The charlatans are busy at the moment. Leading neo-con William Kristol just wishes those defeatist Democrats would give King George some breathing space to declare victory in Iraq. Republican Presidential nominee John McCain thinks that more US troops should be sent to their deaths in Iraq. Zionist extremists think that Gaza is becoming Hamastan/Hizbullahstan. Yet despite all this, Counterpunch editor Alexander Cockburn salutes the ongoing failure of the US Israel lobby:
The Israel lobby retains its grip inside the Beltway, but it’s starting to lose its hold on the broader public debate. Why? You can’t brutalize the Palestinian people in the full light of day, decade after decade, without claims that Israel is a light among the nations getting more than a few serious dents. In the old days, Mearsheimer and Walt’s tract would have been deep-sixed by the University of Chicago and the Kennedy School long before it reached its final draft, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux wouldn’t have considered offering a six-figure advance for it. Simon & Schuster would have told President Carter that his manuscript had run into insurmountable objections from a distinguished board of internal reviewers. But once a book by a former president with weighty humanitarian credentials makes it into bookstores, it’s hard to shoot it down with volleys of wild abuse.