The Israel Lobby,” by John J. Mearsheimer of the University
of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy
School of Government, was one of the most controversial
articles in recent memory. Originally published in the
London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both howls
of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had
been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel
lobby on U.S. foreign policy.
Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt
deepen and expand their argument and confront recent
developments in Lebanon and Iran. They describe the
remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the
United States provides to Israel and argues that this
support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or
moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely
to the political influence of a loose coalition of
individuals and organizations that actively work to shape
U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. Mearsheimer
and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a
far-reaching impact on America’s posture throughout the
Middle East—in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and the policies it has
encouraged are in neither America’s national interest nor
Israel’s long-term interest. The lobby’s influence also
affects America’s relationship with important allies and
increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist
terror.
Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing
declared, “Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published
Samuel Huntington’s ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ in 1993
has an academic essay detonated with such force.” The
publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is
certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most
talked-about books of the year.
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