- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
Follow the Authors
OK
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy Hardcover – August 27, 2007
|
John J. Mearsheimer
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
|
Stephen M. Walt
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
|
Price
|
New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$0.00
|
Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
—
|
— | $23.95 |
-
Print length496 pages
-
LanguageEnglish
-
PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
-
Publication dateAugust 27, 2007
-
Dimensions6.25 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
-
ISBN-100374177724
-
ISBN-13978-0374177720
An Amazon Book with Buzz: "Somebody's Daughter" by Ashley C. Ford
"Ashley C. Ford is a writer for the ages, and 'Somebody's Daughter' will be A BOOK OF THE YEAR."—Glennon Doyle Learn more
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
-
Apple
-
Android
-
Windows Phone
-
Android
|
Download to your computer
|
Kindle Cloud Reader
|
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
The Ethnic Cleansing of PalestineIlan PappePaperback
Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create IsraelPaperback
Hundred Years' War on PalestinePaperback
The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities (Henry L. Stimson Letures)Paperback
The Tragedy of Great Power PoliticsPaperback
On PalestinePaperback
More items to explore
America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign PolicyHardcover
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle EastPaperback
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle EastPaperback
The Ethnic Cleansing of PalestineIlan PappePaperback
The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)Martin BuntonPaperback
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of IsraelPaperback
Explore similar books
Special offers and product promotions
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Controversial.” —Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR
“It could not be more timely.” —David Bromwich, The Huffington Post
“The strategic questions they raise now, particularly about Israel’s privileged relationship with the United States, are worth debating.” —David Remnick. The New Yorker
“Ruthlessly realistic.” —William Grimes, The New York Times
“The argument they present is towering and clear and about time.” —Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss.com
“Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Walt, on the faculty at Harvard, set off a political firestorm.” —Jay Solomon, The Wall Street Journal.com
“Promises controversy on a scale not seen since Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations sought to reframe a new world order.” —Stefan Halper, National Interest.com
“Deals with Middle East policymaking at a time when America’s problems in that region surpass our problems anywhere else . . . People are definitely arguing about it. It’s also the kind of book you do not have to agree with on every count (I certainly don’t) to benefit from reading.” —MJ Rosenberg, Israel Policy Forum Newsletter
About the Author
Stephen M. Walt is the Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and was academic dean of the Kennedy School from 2002 to 2006. He is the author of Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy, among other books.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Yet on one subject, we can be equally confident that the candidates will speak with one voice. In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep personal commitment to one foreign country—Israel—as well as their determination to maintain unyielding U.S. support for the Jewish state. Each candidate will emphasize that he or she fully appreciates the multitude of threats facing Israel and make it clear that, if elected, the United States will remain firmly committed to defending Israel’s interests under any and all circumstances. None of the candidates is likely to criticize Israel in any significant way or suggest that the United States ought to pursue a more evenhanded policy in the region. Any who do will probably fall by the wayside.
This observation is hardly a bold prediction, because presidential aspirants were already proclaiming their support for Israel in early 2007. The process began in January, when four potential candidates spoke to Israel’s annual Herzliya Conference on security issues. As Joshua Mitnick reported in Jewish Week, they were “seemingly competing to see who can be most strident in defense of the Jewish State.” Appearing via satellite link, John Edwards, the Democratic party’s 2004 vice presidential candidate, told his Israeli listeners that “your future is our future” and said that the bond between the United States and Israel “will never be broken.” Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney spoke of being “in a country I love with people I love” and, aware of Israel’s deep concern about a possible nuclear Iran, proclaimed that “it is time for the world to speak three truths: (1) Iran must be stopped; (2) Iran can be stopped; (3) Iran will be stopped!” Senator John McCain (R-AZ) declared that “when it comes to the defense of Israel, we simply cannot compromise,” while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) told the audience that “Israel is facing the greatest danger for [sic] its survival since the 1967 victory.”
Shortly thereafter, in early February, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) spoke in New York before the local chapter of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), where she said that in this “moment of great difficulty for Israel and great peril for Israel . . . what is vital is that we stand by our friend and our ally and we stand by our own values. Israel is a beacon of what’s right in a neighborhood overshadowed by the wrongs of radicalism, extremism, despotism and terrorism.” One of her rivals for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), spoke a month later before an AIPAC audience in Chicago. Obama, who has expressed some sympathy for the Palestinians’ plight in the past and made a brief reference to Palestinian “suffering” at a campaign appearance in March 2007, was unequivocal in his praise for Israel and made it manifestly clear that he would do nothing to change the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Other presidential hopefuls, including Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, have expressed pro-Israel sentiments with equal or greater ardor.
