Michael Gerson on that same old story about “disproportionate Jewish influence”:
Last year, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago published a paper accusing the “Israel Lobby” of having “unmatched power” and managing to “manipulate the American political system” into actions that undermine U.S. interests.
Supporters praised these scholars for “prying the lid off a debate that has been bottled up for decades” — perhaps since Charles Lindbergh let down his side of the argument in the 1940s. Another reviewer commends them for “saying the unsayable.” In this case, the unsayable was punished with a book advance of three-quarters of a million dollars and turned into 350 pages called “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.”
Accusations of disproportionate Jewish influence are as old as the pharaohs. The novelty here is the endorsement of respected, mainstream academics — […]
There is a temptation in some academic circles to search for that mysterious key that will unlock our whole understanding of American foreign policy. George Bush is captive to the Israelis, or maybe Dick Cheney is captive to the Saudi Arabians. The real problem is the Israeli lobby on the grassy knoll, or dispensationalists covering up the Da Vinci code.
But all this is a conspiracy against the obvious. Perhaps many Americans actually prefer Israel’s flawed democracy to the aging autocrats and corrupt monarchies of the region. Perhaps they root for a reliable ally that is surrounded by nations still committed to its destruction. Perhaps many Americans recall that the Jews, just six decades ago, lost one-third of their number to genocide and believe that this persecuted people deserves a secure home and sanctuary. Perhaps Americans understand that anti-Semitism was the greatest source of evil in the 20th century and is not dead in this one.
Walt and Mearsheimer are careful to say they are not anti-Semitic or conspiracy-minded. But their main inference — that Israel, the Israel lobby and Jewish neoconservatives called the shots for Bush, Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld — is not only rubbish, it is dangerous rubbish. As “mainstream” scholars, Walt and Mearsheimer cannot avoid the historical pedigree of this kind of charge. Every generation has seen accusations that Jews have dual loyalties, promote war and secretly control political structures.
These academics may not follow their claims all the way to anti-Semitism. But this is the way it begins. This is the way it always begins.
Mick Hartley 
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