“Hello,” They Lied

In case you missed it, Benny Morris has a – scathing – takedown of the Mearsheimer and Walt paper in the current New Republic.

It’s subscription-only, and worth getting one. But here are two quotes…

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt’s “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” is a nasty piece of work. Some of what they assert regarding the terrorist tactics of certain Zionist groups during the 1930s, and the atrocities committed by Israeli troops in the War of 1948, and the harsh Israeli measures against the Palestinians during the second intifada, and certain activities of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States over the past decades–some of this is correct, and I realize as I write this sentence that it will henceforth be trotted out by the Mearsheimers and Walts of the world, as by their Arab admirers, while they omit the previous sentence and all that now follows. But what these distinguished professors have produced is otherwise depressing to anyone who values intellectual integrity.


In their introduction, Mearsheimer and Walt tell their readers that “the facts recounted here are not in serious dispute among scholars…. The evidence on which they rest is not controversial.” This is ludicrous. I would offer their readers a contrary proposition: that the “facts” presented by Mearsheimer and Walt suggest a fundamental ignorance of the history with which they deal, and that the “evidence” they deploy is so tendentious as to be evidence only of an acute bias. That is what will be not in serious dispute among scholars.

They are separated by a detailed, fact-based takedown by a historian who is known for his unblinking look at the history of modern Israel.

If you can read it online, do. If not, go buy the magazine.

2 thoughts on ““Hello,” They Lied”

  1. I’m sorta courious how much the Mearsheimer and Walt paper inspired Iran’s “latest stance”:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060502/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_israel.

    Did they perhaps think that this would be somehow more motivating than the threats they’ve made previously to attack our interests? Did they think perhaps the ‘Jewish Lobby’ that controls America would go, “Oh no! We were willing to sacrifice America in pursuit of our Zionist interests, but now that Israel is threatened we must back off!” Do they really think that that is how American politics work?

    I’m having a hard time figuring out what Iran’s logic is otherwise. Did Iran swallow it’s own Kool-aid? Is this some sort of wierd reverse pyschology? Is this just a desperate plea for creditability in the Islamic world? I don’t get it.

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