Oh hai here's a flow chart showing the creative/organizational process of a (Walt) Disney film. Stay away from the morgue.
posted by billysumday on Dec 10, 2009 - 23 comments

Michael Massing on the Israel lobby and the controversy over the Mearsheimer/Walt article. Massing describes the article as having "serious shortcomings"; the reaction to the article as "hysterical"; and he provides evidence that "on their central point—the power of the Israel lobby and the negative effect it has had on US policy—Mearsheimer and Walt are entirely correct." He summarizes AIPAC's goals: "... to keep Israel strong, the Palestinians weak, and the United States from exerting pressure on Israel." Earlier article on the Israel lobby by Massing. Also: Mearsheimer and Walt respond to their critics.
posted by russilwvong on May 19, 2006 - 75 comments

The Israel Lobby. Writing the London Review of Books, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Harvard University's Stephen Walt argue that American foreign policy in the Middle East has been diverted from the national interest by a powerful domestic Jewish lobby:

[T]he thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical.

The article is an edited version of a longer working paper (pdf). While the authors focus on the potency of the Jewish lobby, including organizations such as AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, they also point to the role of evangelical Christians who believe that Israel's existence is a necessary precondition of the Second Coming, a group whose importance has been remarked upon elsewhere.
posted by Dasein on Mar 17, 2006 - 145 comments