Your article states that Albanese “characterized the U.S. as ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby,’ playing into an antisemitic trope.” I beg to differ. John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt, in their 2008 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, presented overwhelming evidence of the power of this lobby (which is backed by some Christian fundamentalists, not just by Jewish Americans). With polls showing the majority of Americans against providing weapons that Israel has used to kill more than 40,000 Palestinians (according to numbers published by the U.N.), and with AIPAC pouring millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat politicians who support the human rights of the Palestinians, it is cynical in the extreme to denounce the truth Albanese spoke as nothing more than “an antisemitic trope.” No, calling the truth “antisemitic” in this instance instead reflects Islamophobia.
Your article states that Albanese “characterized the U.S. as ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby,’ playing into an antisemitic trope.” I beg to differ. John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt, in their 2008 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, presented overwhelming evidence of the power of this lobby (which is backed by some Christian fundamentalists, not just by Jewish Americans). With polls showing the majority of Americans against providing weapons that Israel has used to kill more than 40,000 Palestinians (according to numbers published by the U.N.), and with AIPAC pouring millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat politicians who support the human rights of the Palestinians, it is cynical in the extreme to denounce the truth Albanese spoke as nothing more than “an antisemitic trope.” No, calling the truth “antisemitic” in this instance instead reflects Islamophobia.