decline of the West, and about time too

If Mearsheimer and Walt’s thesis is correct, Israel lobbies America in order to prevent itself doing things like this:

Israel and Syria are holding indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as a mediator, both countries confirmed officially for the first time today.

The nations have "indicated they want to lead these negotiations in a serious spirit so as to reach a comprehensive peace agreement", a spokesman for Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said.

Perhaps it failed. But I think it’s more likely, as I’ve said before, that the lobby M & W identify is basically an American one which sees Israel as a Western pioneer state in benighted Greater Muslimostan, and wants to engineer the rest of the Middle East around it in a pro-American direction: a “Westernist” lobby, so to speak. In other news, Israel is talking to Hamas through Egypt, France is also talking to Hamas, and the two sides in Lebanon seem to have cobbled a peace deal together: all these developments being against US policy in the region.

So it seems that while Bush may be stuck in 1938, everyone else is trying to live in the world as it exists now. The problem is that the next US president, whoever he is, could screw this up by trying to impose "leadership" of some kind on the situation.

Oh, and by the way: British troops are back in Basra city…

The duration of the revitalised British mission depends on the attitude of Iran, which brokered the deal between Sadr and the Iraqi government allowing its troops into the city.

...subject to Iranian permission.

Comments

[Tom Griffin]

Maybe transnational more than simply American, with Netanyahu/Likud being the Israeli end.

[jamie]

Oh, I agree. It would be useful to map out "westernism" sometime: from the Christian Zionists to Policy Exchange, and all the fun of the fair in between. It's the same wave the BNP are trying to catch with their support for Israel.