Product Description

Does America’s pro-Israel lobby wield inappropriate control over US foreign policy? This book has created a storm of controversy by bringing out into the open America’s relationship with the Israel lobby: a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape foreign policy in a way that is profoundly damaging both to the United States and Israel itself. Israel is an important, valued American ally, yet Mearsheimer and Walt show that, by encouraging unconditional US financial and diplomatic support for Israel and promoting the use of its power to remake the Middle East, the lobby has jeopardized America’s and Israel’s long-term security and put other countries – including Britain – at risk.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19654 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Adam Roberts, the Times Literary Supplement
'[Mearsheimer] is an excellent critic of rival perspectives, exposing their weaknesses with real forensic flair. Admirably, he seems to be happiest when swimming against the prevailing tide of academic opinion'

Michael Ignatieff
'Instead of celebrating America's power in the world or excoriating American hubris, Stephen Walt asks the critical questions.'

Max Hastings, Sunday Times
There will be no peace in the Middle East until the United States faces its responsibilities there in a much more convincingfashion than it does today

Customer Reviews

A valid, well argued analysis
Recently I have read several books on Henry Kissinger and I was intrigued by the position of Israel in 1973. With the Yom Kippur War the `complacency of invincibility' was shattered. Confidence has subsequently been eroded amid relentless low and high intensity violence, nasty and cruel. Militarily the Israeli Defence Force has lost the initiative. Pursuing policies of "lebensraum and untermenschen" respect for Israel has declined precipitously. The Israeli and Jewish response has been to create a "very special relationship" with the United States. Since 1976 Israel became the largest annual recipient of American military assistance, a position it has retained since. US diplomatic backing is almost unconditional. Yet Americans "recognize that support for Israel is one of the main causes of anti-Americanism around the world "(p10). This book is a review of this complex, controversial and emotional relationship. It is worth remembering that the American Jewish population is estimated to be 5 to 6m, about 2% while in Israeli the Jewish population is c 5.5m (just 75% of the total). Here is the paradox, such a small number of people having such a massive impact on international politics.

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.

An objective book that everyone should read
After first reviewing the extent of US financial and non-financial support for Israel, the authors ask whether Israel is a strategic asset or liability for the USA. They consider a number of arguments:

Helping contain the Soviet bear - relevant during the Cold War but not after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They give the example of the first Gulf War where any Israeli involvement would have been seriously damaging to US interests.

Partners against terror - the authors point out that US support for Israel is itself a prime cause for terrorism directed against US interests.

Confronting rogue states - they remind us that the states usually mentioned present no direct threat to the USA and that US support for Israel makes it harder to deal with rogue states.

Having decided that supporting Israel damages the USA, the authors evaluate whether moral considerations require American support for Israel notwithstanding. After doing so, they conclude that the moral case for the USA to support Israel is not currently justified, regardless of the arguments either way in 1947.

It would be easy to believe that US support for Israel is achieved by a conspiracy, with secret arrangements made in darkened rooms. The authors demonstrate that exactly the opposite is true. The Israel lobby operates in the full glare of publicity; there is no conspiracy.

The book shows how American supporters of Israel organise their campaigning efforts, raise money, lobby politicians and also dominate debate in the media and amongst think tanks. This is achieved by many people dedicating their time and money to promoting the cause of Israel. The authors point out that in a democracy a narrowly focused interest group can often get its way; a small number of Americans are passionate about Israel while the overwhelming majority are relatively indifferent either way. Accordingly, politicians find it helpful to appease the Israel lobby; safe in the knowledge that their doing so will not result in any meaningful loss of support from the rest of the population.

The book examines in detail how the lobby operates. One statistic stands out. Between 1990 and 2004, pro-Israel groups contributed nearly $57 million to candidates and parties while Arab American and Muslim Political Action Committees contributed slightly less than $800,000.

Criticism of Israels sadistic behaviour is not anti-semitic
When the Israeli army can shoot Palestinian children in the head in their own homes and foreign journalists in high visibility clothing, blow up entire Palestinian families picnicing on beaches, carpet bomb Lebanon so widely and indiscriminately that the land is not safe to tread for fear of stepping on unexploded Israeli bomblets, commit the mass theft of Palestinian homes and land for their own ends, then ghetto-ise their remaining population by witholding food and electicity, all under the 'anti-terrorism' banner, all with the express backing of the Israel Lobby in America, books like these need to be written.

If Scotland started behaving in the same way towards England, I'm pretty sure many English would be firing a few rockets over Hadrians Wall.
The bottom line is most Israelis I have heard and read think this behaviour is entirely appropriate and any criticism is met with a deliberate tactical charge of anti-semitism. I am glad books like this are finally coming to the surface and showing Israel for the sadistic, self-pitying, land grabbing bully it is.