II were racist.
How can we tell the difference? Racists denigrate the character or
intelligence of the people against whom they are prejudiced – Americans
regularly characterized the Japanese as sub-human (John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and
Power in the Pacific War). They did not
so denigrate the German people. There is no denigration of Israelis, or
of Jews, in The Israel Lobby."
"If you scratch any
democracy, you will find flaws. We live in a country that is flawed
by a history of genocide toward indigenous peoples, slavery, institutionalized
racial discrimination, racism in public speech as well as attitudes, and
pervasive gender discrimination. Discussions are now occurring in Washington about the use of torture, arguably in violation of the U.S. military
code of conduct as well as of international law. These flaws do not
disqualify us from criticizing others, but they make it very problematic to
impose too demanding standards or to be highly moralistic. I regard the moral
arguments in chapter 3 as making some valid points, but overall to lack the
sense of balance, and ethical modesty, that one might expect from Realist
scholars."
The first excerpt is wonderful and reasonable and fair. Keohane’s second point is cloddish and insensitive. The 40-year occupation is a mere "scratch" on Israel’s democracy? But something like 40 percent of the population of historical Palestine has lesser rights than the majority. And thousands of them are in prison, and their children are denied all opportunity, and a huge wall snakes through their olive groves! Keohane implores the realists to be realistic about this. Were the Freedom Riders realistic about desegregation in the 60s? This is the moral blot on the U.S. that is before our eyes. The great thing about The Israel Lobby is that it is not a realists’ work, it is a moral work.
