The New York Sun indulges in a piece of Saudi-bashing this morning with an opinion piece from Youssef Ibrahim. Apparently in an effort to provide some criticism of the new Mearshimer-Walt book critiquing the Israel Lobby in the US, he waves a red et tu quoque (and you too!) flag claiming that the Saudis do the same—or worse. His piece, however, doesn’t actually provide any examples beyond the deeply investigated case of a number of Saudis who were flown out of the US soon after 9/11 and the fact that money goes to ‘Saudi-funded mosques and theological enterprises, to America’s academic institutions….’ He points out that 15 of the 19 killers of 9/11 were Saudi as though they were acting as agents of the Saudi government. Never mind that the Saudis have ended their proselytizing efforts in the US. Never mind that the Saudis might have legitimate defense needs against a militant Iran. Never mind that the Saudis have worked to clean up a fetid school curriculum. For Ibrahim, if it’s Saudi-funded, it must be evil, or at the very least, suspect.

I don’t know what Ibrahim’s problem with the Saudis is. He generally writes cogently on the Middle East, but when it comes to Saudi Arabia, he twists up attitude with very few facts.

Israel Lobby’s Pull Pales Next to Evil Saudi Input
YOUSSEF IBRAHIM

It’s been a while since a book about American Jews has elicited as much controversy as “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” in which professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University argue that America’s Israel lobby exercises “undue” influence and blocks other views on the Middle East.

In the noisy debate that has sprung up among its many critics and few advocates, the issue has been unfortunately narrowed to the obvious: how powerful the lobby is or isn’t, and whether it is appropriate to discuss it in such terms. All but lost has been an opportunity to examine it in a broader context.

That there is a Jewish lobby in America concerned with the well-being of Israel is a silly question. It is insane to ask whether the 6 million American Jews should be concerned about the 6 million Israeli Jews, particularly in view of the massacre of another 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. It’s elementary, my dear Watson: Any people who do not care for their own are not worthy of concern.

And what the Israel lobby does is what all ethnic lobbies — Greek, Armenian, Latvian, Irish, Cuban, and others — do in this democracy. It is a natural outgrowth of the melting pot that makes this country what it is and helps to provide us with a bridge to our origins.
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