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(LifeSiteNews) — While his best-selling scholarship—along with social and alternative media—have opened up a previously taboo discussion on the enormous role of the Israel lobby in American politics, Dr. John Mearsheimer lamented these developments have nonetheless had “zero effect” on actual U.S. policy.
The distinguished political science professor at the University of Chicago said “the lobby’s” influence not only does significant damage to America’s national interests, but in his view, is leading Israel “down the primrose path,” against their own interests as well. And this points to “big trouble ahead for Israel and big trouble ahead for the lobby.”
Appearing often in especially alternative media, Mearsheimer is perhaps best known for co-authoring an impactful academic paper which turned into a New York Times best-seller titled The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (with Stephen M. Walt, 2007). The professors argued that the highly effective efforts of “a loose coalition of pro-Israel individuals and organizations” was a driving force for American foreign policy adopting “decades of unconditional U.S. support for Israel” as its centerpiece with detrimental effects to the authentic interests of both nations.
In a TRT World interview on May 18, the political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the “realist” school of thought, said that the principles of this broad theory don’t apply to this current Israeli assault on Gaza because these are not two rival states competing for security power.
Instead, in actuality, “we’re talking about one state, which is ‘Greater Israel,’” with the Palestinians in Gaza revolting against a 57-year Israeli military occupation and 17-year blockade of their land.
READ: How do Christians in the Holy Land understand the Israeli occupation of Palestine?
“This is basically a prison break,” Mearsheimer explained. “What happened was that the Israelis in effect locked-up the Palestinians in Gaza in a giant open-air prison, and they treated them horribly. And what happened on October 7 is you had a prison break, and the Israelis reacted to that by invading Gaza.”
Israel’s apartheid unsustainable, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians executed as final solution
Though Israel’s stated goal has been to defeat Hamas in combat, which he believes is “virtually impossible,” the real goal of the Israelis, in his opinion, even “from the beginning,” has been to “ethnically cleanse,” and “in toto… drive the Palestinians out of Gaza” completely.
READ: Col. Macgregor: The ‘top priority’ for Israel is to make Gaza ‘unlivable,’ expel all survivors
Though he affirms such an objective is “abhorrent” from a moral perspective, Mearsheimer believes it is the option the Israelis have chosen to remedy the fact that “Greater Israel is today an apartheid state,” an assessment which has been shared by several notable Israeli leaders such as former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert
Faced with the prospect of their apartheid being unsustainable for the long term, since it is “a repugnant notion to huge numbers of people in the West,” Israel fears their situation will eventually go “the way of South Africa” with this system being ended due to international pressure.
Thus, instead of facilitating a two-state solution which virtually the entire world supports and demands, or even a single “one state” solution where Palestinians and Israelis are all equal citizens, with each adult having full voting rights, Mearsheimer said the Israelis would rather like to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank in order to create “a greater Israel that’s filled mainly with Israeli Jews and almost all of the Palestinians are gone.”
Israel’s crime of genocide continues with Western support secured by lobby
As reported by LifeSite, the ethnic cleansing being carried out by the Israeli military against Palestinians has resulted in more than 35,800 deaths, mostly children and women, including many Christians.
READ: Warnings of ‘mass starvation’ in Gaza as Western powers freeze UN relief funds
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently escalated the situation by attacking the city of Rafah, which has reportedly caused hundreds of thousands of already displaced civilians to flee. These strikes included a bombing on Sunday of a UN-run “safe zone” where thousands of Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 45 and wounding 250 more.
This attack, and a follow-up bombing on two hospitals, came just days following Israel being ordered by the International Court of Justice to halt its offensive on Rafah.
READ: Top EU diplomat announces plan to enforce UN court ruling against Israeli operation in Rafah
Though in most of the world the Israelis are in “deep trouble” because the vast majority of nations understand they are “executing a genocide,” the former West Point cadet said what matters to them is the actions of the United States and other Western countries such as Canada and the Europeans.
“The fact is, the Israelis can do almost anything to the Palestinians” and these nations “will stand by them,” he said. And “there’s no question that the Israel lobby is playing a key role in keeping the West on Israel’s side.”
Despite the lobby remaining ‘incredibly powerful’ their increased visibility means they are facing ‘big trouble’
In reviewing the impact of his book co-authored with Walt on the topic, Mearsheimer assessed that in the 18 years since the paper’s initial release, they definitely have had a profound effect on the “discourse about Israel” including the opening-up of widespread discussion “on the Israel lobby, the U.S. – Israel relationship, and Israeli policy itself.”
