On September 4 the book version of Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s pseudoscholarly “Israel Lobby” essay will be published. Last week the New York Times previewed their return. According to the article, “anxieties have surfaced about the backlash it is stirring.” Whose anxieties have surfaced? The articles doesn’t say, but it seems to be those of Walt and Mearsheimer. Those “anxieties,” however, are part of Walt and Mearsheimer’s marketing campaign. The “backlash” is of course the reaction of those perfidious Jews exposed in the book, who decline to host Walt and Mearsheimer promoting the book. The editorial in this week’s (Jewish weekly) Forward explains:
As part of the advance marketing campaign, the scholars asked to appear before a variety of Jewish audiences, including synagogues and a Jewish community center. They were, predictably, turned down.
Then the Forward was approached. We were asked to sponsor a program at which the professors would present their views, unopposed. Noting that we hadn
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