What explains this behavior? Why is there so little disagreement among these presidential hopefuls regarding Israel, when there are profound disagreements among them on almost every other important issue facing the United States and when it is apparent that America’s Middle East policy has gone badly awry? Why does Israel get a free pass from presidential candidates, when its own citizens are often deeply critical of its present policies and when these same presidential candidates are all too willing to criticize many of the things that other countries do? Why does Israel, and no other country in the world, receive such consistent deference from America’s leading politicians?
Some might say that it is because Israel is a vital strategic asset for the United States. Indeed, it is said to be an indispensable partner in the “war on terror.” Others will answer that there is a powerful moral case for providing Israel with unqualified support, because it is the only country in the region that “shares our values.” But neither of these arguments stands up to fair-minded scrutiny. Washington’s close relationship with Jerusalem makes it harder, not easier, to defeat the terrorists who are now targeting the United States, and it simultaneously undermines America’s standing with important allies around the world. Now that the Cold War is over, Israel has become a strategic liability for the United States. Yet no aspiring politician is going to say so in public, or even raise the possibility.
There is also no compelling moral rationale for America’s uncritical and uncompromising relationship with Israel. There is a strong moral case for Israel’s existence and there are good reasons for the United States to be committed to helping Israel if its survival is in jeopardy. But given Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, moral considerations might suggest that the United States pursue a more evenhanded policy toward the two sides, and maybe even lean toward the Palestinians. Yet we are unlikely to hear that sentiment expressed by anyone who wants to be president, or anyone who would like to occupy a position in Congress.
The real reason why American politicians are so deferential is the political power of the Israel lobby. The lobby is a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively works to move U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. As we will describe in detail, it is not a single, unified movement with a central leadership, and it is certainly not a cabal or conspiracy that “controls” U.S. foreign policy. It is simply a powerful interest group, made up of both Jews and gentiles, whose acknowledged purpose is to press Israel’s case within the United States and influence American foreign policy in ways that its members believe will benefit the Jewish state. The various groups that make up the lobby do not agree on every issue, although they share the desire to promote a special relationship between the United States and Israel. Like the efforts of other ethnic lobbies and interest groups, the activities of the Israel lobby’s various elements are legitimate forms of democratic political participation, and they are for the most part consistent with America’s long tradition of interest group activity.
Because the Israel lobby has gradually become one of the most powerful interest groups in the United States, candidates for high office pay close attention to its wishes. The individuals and groups in the United States that make up the lobby care deeply about Israel, and they do not want American politicians to criticize it, even when criticism might be warranted and might even be in Israel’s own interest. Instead, these groups want U.S. leaders to treat Israel as if it were the fifty-first state. Democrats and Republicans alike fear the lobby’s clout. They all know that any politician who challenges its policies stands little chance of becoming president.
The United States has been involved in the Middle East since the early days of the Republic, with much of the activity centered on educational programs or missionary work. For some, a biblically inspired fascination with the Holy Land and the role of Judaism in its history led to support for the idea of restoring the Jewish people to a homeland there, a view that was embraced by certain religious leaders and, in a general way, by a few U.S. politicians. But it is a mistake to see this history of modest and for the most part private engagement as the taproot of America’s role in the region since World War II, and especially its extraordinary relationship with Israel today. Between the routing of the Barbary pirates two hundred years ago and World War II, the United States played no significant security role anywhere in the region and U.S. leaders did not aspire to one.6 Woodrow Wilson did endorse the 1917 Balfour Declaration (which expressed Britain’s support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine), but Wilson did virtually nothing to advance this goal. Indeed, the most significant U.S. involvement during this period—a fact-finding mission dispatched to the region in 1919 by the Paris Peace Conference under the leadership of Americans Henry Churchill King and Charles Crane—concluded that the local population opposed continued Zionist inroads and recommended against the establishment of an independent Jewish homeland. Yet as the historian Margaret Macmillan notes, “Nobody paid the slightest attention.” The possibility of a U.S. mandate over portions of the Middle East was briefly considered but never pursued, and Britain and France ended up dividing the relevant portions of the Ottoman Empire between themselves.
