A piece in the Times yesterday on Israeli and Arab views of Obama, filed from Amman, by Michael Slackman and Isabel Kershner, broke new ground in its frank descriptions of Jewish influence in the American political process.
“What we know is American presidents all support Israel,” said
Muhammad Ibrahim, 23… “Nothing will change. Don’t expect change.”
Across the border, in
Israel, Moshe Cohen could not have agreed more. “Jews there have
influence,” Mr. Cohen said… “He’ll have to be good to Israel. If not, he won’t be
re-elected to a second term.”
Then at the end of the piece, characterizing Arab opinion, the journalists stated, “The United States, many said, may be a biased supporter of Zionism hostile to Muslims…”
This piece is significant because it is straightforward. Jewish influence is a fact of our public life; the piece doesn’t dissemble. The word Zionism is used. This is Walt and Mearsheimer’s achievement. As I have said before, soon their assertions will be a commonplace (notwithstanding the fact that the media supervised at a public lynching of the men as antisemites). And then we will have open discussion of: How Jewish is the American media and, more important, how Zionist are liberal Jews? I am happy to talk about these questions. Are you, Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, Ted Koppel, Dan Schorr, et al?
