Vital Perspective

Mearsheimer Charges 'Israel Lobby' with Responsibility for Iraq, 9/11 Attacks

University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer, co-author of the infamous 'research' paper on the 'Israel Lobby', blamed the 'Lobby' for both the Iraq war and the attacks of September 11, 2001 in a speech last night in New York.

"The Israel lobby was one of the principal driving forces behind the Iraq War, and in its absence we probably would not have had a war," said Mearsheimer. Later, in response to a question from the audience, he claimed that the "animus to the United States" of al-Qaeda terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed "stemmed from U.S. foreign policy toward Israel."

We have been through this far too many times in the past. The argument that the 'Israel Lobby' engineered the war in Iraq reeks of the type of conspiracy theories that run rampant in the Arab world. Second, blaming the 'Israel Lobby' for the 9/11 attacks blames obvious flaws in that argument. Namely, that countries that do not share a relationship with Israel analagous to the United States have been victims of brutal terrorist attacks. This includes Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Indonesia, Spain, Britain, Jordan and others.

Former Israeli FM Shlomo Ben-Ami, who served under Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, said at the event that the term "Lobby" as used in the paper "is a cover for the Jews, basically," and that there was an "element of scapegoating" in the case made by Mearsheimer and Walt.

Saudis Tout Arab Initiative; Egypt to Call For Jump to Final Status Issues at UN

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that its 2002 Middle East peace plan, widely known as the Arab Peace Initiative, remained the only framework to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, as the UN prepares to discuss the issue. The Security Council was due to meet later this month to discuss Arab proposals to revive peace talks that have repeatedly stalled in large part due to the Palestinian failure to implement the initial steps of the Road Map agreement.

The document was adopted by the Arab League in 2002 and foresees an end to the conflict through land-for-peace deals with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. Let us remember that Israel was never consulted at any time on the agreement, and the Arabs now call their unilateral decision the "only framework." Placed side-by-side against the Road Map, which was accepted by the U.S., Russia, EU, UN, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, we clearly disagree. The Arab Initiative is far from the "only framework"... in fact, it's not a legitimate framework at all.

Another proposal to be presented by Egypt to the Security Council calls for reversing the timetable of the Road Map by fixing the borders of a Palestinian state before resuming talks. That's nothing short of a formula for disaster. Jumping directly into final status issues before the Hamas-led government recognizes Israel, accepts past agreements and renounces violence, before the territories are demilitarized, before the rocket attacks and kidnappings end, would create immense tension and more terrorism by irresponsibly raising expectations for a quick resolution. If you jump to final status issues without first dealing with the surface issues such as terror, you can expect nothing short of a disaster.

"The Road Map should have a conclusion and that is the creation of a Palestinian state. We need to agree on the concept and the borders, and then negotiate on the means of achieving this goal," Egyptian FM Ahmad Abu al-Gheit said Thursday. "Everyone must work toward the realization of the true goal of the peace process, which is to establish a Palestinian state."

Rice Hosts Israeli FM Livni, Discusses Lebanon, Iran, Palestinian Unity Govt

Secretary Rice and Israeli FM Tzipi Livni met today in Washington, and apparently will continue their dialogue this evening over dinner. They held a brief joint press availability that give us some insight on the U.S. and Israeli view on the various situations in the region from Lebanon to Iran to a possible Palestinian unity government (however unlikely that is) and its ramifications for the Quartet and the flow of international aid to the Palestinian Authority:

SEC. RICE: Good afternoon. I'm very pleased to welcome Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to the United States, also deputy prime minister. Tzipi and I have had a number of opportunities to meet here and also in the Middle East. We've had a wide-ranging discussion, including discussing Resolution 1701 on Lebanon and the need for its full implementation. We have discussed the situation in Iran, Iran's destabilizing activities in the region and also concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. We have talked about the two-state solution and how to think about moving forward on Israeli-Palestinian issues.

