During testimony regarding his meetings in Texas with
then-US President George W. Bush in 2002, Blair stated, “As I recall
that discussion, it was less to do with specifics about what we were
going to do on Iraq or, indeed, the Middle East, because the Israel
issue was a big, big issue at the time. I think, in fact, I remember,
actually, there may have been conversations that we had even with
Israelis, the two of us, whilst we were there. So that was a major part
of all this."
Professor Steven Walt, co-author of the book 'The Israel Lobby', wrote
an op-ed following Blair's admission describing how he and co-author
John Mearsheimer were attacked by the US media and by right-wing
lobbyists for Israel when they made that claim in 2003. Now, Walt says,
he feels vindicated because Tony Blair himself has had to admit
publicly the extent to which the invasion of Iraq by the US, the UK,
and other armies, was influenced by Israel's strategic interests in the
region, and Israeli officials themselves.
Walt stated, “ Professor Mearsheimer and I made it clear in our article
and especially in our book that the idea of invading Iraq originated in
the United States with the neoconservatives, and not with the Israeli
government....We also pointed out that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
other Israeli officials were initially skeptical of this scheme,
because they wanted the U.S. to focus on Iran, not Iraq. However, they
became enthusiastic supporters of the idea of invading Iraq once the
Bush administration made it clear to them that Iraq was just the first
step in a broader campaign of 'regional
transformation' that would eventually include Iran.”
The two Harvard professors were vehemently attacked at the time by many
prominent Jewish leaders in the US, who accused Mearsheimer and Walt of
anti-Semitism for their 'preposterous' claim that Israeli officials had
any impact at all on the US and UK governments' decision to attack Iraq.
In his recent op-ed, Professor Walt also noted that the attacks against
him and Professor Mearsheimer were made despite many articles and
statements by prominent Jewish organizations and writers in the US. In
one example, he referred to an editorial in the Jewish newspaper
Forward, published in 2004, which stated, “As President Bush attempted
to sell the war .. in Iraq, America's most important
Jewish organizations rallied as one to his defense. In statement after
statement community leaders stressed the need to rid the world of
Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Some groups went
even further, arguing that that the removal of the Iraqi leaders would
represent a significant step toward bringing peace to the Middle East
and winning America's war on terrorism".
The editorial also noted that "concern for Israel's safety rightfully
factored into the deliberations of the main Jewish groups."
No apologies have been made to Professors Walt and Mearsheimer by any
of the groups or individuals who attacked them, even after British
Prime Minister Tony Blair recently admitted that Walt and Mearsheimer's
claims were true.