Nice try. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, fond of Middle East wars, argues that the latest Wikileaks documents vindicate claims that the “Arab lobby” are behind attempts to bomb Iran:
Here’s a fact that might astonish Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, whose book, “The Israel Lobby,” posits the existence of a nefarious, all-powerful Jewish lobby that works in direct opposition to American interests: The “Lobby” (they love to capitalize the word, to accentuate its alleged uniqueness) has failed to convince two successive American administrations, one Republican and one Democratic, to attack Iran’s nuclear sites. So much for Jewish power.
Here’s another fact that might astonish Walt and Mearsheimer: It turns out that the Jewish lobby wasn’t even the main lobby working to bring about an attack on Iran. It was, according to the treasure trove of State Department cables released by Wikileaks, the Arab lobby — whose lead lobbyist is, by the way, the King of Saudi Arabia (which is a big job, since he’s also in charge of the world’s oil supply) — that was at the forefront of an intensive, even ferocious, anti-Iran lobbying effort. For Walt and Mearsheimer to acknowledge that the Arab lobby, and not the Jewish lobby, was the prime mover of this issue would mean that they would have to recall their book, and somehow stuff back into a bottle all of the anti-Semitic invective they unleashed in the book’s wake. So don’t expect an apology anytime soon.
In sum, what we have here is a situation in which all of the Semites in combination have been proven impotent in their attempt to move American foreign policy. Which suggests that American foreign policy might actually be made by Americans. This is definitely a tough week for the neo-Lindberghians.
Unfortunately for Goldberg, he’s avoiding the elephant in the room pointed out by Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein:
It’s undoubtedly true that many nations did urge the U.S. to take action. … But what even U.S. diplomats note in the secret cables, is their frustration that figures like the Saudi king would not make such statements publicly and would not support U.S. action against Iran were it to happen. … So what you have is a case of the leaders and diplomats from these countries telling their U.S. interlocutors what they think they want to hear. … And even if we presume that these leaders do want the U.S. to attack, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and no nation except Israel wants to eat this pudding.
In essence, any country can say whatever it wants privately. … But what is said behind closed doors has very little impact in this type of situation. … If a leader is unwilling to support military action publicly, then his country is missing in action from the public debate and private support counts for nothing.
One last point. Let’s not forget that if Iran is bombed or attacked, some of the key public figures pushing for this action are Jews, the same people who advocated the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, attacks in Pakistan etc. Clearly Arab dictatorships fear a regional rival but radical Zionists and Israel will receive the lion share of blame if Tehran is under attack. Hello anti-Semitism.