Two scholars say pro-Israel lobby has warped U.S. policy

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON - Two scholars who created a controversy earlier this year when they wrote that the pro-Israel lobby exerted too much influence over U.S. foreign policy said Monday that the recent Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon was yet another example of what they view as a dangerous tendency.

John Mearsheimer, a University of Chicago political science professor, and Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University's Kennedy School, said the U.S. government's unstinting support for Israel's recent war in Lebanon once again placed the agenda of what they call the Israel lobby ahead of U.S. strategic interests.

The result, they said, was that the U.S. position in the Middle East, already strained due to the Iraq War, had worsened with consequences that wouldn't just be bad for America, but Israel as well.

"One, Iran and Syria are more likely to continue arming and supporting Hezbollah," Mearsheimer said.

"Two, Iran and Syria have even more reason to keep the U.S. pinned down in Iraq so it's not attacked by U.S. troops," he said. "Three, Iran has more reason than ever to acquire nuclear weapons so it can deter an Israeli or U.S. attack on its homeland."

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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/politics/15383641.htm

[Harper_is_Bush]

1. They needed scholars to tell us all that? nt

[Purveyor]

2. No, just ones brave enough to sign their writings and appear

before the cameras.

[Jim Sagle]

3. They're purveyers too.

[Tom Joad]

6. Can't argue with that. Mostly because nothing was said.

[FlavaKreemSnak]

4. I don't think they will have their jobs for very long

Because you can get in a lot of trouble for saying things like that, and no university wants to be called anti-Semitic and terrorist sympathizers, which is what gets said if you say stuff like that, and they even have a website where if there are any professors at your school that do, then people can turn them in and they will warn your school about it so they can talk to the professor and give him a chance to be in favor of unconditional support for Israel if he doesn't want to go try to get a job somewhere else having the reputation of being an anti-Semite etc.

[Howardx]

5. awesome run on sentence

n/t