I also wanted to say to Minister Livni and to the Israeli people that the United States continues to call for the unconditional and immediate release of the Israeli soldier in the Palestinian territory and the Israeli soldiers held in Lebanon. We pray for their safety and for their well-being, but the international community has made very clear that they should be released and released unconditionally.

Thank you for coming.

MIN. LIVNI: Thank you, and thank you for the invitation. And my visit comes at a very special time when we mark the attacks of September 11th. I think that this was a day in which the world was divided in two between those who mourned and those who celebrated, and Israelis cried with the Americans that day. And since then, Israel, under the leadership of the United States of America and other nations, are fighting terrorism.

My visit here also comes a few weeks after Resolution 1701 was adopted by the Security Council.

I think that Resolution -- I believe that Resolution 1701 represent the interest of the region, and it represent the interest of the region in order to promote a process and to change the situation in the region. And this is also a result of the determination of the United States and personally Secretary Rice, and determination not to come back to the dangerous status quo that we faced before the attack -- unprovoked attack -- on Israel.

California Mayor Defends Presenting Key to the City to Palestinian Envoy

Jewish leaders in Santa Cruz, California have asked the mayor to apologize for giving a ceremonial key to the city to Palestinian representative Afif Safieh after Sahieh called Lebanon's Hezbollah "an amateur in terrorism compared to Israel.''

But Mayor Cynthia Mathews defended the symbolic gesture of welcome and respect as an appropriate show of support for Safieh's efforts to promote peace in the Middle East. She said she would do the same if an Israeli official came to Santa Cruz. "I acted on Safieh's work to encourage communication and peaceful resolution to the conflict, which is something I think we would all like to see,'' Mathews said Tuesday. Safieh is a longtime member of the PLO, which includes groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

In the past decade, Santa Cruz mayors also have awarded city keys to spiritual leader Ram Dass, filmmaker Michael Moore, folk singer Arlo Guthrie and Lex van den Berghe, a local reality TV star.

New Polls Show American Attitudes Towards Mideast Following War in Lebanon

Polling juggernaut Quinnipiac University has released an interesting new poll. QU asked 1,080 American voters to rate each of these countries on a scale of 0 -100 according to "how friendly or unfriendly do you think" each nation or group is to the U.S. These are the mean scores:

"The changes since our last poll show that the recent fighting in the Middle East has strengthened Americans' view that Israel is a friend to the U.S. and that Iran, Syria and the Palestinians are not," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "The biggest change toward Israel has been among political independents."

Israel's support in the U.S. is stronger among Republicans (70.9) and independents (68.1) than among Democrats (60) and among men (71.9) than women (60.5).

In other findings, approval of the Palestinian Authority dropped from 25.0 to 22.8; Iran fell from 16.9 to 13.9; Syria, which was not previously polled on, scored third worst overall at 21.7. In each case, Democrats and women view those countries marginally more favorably than Republicans, independents or men. Additionally, Saudi Arabia, which condemned the original Hezbollah attack, dropped from 39.5 in June to 38.2.

"Although the changes in each case are modest, together it is reasonable to assume that they show the recent fighting increased Americans' sympathies toward Israel and increased the animosity in the United States toward Israel's enemies," said Brown.

There was also a new Harris Interactive poll released today that shows Americans view Israel and a friendly country and Iran as an enemy. The online poll of 3,685 adults measured American attitudes towards Turkey, Afghanistan and 11 others countries in the Middle East as well as attitudes toward eight leaders and organizations in the region.

Three-quarters of U.S. adults identify Israel as either a close ally or "a friend, but not an ally," compared with 16% who see the nation as "not friendly, but not an enemy" and 8% who see it as "unfriendly and an enemy."

By comparison, 76% of those polled view Iran as an enemy, while 21% see the country as not friendly, and only 4% view it as a close ally or friend. The region's other governments least likely to be seen as either an ally or friend were Syria (8%), Libya (12%), Lebanon (15%) and Iraq (18%).

