Armanz

Israel-lobby denial: The bankruptcy of the mainstream Left
as illustrated by Stephen Zunes,– or, – On the issue of the Israel lobby
the Left is no more courageous than anyone else
By STEPHEN J. SNIEGOSKI

The antiwar Left would prefer that old-style American imperialism and the quest for oil had caused the Iraq War. They are the preferred enemies of the Left. They are the traditional villains. And they are safe villains. Mentioning Israel as a culprit would cause problems: it would lose support for the Left among activist Jews, and it would lead to hostility from the Israel lobby and mainstream Jewish groups.

By way of contrast, no one ever got in trouble berating oil magnates or Arab sheiks — witness Michael Moore's blockbuster 2004 documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," which focuses on those alleged villains while ignoring the neocon/Israel connection to the war. [1] Also important is the fact that Jews, categorically, are considered to be victims; and it is hard for the Left to criticize an officially recognized victimized group. In terms of left-wing psychology the ideal is to strike a radical, nonconformist pose without really alienating the powerful, thus avoiding any negative consequences as well as the cognitive dissonance that results from chiding designated victims. The process can go so far as to turn a man into an unintentional apologist for Israel. Such is the case with Stephen Zunes, a prominent leftist historian of the Middle East, whom the leftist Israel-critic Jeffrey Blankfort describes as a Noam Chomsky acolyte. [2]

Zunes teaches at the University of San Francisco and, as his biography at the USF Website indicates, serves as a writer and Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus Project, and as an associate editor for Peace Review. [3] Zunes has given numerous lectures and conference papers in the United States and abroad, and has published numerous articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers on such topics as U.S. foreign policy, Middle Eastern political developments, African politics, social movements, and nonviolent action. His books include Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell, 1999) and, with Richard Falk, Tinderbox: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage, 2003). Zunes has served as a political analyst for National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has also been a board member and consultant for a number of peace and human-rights organizations. As is apparent from this brief description, Zunes is a prominent intellectual activist of the antiwar Left. And his views reflect the characteristic attitude of that broad group.

Writing in Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes recently offered an analysis [4] of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's "Israel Lobby" essay [5] that was similar in some ways to the negative views of leftist luminaries Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein [6] but reflected a more hostile tone not just toward Mearsheimer and Walt but toward anyone who would dare claim that the Israel lobby has had an impact on American foreign policy.


To encapsulate Zunes's position: Instead of influencing American policy, Israel is but the passive instrument of American policymakers. Washington has forced Israel to pursue a belligerent policy to enhance American hegemony in the Middle East for the benefit of corporate capitalists, especially arms merchants. Free of American control, Israel would pursue a peaceful policy toward the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states. Therefore, Israel is the victim of the United States.

Moreover, Zunes maintains, those who claim a significant role for Israel and the Israel lobby in determining U.S. foreign policy tend toward anti-Semitism. Thus does the left-wing critic of American policy morph into an apologist for Israel. Like Alan Dershowitz — in some respects worse than Dershowitz — Zunes makes use of misleading half-truths while simultaneously ignoring the unmistakable evidence substantiating the power of the Israel lobby in influencing U.S. policy.

Continued:

http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_lobby_left.htm

Confed999

Wow! Some propaganda piece you posted. I liked the "old style imperialism" bit, had to go back over a hundred years for that line.
Haha! I guess the author doesn't know everything Moore has ever done has been debunked.

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I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

ZFBoxcar

To sum up his piece in one sentence: everyone who doesn't hate Israel is basically faking it to prevent suffering a negative backlash from the Jewish conspiracy which is protected by neocon imperialists on the right and official victim status pussies on the left.

Bluesman

Well, hello, Armanz, if that is the handle you prefer we use. Seems we've met before.

But if I have NOT met you before, let me just mention that this place operates a lot like a regular converasation, with all the rules of etiquette and decorum. We'd like a polite self-introduction, and the owners of the site have graciously provided an 'intros' forum to do just that.

Rather than barge into the room with some flame-bait pet cause and start holding forth like a drunk reading a broadsheet in his daddy's bar, perhaps you'd like to take another shot at an intro.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

bigross86

Hmmm, Israeli's actually ruling the world, controlling everything from behind the scenes, we wanted the war, Bush was elected because of us.

Damn, they're onto us!!!

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TopHatter

An excellent suggestion Armanz.

667medic

Dickk head, since it's a blockbuster, it's true .
So can I safely assume that whatever kinky things being portrayed in porn movies is also true....

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highsea

It's true, you know. I have never seen a better explanation for this than dalem offered in this enlightening post.

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