The reaction to the Harvard University study by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” [.pdf] has been fury by the Lobby and its partisans – and a demotion for Walt, who, it was announced shortly after the paper’s release, would be stepping down from his post as dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. ~Justin Raimondo

Update: It appears that there is no connection between Prof. Walt’s involvement with the “Israel Lobby” article and his departure from his job as academic dean. Or so reports Steve Clemons at TPM Cafe, who quotes from a message from the Dean of the Kennedy School:

And even though everyone here at the school has known for many months that Steve’s term as academic dean was coming to an end this summer, some media, in spite of our strong efforts, have chosen to portray the timing as significant. That is flat wrong and unfair.

Mr. Raimondo’s report of a key donor wielding influence behind this decision may still hold up with time, but at the moment it appears that the timing of Prof. Walt’s departure from this post was probably coincidental and not related to his article.

At the same time, the lockstep response against the two professors from all the usual suspects has Steve Sailer asking this:

In any case, doesn’t this entire controversy where the Israel Lobby en masse furiously denounces these two scholars for pointing out the existence of the Israel Lobby remind you of that scene in “The Wizard of Oz” where the Wizard shouts, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”?