Daily Dreamtime

Pronouncing Blame on the Israel Lobby

By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, August 29, 2006; A02

It was quite a boner.

University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer was in town yesterday to elaborate on his view that American Jewish groups are responsible for the war in Iraq, the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure and many other bad things. As evidence, he cited the influence pro-Israel groups have on "John Boner, the House majority leader."

Actually, Professor, it's "BAY-ner." But Mearsheimer quickly dispensed with Boehner (R-Ohio) and moved on to Jewish groups' nefarious sway over Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who Mearsheimer called " Von Hollen."

Such gaffes would be trivial -- if Mearsheimer weren't claiming to be an authority on Washington and how power is wielded here. But Mearsheimer, with co-author Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School, set off a furious debate this spring when they argued that "the Israel lobby" is exerting undue influence in Washington; opponents called them anti-Semitic.

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Ex-Colleague Says Armitage Was Source of CIA Leak

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2006; A06

The leak of information about an undercover CIA employee that provoked a special prosecutor's investigation of senior White House officials came from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, according to a former Armitage colleague at the department.

Armitage told newspaper columnist Robert D. Novak in the summer of 2003 that Valerie Plame, the wife of a prominent critic of the Iraq war, worked for the CIA, the colleague said. In October of that year, Armitage admitted to senior State Department officials that he had made the remark, which was based on a classified report he had read.

Novak collected what he considered to be a confirming comment from White House political strategist Karl Rove, then wrote a column in July 2003 that cited Plame's CIA employment as a reason to question the credentials of the critic, former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

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vhm-design:

http://vhm-design.com/

http://vhm-design.com/Images/Gallery/ERMOH.jpg

This somewhat clever hatchet job on two distinguished professors
confirms once again the pro-Israel bias that pervades our major media.
In his column on page two in today’s Washington Post reporter Dana
Milbank (text follows, along with further comment) trashes one of the
more interesting public policy presentations mounted recently in
Washington, interesting because it addressed a topic normally taboo in
this town. Professors Walt and Mearsheimer gave an update on their study
of the “Israel Lobby” and its influence on our Middle East policies
first published in London after being rejected here. They expressed some
astonishment that their work had caused such controversy, since the
facts they displayed are well known and really indisputable. They did
not profess to discover anything new; they simply documented what is
known. There is no doubt that the “Israel Lobby” has captured control of
our policies toward the conflicts in the Middle East, more so today than
ever in the past. One irrefutable piece of evidence is the letter from
the head of AIPAC, Howard Friedman, to its members and supporters
bragging about how much control they maintain over all Washington
decision-making with respect to Israel. The professors noted that what
could be considered controversial is whether these pro-Israel policies
are also good for the United States, which is of course debatable and
worthy of discussion. Here is the article.

Pronouncing Blame on the Israel Lobby

By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, August 29, 2006; A02

It was quite a boner.

University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer was in town
yesterday to elaborate on his view that American Jewish groups are
responsible for the war in Iraq, the destruction of Lebanon's
infrastructure and many other bad things. As evidence, he cited the
influence pro-Israel groups have on "John Boner, the House majority leader."