Ross Douthat is settling scores

In my comments, it's occasionally suggested that critics of Israeli policy don't actually face frivolous accusations of anti-Semitism, and that I'm exaggerating such things. I tend to think that this would come as a surprise to Commentary magazine, Abe Foxman, Marty Peretz, etc. But here's Ross Douthat, of the eminently respectable and well-read The Atlantic, smearing Stephen Walt by saying that Walt alleged your typical loony tunes anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. I was going to say that Douthat insinuated it, but really, though he's providing himself the usual amount of cover, he's making that libel plainly enough that I don't think I need to call it insinuation at all. (Surely, the Jews/Israeli lobby trick he pulls amounts to an accusation of anti-Semitic conspiracy mongering.) Make no mistake, Ross Douthat is calling Stephen Walt an anti-Semite, and he's using the trope of the Jewish conspiracy to do so.

Walt and his coauthor did indeed suggest that there is a powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States. This is a point that I don't, actually, think Douthat or most anyone "serious" would argue. There is a pro-Israeli lobby, just as there is a pro-French, pro-Russian, pro-whatever lobby, and further few honest people would deny the fact that the pro-Israel lobby is one of the most powerful in American politics, just as no one denies that the NRA or the AARP are powerful lobbying interests. The idea that this is equivalent to saying that there is a Jewish conspiracy that, in Douthat's words, is an "all-powerful lobby shaping U.S. policy and public opinion to its specifications" is simply dishonest, just a basic, childish lie, the kind of elision and distortion that has been used again and again to shrink the debate about Israel in this country. That there are lobbies for individual countries in this country is a plain fact. That they have relative strengths is a plain fact. That Israel's lobby is particularly strong is a plain fact. That this strength has consequences for US foreign policy is a plain fact. The notion that acknowledging all of these plain facts is the same as saying that there is some sort of Jewish conspiracy controlling the United States is a pathetic libel, and one which only diminishes the person making it.

Again, my example of the Chinese lobby is instructive. Near the end of the Clinton years, it was alleged by good Clinton-hating conservatives that the Chinese lobby was too powerful and too connected, and that this had disastrous consequences for our country. This allegation is functionally identical to the idea that the Israeli lobby is too powerful or entrenched. And yet I don't remember vague accusations of being a conspiracy theory nutcase being thrown at Rush Limbaugh or his ilk, nor do I remember anyone being accused of being an anti-Chinese racist, directly or indirectly. I look forward to reading from Douthat a piece about the crazy conservative conspiracy theorists who believed that the Chinese controlled the United States. And, you know, how none of them would ever be taken seriously enough to write for the Atlantic! (There is, truly, no sadder and more self-defeating writerly trope than when someone tries to impress others with the supposedly awe-inspiring reputation of the publication they write for. Wow! The Atlantic! You know, Jayson Blair wrote for the New York Times.)

This is the schizophrenic conversation one is forced to have on the issue; at the precise moment that people are denying to me that critics of Israeli policy are subject to vague accusations of anti-Semitism and conspiracy theory in order to delegetimize them, a blogger on one of the most widely-read mastheads on the Internet... tries to delegitimize a critic of Israeli policy with vague accusations of anti-Semitism and conspiracy theory. I have a lot of disagreements with Walt and Mearsheimer, but I have the good sense to actually criticize them for what they've actually argued.

Douthat is someone who I've admired, but to make a drive-by accusation of anti-Semitism using the stunningly empty "Jewish conspiracy" slander diminishes both him and the Atlantic, and as is always true of frivolous and politicized accusations of anti-Semitism, hinders our ability to fight the real thing. There is a real enemy of anti-Semitism in this world, it is particularly virulent in the Arab world, and those who throw around such accusations withough cause, explicitly or implicitly, do no favors either to the Jewish people or to Israel.

Update: To be clear, Ross and I can disagree about the relative merits of The Israeli Lobby and the credibility of its authors. But surely saying that Walt and Mearsheimer are alleging a Protocols of the Elders of Zion-style conspiracy is a slander. I thought they went to great pains to deny such a conspiracy. I find their reading of the situation in some ways simplistic, in some ways overdetermined, and rather overdone; but that's a far bore from endorsing one of the most well-known and ugly anti-Semitic stereotypes.

What's more, the kind of protectionism I think Ross is engaging in here makes it harder for those of us who want to point out the inanity of the "Jews control everything" meme. You'd be amazed at the emails I've gotten, in only a half-year of blogging; not by people saying "the Jews are wicked" but by people saying "aren't you scared? Aren't you afraid you won't ever get a job/get ahead in media if you keep criticizing Israel?" I try to remain patient and explain that, besides the fact that I don't really want a career in media, I'm not scared because there isn't some grand Jewish conspiracy that is going to keep me from getting a job for criticizing Israel. But I feel like a lot of the less sophisticated out there feel that way, and I think when they see things like bright people like Ross Douthat calling critics of Israel conspiracy-alleging crazies, it plays into their notions of a media protecting Jewish interests. It's self-defeating. If Mearsheimer and Walt are cranks or anti-Semites, the truth will out naturally, not from stretching the truth to allege that they are conspiracy mongers.