"So my country can be free"

And it continues. If every time someone posted a comment on a blog with some variant of, "Our Jewish-Israeli lobby got the terrorists at our throat," I discussed the post on this blog, I would have no time left for grad school, grocery shopping, or sleep. So I'm just going to point out that what Walt and Mearsheimer have done is far more sinister than I first thought. Initially it seemed as though they were simply holding Jewish ('pro-Israel') lobbyists to a higher standard than all others, and were unwilling to accept that by definition a lobbyist is fighting for something that is not already agreed upon as in the national interest, or else no one would need to bother asking politicians to hold this or that position. It seemed they were urging Jews (sorry, the "Israel lobby") to be less pushy, which, while offensive, is relatively innocuous.

But it's become clear that Walt and Mearsheimer's greater message is that America is in danger; that 9/11 happened; that honest, all-American kids are dying in Iraq; that the rest of the world hates us; that this is all because of the Jews. This is a very different idea than that one or another particular policy or funding scheme needs tweaking.

The world's lack of enthusiasm for Jews has been demonstrated enough times throughout that it is easy to understand why a country that appears favorable to Jews would be less than popular. To put it in high school terms, America befriended the world's dork, and so it shall be shunned; Israel is the world's dork (Israelis, though, are indisputably cool), and so it shall be shunned and spat upon. If America would only ditch the loser, it could go back to being the naive and prudish football quarterback it once was, friendly with all but taken seriously by few.