An anti-Israel author is lashing out after his book was quietly removed from Sen. Rand Paul’s (R., Ky.) recommended reading list last month, accusing the potential 2016 candidate of betraying the United States and marching in "goose step" with the "Israel Firsters."
Michael Scheuer’s 2004 book Imperial Hubris was included on Paul’s Senate website under his list of "suggested titles for a student, or anyone else interested in learning more about freedom." The list, which had been posted on Paul’s website since 2011, was hastily scrubbed from the internet after the Weekly Standard published an article in July highlighting numerous anti-Israel books among the 17 recommended titles.
The list included books that claimed the Israel Lobby controlled U.S. foreign policy, accused the "Beltway Likud" of plotting the war in Iraq, and blamed American foreign policy for the Sept. 11 attacks.
In Imperial Hubris, Scheuer calls Israel a "faraway, theocracy-in-all-but-name of only about six million people that ultimately controls the extent and even the occurrence of an important portion of political discourse and national security debate [in the United States]."
Scheuer has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for describing the pro-Israel community as an "identifiable fifth column" that has "dropped any pretense of loyalty to the United States."
In a July 29 blog post headlined "Enemies of America: [former Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, [radio host Howard] Stern, and Rand Paul," Scheuer lamented that there were "few occasions in history when a Fifth Column was as openly disloyal and flamboyant as is Israel First in the United States."
He thanked Paul for removing him from his list of recommended books, claiming that Paul has "sold out to the Israel Firsters":
Finally, I do owe Senator Paul a thank you. He recently was criticized for having a non-interventionist book list — described as anti-Israeli by his critics — on his website and, magically, it disappeared almost immediately. Among the books on the list was one of mine, and I can only say how delighted I am to no longer have a place on Senator Paul’s website. As long as Senator Paul is marching in lockstep — or is it goose step? — with the Israel Firsters and against America, he and I have far different national security concerns and, even more, far different national allegiances.
Scheuer posited that Paul changed his tune on Israel after being persuaded by News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch at the Kentucky Durby:
I seem to recall that Mr. Paul attended the Kentucky Derby with Rupert Murdoch, who may well have advised him that Israel is more important than U.S. security and American lives. And one has to believe Mr. Paul has since met with Roger Ailes and other FOX NEWS senior managers and got briefed on how he must behave and speak, and who he can publicly associate with, if he is to avoid being ignored by FOX as his father was to America’s detriment. I guess Rand Paul is proof that the apple sometimes does fall pretty far from the tree.
Paul’s office has not commented to multiple inquiries about the disappearance of the reading list.