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Once Again, Haaretz Says What Our Press Won’t Dare To

Political strategist George Ajjan tells me that at a meeting of Arab community leaders last night (in New Jersey, I presume) a friend told him about an article in Haaretz describing a growing trend to delegitimize the idea of a Jewish state in the U.S.

Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz told
Haaretz that American academics are at the forefront of those denying
Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Veteran advocates of this
position, such as Tony Judt and Noam Chomsky, were joined last year by
Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, both from reputable academic
institutions, who charged that the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) dictates American foreign policy. Their article,
which generated shock waves, is being turned into a book, which is
slated to be published in September. The fact that a respected
publisher paid Walt and Mearsheimer an advance that is thought to have
totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars attests to how hot the
publisher thinks this issue is, Reinharz said.

“My feeling –
and that of many people – following Walt and Mearsheimer and other
publications is that we are at the start of a new era with regard to
attitudes toward Israel in the U.S.,” he added.

The significant thing about this article is that while describing a POTENTIALLY HUGELY SIGNIFICANT trend in my country, it is being discussed in the Israeli press not the American press. As I said the other day, Roger Cohen’s giant piece on Tzipi Livni in the Times touched on this very issue–the delegitimization of Zionism in the U.S.–and dismissed it as “insidious” without even attempting to describe the ideas. Haaretz outshines us.  Sometimes I really do love Israel! It puts “free speech” in its neighbors to shame, and smart Arabs know it. And free speech in the U.S. too. Let us be a light unto the nations, goddamnit!

Another thing: the claim that Walt and Mearsheimer got “hundreds of thousands” for their book is out there. I understand Jerrold Nadler said something like this on the Upper West Side a few months back.

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