ISRAEL: PUPPETEER OR ALLY?

Mearsheimer and Sears and Sheehan and Moore and a dozen Democrat members of Congress are anti-Semites who believe that Israel (or the Likud, the neocons, or the JOOOOOOZE!) control USA foreign policy. HERE ARE THE FACTS; via The Corner. Excerpt:

... repeated U.S. administrations came to power predisposed to associate with the Arab world and to disassociate from Israel. In the end, they all recognized that relations with the Arab states were not the inverse of those with Israel. Most came to acknowledge the worth of Israel as a steadfast ally in a volatile region.

The irony is that Israel was and is such a reliable ally because of shared cultural, religious, and intellectual affinities, the very qualities that so many "realist" officials in Washington downplay with pride and on principle when making decisions and devising policy on the Middle East.

... the importance of U.S.-Israeli relations is not the consequence of the strength of the Israel lobby, but rather the strength of the Israel lobby is a consequence of the importance of U.S.-Israeli relations.

The article has footnotes and facts. RTWT.