Scholars again hit U.S. policy on Israel

Scholars again hit U.S. policy on Israel
By Frank James
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published August 29, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Two scholars who created a controversy earlier this year when they wrote that the pro-Israel lobby exerted too much influence over U.S. foreign policy said Monday that the recent Israel-Hezbollah war was yet another example of a dangerous tendency.

John Mearsheimer, a University of Chicago political science professor, and Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, said the U.S. government's unstinting support for Israel in the war again placed the agenda of what they call the Israel lobby ahead of U.S. strategic interests.

The result, they said, was that the U.S. position in the Middle East, already strained because of the Iraq war, had worsened with consequences that were bad for America and Israel.

"One, Iran and Syria are more likely to continue arming and supporting Hezbollah," Mearsheimer said. "Two, Iran and Syria have even more reason to keep the U.S. pinned down in Iraq so they're not attacked by U.S. troops. Three, Iran has more reason than ever to acquire nuclear weapons so it can deter an Israeli or U.S. attack on its homeland."

The professors, whose essay appeared in the London Review of Books, spoke Monday at an event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.

They blamed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a leading pro-Israel lobby, for a failed attempt to slightly amend language in a pro-Israel House resolution to call on the warring parties to protect innocent civilians and infrastructure.

"One would think that such language would be unobjectionable if not welcome," Mearsheimer said. "But AIPAC, which was the main driving force behind this resolution to begin with, objected and John Boehner, the House majority leader, kept the proposed language out. The resolution still passed 410-8."

A spokesperson for AIPAC said the organization has not commented on Mearsheimer and Walt's criticisms.

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