The United States has played an important and steadily increasing role in Middle East security issues since World War II, driven initially by oil, then by anticommunism and, over time, by its growing relationship with Israel. America’s first significant involvement in the security politics of the region was a nascent partnership with Saudi Arabia in the mid-1940s (intended by both parties as a check on British ambitions in the region), and its first formal alliance commitments were Turkey’s inclusion in NATO in 1952 and the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact in 1954. After backing Israel’s founding in 1948, U.S. leaders tried to strike a balanced position between Israel and the Arabs and carefully avoided making any formal commitment to the Jewish state for fear of jeopardizing more important strategic interests. This situation changed gradually over the ensuing decades, in response to events like the Six-Day War, Soviet arms sales to various Arab states, and the growing influence of pro-Israel groups in the United States. Given this dramatic transformation in America’s role in the region, it makes little sense to try to explain current U.S. policy—and especially the lavish support that is now given to Israel—by referring to the religious beliefs of a bygone era or the radically different forms of past American engagement. There was nothing inevitable or predetermined about the current special relationship between the United States and Israel.
Since the Six-Day War of 1967, a salient feature—and arguably the central focus—of America’s Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. For the past four decades, in fact, the United States has provided Israel with a level of material and diplomatic support that dwarfs what it provides to other countries. That aid is largely unconditional: no matter what Israel does, the level of support remains for the most part unchanged. In particular, the United States consistently favors Israel over the Palestinians and rarely puts pressure on the Jewish state to stop building settlements and roads in the West Bank. Although Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush openly favored the creation of a viable Palestinian state, neither was willing to use American leverage to make that outcome a reality.
The United States has also undertaken policies in the broader Middle East that reflected Israel’s preferences. Since the early 1990s, for example, American policy toward Iran has been heavily influenced by the wishes of successive Israeli governments. Tehran has made several attempts in recent years to improve relations with Washington and settle outstanding differences, but Israel and its American supporters have been able to stymie any détente between Iran and the United States, and to keep the two countries far apart. Another example is the Bush administration’s behavior during Israel’s war against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Almost every country in the world harshly criticized Israel’s bombing campaign—a campaign that killed more than one thousand Lebanese, most of them civilians—but the United States did not. Instead, it helped Israel prosecute the war, with prominent members of both political parties openly defending Israel’s behavior. This unequivocal support for Israel undermined the pro-American government in Beirut, strengthened Hezbollah, and drove Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah closer together, results that were hardly good for either Washington or Jerusalem.
Many policies pursued on Israel’s behalf now jeopardize U.S. national security. The combination of unstinting U.S. support for Israel and Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory has fueled anti-Americanism throughout the Arab and Islamic world, thereby increasing the threat from international terrorism and making it harder for Washington to deal with other problems, such as shutting down Iran’s nuclear program. Because the United States is now so unpopular within the broader region, Arab leaders who might otherwise share U.S. goals are reluctant to help us openly, a predicament that cripples U.S. efforts to deal with a host of regional challenges.
This situation, which has no equal in American history, is due primarily to the activities of the Israel lobby. While other special interest groups—including ethnic lobbies representing Cuban Americans, Irish Americans, Armenian Americans, and Indian Americans—have managed to skew U.S. foreign policy in directions that they favored, no ethnic lobby has diverted that policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest. The Israel lobby has successfully convinced many Americans that American and Israeli interests are essentially identical. In fact, they are not.
Although this book focuses primarily on the lobby’s influence on U.S. foreign policy and its negative effect on American interests, the lobby’s impact has been unintentionally harmful to Israel as well. Take Israel’s settlements, which even a writer as sympathetic to Israel as Leon Wieseltier recently called a “moral and strategic blunder of historic proportions.” Israel’s situation would be better today if the United States had long ago used its financial and diplomatic leverage to convince Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and instead helped Israel create a viable Palestinian state on those lands. Washington did not do so, however, largely because it would have been politically costly for any president to attempt it. As noted above, Israel would have been much better off if the United States had told it that its military strategy for fighting the 2006 Lebanon war was doomed to fail, rather than reflexively endorsing and facilitating it. By making it difficult to impossible for the U.S. government to criticize Israel’s conduct and press it to change some of its counterproductive policies, the lobby may even be jeopardizing the long-term prospects of the Jewish state.
Excerpted from The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Copyright © 2007 by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Published in September 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (August 27, 2007)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 496 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374177724
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374177720
- Item Weight : 1.76 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#123,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #128 in International Diplomacy (Books)
- #217 in Israel & Palestine History (Books)
- #218 in Middle Eastern Politics
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Quickly, this new IL offspring gathered strength through the gentle nurturing from its parent organism MW, who carefully and methodically rebutted invader organisms from killing off their newly-born entity.
In fact, as more invaders attacked the newly-born IL offspring, creator-entity MW sprang into parenting mode, to help IL become even larger, healthier, and more robust through more highly-refined written and oral discourse.
As a result, MW had to endure the crucible of more IL refinement and continued defense against the invaders, to enhance IL’s further growth and robust qualities. One year later in 2007, the IL entity became even bigger, healthier, and more robust; and so to celebrate this new phase, it had a name change and an even newer re-birth place for this tempered form of the entity: it grew from its first physical form of 32 pages (including rebuttals) born in London to its current form of an astonishing 496 pages by means of a new but international midwife, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, at its New York office. IL has become so famous that it landed on the coveted #1 Best Seller list position in the New York Times. This position affirms IL’s veracity. IL’s full name now is: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.
This comparison (using genetics [with a little alchemy sprinkled in], ancient world history, and Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ to create a new entity) is exactly what happened to Professor John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Professor Steven Walt (Harvard University) in their odyssey of creating a book that no one would dare write before because of the affects of foreign-country interest groups in the US from the Israel Lobby, AIPAC. There is a related group that has also had its tentacles on US campus ME Studies departments from the early 2000s, trying to know what professors were teaching their students and trying to politically either back up or remove those professors whose ideas went against theirs. There has been no public, nonacademic discourse and correction to this activity because universities rely on funding, and money speaks volumes (over discourse). This public free-speech activity (all sides of it) needs to be discussed, especially according to how each comment relates all of our country’s established frameworks/ documents of power (including the Constitution). This affords all participants with a very lively and rich discourse experience in which all participants will learn much from each other. Some of the most educated and important people in the US have views on this topic and ALL of them are worth reading and listening to via all formats (books, articles, journals, videos, podcasts, etc.) All of these people’s views combined with those from Mearsheimer and Walt in this book are part of an important knowledge base that needs to be tapped, understood, and added to in later Mearsheimer-Walt book editions. In short, because there has been much change in this country since this book was first published in 2007, the book has stood the test of time, and these changes need to be included in a revised, later edition.
Mearsheimer and Walt’s book: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is now recommended classroom reading in most poli sci, government studies, ME studies, diplomacy and diplomatic studies preparation programs in institutions of higher education, both in the US and those abroad. Why? Because it is the first book of its kind to look carefully at one foreign country (Israel) and how it affects the behavior and actions of another (the US/ US taxpayers, the group that subsidizes the foreign country) in terms of policy and aid. It also affects who is elected to US Congress and who stays elected.
As with most topics, this book generates needed discourse about countries (those with money and those without it that need it as aid from another, wealthier country), policies, lobby groups, money/ funding, aid, political parties and issues, diplomacy, and how all of these influence and intermingle, to create a larger world-system of which both the US and Israel are a part.
Mearsheimer and Walt have created this book to shed light on a topic that was ready to be illuminated. Once this book was published, like its UK germination stage phase, it (and the authors) went through the second crucible tempering in which the authors had to defend their ideas on US soil, successfully defending them against opposite forces.
This book has passed muster again through this process. Simultaneously, there were videos made of university and diplomacy ‘Round Tables’ with Q/A sessions at the end that are found online for the general public as well as academia. In these, the authors successfully defended their theses, resulting in a further strengthening of their ideas. Also, the comments of all people whose opinions were directed at the two became known, with some of the public agreeing and some disagreeing. Through this process, participants could learn more things about what they believe in, why, and some will even re-edit/ amend their own initial ideas.
Unfortunately, a culling of professional-academic personnel has occurred since the early 2000s, in which some professors and writers have been professionally ousted from their positions in academia and related areas (writing) for their stances against this foreign lobby group. This, alone, warrants the reading of this book and its future revised, edition.
