Steve F. is accusing me of making wild assertions re the Israel Lobby. Here's his charge:
Strange – I haven't gotten anything in the mail recently about this.
This is the neocon lobby that refuses to divide Jerusalem? Or a different
lobby? Doesn't sound like Ralph and me (although I don't even know Ralph –
I'm just speculating here). If you are correct Phil, this is a lobby with
a lot of folks who disagree. But the ultimate conclusion to be reached
here is that, as far as you are concerned, anyone who is in favor of a Jewish
state called Israel is part of the lobby. Or maybe just the Jews. But
a lobby is all like-minded folks – don't exclude other religions, that's not
right. If you include Christians, heck, by your definition, I guess
Jimmy Carter is part of the lobby. He is not a one-state solution
guy. You really are doing a disservice if you don't include the Christian
right – throw in all the other supporters of Israel and you have a lobby
with the vast majority of the US in it! Now, that's a lobby! With a
lobby like that, no wonder we are so powerful. We are the biggest lobby
ever!! Joking aside, you have staggered into the truth. The
vast majority of America supports a Jewish Israel and will defend
it. The "Lobby" that Ralph and I are a part of does include a
majority of America. They are not taking marching orders from AIPAC but
will not let Israel be turned into a binational state or be pressured to
surrender territory if that territory will then become a hostile launching pad
for terror. Apart from that, this "Lobby" has wildly divergent
views. But it is not really a lobby because it really represents
mainstream American political opinion. You just have to deal with
that.
Steve, in response, I'd say that the reason I said you're part of the lobby is I really think that you and Ralph think about Israel 24-7, almost as much as I do, and that you act on its behalf all the time, and feel a great responsibility to do so. Is it the whole Jewish community? Well, from the time I was little I was told that Jews are for Israel, that's what we are. And yes the thrust of this website is that Jews don't have to be for Israel, there can be diversity; though it would be nice if those non-Zionist Jews would be hired, say, at Yivo or the New Republic or the New York Times. And no I honestly don't think being joined at the hip with Israel reflects the American interest or that the American people would be for it, if they knew. They sure wouldn't be for the settlements, where last night settlers reportedly killed an 18-year-old Palestinian shepherd. Yet the settlements and the poisoned Arabs' goats have been stuffed down their throats. And why then is the American interest distorted with respect to this issue? Alas, it is impossible to talk about this issue without talking about Jewish influence, Jewish money. As I blogged some months back re former Harvard Dean Stephen Walt chutpah/naivete, to have come out with his anti-Israel-lobby book, a colleague at the Kennedy School had commented to me, "Look at the names on the buildings." Meaning the Harvard buildings. Mostly Jewish. Just part of the new American sociology our mainstream journalism can't get its head around. Like the New York Public Library becoming the Schwartzman library. It's weird, it's interesting, it's important. It's why McCain 3 or 4 times attacked Ahmadinejad's statements on Israel the other night. But let's not talk about it.
As for one-state/two-state, I don't care: All I want is self-determination for 4 million Palestinians, or our buildings will get blown up.