“But I think we have had zero effect on actual (U.S.) policy,” he said, which reveals that “the lobby is incredibly powerful,” and even with the passage of time has grown more powerful over these last two decades in spite of Israel’s behavior being “so outrageous on occasion.”
READ: Israeli soldiers celebrate the ‘torturing, humiliating, and mocking’ of Palestinians on social media
And since lobbies in general “are most effective when they can work behind closed doors,” avoiding detection, the professor observed that he and Walt have “played a key role” in “bringing the lobby’s actions out into the open” requiring them to “engage in smash mouth politics” and operate in often “brazen ways.”
As a result, “more and more people have become aware of the Israel lobby’s presence in the American body politic, and they’ve become more aware of how the lobby works,” he said. “And this is not good for the lobby, and it’s not good for Israel.”
READ: Kim Iversen: America ‘has lost its independence’ and sovereignty to Israel
With such trends, it is difficult to “tell a positive story” regarding Israel and the lobby moving forward. And thus, “it looks like there’s big trouble ahead for Israel and big trouble ahead for the lobby.”
Lobby seeks to control, shut down, social media platforms to censor Israeli crimes
Mearsheimer went on to explain that with increased visibility of the lobby “wielding its influence in sort of very heavy-handed ways,” it makes it much more difficult for them to press their narrative that “it’s morally and strategically correct to support Israel.”
He and Walt asserted in their book that this narrative is not true. “Strategically, Israel is basically an albatross around America’s neck. And the argument that it’s ethically correct to support Israel against the Palestinians has been wrong for a long, long time, well before October 7. And the real reason that we support Israel is because of the lobby, not because of strategic or moral logic,” he explained.
In fact, the lobby remains absolutely necessary specifically because “Israel is not a strategic asset,” the scholar clarified. “It’s a strategic liability, and its behavior towards the Palestinians (has been) morally reprehensible.”
WATCH: Col. Macgregor: U.S. now ‘entirely isolated with Israel’ in an ‘ocean of hostility and hatred’
Mearsheimer also discussed the impact of social media in bringing to light these topics, making it much more difficult for the lobby “to work in the background” and to “cover up what Israel is doing” to the Palestinians.
“And lots of young people have turned off the mainstream media, and what they do is they go to these alternative sources,” he said. “This is one of the principal reasons that the lobby is committed to shutting down TikTok” which “runs all sorts of videos that portray the Israelis acting towards the Palestinians in barbaric ways.”
Given the limits of what can be done about social media, “this is going to cause Israel huge problems moving forward.”
Politicians have ‘a huge price to pay if they don’t support Israel hook, line, and sinker’
In addition to the lobby’s aggressive work to control the narrative by compromising citizens’ ability to communicate with each other on these topics, the other aspect of their focus is “in making sure that policymakers inside Congress and inside the executive branch… support Israel unconditionally. That word unconditionally cannot be underestimated.”
In the American political system, “campaign contributions matter enormously,” he continued. “And the lobby is really good at providing money, providing resources for individuals who support the lobby’s positions. And anyone who doesn’t support the lobby’s positions will find him or herself being opposed by someone in the next primary or in the next campaign who supports Israel and who is getting a huge amount of money from pro-Israel sources.”
READ: Understanding how the Zionist lobby continues to shape US foreign policy
“So, politicians, and this again includes politicians in the executive branch and in the legislative branch, understand that there will be a huge price to pay if they don’t support Israel hook, line, and sinker,” the professor said. “And they end up, in almost all cases, supporting Israel as a result. If you took away the ability of the lobby to provide campaign funds for political candidates, I think you would see very different voting patterns when it comes to Israel.”
Israel ‘got away’ with ‘massive ethnic cleansing’ in 1948 & 1967, believe they can do it again
When asked about the rationale of Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing the Palestinian people (including Christians) to create their “Greater Israel,” Mearsheimer warned that the Israelis already “got away” with this massive crime in the past including, first, in 1948 when they “ethnically cleansed lots of Palestinians” (around 700,000) and again in 1967 when they captured the West Bank.
“So they’ve done massive ethnic cleansing on two occasions and they got away with it,” he said. And these crimes “played a key role in creating the state of Israel.”
WATCH: Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States
Having talked to a number of people over the years, including in Israel, who have explicitly stated the intent “to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank” of Palestinians when the opportunity arises, Mearsheimer warned that they believe they can get away with it again.
“You want to remember we’re talking about a world here where the United States and the Europeans, especially the Germans, will basically support Israel no matter what it does,” he said. “So one could argue it’s not such a foolish policy.”
“Is it a morally bankrupt policy? Yes. May it ultimately turn out to be a reckless policy? Yes. But that remains to be seen,” he concluded.
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Help Christians who escaped Gaza: LifeFunder