I have not been a big fan of William Kristol. He often seems to derive too much enjoyment from being different and clever. I have always put great stock in Burke’s commitment to avoid such things: “I assure you I do not aim at singularity.” Kristol sometimes seems to aim for it. (Maybe all pundits have to do that these days.)
But his piece in the upcoming issue of Weekly Standard, entitled “The West Fights Back”, is a cogent and powerful reminder of something that is all too forgotten in America today: Israel and the US are both hated and attacked by the same people and for the same reasons.
The Walt-Mearsheimer hypothesis, embraced by right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats alike, says that Israel and the Jewish Lobby run US foreign policy for Israel’s benefit, to our own detriment. Now this stuff is at least as old as the Zionist movement. It was the thinking of FDR when he suppressed support for Zionism in order to appease Ibn Saud. It was the mindset of the “realists” in the State Department who urged Truman to withhold recognition of the State of Israel. (Their “realism” invariably fell back on the belief that Israel would require 100,000 US troops, “boots on the ground”, for its survival in the first year. The “realists” were wrong, of course, but never acknowledged it.)
And it underlies the thinking of today’s administration “realists”, who think a little “daylight” between the US and Israel will somehow improve things in the world.
Kristol quickly and brilliantly lances the boil of this thinking. The anti-Israel front doesn’t hate us because we support Israel; they hate us because we are LIKE Israel: democratic, respecting free speech and religious freedom, willing to live in peace with our neighbors, modern, and economically successful. Everything the Arabs and Iranians and their allies are not.
Anyway, I suggest you read Kristol’s column here. And let me know what you think: click the “Comments” button up top.
Mister Moleman and his Friends 