BABBLING Brooks, Fleischer (inset)

If David Brooks ever decides that the whole journalism thing's not working out, he could have a fine second career as a White House mouthpiece.

In his most recent New York Times column [sub. req.], the poet laureate of glib social commentary identifies the culprits responsible for ongoing tensions in the Middle East: liberal American academics.

By Brooks's account, 9/11 brought about a "general recognition" among Arabs that their countries were in need of reform and modernization (evidence to support this observation is not specified). But he says that historic moment of self-awareness was forgotten after Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, in March 2006, published a paper criticizing the American pro-Israel lobby's outsize influence.

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