Iran: The Jews Are Calling For War

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Eamonn McDonagh

Many readers will have already come across Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece in The Atlantic about the possibility of Israel resorting to force against Iran. Though it’s received a lot of attention, I don’t think it’s that interesting; it’s long on personal anecdote (by the way, for a seriously unflattering view of the Netanyahu family you ought to read Chapter 12 of this book) and the views of unnamed sources and short on analysis. People seriously interested in this matter still need to read Tira.

However, Goldberg’s article has provoked Stephen M. Walt into making a revealing response. His text offers all the delights of his broader thesis; that a cabal of conniving Jews has undue influence on American foreign policy, in miniature form combined with a series of bromides about the dangers posed by Iran. When you strip away all the caveats and other academic bells and whistles what you get is an article that could be summarized like this, “Jew writes long article in magazine for the wonkishly inclined  = A sign that the innocent United States is being gulled into a war by  the sinister forces of Zionism”.

Walt rounds off his piece with a quote from his own book,

Although there is still some chance that President Bush will decide to attack Iran before he leaves office, it is impossible to know for sure. There is also some possibility, given the inflexible rhetoric of the presidential candidates, that his successor will do so, particularly if Iran gets closer to developing weapons and if hard-liners there continue to predominate. If the United States does launch an attack, it will be doing so in part on Israel’s behalf, and the lobby will bear significant responsibility for having pushed this dangerous policy.

Let’s unpack that last sentence and see what it contains:

1.

There’s something inherently illegitimate about the United States taking a course of action that would benefit one of its closest allies.

2.

There’s something inherently illegitimate about supporters of that ally in the United States advocating the taking of that course of action.

3.

Taking that course of action would be dangerous. The unstated corollary is that not taking it wouldn’t be.

Now imagine the same logic being applied to relations between the United States and one of its other close allies. It’s good to know that fame and fortune show no sign of mellowing Professor Walt.