The Times has now published two very important op-ed pieces on "The Israel Lobby," by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, both of them basically endorsing the authors’ view. Two years ago the Times ran a fabulous piece by Tony Judt, largely endorsing Walt and Mearsheimer’s thesis, a month after they’d published in LRB, that shot heard round the world. The piece had a huge effect: Judt is an eminent New York Jewish intellectual, and he gave a lot of people in progressive circles permission to say they agreed with W&M. And yesterday we got Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece on the Israel lobby. Yes, Goldberg peed on Walt and Mearsheimer in the piece, but the central idea in his article, that the Jewish leadership has fostered Israel’s settlement policy and prevented American politicians from criticizing same, W&M had boldly stated two years ago.
Both these writers are Jews. Why can’t we hear from the goyim on this subject? They also have something at stake here. The Times could strike a great blow for open debate by asking non-Jews to hold forth on this subject–and by lifting its ban on John Mearsheimer, a regular contributor to the Op-Ed page for many years, till he made the CLM (that’s Goldman Sachs argot: career limiting move) of opposing the Iraq war.
