My friend Louise Ross writes from Washington:
I went to an interesting talk at American University by Mitchell Bard, author of The Arab Lobby. He wrote this book – not sure why – and presented it to a tiny group of locals – like me – and a few undergrads in the Israeli Studies program at A.U. I stayed as long as I could but I was rather surprised at his premise. He completely confused the Saudi lobby with the entire Arab world. One student pointed this out and the older folks in the group looked at him as though he committed blasphemy!
Bard started with Eisenhower’s first term where he claims that Ike tried to get Israel wiped off the map. He then went on to describe the Saudi royal family as being representative of the Israeli lobby’s biggest opposition. He gave a lot of swipes at team Mearsheimer-Walt. I wish I could have stayed longer to hear the students’ questions because they were less emotional and often clearer than the older folks’ remarks. I wanted to tell you about the event since there clearly is a student population out there that does not swallow issues whole.
