RE: "The Israel Lobby" and It's Critics

Apologies for not seeing this earlier, but I just caught up with the thoughtful review of The Israel Lobby book (and debate) by Daniel Levy, an Israeli who directs the Prospects for Peace Initiative and writes the Prospects for Peace blog.

The pieces by Levy and the aforementioned Milton Viorst raise some obvious points that are nonetheless often absent in the polemics.

The first point is that in debating the issue, there's a difference between American support for Israel, and American support for Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Criticism of the occupation policy is part of a healthy debate.

The second is that there's a difference between the pro-Israel lobby groups that promote hardline views in favor of the occupation, and pro-Israel groups that denounce the occupation and advocate its end. The questioning of hard-liners and their views is also part of a useful discussion.

As Viorst describes the hard-line lobby groups, which he calls the "right-wing Israel lobby": "Their agenda seeks not only to assure Israel's survival but to pursue particular partisan policies. They function, in effect, as the U.S. arm of Likud, serving Israel's right wing in rejecting the exchange of land for peace with the Arabs, in standing up for the Jewish settlements that blanket the territories conquered in 1967, in condoning the mistreatment of the Palestinians of the occupied lands, whose life grows more onerous each day."

Levy, for his part, writes, "A key distinction to draw... is that it is not Israel per se that has become a strategic liability for the U.S., but rather Israel as an occupier (which is indeed, a liability to itself)." Citing the authors' argument that support for "an Israel that is at war with its neighbors" has fueled anti-Americanism and contributes to the growth of radical Islam, Levy says "the distinction should be on the radar screen of Israel's strategic planners."

(Housekeeping note: Levy's piece cites TIME's Tony Karon and his popular blog Rootless Cosmopolitan for a recent piece on "Jewish glasnost." )
--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo