Stephen Walt's Thoughtless Experiment

Stephen Walt has a blog--and here is how he starts his first post:

Here's a thought experiment:

Imagine that Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had won the Six Day War, leading to a massive exodus of Jews from the territory of Israel. Imagine that the victorious Arab states had eventually decided to permit the Palestinians to establish a state of their own on the territory of the former Jewish state. (That's unlikely, of course, but this is a thought experiment). Imagine that a million or so Jews had ended up as stateless refugees confined to that narrow enclave known as the Gaza Strip. Then imagine that a group of hardline Orthodox Jews took over control of that territory and organized a resistance movement. They also steadfastly refused to recognize the new Palestinian state, arguing that its creation was illegal and that their expulsion from Israel was unjust. Imagine that they obtained backing from sympathizers around the world and that they began to smuggle weapons into the territory. Then imagine that they started firing at Palestinian towns and villages and refused to stop despite continued reprisals and civilian casualties.

The problem with Walt's experiment is that it boils down to nothing more than: Let's assume that hardline rightwing Orthodox Jews act just like Hamas.

The fact is, they don't.

Remember, he is not talking about a couple of troublemakers--he is talking about an entire segment of religious Jews.  We find in the Koran and the Hadiths texts which degrade Jews and even praise murdering them. Can Walt produce the same in the Jewish religious books?

Note: I just noticed that Soccer Dad wrote about this too, and he makes an excellent point that demonstrates the superficiality of Walt's point:

The scenario Walt more or less describes, happened in 1948 not 1967. And it wasn't that the Arab world won the war, but that they used Israel's victory as an excuse to ethnically cleanse their countries of Jews. Hundreds of thousands Jews - likely more than the number of Arabs who left their homes - were forced from their homes in Arab lands. But instead of being kept homeless in order to preserve a grievance, the Jews who were rendered homeless went to Israel which absorbed them into their society. The Jews who were expelled from their homes and their possessions stolen from them, did not turn to terror, but to helping to build the fledgling state. Had the Arab world been as responsible, there would be no Arab-Israeli conflict today. But the narrative of the dispossessed Palestinians served a purpose: their plight could be exploited to undermine Israel. [emphasis added]

If Walt's suggestion comes across as a second-rate experiment, it is only because it is the result of second rate thought--the kind we have seen from him before.

Check out Memeorandum for more on this.

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