The Uses of Anti-Semitism

Fascinating post by Europundit's Nelson Archer on what he sees as the overriding aim of Walt & Mearsheimer Harvard paper on the so-called “Israel Lobby” controlling America's foriegn policy:

...The paper, however, can and probably must be seen as a part of the other discussion, rather than a discussion in itself. Why? Because, in my view, it has a very clear and very simple goal, namely, the same goal f those rightist and/or isolationist Americans who, in the 30s, wanted to avoid any confrontation with Nazi Germany. Whether in their heart of hearts they were actually anti-Semitic, or whether they saw anti-Semitism as a tool that was begging to be used is utterly indifferent. The fact is that they did their best to taint the anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist cause as pro-Jewish. This interesting guilt by association meant, according to them, that whatever the US did that happened also to be good for the Jews, wasn’t only secretly manipulated y those very Jews (since it served their interests) but was also necessarily harmful to American interests. In short: if it may be good for the Jews, it must be bad for everybody else....

If not the intention (though I doubt it) of the paper, this is surely what makes it useful: Blame the Jews. First one does the best to depict the Iraqi campaign as a disaster (and it has truly been a disaster: for Saddam, the bath party, the Jihadists, much of the European Union, Russia, the Democrats, the mainstream press etc.), then insinuate that what made this disaster inevitable was Jewish influence or Israel’s interests. Next step consists in rewriting history: it is not Arab nationalism, constant and strident anti-American propaganda and alliances with the USSR that justified America’s alliance with Israel, but it is rather this alliance (the story of which then is very selectively told) that is to blame for the US/Islamic conflict....

....And there’s another thing that is sure: this administration’s opponents want it to retreat from Iraq and, maybe, even from Afghanistan, they want the Middle East either continue as it is or to grow worse. Maybe they would have been prepared to concede Bush a victory over Afghanistan, but, whatever happens in Iraq, if this administration doesn’t advance further, it will be forced slowly to retreat. The answer, thus, is not to hold on, but actually to do that the opponents oppose: solve once and for all the Iranian problem. Involuntarily they’re forcing the administration to make up its mind about Iran earlier rather than later. Trying to paint Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld as puppets of the Elders of Zion sounds like a desperate last resort.

Read it all...