Responding to Walt & Mearsheimer

John Mearsheimer appeared this week on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” to hawk his book (part of a tour that will go international next month).  Stephen Colbert’s questions were better than Mearsheimer’s answers:

Are they [the Israel lobby] worse than AARP? 

By the way, the cover of the book, where the United States flag is sort of half-replaced with the Israeli flag, in terms of the colors -- was that your idea, or did the Israel lobby get to your publisher?

How did the Israel lobby, how do they influence United States policy, to make the United States the largest single supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia? 

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If you read Walt & Mearsheimer’s book, you’ll find their definition of the Israel lobby is a bit broad.  They say the lobby “is not a centralized hierarchical organization with a defined membership” and “doesn’t have membership cards or initiation rites.”  Instead, it has a “core consisting of organizations,” plus some “influential individuals,” plus a “penumbra of [other] groups and individuals,” including “individuals who occasionally write letters to their local editor” or “send checks” and who are part of the “broader network.”  (All this is from page 113 of their book).

If you read this blog, you may be part of the Israel lobby!  And even if you don’t think you are, Walt & Mearsheimer may think you are, which may effectively settle the question. 

Midge Decter once said that “There comes a time to join the side you’re on.”  Maybe now is the time to do what you’re already being blamed for doing:  as Anne Lieberman suggested, extending a point made by Doris Wise Montrose, the head of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Los Angeles (CJHSLA), you should Join the Israel Lobby: 

Join AIPAC

Become an ADL Supporter

Join Christians United For Israel

Support the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Support the American Enterprise Institute

Join one or more of these Major American Jewish Organizations:

Ameinu
American Friends of Likud
American Gathering/Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
America-Israel Friendship League
American Israel Public Affairs Committee
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Congress
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Sephardi Federation
American Zionist Movement
Americans for Peace Now
AMIT
Anti-Defamation League
Association of Reform Zionists of America
B’nai B’rith International
Bnai Zion
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
Development Corporation for Israel / State of Israel Bonds
Emunah of America
Friends of Israel Defense Forces
Hadassah, Women’s Zionist Organization of America
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Jewish Community Centers Association
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Jewish Labor Committee
Jewish National Fund
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
Jewish War Veterans of the USA
Jewish Women International
MERCAZ USA, Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement
NA’AMAT USA
NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Young Israel
ORT America
Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbinical Council of America
Religious Zionists of America
Union for Reform Judaism
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
United Jewish Communities
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
WIZO
Women’s League for Conservative Judaism
Women of Reform Judaism
Workmen’s Circle
World Zionist Executive, US
Zionist Organization of America

NB: This list is not my invention; it comes from Walt & Mearsheimer's new book.

With just a few clicks, in just a few minutes, we can respond to Walt & Mearsheimer.

And if not now, when?

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(Hat tip CJHSLA for the bumper sticker and BtB for "Walt & Mearsheimer in Translation")