Walt and Mearsheimer’s book is embroiled in a power struggle. They were trying to be scholars. But their work is being dismissed because it has political consequences; it empowers Israel’s critics here. In an interview published in Haaretz today, macher (Yiddish for powerful guy) Marty Peretz talks about the book in several different keys:
"The book was not a success in the U.S." he says.
"The publisher has lost a lot of money, so it’s a do-not-go-here sign
for others."
Whew, the lobby still works!
People like Walt and Mearsheimer are "facing a stone wall, which is
the fact that the American people like Israel and identify with it," he
says. That support has little to do with the Israel lobby. "We have
petitions upon petitions from centuries ago by Americans who wanted a
Jewish homeland in Palestine…"
AIPAC and Dershowitz can fold their tents. They’re purely superfluous.
Peretz concedes the Walt and Mearsheimer study might have had some
profound effects. "It is possible that in some unconscious way, the
report set the scene for the National Intelligence [Estimate]," he
says, referring to the December report that concluded Iran had dropped
its program for developing nuclear weapons – a conclusion the Israeli
defense establishment reportedly considers erroneous.
So maybe the lobby isn’t working?
Walt and Mearsheimer’s target audience includes liberal American
Jews, Peretz says. "Their study appeals to Jews who resent having to
suffer the embarrassment of being connected to Israel," he says.
Ah, self-hatred. And he’s right that I resent the connection. But it’s not embarrassment. It’s being implicated in human rights abuses.
