Alex Safian, PhD

March 30, 2006

Will the real John Mearsheimer please stand up?

Professor John Mearsheimer recently coauthored a very controversial study charging that the "Israel lobby" played a critical role in the decision to go to war against Saddam's Iraq, with Jewish officials including Paul Wolfowitz supposedly acting in the interest of Israel rather than the U.S. But just 15 months ago Mearsheimer stated the opposite, saying that Wolfowitz in particular acted in good faith, believing in his "heart of hearts" that "Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he was joined at the hip with Osama Biin Laden." In other words, Prof. Mearsheimer has some explaining to do.
March 22, 2006

Harvard Backs Away from “Israel Lobby” Professors; Removes Logo from Controversial Paper

A widely criticized report by Harvard professor Stephen Walt and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer that faults the "Israel lobby" for allegedly distorting the foreign policy of the United States to the detriment of U.S. interests, no longer sports the Harvard logos that previously appeared on its front page, and instead carries a devastating disclaimer from the two universities.

March 20, 2006

Study Decrying “Israel Lobby” Marred by Numerous Errors

A new study by Harvard professor Stephen Walt and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer charges, with no legitimate evidence and many errors, that the "Israel lobby" has distorted the foreign policy of the United States to the point of serious damage to U.S. interests. (Updated April 3, 2006)

February 20, 2006

Guardian Defames Israel with False Apartheid Charges

A recent series of articles in the Guardian by Chris McGreal charges that Israel is an apartheid state similar to the old South Africa. According to the paper, "after four years reporting from Jerusalem and more than a decade from Johannesburg before that, the Guardian's award-winning Middle East correspondent Chris McGreal is exceptionally well placed to assess this explosive comparison." Explosive the comparison certainly is, especially because a CAMERA investigation reveals that Mr. McGreal's arguments are uniformly based either on materially false assertions, or on assertions wrenched grotesquely out of context.

January 15, 2006

Maligning Sharon

In the wake of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's serious medical problems, Op-Ed writers and reporters have published numerous retrospective pieces trying to sum-up the Israeli leader's career. Some are nothing but anti-Sharon screeds, while others, though somewhat more responsible, repeat many of the same discredited allegations that have long been used by polemicists to unfairly malign the Israeli leader.

January 6, 2006

On NPR, Arab Journalist Rami Khouri Blames Ariel Sharon for Islamism

Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of Lebanon's Daily Star, and a frequent NPR guest, today on the network actually blamed Ariel Sharon for the rise of Islamism in the Middle East. Perhaps Khouri has never heard of the Wahhabis, or the Saudis and their vast oil wealth, or the Taliban, or Sudan under al-Turabi. That being the case, it's too bad for NPR listeners that the network has heard of Khouri, and invites him on so often.
December 19, 2005

Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs (2005)

BBC/PBS Documentary Produced and Directed by Norma Percy 150 minutes
This BBC documentary spares no effort to portray the Palestinians as blameless victims and the Israelis as heartless oppressors. Ignoring most Palestinian terror attacks, and blaming the eventual Israeli response to those attacks for the demise of cease-fire efforts, is just one of the many techniques used by the filmmakers in their tendentious effort to indict Israel.
September 17, 2005

New York Times Reports Palestinian Obligations as Israeli Demands

In his story on upcoming Palestinian elections, "Israel to Disrupt Palestinian Vote if Hamas Runs," (Sept. 17, 2005), reporter Joel Brinkley portrayed as a unilateral Israeli demand what is in fact a Palestinian obligation under the Oslo Accords to bar terror groups from elections. In a further display of bias Brinkley ignored all other Palestinian obligations under the various peace plans as well, but did note an alleged Israeli violation of the Road Map.

September 9, 2005

The New York Times Sort of Corrects Distorted Rice Interview

In a stunning reversal, with no admission of error, the New York Times has withdrawn its claims that after the Gaza withdrawal the Bush administration will demand further imminent concessions from Israel, and is now reporting the opposite.

August 27, 2005

New York Times Interviewers Cook Rice Statements

When New York Times reporters Joel Brinkley and Steven Weisman interviewed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a few days ago, she apparently didn't say what they wanted to hear regarding Israel. So the enterprising reporters twisted her words to fit their own political agenda.