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I have been trying to avoid writing this review, not because of the book’s subject matter (this is not a profound book any sense of the word) but because it has been done so many times before and has by now become quite dated in the ephemeral world of controversy. But I finally read the book more than two years after downloading the original working paper of the same title from the Kennedy School of Government’s website—and at least a year since the book itself was published. I had put off reading the expanded argument because I was already familiar with both the working paper and the version published in the London Review of Books—plus, I was aware that Mearsheimer and Walt had based their arguments entirely on secondary research and I am already very familiar with the topic.

First, let me just address a minor issues: John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (henceforth M/W) must be congratulated for their attempts at initiating a serious debate about this absurdly sensitive issue (at least in the United States). Considering their argument is neither new to anyone familiar with the subject, the book’s only real contribution is its success at reaching a wide audience. Had similar arguments been published by less reknowned academics and pundits (which they have been), “the Lobby” would surely have buried them in a mountain of obsolescence, ignored and forgotten without concern (which they have). But M/W cannot be dismissed as ideologues and so, the likes of Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and other apologists for Israeli/U.S. crimes immediately went on the offensive by attempting to undermine the credibility and authority of the authors when faced with hard facts from a wide array of scholars. (more…)

Today marks the anniversary of the Nazi German invasion and subsequent occupation of Denmark in 1940—the so-called Operation Weserübung. Early that morning 68 years ago, German warships entered Copenhagen harbor in violation of a German-Danish non-aggression treaty signed the prior year. The Danish military was in no condition to pose a serious obstacle to German forces; Copenhagen was taken in a matter of hours and by dawn, Denmark had capitulated. Only 39 Danish soldiers were killed in the short battle.

Of course, Denmark was not strategically crucial to Hitler’s plans and was only occupied “on the way” to Norway, where the Nazis secured critical iron-ore reserves. By all accounts, Hitler intended the occupation in Denmark to be a “model protectorate” in Europe and because Danes were “fellow Nordic Aryans”, they could be trusted to handle their own domestic affairs. For this and a number of other reasons, the Nazis were inclined to be lenient with Denmark. Besides, the official reason for the occupation provided by Germany was to safeguard Denmark from a potential British invasion… But the Danes had other plans. (more…)

I came across two interesting cases in a matter or hours yesterday as I checked my RSS feed from Ha’aretz. Both cases deal with censorship in some way, first of media and then of expressing Pro-Palestinian sentiments.

Apparently, Israel plans to impose an official embargo on the Qatar-based news network Al-Jazeera in retaliation for perceived “unfair” portrayal of the IDF.

“The Foreign Ministry has held discussions on the matter, and decided to embargo the station,” Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio, adding: “These reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us, and they arouse people to terrorist activities.”

Israel would do well to consider that killing over 125 people over a matter of days in Gaza (half of whom were children) is difficult to spin in a “fair” way—when fair means favorable to Israel. Perhaps they should even (gasp) consider that their brutal actions in the occupied territories fuel so-called “terrorist activities”. (more…)

Speaking ill of my own nation always makes my feel like a heretic. Nationalism is now what religion used to be and any criticism of one’s own people is likely to be treated as treason by one’s compatriots – albeit as insanity by all others. To paraphrase the nationalist theorist Ernest Gellner: we now worship ourselves as we formerly worshiped God.

When Poland entered European Union more than three years ago, I was overly enthusiastic. Deep in my heart I was hoping that the demagoguery of the Eurosceptics would become at least partly true and Poland would lose some of its ultra-nationalist fervor. I hoped that the EU’s twelve stars will cast some light on my country and finally place us on a glorious path of enlightenment. I believed that our xenophobia, homophobia and Antisemitism would evaporate along with our “almost fanatical devotion to the Pope”, as Michael Palin of Monty Python once put it. (more…)