As far as views of leaders in the region go, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is viewed most positively by Americans (49%). Olmert was followed by King Abdallah of Jordan (44%), Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (37%), Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora (31%), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (25%), the Palestinian Authority (23%), Hamas (17%) and Hezbollah (14%).

New Research Sheds Light on Role of Religion in American Support for Israel

American support for Israel has risen sharply following the war with Hezbollah, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Pew reported that as of mid-August, 52% of Americans sympathized with Israel while 11% backed the Palestinians. Less than a month earlier, Pew found 44% support for Israel and 9% for the Palestinians, with the remainder of those surveyed either expressing no sympathies or equal support for the two sides.

The research primarily focused on religion being the basis of support for Israel and shows some important results: 42% say "Israel was given to the Jewish people by God," while 35% said they believed the state of Israel was "part of the fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the second coming of Jesus." The report concluded that "Beliefs about the Bible are closely related to views about the state of Israel... Large majorities of those who view the Bible as the literal word of God say that Israel was given by God to the Jews and that Israel is the fulfillment of prophecy - 70% and 62%, respectively. These figures are much lower among those who do not believe the Bible is the actual word of God."

Support for Israel was highest in the South, where 56% said the Land of Israel was given to the Jews by God and 45% said the State of Israel fulfilled biblical prophecy. The comparable figures for the Northeast were 24% and 22%, respectively.

For the U.S. as a whole, white evangelical Protestants reported the strongest level of belief that Israel was given to the Jews by God (69%) and that the State was the fulfillment of biblical prophecy (59%). Black Protestants held similar views, 60% and 56%, while less than a third of Roman Catholics and "mainline" Protestant churches -Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans et al - shared this view.

In Case You Missed It: Pronouncing Blame on Israel Lobby, Jewish Groups

In case you missed their embarrassing performance yesterday on C-SPAN, here's a full transcript of the Mearsheimer-Walt press conference sponsored by CAIR. Unfortunately, the transcript just doesn't do it justice. For eyewitness detail we have to refer you to Dana Milbank who wrote a fantastic account of the press conference:

MR. WALT: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here today, and I want to thank CAIR for inviting us to present the results of our research on the forces that shape U.S. Middle East policy. I think this is an important subject for all Americans and for all of the countries in the Middle East as well.

Our presentation is going to be in two parts. I'm going to begin by summarizing the main arguments in our article on the Israel lobby, and then John will apply those ideas to the recent war between Israel and Lebanon, and show that you can't really understand what happened there if you don't understand the political power of pro-Israel groups in the United States.

Our bottom line, as many of you know, is that the influence of the Israel lobby has led to policies that are not in the U.S. national interest, not in the interests of other countries in the region and, ultimately, not in Israel's long-term interest as well. We're going to try and limit our remarks to about 25 minutes apiece so there is time for comments and questions when we're done.

All right. What's our core argument? We make several big arguments in our paper. First, we just document the level of support the United States provides to Israel -- about $3 billion a year in economic and military assistance each year. That's about $500 per year per Israeli citizen, despite the fact that Israel is a relatively wealthy industrial power. That aid is largely unconditional. It's not linked to Israeli behavior. It gets its aid when it builds settlements, it gets its aid when it spies on us, when it sells American high technology to countries like China, or when it attacks civilians in the West Bank, Lebanon or Gaza.

Israel also gets consistent diplomatic support from the United States. Since 1982, for example, we have vetoed 33 U.N. Security Council resolutions that were critical of Israel. That's a total greater than all of the vetoes by all of the other Security Council members put together.

And finally, we take Israel's side in wartime, as John is going to discuss in some detail. Moreover, over time we have tended to favor Israel's side whenever peace talks do occur. This led former U.S. negotiator Aaron Miller to state, a few years back, that the United States basically had acted as Israel's lawyer during the Oslo process and, of course, has been even more one-sided under President Bush.

