September 19, 2007
WHY HIDE IN INDIAN COUNTRY?:
The Israel Lobby and the Second Holocaust Debate: An emblematic error in a controversial book (Ron Rosenbaum, Sept. 19, 2007, Slate)
To me, the real problem is not whether The Israel Lobby pleases this Grand Kleagle or that, or the one-sidedness of its depiction of Israel and its supporters, so much as the profound failure of the moral imagination that the book reflects. A failure to connect with the historical experience of Jews that motivates their support of Israel. A failure to empathize with the real danger the 6 million Jews of Israel face: the threat of a second Holocaust.It is in this light that I'd like to take up what I regard as an emblematic error in the book that involves its allusion to me and my views on the second Holocaust question, an error that I believe is a window into that failure of the moral imagination.
In fairness to the authors, the creation of Israel made a second Holocaust easier. Translocating world Jewry to Florida -- or throughout the US-- would have made it less likely. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2007 7:11 PM
Yes, but relocation to Florida would not have cemented our commitment to out role as holder of world power to the Middle East.
It is fascinating. Everybody knows that American disengagement from the region means the end of Israel--everybody. The Mearsheimer-Walt side is being a tiny bit more forthcoming about it.
We Americans need to step back and look at this business as realists. That is is as real realists, not as self-proclaimed, so-called "realists." We need to take counsel of our own interests, not those of the Israelis themselves nor those of the inmates of the spiritual jailhouse.
It is obvious what is going on here. The faint of heart are losing hope is the possibility that the jailhouse is capable of reformation. They fear that the purported "civilizaton" over there is so deranged as to be undeterible.
The mystery of deterrence eludes them. Herman Kahn's celebrated image of the deterrence as a game of highway "chicken" explains it all. To win the contest of wills, one must take the reponse beyond the exercise of will. As the cars hurtle toward each other, the driver who removes his steering wheel and waves it out of his window is the winner.
Now the setting up of the state of Israel has been such an evolution. We are in the Middle East. We control the oil, we control the maritime as well as land routes domination the Eurasian heartland. If we recede, Israel is done for, so
supporters of Israel are motivated to see to it that we do not recede.
So is the "Israel lobby" a good thing or a bad thing, viewed from our own realistic perspective?
A good thing, I submit. Would there had been such a Czechoslovakian lobby at the time of Munich
Ah, a Realist. Israel, oil, etc. are insignificant. Ask a Moskito.
Posted by: oj at September 20, 2007 7:17 AM