One comment already said that most Kossacks avoid I/P issues like the plague, whereas another said they are only interested in the "pie fights." From my perspective, the berel-bots at Dkos turn everything they can into a pie fight, and get people banned that make too many salient points on the issue.

I know a couple of people who have been banned from there, both very knowledgeable, aware, and always civil people whom I have never seen using any kind of inflammatory or even provocative language.

He began his talk with the following summary of the history of Zionism: "The Jews came in peace; the Arabs wanted war." He supported his argument with a total of one fact: the assassination of Emir Abdullah of Trans-Jordan in 1951 by a Palestinian. He explained that there wasn't enough time to elaborate. During his talk he chastised the Palestinians for their lack of economic development, especially in Gaza, as if Israel has not had a policy for years of preventing that. Naturally, he asked what we would do if there were rockets fired into our country. All of this in the spirit of moderation.

Beyond the aggravation of listening to somebody like this, it's hard to convey how stupid and boring he was; utterly self-absorbed. He name-dropped (Salam Fayyad, we can work with him, he's the Palestinian savior, Makovsky meets with him on trips there). He rambled around during his lecture and in answering (softball) questions, throwing crap on the wall to see if it would stick, virtually incoherent at points. And yes, he made the same point about making the settlements more "efficient"–how can one not think of Eichmann when hearing this? It would be actually refreshing and more entertaining if these people were just rabid Arab-haters like Lieberman, instead of pretending that they're not.

It was gratifying to hear Rashid Khalidi put him in his place on a Charlie Rose show in January (I think); a discussion that also included Roger Cohen.

I'm not even sure that people like Makovsky are even authentic ideologues, beyond their desire to identify with power–they're just think tank hacks. If the Israel Lobby were to dry up, he'll figure out what to tell some other think tank or lobby whatever it is they want to hear.