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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion
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To: Richnorth who wrote (1938)9/28/2006 8:50:32 AM
From: carranza2  Read Replies (1) of 10087
 
The main theme of the Mearsheimer and Walt piece is that the Israeli influence in the US is so overriding that support of Israel is the mainstay of our Middle East policy.

The premise of the article is so hugely flawed as to not merit serious discussion or consideration by anyone who is not completely and thoroughly emotionally engaged in the matter. The piece completely ignores the fact that protecting the US supply of ME oil far outweighs any influence the Israel lobby may have in the US. We have gone to war twice in a decade in the ME to protect oil, but not once have we sent our troops in Israel's defense.

Oil company influence far outstrips the influence of Israel as respects our ME policy. Even Chomsky correctly notes that Israel serves our oil-related interests by putting a damper on Arab nationalism and by diverting to some extent Islamist attention from the US and its Saudi partners to it. It is clearly and inescapably the protection of our oil supply, not support for Israel, which is the mainstay of our ME policy.

Mearsheimer and Walt's scholarship has also been assailed as inadequate. But I find the failure to recognize the obvious and true mainstay of our ME policy, a failure so profound and obvious, to be an indication that perhaps other considerations [antisemitism in academic garb being the most prominent] are at play.
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