[WCUSP] Letter by Mearsheimer and Walt to Chicago Council
Tura Campanella Cook
turacc at earthlink.net
Wed Aug 15 13:46:53 CDT 2007
FYI
Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt were scheduled to speak on
Sept. 27 to the Chicago Council of Global Affairs and review their new
book, to be published Sept. 4, "The Israeli Lobby and US Foreign
Policy." Pressures were bought to bear and have resulted in the
cancellation of the engagement. Mearsheimer and Walt sent the
folllowing letter to the Council.
Tura
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
> August 5, 2007
>
> [Addressed, individually, to board members of the
>
> Council, and to members of Council committees]
>
>
>
> We are writing to bring to your attention a troubling
> incident involving the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. We do so
> reluctantly,
>
> as we have both enjoyed our prior associations with the Council and
> we have great respect for its aims and accomplishments.
>
> Nonetheless, we felt this was an episode that should not pass without
> comment.
>
>
>
> On September 4, 2007, our book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
> Policy, will be published by Farrar,
>
> Straus & Giroux, one of the most highly respected publishers in the
> United States. Through our
>
> publisher, the Council issued an invitation for both of us to speak
> at a session on September 27, 2007. We
>
> were delighted to accept, as each of us had spoken at the Council on
> several occasions in the past and knew
>
> we would attract a diverse and well-informed audience that would
> engage us in a lively and productive
>
> discussion.
>
>
>
> On July 19, while discussing the details of our visit with Sharon
> Houtkamp, who was handling the
>
> arrangements at the Council, we learned that the Council had already
> received a number of
>
> communications protesting our appearance. We were not
> particularly surprised by this news, as we had seen a similar pattern
> of behavior
>
> after our original article on The Israel Lobby appeared in
> the London Review of Books in March 2006. We were still looking
>
> forward to the event, however, especially because it is an open forum.
>
>
>
> Then, on July 24, Council President Marshall Bouton phoned one of us
> (Mearsheimer) and informed him that
>
> he was cancelling the event. He said he felt "extremely uncomfortable
> making this call" and
>
> that his decision did not reflect his personal views on the subject
> of our book. Instead, he explained that
>
> his decision was based on the need "to protect the institution." He
> said that he had a serious "political problem," because there
>
> were individuals who would be angry if he gave us a venue to speak,
> and that this would have serious negative
>
> consequences for the Council. "This one is so hot," Marshall
> maintained, that he could not present
>
> it at a Council session unless someone from "the other side, such as
> Abraham Foxman of the
>
> Anti-Defamation League" was on stage with us. At the very least, he
> needed to present "contending
>
> viewpoints." But he said it was too late to try to change the format,
> as the fall schedule was being
>
> finalized and there would not be sufficient time to arrange an
> alternate date. He showed little interest
>
> in doing anything with us in 2008 or beyond.
>
>
>
> Several comments are in order regarding this situation.
>
>
>
> First, since the publication of our original article on the Israel
> lobby, we have appeared either singly or together at a
>
> number of different venues, including Brown University, the Council
> on Foreign Relations, Columbia University, Cornell University,
> Emerson
>
> College, the Great Hall at Cooper Union, Georgetown University, the
> National Press Club, the Nieman
>
> Fellows Program at Harvard University, the University of Montana, the
> Jewish Community Center in Newton,
>
> Massachusetts, and Congregation Kam Isaiah Israel in Chicago. In all
> but one of these venues we appeared on
>
> our own, i.e., without someone from the "other side." As one would
> expect, we often faced vigorous
>
> questions from members of the audience, which invariably included
> individuals who disagreed in
>
> fundamental ways with some of our arguments. Nevertheless, the
> back-and-forth at each of these
>
> events was always civil, and quite a few participants said that they
> benefited from listening to us and to
>
> our interlocutors.
