REBUTTING THE HARVARD/CHICAGO PAPER ON THE "ISRAEL LOBBY"

An Unfair Attack - David Gergen (U.S. News)
It brings no joy to issue a public rebuttal against a valued colleague, but there are moments that demand no less. The occasion is the publication of a nerve-jangling essay by professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, the academic dean and my colleague at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Not only are these charges wildly at variance with what I have personally witnessed in the Oval Office over the years, but they also impugn the loyalty and the unstinting service to America's national security by public figures like Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, and many others.

As a Christian, let me add that it is also wrong and unfair to call into question the loyalty of millions of American Jews who have faithfully supported Israel while also working tirelessly and generously to advance America's cause, both at home and abroad. They are among our finest citizens and should be praised, not pilloried.

Over the course of four tours in the White House, I never once saw a decision in the Oval Office to tilt U.S. foreign policy in favor of Israel at the expense of America's interest.

See also The Israel Conspiracy - Bret Stephens
Has there ever been an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that does not share the basic features of the Mearsheimer-Walt hypothesis? The late editor of the Wall Street Journal, Robert Bartley, is cited by Mearsheimer and Walt. Robert Bartley was a man of modest Christian beliefs and principled political convictions. He supported Israel for much the same reason he supported Great Britain, Poland, and Taiwan - because they were friends of the U.S., because they were democracies, because they were places where his core beliefs in free men and free markets held sway. (Wall Street Journal, 25Mar06)