Petraeus Passion: Shared by Max Boot and (Pan) Arabists Alike

One man’s (Boot’s) delusional/careerist passion, is another’s (Khouri’s) triumphal, strategic passion.

My colleague Diana West has fully deconstructed the mendacious attacks upon her by Commentary Magazine blogger Max Boot, whose hero-worshipping, delusional  (and perhaps careerist?)  “mindset” renders it impossible for Boot  to accept General David Petraeus’ own written and spoken words about Israel delivered during recent Senate testimony.  Boot’s delusional state/mendacity/sheer intellectual sloth also prevented him from acknowledging—despite West’s clear documentation—that:

1) Petraeus, as reported on June 2, 2009 in The Lebanon Daily Star, had stated at that time: “Hizbullah’s justifications for existence will become void if the Palestinian cause is resolved.”

2) Stephen Walt was Petraeus’ thesis adviser at Princeton University, about whom Petraeus wrote these words in a 1987 Acknowledgment which introduces this work: “Professor Stephen Walt also deserves my gratitude. As my second faculty adviser – replacing Professor Barry Posen during the writing of my dissertation – Professor Walt offered numerous sound suggestions and comments. Like Professor Ullman, he displayed tremendous competence not only as an academic, but as a teacher as well.”

3) Walt in turn just last Sunday (3/21/10), lauded Petraeus in a Washington Post opinion piece—citing the very words from Petraeus’ testimony Boot refuses to accept, as if they simply don’t exist.

4) Most importantly, mealy-mouthed drivel about being “taken out of context, ” aside, Petraeus has yet to disavow plainly and unequivocally his own recent spoken and written Senate testimony, or his June 2009 comments regarding Hizbollah and the “Palestinian cause.”

One man’s (Boot’s) delusional/careerist passion, is another’s triumphal, strategic passion. Witness the excitement about Petraeus’ clearly (and repeatedly) expressed attitudes by two columnists writing in the Jordan Times.

Rhami Khouri (a long term NPR favorite, and Pan-Arabist shill—Pan Arabism itself, as Professor Sylvia Haim left for many “learned experts” to learn—being a forme fruste of Jihad)  in an article entitled, “On the Verge of Historic Change?,” opined in the Jordan Times Online Friday, March 26, 2010:

…the American military openly criticized Israel, saying (as Centcom commander David Petraeus told Congress last week) that Israeli policies and the regional perceptions of Washington’s pro-Israel bias make it difficult for the United States to achieve its foreign policy goals through military or diplomatic activity. The top military leadership speaking out in public with such clarity is about as serious as it gets in terms of credible criticisms in Washington.

Earlier Hassan A. Barari in his column, “Time To Act” Jordan Times Online  Tuesday, March 23, 2010, had also lauded Petraeus’ Senate testimony for the “pressure” it placed upon Israel. Barari then referred specifically to the “insights” of Petraeus’ Princeton PhD thesis mentor Stephen Walt (upon whom Petraeus lavished praise), and Walt’s modern Protocols of the Elders of Zion collaborator John Mearsheimer.

Just a week ago, the American general David Petraeus testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, stating the obvious: the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a strategic quandary for the United States. In his words: “The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of US favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.”

…The problem is that considerable pressure exerted on Tel Aviv will not go on unchecked. One needs to read the thesis of John Mearsheimer and Stephan Walt pertaining to the role of domestic politics in Washington to understand that Israel has clout that could be employed to twist the arm of the American administration.