The Pogram Program

Via Contentions, John Mearsheimer gave a speech at the Palestine Center in DC on his favorite topic: The Israel Lobby. His latest innovation: dividing American Jews into three groups according to their attitudes towards Israel's "apartheid" state.* The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews v New Afrikaners

First, there are the Righteous Jews, who are "liberal," profess to "love" Israel, but are not afraid to criticize her:

Righteous Jews have a powerful attachment to core liberal values. They believe that individual rights matter greatly and that they are universal, which means they apply equally to Jews and Palestinians. They could never support an apartheid Israel. They also understand that the Palestinians paid an enormous price to make it possible to create Israel in 1948. Moreover, they recognize the pain and suffering that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 1967. Finally, most righteous Jews believe that the Palestinians deserve a viable state of their own, just as the Jews deserve their own state. In essence, they believe that self-determination applies to Palestinians as well as Jews, and that the two-state solution is the best way to achieve that end. Some righteous Jews, however, favor a democratic bi-national state over the two-state solution.

Sounds like a great buncha guys. Mearsheimer helpfully identifies some of these "Righteous Jews:"

The list would include Noam Chomsky, Roger Cohen, Richard Falk, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, Tony Karon, Naomi Klein, MJ Rosenberg, Sara Roy, and Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss fame, just to name a few. I would also include many of the individuals associated with J Street and everyone associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as distinguished international figures such as Judge Richard Goldstone. Furthermore, I would apply the label to the many American Jews who work for different human rights organizations, such as Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch.

FYI, I try to keep myself off of lists that include Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein.

Next, Mearsheimer defines "Afrikaner Jews." You might want to listen to some ominous music while reading this:

These are individuals who will back Israel no matter what it does, because they have blind loyalty to the Jewish state. This is not to say that the new Afrikaners think that apartheid is an attractive or desirable political system, because I am sure that many of them do not. Surely some of them favor a two-state solution and some of them probably have a serious commitment to liberal values. The key point, however, is that they have an even deeper commitment to supporting Israel unreservedly. The new Afrikaners will of course try to come up with clever arguments to convince themselves and others that Israel is really not an apartheid state, and that those who say it is are anti-Semites. We are all familiar with this strategy.

And, here's a list of "Afrikaners"

I would classify most of the individuals who head the Israel lobby's major organizations as new Afrikaners. That list would include Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, David Harris of the American Jewish Committee, Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Ronald Lauder of the World Jewish Congress, and Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America, just to name some of the more prominent ones. I would also include businessmen like Sheldon Adelson, Lester Crown, and Mortimer Zuckerman as well as media personalities like Fred Hiatt and Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal, and Martin Peretz of the New Republic. It would be easy to add more names to this list.

Yes, and I'm sure you'd love to be the one who gets to make that list. (the third group are what many would call the mushy middle: they like Israel fine, but wish they didn't have to see so many caterwauling Palestinians on TV and feel guilty because they seem so upset. No list, sadly).

Mearsheimer is dead serious about this, and so are a lot of other people on the Left. They really believe that Israelis are operating an apartheid state and that the suicide bombing Palestinians are uniquely deserving of world-wide sympathy. All of this for the people who cheered the 9/11 attacks...

*Mearsheimer is now forecasting a future in which Israel will rule over the West Bank and Gaza under a form of apartheid government that denies Palestinians any rights whatsoever. But, Mearsheimer believes apartheid-style government will not last and eventually a bi-racial democracy will evolve, which will be dominated by the more numerous Palestinians. I'd like to see the Palestinians evolve a democracy over themselves before I believe they will join in a democracy with the Israelis! Anyway, Mearsheimer admits that this would represent the end of Israel as a Jewish state, which is sporting of him, I guess.