technicat reviewed The Arc of a Covenant by Walter Russell Mead
Timely read, worth reading if you want to opine beyond hashtags
5 stars
This is a timely book, published recently enough to cover the Trump unrestrained pro-Israel policy (and his continuing relevance after the Jan. 6 shenanigans) and in time to provide background reading for everyone who has an opinion on the current conflagration in Gaza. If you want to sum up the book with a simple point: shut up about the "Israel lobby" is orchestrating everything (what the author calls the "Vulcanists" theory, with members from both the extreme right and left, here's where they have common ground) and blame the pro-Trump populists. But the point of this book is to take in account the whole sordid history of not just anti-semitism, colonialism, nationalism, the creation of Isreal - but how American foreign policy has evolved and American domestic attitudes toward immigration, racism, and religion have changed and interacted with foreign policy. It's complicated, and anyone who has a firm opinion on …
This is a timely book, published recently enough to cover the Trump unrestrained pro-Israel policy (and his continuing relevance after the Jan. 6 shenanigans) and in time to provide background reading for everyone who has an opinion on the current conflagration in Gaza. If you want to sum up the book with a simple point: shut up about the "Israel lobby" is orchestrating everything (what the author calls the "Vulcanists" theory, with members from both the extreme right and left, here's where they have common ground) and blame the pro-Trump populists. But the point of this book is to take in account the whole sordid history of not just anti-semitism, colonialism, nationalism, the creation of Isreal - but how American foreign policy has evolved and American domestic attitudes toward immigration, racism, and religion have changed and interacted with foreign policy. It's complicated, and anyone who has a firm opinion on the subject has a selective memory.