>
>
>
> Second, the Council has recently welcomed speakers who do represent
> a "contending viewpoint," and they
>
> have appeared on their own. Consider the case of Michael Oren, an
> Israeli-American author, who appeared
>
> at the Council on February 8, 2007, to talk about"The Middle East and
> the United States: A Long and Complicated
>
> Relationship." Oren has a different view of U.S. Middle East
> policy than we do; indeed, he gave a keynote address at AIPAC's annual
>
> policy conference this past spring that directly challenged our
> perspective. We believe it was entirely
>
> appropriate for the Council to have invited him to speak, and without
> having a representative from an
>
> opposing group there to debate him. The Council has also welcomed a
> number of other speakers on this
>
> general topic in recent years, such as Dennis Ross, Max Boot and
> Rashid Khalidi, and none of their
>
> appearances included someone representing a "contending view."
>
>
>
> One might argue that our views are too controversial to be presented
> on their own. However, they are seen
>
> as controversial only because some of the groups and individuals that
>
> we criticized in our original article have misrepresented what we
> said or leveled unjustified charges at us personally, such as the
>
> baseless claim that we (or our views) are anti-Semitic. The purpose
> of these charges, of course,
>
> is to discourage respected organizations like the Council from giving
> us an audience, or to create
>
> conditions where they feel compelled to include "contending views" in
> order to preserve
>
> "balance" and to insulate themselves from external criticism.
>
>
>
> In fact, our views are not extreme. Our book does not
> question Israel's right to exist and does not portray pro-Israel
> groups in
>
> the United States as some sort of conspiracy to "control"
> U.S. foreign policy. Rather, it describes these groups and
>
> individuals, both Jewish and gentile, as simply an effective special
> interest group whose activities are
>
> not substantially different from groups like the NRA, the farm lobby,
> the AARP, or other ethnic lobbies. Its
>
> activities, in other words, are as American as apple pie, although we
> argue that its influence has helped
>
> produce policies that are not in the U.S. national interest. We also
> suggest that these policies have
>
> been unintentionally harmful to Israel as well, and that a different
> course of action would be better for
>
> both countries. It is not obvious to us why such views could not be
> included in the Council's schedule.
>
>
>
> Although we find it somewhat unseemly to refer to our own careers, it
> is perhaps worth noting that we are
>
> both well-established figures with solid mainstream credentials.
> We are fortunate to occupy chaired professorships at distinguished
>
> universities, and to have been elected members of the American
> Academy of Arts and Sciences. We have both held important
>
> leadership positions at Chicago or Harvard, each of us serves on the
> editorial boards of several leading
>
> foreign policy journals (such as Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy),
> and we have both done consulting work
>
> for U.S. government agencies. Given our backgrounds, the idea that it
> would be inappropriate for us to
>
> appear on our own at a Council session seems far-fetched.
>
>
>
> Finally, and most importantly, we believe that the decision to cancel
> our appearance is antithetical to
>
> the principle of open discussion that underpins American democracy,
> and that is so essential for
>
> maximizing the prospects that our country pursues a wise foreign
> policy. In essence, we believe this is a
>
> case in which a handful of people who disagree with our views have
> used their influence to intimidate
>
> Marshall into rescinding the Council's invitation to us, so as to
> insure that interested members will not
>
> hear what we have to say about Israeli policy, the U.S. relationship
> with Israel, and the lobby itself.
>
> This is not the way we are supposed to address important issues of
> public policy in the United
>
> States, and it is surely not the way the Council normally conducts
> its business. This is undoubtedly
>
> why Marshall, who is a very smart and decent man, felt so
> uncomfortable calling us to say that the event had
>
> been cancelled. He knew this decision was contrary to everything
> that the Council is supposed to represent.
>
>
>
> The Chicago Council is obviously under no obligation to grant us a
> venue, and we are not writing in an
>
> attempt to reverse this decision. But given the importance of the
> issues that are raised in our book,
>
> we are genuinely disappointed that we will not have the benefit of
> open exchange with the Council's
>
> members, including those who might want to challenge our arguments or
> conclusions. The United States and
>
> its allies, including Israel, face many challenging problems in
> the Middle East, and our country will not be able to address them
>
> intelligently if we cannot have an open and civilized discussion
> about U.S. interests in the region, and the various factors that
>
> shape American policy there. Regrettably, the decision to cancel our
> appearance has made that much-needed
>
> conversation more difficult.
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> John J. Mearsheimer
>
> R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political
>
> Science University of Chicago
>
> Stephen M. Walt
>
> Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International
>
> Affairs Harvard University
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
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