Here's an article about deep seated characteristics of America that explain why it's so supportive of Zionism. It's pretty obvious to me that the author, one Walter Russell Mead, is himself not so enamored of Israel; perhaps this led him to investigate what it is that makes so many Americans so supportive.
Interestingly, I found this article in a bookstore at the airport in Hong Kong. Just the kind of things you'd expect to find at an airport, huh?
Yaacov,
ReplyDeleteMead's article says, in effect: it's not the Israel Lobby that is responsible for shaping American policy; policy is shaped by the will of the American majority -- and the American majority is stupid.
Mead wants everyone to remember that, like America, Israel is a country "formed by peoples who came to control their current lands after displacing the original population." p. 7 when printed out. In other words, says Mead: Israel stole the land and dispossed the Palestinians.
He says that liberals had supported Israel out of guilt ( p. 5) and "Jacksonian voters" who formed negative views of the Arabs during the Cold War ( p. 10)
"Jacksonians...see a Palestinian rocket attack on Isralei targets as an act of terrorism and believe that the Israelis have an unlimited right .... to retaliate with all the force at their command." p. 11
He then give advice to the Palestinians on how to weaken American support.
Mead is in the mold of Jimmy Carter and Mearsheimer and Walt. As you put it: "he is not so enamored of Israel."