The bottom line here is no other country gets the same level of economic, military and diplomatic support. Now, that support is usually justified by saying that Israel is a vital strategic asset or by invoking various moral rationales. We argue in our paper that this level of support can't be fully explained by either strategic or moral arguments.

Governor of Alabama Signs Proclamation Designating "Stand with Israel Day"

An old friend in Montgomery sent us a heads up that Monday was proclaimed "Stand with Israel Day" in the State of Alabama by Governor Bob Riley. Nice enough, so we got ourselves a copy of the Proclamation:

WHEREAS, the Jewish people have been subject to acts of terror throughout their long history, including the Holocause of the Nazi terror regime; and

WHEREAS, in 1943, in the midst of World War II, at a time of war against the Axis powers and their effort to exterminate the Jews of Europe through mass murder, Alabama led nation as the first state in America to officially call for the establishment of a Jewish homeland; and

WHEREAS, that official call was in a unanimous Joint Resolution, Act 144, SJ 4, 1943 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature approved and signed by the Governor of Alabama on June 10, 1943; and

WHEREAS, more than five decades the State of Israel has been America's chief democratic ally in the Middle East, in an alliance based on shared values and shared interests; and

WHEREAS, in the wake of September 11, 2001, the Alabama Legislature unanimously passed a second Joint Resoluion, Act 258, SJR 85, 2002 Regular Session urging national support for the State of Israel and expressing Alabama's unequivocal support for the Sate of Israel against the senseless acts of terror; and

WHEREAS, the State of Israel and its people remain the target of terrorist activities; and

WHEREAS, Hezbollah and Hamas terror organizatios have recently launched attacks on sovereign Israeli land, killing and wounding Israeli soldiers and innocent citizens; and

WHEREAS, the State of Alabama hereby proclaims her support of the State of Israel in its need to maintain its existence as a county and a democracy, standing with Israel as a state, as a nation, and as a people against terrorism and tyranny and for the cause of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and around the world:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Bob Riley, Governor of Alabama, do hereby proclaim August 14, 2006, as STAND WITH ISRAEL DAY in the State of Alabama.

Given Under My Hand and the Great Seal of the Office of the Governor at the State Capitol in the City of Montgomery on the 11th day of August 2006.

Poll Shows Wide Support for Israel, Operation Against Hezbollah in Lebanon

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll recently released found that 68 percent of Americans, based on what they have read or head about the conflict in the Middle East, sympathize with Israel more than Hezbollah (6%). Also, 41 percent think Israel's reaction to the situation has been about right, while 18 percent think they have not gone far enough. Complete findings of relevant questions from the poll appear below:

Peres: Ceasefire in "Weeks, Not Months"; Rice Pushing for Quick Resolution

During a trip to Washington on Tuesday, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres told reporters that Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon could go on for weeks. Asked following a meeting with Secretary Rice at the State Department his assessment of how long it would be before the Israeli military campaign ends, Peres told reporters: "In my judgment, it is not far away. You can count it in a matter of weeks, not months."

Rice, however, said on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer today that a ceasefire could be reached in Lebanon within days. "This week is entirely possible. Certainly we are talking about days not weeks," she said. Later this evening Rice will also appear on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News; we'll be listening for similar statements.

Before a ceasefire could be reached, certain conditions had to be in place, she said, specifically strengthening Lebanese control over the southern part of the country to prevent more Hezbollah attacks on Israel. "The Lebanese government has to have full authority over its territory. We need an end to the violence that's really going to be an end to the violence."

UPDATE 08/01 @ 19:54: More on Peres at YNET -- he doesn't see a regional war on the horizon because Egypt and Jordan won't be rushing to Syria's side.

UPDATE 08/02 @ 12:07: Is the New York Times reading us?

UPDATE 08/02 @ 17:49: Here is a video and summary of Peres at WINEP.