Thursday 15 November 2007

Walt and Mearsheimer's "The Israel Lobby" - footnote No. 1,399

Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s extensive use of footnotes in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy has been the subject of as much comment as has the carelessness of their research. I had a look at the footnote section of the book and was intrigued by the last one, to be precise the 1,399th according to Leonard Fein who took the trouble of counting them. Indeed, footnote No. 1,399 refers to a manifesto concocted by 25 German peace activists (in fact 17, the other 8 only expressed support, but did not sign) and was sent for publication by the authors themselves to the Spanish website Tlaxcala.
The manifesto Why the "special relationship" between Germany and Israel has to be reconsidered recycles the usual anti-Jewish tropes and is illustrated by an Iranian cartoonist Jaber Asadi. The cartoon depicts a brutish and heavily armed Israeli soldier who does not look at his victims (not enemies of course) and who cowardly hides behind a tombstone marked "Holocaust". Got it? To be associated with such a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon did not seem to trouble in the least either the "peace activists" or Walt and Mearsheimer. A proper look at the other 1,389 footnotes might reveal a few more surprises of the kind.
For those who are unfamiliar with Tlaxcala here is a small sample of the scholarly stuff to be found on the site:
By Khalid Amayreh: Israel: perpetual criminal, perpetual liar; Israel’s silent holocaust against the Palestinians; Grand-Children of the Holocaust turning Gaza into another Ghetto Warsaw.
By Fausto Giudice and Ben Heine An oblivion repaired, A motto for Israel, discussed here and here.

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