Paul Kendall:

Pres Carter & the Israel Lobby

President Carter’s recently released book entitled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" has met the full force of our country’s pro-Israel bias.

Instead of debating the substantive issues raised by Mr. Carter, efforts are being made to discredit his recounting of history, to attack his objectivity, to challenge his commitment to peace, and to question his moral integrity.

On TV programs, in newspaper editorials, on op-ed pages, on radio talk shows, and in full-page advertisements he has been called prejudiced, a racist, and an anti-Semite. His book has been criticized as containing "falsehoods" and resting on a "foundation of lies."

And of what political bias or distortions of history is President Carter accused?

• First, that the Israeli government has for years pursued policies of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian lands and of social and economic isolation of Palestinian communities that are antithetical to the roadmap for peace.

• Second, that these policies were implemented with the full knowledge and protection of the U.S. government.

• And third, that a pro-Israel lobby has stifled political debate in the United States over alternative policies toward Israel and has successfully sought to limit the expression of any pro-Palestinian viewpoint in our public media.

President Carter’s book presents the historical case for these three claims, but we need look no further than recent events to see their truth. Regarding Israeli policies, its government announced just last month that it would create another Jewish settlement in the Arab territories, thus violating a pledge to America and to the Palestinians not to do so. And what was the official response of Washington: merely to wring its hands once again and to meekly ask Israel to reconsider its decision.

Finally, regarding the stifling of U.S. political debate, look at the cowardly conduct of even moderate Democrats, like the new Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and of the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, our own Howard Dean. Both responded to the criticisms of Mr. Carter by quickly putting a great distance between their party and his views.

There is a pattern here. Mr. Carter is hardly the first person to be attacked or disowned for questioning the balance and wisdom of our country’s Israeli-Palestinian policy.

Last spring, for instance, there was a flurry of debate in academic circles when two of our country’s most respected political scientists, Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, published an article entitled "Israel Lobby." They argued essentially the same point as President Carter regarding the stifling of political debate and the thwarting of alternative policy initiatives. They too were viciously attacked in newspapers and academic journals as inaccurate historians, as anti-Israel, and as prejudiced anti-Semites.

And when this columnist wrote an article last August entitled "Israel is our North Korea," the response could have been predicted. The article explained how our policy toward Israel is undermining our national interests and argued, as an alternative, for a greater even-handedness in the conduct of our Israeli-Palestinian relationships. The public reaction was uniformly negative. All the letters written to the editor in response to the article either defended Israel, attacked the article’s accuracy, and/or accused the author of being anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic.

Neither President Carter, nor Professors Mearsheimer and Walt, nor this writer consider themselves to be either anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. But all of us believe that the nature of our relationship with Israel, along with our dependence upon imported oil, lie at the heart of our country’s difficulties in the Middle East.

All of us are therefore asking for an open discussion and an intimidation-free review of our nation’s Middle Eastern policies. Yes, we are questioning both the extent of the alignment of interests between the U.S. and Israel and the necessity of our nation’s support for Israel’s settlement policy, but none of us is advocating that America throw our traditional friend and ally to the wolves.

In summary, Israel is our North Korea: a dependent state that at present we cannot or are unwilling to control and an important ally that in its actions all too frequently ignores our nation’s interests. And, yes, there is an articulate, uncompromising, and unrelenting group of individuals and organizations that truly believes that the defense of Israel’s actions is always justifiable and serves America well.

But if we as individuals and as a nation have not the courage to re-examine the nature of our relationship with Israel, then we have no realistic hope either of reclaiming a position of diplomatic leadership in the Middle East or of containing a nuclear and expansionist Iran. Nor will we be able to reduce the appeal of anti-American actions against our nation, our armed forces, and our private interests that are perpetrated by those motivated by injustice towards the Palestinian people.

Such a re-examination, therefore, ranks among the top ten foreign policy issues awaiting the new Congress, and bravo to President Carter for having the courage to say so.

Paul Kendall, a semi-retired private investor and resident of Braintree, has traveled widely and lived in South America. He spent last year in Washington, D.C., studying U.S. foreign policy at American University and focusing on issues of national security and U.S.-Latin American relations.