Why Walt, Mearsheimer, Still Wrong
By David Makovsky
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
On the second anniversary of the publication of the highly controversial book, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” written by University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer and Harvard University’s Stephen Walt, it is worth noting that their central thesis — that Israel is a strategic liability and not an asset to the U.S. — is erroneous, as evident from examining the Mideast situation today.
While Mearsheimer and Walt concede that during the Cold War Israel may have been an asset to the United States, they suggest that in the post-Cold War period and certainly after 9/11, whatever value it had has long since been replaced by costs. Their argument is that securing oil and good relations with the Arab world should be the primary U.S. goal in the Middle East, and our association with and strong support for Israel impede this aim.
Specifically, they write that Arab and Muslim antipathy toward the United States results from their identifying the United States with Israel.
But the Mideast is far more complex than they appreciate. Not only has the U.S.- Israeli relationship not been a liability for either country, it has been, at least to some extent, an asset to the Arab regimes, as a strategic counterweight to radicalism.