Because this book is so interesting, I have bought extra copies to give to friends to read and later discuss. Afterwards, we form groups and engage in critical thinking and dialog to further hone our knowledge about this topic. Included in this activity is that we all watch designated on-line videos, listen to podcasts, read articles and journals, etc., to enhance what we learn from reading this book.
I thoroughly recommend this groundbreaking book for anyone who has an interest in our country and how it relates to foreign countries.
Top reviews from other countries
The authors cover many topics such as the military, diplomatic, financial and legal aid handed to Israel by the United States over the years. This has ranged from the latest military technology to simple aid to loans which are not expected to be repaid.... ever !! This is a condition they would not accept from the United Kingdom.
However, the most intriguing aspect of the work is just how much the US has been prepared to accept from their "strategic" ally, or is it how little ?? There is documented evidence of how Israel regularly sells on US arms and technology to nations not quite suited to US foreign policy, including China. There is also quite a large amount of data on how much support Israel receives in Congress with the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) being particularly influential in the forming of US foreign policy.
The book has further dimensions which you will need to explore yourself and I would certainly recommend it to anyone with a historical interest in international relations.
This is a fascinating and informative academic essay, it is not anti Semitic and should not be shouted down which it has. To start with the conclusion nothing done by the Lobby is wrong per se, largely in the open and within the Constitution they exert pressure to advance their own interests. The Lobby is very well organised, any US congressional politician is risking electoral suicide if they oppose Israeli interests. Has the United States become a client state of Israel; is this the sort of plural politics the Founding Fathers envisaged?
The book explains how the "Lobby" (a crude term for a "loose coalition of individuals and groups" ....p viii, and well defined in Chapter 4) have regrouped and responded essentially post 1973. Equally it shows how the political structure of United States has been compromised by aggressive ideological activists, well funded and organised. Mearsheimer & Walt explain the mechanics, this not a conspiracy theory it is about the US political process. Read the book to form your own opinion but it allows you to answer three questions: is the Israeli Lobby good for America, is it good for Israel and will it secure an equitable peace in the Middle East. This is not just Jewish politics; the Lobby encompasses the Radical right, Neocons, Christian fundamentalists and Christian Zionists. Collectively they see a world most of us do not accept, many of their arguments are dishonest, devious or dangerously partisan. For me the analysis says much about the failure of alternative lobbies (the Arabs, American big business interests) to counter the Israeli voice and an absence of any counterweight opposition. "America's intimate embrace of Israel... is not making America any safer or more prosperous. To the contrary unconditional support for Israel is undermining relations with other US allies, casting doubt over America's moral vision, helping inspire a generation of anti American extremists" (p 77). The book deals with politics but also the economic and moral aspects.
The Lobby comprises enthusiasts/extremists. That's true of most lobbies, animal rights through to NRA etc etc. What the authors illustrate is the impossibility of an objective debate within the US political system that is critical of Israel and an acceptance of the Israeli agenda determining the US response in the Middle East and beyond. Israel, as we are always reminded, is a democracy but one that through their electoral system gives a disproportionately loud voice to radicals, hard liners, and the crazies. Has the Israeli Lobby marginalised intelligent, compassionate liberal Jewish opinion? Apply common sense "the minority was permitted to speak for the mass and become the dominant voice of Jewish politics " (p126). That is the tragedy. I found their conclusion to be well argued and a positive agenda for change but - as the authors indicate - an unrealistic one.
They note AIPAC President Howard Friedman telling the organization's members in August 2006, "AIPAC meets with every candidate running for Congress. These candidates receive in depth briefings to help them completely understand the complexities of Israel's predicament and that of the Middle East as a whole. We ask each candidate to author a "position paper" on their views of the U.S.-Israel relationship - so it is clear where they stand on the subject."
One congressional candidate (Harry Lonsdale) who went through this vetting process recounts that, "I found myself invited to AIPAC in Washington, D.C. fairly early in the campaign, for "discussions". It was an experience I will never forget. It wasn't enough that I was pro-Israel. I was given a list of vital topics and quizzed (read grilled) for my specific opinion on each. Actually I was told what my opinion must be, and exactly what words I was to use to express those opinions in public..... Shortly after that encounter at AIPAC, I was sent a list of American supporters of Israel..... that I was free to call for campaign contributions. I called, they gave, from Florida to Alaska."
