Here's the first two paragraphs from a very long (10,000 words) article by two highly respected, mainstream professors with, as they say, "impeccable credentials" -- taking on one of the supremely taboo subjects in current American politics. I won't even try to summarize; if you're interested, you can read the entire article online at: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/print/mear01_.html One can't help but notice that this article was published in the LONDON Review of Books -- not the NEW YORK Review of Books (no comment necessary). The authors do an excellent job of calmly and cogently laying out all of the inter-related pieces of the picture -- no "conspiracy theories" here. There IS one rather odd omission: in their extensive discussion of US neo-conservatives there's not a single reference to the infamous PNAC (the Project for the New American Century). It doesn't detract from their argument in any discernible way, it's simply a very puzzling omission. Hopefully, we will be hearing the authors on the radio in the near future. Craig Gingold (near) Midpines CA PS - Please forward this to anyone who might be open to a calmly persuasive discussion of this subject. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS Vol. 28 No. 6; dated 23 March 2006 The Israel Lobby John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides. Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the 'Israel Lobby'. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country -- in this case, Israel -- are essentially identical. <SNIP> John Mearsheimer is the Wendell Harrison Professor of Political Science at Chicago, and the author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. Stephen Walt is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His most recent book is Taming American Power: The Global Response to US Primacy. ============================================================= New Pacifica Working Group http://www.egroups.com/group/NewPacifica 'Save Our Stations!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewPacifica/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: NewPacifica-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/