John Mearsheimer: Often in error, never in doubt

Alex Safian PHD
CAMERA
12 November '10

Professor John Mearsheimer, since co-authoring The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, has written extensively about Israel's military and diplomatic history, often displaying in all this work a surprising unfamiliarity with basic facts that are well-known to specialists in the field.

Perhaps this is because Mearsheimer and his co-author Stephen Walt seemingly shy away from the basic research that is the stock-in-trade of most historians and political scientists. For example, in writing about the alleged power of the "Israel Lobby" to coerce and influence U.S. policymakers, there is no evidence that they actually talked to any actual U.S. policymakers, whether serving or retired. Walt and Mearsheimer seem strangely uninterested in whether these policymakers believe that they were forced by the "Lobby" to pursue policies at variance with U.S. interests.

And when they do try to deal with facts, the historical examples they cite often actually contradict their claims, and show the U.S. (quite reasonably, since this is what countries usually do) pursuing its own interests with little regard for the policies favored by Israel.

A case in point can be found in Mearsheimer's speech this summer titled "Israel's Nukes Harm US National Interests." To support the claim of his title, Mearsheimer offers his version of the 1973 war (which was provoked by simultaneous attacks against Israel by Egypt and Syria).

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