AIPAC also keeps track of congressional voting records and direct funds to opponents of congressmen who don't follow their line.
Apart from Congress, Mearsheimer and Walt show successful Jewish activists in key government positions (particularly from the 1970's onwards), such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Elliott Abrahams, David Wurmser and Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the Clinton and Bush administrations. This political combination managed to steer George Bush, sideline Condoleeza Rice, and bully Colin Powell into the Iraq war . The authors show the enormous frustration of the CIA as their intelligence was distorted to support the lie of Iraqi WMD and start an unprovoked war that was not in the interests of the United States.
A feeble Congress votes record aid budgets to Israel (currently four billion dollars a year), with loans being converted to grants, and quick acquiescences to Israeli demands that aid be paid up front (which means the U.S. has to borrow it to give to them), and to the Israeli refusal to account for how it was spent, both necessary conditions for other aid recipients.
The whole process is supported by Jewish Think Tank activists such as Daniel Pipes, Michael Rubin, and Joshua Muravchik at the American Enterprise Institute, and prominent journalists such as William Kristol, Michael Ladeen and Norman Podhoretz who are now agitating for America to declare war on Iran (and subsequently Syria and Saudi Arabia although they are not so open about this).
In their conclusion, Mearsheimer and Walt ask what can be done about the outlandish failure of the American government to act in the interests of America. They doubt that the Israel Lobby will relinquish its power in the press, campaign finance or government, so they suggest pressure for more open discourse, which seems to be happening. It was initially impossible to publish this book in America but it did eventually see the light of day after an article in the London Review of Books and an unprcedented 275.000 downloads of the working paper on Harvard's Kennedy School of Government website.
The authors see the (remote) possibility of congressmen treating Israel like any other country and they also show that the majority of American Jews aren't Likudniks and opposed the war in Iraq. They didn't like the AIPAC / Wolfowitz group but of course they lost out to the activists, so its not clear where all this goes, apart from generating some rumbling at the other end of the spectrum (for example, Robert Griffin's, "The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds" ). At present, Israel is greatly favoured while congress directs America to carry the massive cost of her wars in addition to generous transfers of aid.
Contrary to what some reviewers say,their account of the Israel lobby starts from the view that there is nothing wrong in individuals or groups who support Israel lobbying and trying to persuade politicians,the press or the public of the rightness of their views.It is US democracy in action,good old-fashioned politics,and everyone else does it.It's almost impossible to read an article about US politics which doesn't discuss the farm lobby,the labour lobby,the banking lobby or whatever other lobby.
The problem is that there is,in effect,no opposition to the Israel lobby (not all of whom are Jewish,as the authors point out).Any "Arab lobby" or "Palestinian lobby" in the USA is pathetically weak and poor in comparison with pro-Israeli groups.So,the most extreme and confrontational policies of the Israeli government are tolerated,supported or,at most,attract verbal displeasure from the US government-there's no benefit in supporting Palestinians,no loss in supporting Israel.Same with the financial munificence of the US taxpayers to Israel.
Great work of political analysis,and ignore the cries of "anti-Semitism" you may sometimes hear directed at this book.The authors point out that particular canard has been used so frequently and so loosely by pro-Israeli apologists as their response to anything and anybody that opposes anything the Israeli goverment does.
Who are the Israel Lobby? What is the aim of the Israel Lobby? Who funds the Israel Lobby? Why does the American taxpayer fork out billions in Aid to Israel, who are supposedly one of the richest nations in the world? Is the Israel Lobby one unified bloc, or a mixture of different groups and organisations?
The book answers questions along those lines - and many more - and the authors are not shy in putting forward the sources and evidence. Critics call it "anti-Semitic" but it is far from it. The word Anti-Semitic, like the word Racist, is used, abused and thrown around to silence critics and close off any debate. Sadly for them, the ad hominem attacks don't work. In fact the authors recognise Israel but believe in taking a different path as opposed to previous and current US administrations.
A very good starter book for those who want to find out WHO the Israel Lobby are. Heavily recommended.
Get everything you need
Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create IsraelPaperback
The Tragedy of Great Power PoliticsPaperback
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010Paperback
Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global PowerHardcover
The Assassination of James ForrestalPaperback
Hitler's Revolution: Ideology, Social Programs, Foreign AffairsTedor RichardPaperback


























