What’s in a cover? Plenty argues Ellen Rafshoon pointing to the Italian and Spanish covers of Walt and Mearsheimers’s infamous book:
I am not going to address the merits of the “Israel Lobby” as I have not yet read the book. However, when considering why some might worry about the implications of this book vis a vis anti-Semitism, please take note of what the European edition cover looks like.On a recent trip to Italy, I visited their version of “Borders” and saw the book prominently displayed with the provocative cover of an American flag with the 50 stars replaced with a Star of David.
What message does this transmit? The ages-old belief of anti-Semites — that a Jewish conspiracy aiming to do harm is the true power behind legitimate rulers. In European countries with legacies of anti-Semitism that are currently quite critical of Israeli policies (e.g. the recent academic boycott of Israeli scholars in the U.K.) as well as the war in Iraq, the cover primes readers to fulfill their preconception that it’s the Jews who are primarily responsible for the mess in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. I know we’re not supposed to “judge books by their covers,” but these days images can often be more powerful than words.
I discovered that the Spanish edition which I suspect is distributed throughout Latin America has the same cover. One can only wonder what the Arab cover is going to look like.
The covers reminded David, aka, Soccer Dad, of eerily similar pictures which accompanied discussions of the thesis in British journals.
He adds: “I know that Walt and Mearsheimer said that they didn’t welcome the approval of David Duke. (Walter Russell Mead also gives them a pass on the antisemitism.)
But when they don’t object to pictures like these, how can they be defended? These are pictures straight of neo-nazi publications that rant about the ZOG. Sure it seems extreme to call them antisemites. But there’s enough baggage they’ve accepted that makes it hard to dismiss the charge either.
