The lobby resorts to financial blackmail again

It is important to register the fact that when Dershowitz cried out against the Hampshire College divestment resolution, he did so by calling on donors to withdraw contributions from Hampshire. This is an old story. When Walt and Mearsheimer published their paper denouncing the Israel lobby, the rabbi at Hillel told me that there would be financial retribution in fewer gifts to Harvard, where Stephen Walt teaches. Subsequently, the neocon New York Sun tried to build pressure on Robert Belfer, who endowed Walt's chair, to withdraw his support. When Lawrence Summers was forced out as Harvard's president, Martin Peretz said it was out of "anti-Israel and even
anti-Jewish animus" and also threatened financial repercussions: "…[M]y own impression of
wealthy alumni who were once my students is that Summers made them more
generous… I know of at least three gifts in the $100 million range
that were very likely to materialize and now are dicey."
Money is an essential tool of the Israel lobby. Abba Eban wrote that Zionists got "fairly free access" to Truman in 1948 by making timely financial contributions to him. This tool has corrupted our politics. It's time to have the debate in an open and democratic manner.
(Anyone who says I'm a hypocrite because I'm supporting the financial instrument of divestment; there is a political tradition of sanctioning human rights abuses in foreign lands, and it is carried out transparently.
(Phil Weiss)