Barack Obama has pulled a campaign ad that appeared on the Amazon.com webpage for Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's "The Israel Lobby," according to the New York Sun.
The placement on the "Israel Lobby" page was unintentional, a campaign spokeswoman said, and the ad was gone hours after a New York Sun reporter notified the campaign of its location. "The ad has been removed from the site because the views of the book do not reflect the views of Senator Obama on the U.S.- Israel relationship," the spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, said.
As with all criticisms of the book, W&M can use this act to demonstrate the validity of their thesis that Jews are bad.
(Kidding!)
Meanwhile, in the Crimson, Paras Bhayani argues that the book version of "The Israel Lobby" is a kinder, gentler version of the original paper.
Perhaps as a result of the reaction to the essay, the authors take pains in the book to show that their criticisms of the Israel lobby can be applied to other lobbies, while also spending more time tracing the American-Israel relationship. The authors also clarify many of their criticisms, bringing a less inflammatory tone to the book as a whole.
Perhaps, but this is a lose-lose situation for W&M: Toning down the thesis diminishes the amount of attention the book will generate, but won't diminish the amount of criticism.
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