I’ve praised Daniel Kurtzer many times for his great book on Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, which in many ways parrots the argument of Walt and Mearsheimer that the Israel Lobby has strangled the peace process by compelling the U.S. to stick by Israel right or wrong.
I have to take some of that praise back. Kurtzer is Obama’s surrogate, and here he is in the Philadelphia Jewish Voice, on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, smearing Walt and Mearsheimer before a Jewish audience in order to advance Obama’s campaign:
Now, we’ve seen in this country, specious, dangerous, venomous
arguments couched in academic terms, couched in public policy terms,
that seek to undermine the support of Americans for the state of
Israel. I’m now something of an academic. I don’t think my academic
colleagues quite see me that way, but I go to work with them everyday.
And I see two professors, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, under the
guise of an academic exercise, write such nonsense about the policy
process in this country, about the pro-Israel community in this
country, and about politics, it really just blows the mind. It’s
amazing.And yet, it’s against that backdrop that we are blessed
with three candidates in whom we can trust with respect to their
support for the state of Israel. And Barack Obama is among those
candidates.
Note the little air-kiss to McCain there. Disgusting. This is a smear campaign, designed to prove Obama’s bona fides. The problem is that the Jewish left generally goes along with it, rather than standing up for Walt and Mearsheimer, who are serious and honest scholars. I bet Obama, who is also serious and honest, and baked in a progressive world, has read their work. Why doesn’t someone ask him that question?
