Opinion

Greenberg's View

. Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us.

Editorial

Academic
Anti-Semitism

T

he political movement
that came to be known
as neo-conservatism
has been closely identified with
Jewish writers and academics
since its inception in the early
1970s. It was formed in reac-
tion to excesses of the New
Left. Through their ideas and
positions in government, the
neo-cons have exerted a strong
influence on the nation's political
life for the last 35 years.
But a paper published in
March by two influential aca-
demics claims the_neo-con
movement is simply an arm of
the "Israel lobby" and accuses
it of instigating war with Iraq
in support of Israel's security,
against the best interests of
America. The paper, published
by Stephen Walt, academic
dean of Harvard's Kennedy
School of Government, and John
Mearsheimer,of the University
of Chicago, has touched off
a firestorm. Professor Alan
Dershowitz labeled it "a compila-

tion of hateful paragraphs from
other sources:' and urged his
university, Harvard, to withdraw
its imprimatur from it.
Hard-right conservatives such
as Patrick Buchanan, an unapol-
ogetic Israel-baiter who has long
accused American Jews of dual
loyalty, applauded it.
Although its authors deny it,
their article strongly makes the
same inference. The names they
identify with the movement's
influence in government are pri-
marily Jewish.
It is certainly true that promi-
nent Jewish neo-conservatives
such as Paul Wolfowitz and
Elliott Abrams have occupied
key positions in the George W.
Bush administration. Some do
have ties with the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), as do many non-Jews.
But the idea that they are gray
eminences whispering conspira-
torially into the ears of gentiles
such as Vice President Richard
Cheney and Secretary of Defense

Donald Rumsfeld is ludicrous.
The authors deny any anti-
Semitic intent, and their sup-
porters claim that such charges
are used only to deflect criticism
of Israel and its policies. But
Eliot Cohen, a former Defense
Department staff member men-
tioned in the paper and now
a.professor at Johns Hopkins
University's School of Advanced
International Studies in
Washington, D.C., had this to say
in the Washington Post:
"If by anti-Semitism one

means obsessive and irrationally
hostile beliefs about Jews; if one
accuses them of disloyalty, sub-
version or treachery, of having
occult powers and of participat-
ing in secret combinations that
manipulate institutions and gov-
ernment — why, yes, this paper
is anti-Semitic!'
The crowning irony is that the
great majority of American Jews
probably opposes the war and
rejects the policies of neo-con-
s ervatism, too.
This paper is more an exercise

in blame-casting for a war that
appears to be going badly than
a serious academic effort. It
deserves to be challenged for the
implication that American Jews
who strongly support Israel have
a secret agenda.
Its authors should have spent
more time doing their homework
before rushing to publish. ❑

Send letters of no more than 150

words to letters@thejewishnews.

COM.

Reality Check

Slip-Sliding Away

A

legendary part of
Detroit's mystique is
the way its athletic
teams seem to rise up at times of
great civic need.
During the dark Depression
year of 1935 — when the Tigers
and Lions both won their first .
championships. In 1968 — when
the Tigers again came through
one year after the deadly riots. In
the rocky present — when the
Pistons appear poised for a long
playoff run.
A recent newspaper article
recounted all this. What stopped
me, however, was the statement
that the Lions and Red Wings
of the early 1950s did the same
thing because they "took the
city's mind off the rush to the
suburbs."
How's that again?
This seems to be an example
of the past being rewritten to

serve the beliefs of the present.
In 1952, the Wings, Lions and
Michigan State football team
won national championships. It
was the first time three teams
from the same state had done
this in the same calendar year.
Everyone was quite pleased. The
titles seemed altogether fitting
for a city that was then at the
pinnacle of its wealth and influ-
ence.
Detroit's population was
within reach of 2 million.
General Motors ruled the uni-
verse. Downtown was booming
with three major department
stores. Albert Cobo was running
the mayor's office with personal
integrity and balanced books.
The city was still expanding.
Mumford had just opened, while
Henry Ford, Osborn and Finney
highs weren't even built yet. Sinai
Hospital located its campus on

Outer Drive, and the
Jewish Center was
coming to Meyers and
Curtis.
People were buying
suburban homes in
Oak Park and Warren
and Livonia in the
early 1950s only
because they were
more affordable than
housing in Detroit.
If anyone had
suggested that the ground was
falling away beneath their feet,
residents of Detroit would
have made little circular hand
motions beside their heads.
Years later, when demogra-
phers started tracing population
shifts over time, they discovered
the irreversible move to the sub-
urbs did, indeed, begin in the
'50s. But no one was fixating on
that when Terry Sawchuck and

Doak Walker were
winning champion-
ships. That's because
no one knew it was
happening. It didn't
become apparent
until, at least, a full
generation later.
In fact, throughout
the 1970s the pre-
vailing story was that
white flight occurred
only after the 1967
riots. That scenario served a
political need of the time, to
depict the white middle class as
"abandoning" Detroit out of rac-
ist fears.
Only later did the data reveal
that most of the movement had
taken place well before that
upheaval.
But this is the sort of thing
that gets written when news-
papers lose their institutional

memory and the senior editors
who are supposed to know bet-
ter just got off the bus from East
Jabork.
I was entering Durfee Junior
High ("sing your praises to the
sky") in the fall of 1952. (They
didn't start calling them "middle
schools" until much later. Maybe
they thought things would turn
out better that way. (I don't
believe they did.)
People were actually rather
fond of the city then. It seemed
as solid and strong as... well, as
the Packard plant over on East
Grand Blvd.
Fifty years ago this summer,
Packard packed it in. Many oth-
ers would follow. But in 1952,
who knew?

iN

❑

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .

May 11 • 2006

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