On March 12, John Mearsheimer went on Philadelphia talk radio to discuss the Israel lobby, as reported here at the time. David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, was on next, and host Dom Giordano asked Mearsheimer to stay and have it out with Harris. Mearsheimer declined, saying that he had "to fly." Since then Harris has said that Mearsheimer ducked a debate
and has challenged him to "an open debate in a mutually agreed-upon
public forum." I emailed Mearsheimer to ask why he had declined to stick around
for Harris. He writes:
I did decline twice to debate David Harris on the Dom Giordano radio
show out of Philadelphia (WPHT) on March 12. But this was hardly a case
of me "running away" from a debate with him. Here is what happened.
On the morning of March 12 (Thursday), Dom
Giordano's producer called me and asked if I would be willing to be on
the show that evening. I had been on once before, and would normally
have said yes, but I said no, because I had to work all day to finish a
piece I was writing for the London Review of Books on the Chas Freeman affair–which LRB had asked for the night before, and which was due first thing Friday morning. So I was
really under the gun and simply had to work all day Thursday on the
piece.
Anyway, after I said I could not do it, Dom Giordano got on the line and pleaded with me and told me that it would be a very
short interview; it would only take 5 minutes or so. I said okay and
told him that he should call me at my office at about 5 pm Chicago
time. He then asked me if I would like to debate David Harris on the
show. I said no, because I did not think that we could have a
meaningful debate in 5 or so minutes on the radio. Dom said fine and I
thought that was the end of it.
The show called me at 5 pm as agreed and I did my interview and
took a call from one listener. As I was about to close out my
discussion with Dom, he asked me if I would like to stay on the line
and debate David Harris, who was going to be his next guest. I told Dom that I couldn't, because "I have to fly."
There was an important reason for this. My wife was taking a class at Northwestern and it
met on Thursday nights. We have two young children (ages
8 and 12) and we don't like to leave them alone. We had worked it out this
time, that my wife would leave at 5 and the kids would be alone for
about 20 to 30 minutes until I got home. (They had my cell number if
there was a problem.) In short, I was primed to leave my office as soon
as the interview with Dom was over and get home quickly to watch the
kids. So, when he asked me to stay longer on the show, I automatically
said no and said that "I have to fly."
As to my willingness to debate Harris, I did not say said that I would
never debate him. I simply said I did not want to debate him in a brief
radio appearance. It was just not the right format. The truth is that I
would love to debate him if we can work out the right format and
location. And I have spoken to Steve Walt, who is enthusiastic about
the idea.
Here is what I propose. Let's have a public debate in New York
City featuring John Mearsheimer and Steve Walt on one side and David
Harris and another heavyweight from the lobby on the other side —
maybe Abe Foxman.
Our only condition is that we will not debate individuals who have called us anti-Semites, for instance Alan Dershowitz.
The topic would be: "Is the Israel Lobby Good for America and Israel?"
We could hold it in a large auditorium at a place like Cooper
Union, the YIVO Institute, or CUNY. I would assume that the AJC could
easily set something like this up, and Steve and I would pay our own
way to New York and back.
I am sure we would have no problem filling the auditorium and I would bet that C-Span would cover it in a second.
In sum, I am not running away from a debate with David Harris. I welcome the idea.
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