http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf

     Lets start with the very first paragraph, an excerpt:

"Most recently, the Bush Administration’s attempt to transform the region into a community of democracies has helped produce a resilient insurgency in Iraq, a sharp rise in world oil prices, and terrorist bombings in Madrid, London, and Amman."

     It is nice these take the entire history of Iraq and squish it into one neat little pile of crap that fits perfectly into their mode of thinking.  The United States government with the inclusion of the Democrat party voted on Iraq and agreed regime change was (based on a number of different factors) warranted.  Iraq specifically was not some "attempt to transform the region into a community of democracies" and everyone knows the insurgency was the result of a breakdown in government, a clash of different ethnic groups, and foreign meddling. 

     The sharp rise in world oil prices was from supply and demand.  Time helped prove this paper wrong because look at our oil prices today.  If Iraq helped produce more terrorism around the world then what about all the pre-Iraq terrorism?  It is misleading to state the Bush administration created more terrorists without acknowledging the terrorists they took out of action.  The number as of today is over 3,000.

      Another quote:

"The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security."

     Look at both sides of this Middle East conflict.  Israel wants what?  To exist.  The Palestinians and Hamas want what?  The land they claim Israel supposedly stole and the destruction of all Jews.  Notice I didn't say the destruction of Israel I said the destruction of Jews.  The U.S. supports Israel while still trying to make peace, trying to appeal to moderate Arabs and where has it gotten us?  Israel gives and gives and bends and bends and still these animals refuse to make peace. 

     This paper goes on about the amount of aid both financial and military which is in excess of $3 billion the U.S. has given Israel.  They talk of this as if it is a great sin against mankind.  I don't why these guys don't see Israels position in that region.  Who are they fighting against?  The Palestinians and Terrorist groups like Hamas.  The Palestinians have been weakened to the point of annihilation because they cannot part company with people who mix radical nationalism with religion.  If these terrorist groups destroy Israel are they going to stop there?  There are more Jews in the U.S. than in Israel, hello!!??

     With that said another quote:

"To begin with, "terrorism" is a tactic employed by a wide array of political groups; it is not a single unified adversary. The terrorist organizations that threaten Israel (e.g., Hamas or Hezbollah) do not threaten the United States, except when it intervenes against them (as in Lebanon in 1982). Moreover, Palestinian terrorism is not random violence directed against Israel or "the West"; it is largely a response to Israel’s prolonged campaign to colonize the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "

     Did these guys sweep the floors at the University of Chicago and Harvard or did they actually attend school?  The terrorist organizations that threaten Israel do not threaten the U.S.?  Have these people forgotten the first World Trade Center bombing, the USS Cole, 9/11?  Israel has pulled out of the West Bank and the Gaza strip and where are we now.  Once again time has proved this paper wrong.  

     As for so‐called rogue states in the Middle East, they are not a dire threat to vital U.S. interests, apart from the U.S. commitment to Israel itself. Although the United States does have a number of disagreements with these regimes, Washington would not be nearly as worried about Iran, Ba’thist Iraq, or Syria were it not so closely tied to Israel.

     What a bunch of bull.  They are mentioning these three countries as if they part if this civilized world.  These countries are a scourge on the world and deserve to be isolated and scoffed at until they update themselves to modern society.  Yes our modern society does not stone rape victims or call for a group of people to be slaughtered because they practice a different religion.

"A final reason to question Israel’s strategic value is that it does not act like a loyal ally. Israeli officials frequently ignore U.S. requests and renege on promises made to top U.S. leaders (including past pledges to halt settlement construction and to refrain from "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian leaders)."

     Palestinian leaders like Yassar Arafat?  If Israel dropped all of their weapons and ceased all hostilities and moved to an Island in the middle of the ocean these cockroaches would follow them out there with a motive of destruction.  Israel is not perfect and certainly has its share of blood on its hands but come on people.  They are fighting against people that would shoot a baby in the head if they found it was of Jewish parents.

"The United States is a liberal democracy where people of any race, religion, or ethnicity are supposed to enjoy equal rights. By contrast, Israel was explicitly founded as a Jewish state and citizenship is based on the principle of blood kinship.26 Given this conception of citizenship, it is not surprising that Israel’s 1.3 million Arabs are treated as second‐class citizens, or that a recent Israeli government commission found that Israel behaves in a "neglectful and discriminatory" manner towards them."

     This is a quote supporting the view that the U.S. support Israel because it is a democracy and being Israel isn't as perfect a democracy as the U.S. then the support is dubious.  I find it funny they point out how Arabs are treated like second-class citizens, which is wrong but how do Arab countries treat Jews?  Does Iraq treat Jews in a "neglectful and discriminatory" way?  These guys need to become Arab and go live in Israel then become Jewish and go live in Iran or Syria.  The differences would be astounding.

     This paper goes on to highlight all of Israels terrible sins.  This paper is the classic example of the moral relativism that has infected our society.  Here is the bottom line:  If a group of people will not acknowledge another groups right to exist, stop proclaiming future destruction of said group, and stop specifically targeting the civilians that group, then there will never be peace. 

     Why is it Egypt, Jordan and now even Saudi Arabia can live next to Israel but the Palestinians can't?  Because peace is not absence of conflict, it is everyone living together on the same planet without killing each other.  Middle East mayhem is because Arab countries will not shut radical Arabs down.  Until these reasonable Arab countries condemn every attack, isolated every country that supports such attacks, and supports the destruction of this poison that is radical Islam it doesn't matter what anyone says or does it will never end.   

     This paper is basically a rehash old statements made in the 1960's by George Ball-Undersecretary of State and Sen. J. William Fulbright.  This is pointed out by Lenny Ben-David in National Review On-line.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWY4ZmQ5ODI4OGQ2NWI0ZjE1ZmFjYWVlYzA5MWQ1NTE=

      Also Mackubin Thomas Owens-associate dean of academics and a professor of national security affairs at the Navel War College in R.I. spoke about this paper:

"Ur-realists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have attacked the so-called “Israeli Lobby,” claiming that it has hijacked American foreign policy in behalf of Israel. But how can that be? After all, realist theory teaches that a state makes decisions based exclusively on an assessment of the international balance of power.

 In addition, realists denigrate the “regime question,” denying for instance that there is any difference between the behavior of a liberal democracy in the international political system and that of a more authoritarian government. If that is true, how can a domestic lobby exert such influence on U.S. policy makers who, as Mearsheimer argues in The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, are always attempting to maximize the power position of the United States relative to other states?"

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmViMjIyYjY2NDE1YmEzNWY5MGIyODUyYmY2ODhiNGI=

     What is the solution?  All this talk of peace may give us a warm and fuzzy feeling but history has shown that you cannot make peace with crazy people who hate you because you practice a particular religion.