A growing chorus of critics maintain that Israel is at the root of America's foreign policy problems in the Middle East.  Abandoning Israel, they imply, would solve our problems. They identify the "Israel lobby" as the villain, corrupting American foreign policy in favor of the interests of Israel.  But for the schemes of the 'Israel lobby' America would be popular in the Middle East, and the real interests or real Americans would be served.The spectrum ranges from respectable academics to hideous antisemites. The two most respectable and prominent end of the spectrum is occupied by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, of Chicago and Harvard respectively, who also blamed our terrorism problems "in good part" due to our close alliance woth Israel.  Judith Miller brings to our attention a new report, a systematic examination of this thesis: The 17-page essay, published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, lists numerous ways in which the...(Read Full Post)