Sunday Oregonian's Article by Mearsheimer and Walt

John Mearsheimer, professor at U. of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, professor at Harvard, wrote a lengthy article in today's paper called Israel's False friends Candidates' unconditional support isn't right for Jewish state. I believe they have influenced the Bush Administration.

They write about presidential candidates giving their support for Israel, and how wrong this is. According to them a genuine friend would tell Israel that it was acting foolishly and would do whatever possible to get Israel to change its misguided behavior.

Again, they criticize AIPAC, Israel's only lobby. According to them, the less than 1% of Jews in the United States control money given to candidates to support Israel. I wish I were one of those people so well endowed with capital that I could donate money. I don't believe we few are that wealthy or large enough in numbers to sway candidates.

Their use of words is very damaging. They write: The key issue here is the future of Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel conquered in 1967 and still controls.

Israel was attacked in 1967 and won that war. They defended themselves and were not conquerers. It was the Arabs who were trying to conquer Israel. They haven't stopped yet!

Bush must be acting under the influence of these two writers, as he just went to Israel and demanded that Israel should end the occupation that began in 1967 and must make the most important concessions.

Israel didn't go out at attack and occupy. They suddenly found themselves responsible for a lot of land and have done the best they could with it considering the attacks really haven't stopped against Israel. Israel's security is completely overlooked by these three, but has been considered by US involvement since 1967 when it was a recognized fact that Israel needed security lines. Now Bush has stopped treating Israel as an ally, which it has been since 1948.

Now Israel has no partner for peace, though it hasn't occurred to Olmert as yet. Abbas has not recognized Israel as a Jewish state and has done nothing to stop all the terrorist bombings from Gaza, and now from Lebanon. Idealistically, Abbas and Palestine should be workable, but realistically, it hasn't happened. The one element needed is to recognize Israel as a Jewish State and accept her as a good neighbor, and the Palestinians are centuries away from that goal. Each American president would like to be known as the savior who brought peace to the Middle East, and Bush will go down with the distinction of being the one who really turned against Israel.

I just hope that the presidential candidates are more informed about Israel's history and struggles and what it has done for the United States than Bush has been. According to the two professors, the candidates who do give support for Israel are no friends of Israel. I don't think we need friends like Mersheimer and Walt. If they had their way, Israel would have been wiped off the map long ago, which is what the Arab nations have been trying to do.

References: Oregonian Newspaper 1/13/08 page E6