Mearsheimer and Walt describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the U.S. provides to Israel. In this important work, they argue that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds, but is due largely to the political influence of a few.

Reviews

Expanding on their notorious 2006 article in the London Review of Books, the authors increase the megatonnage of their explosive claims about the malign influence of the pro-Israel lobby on the U.S. government. Mearsheimer and Walt, political scientists at the University of Chicago and Harvard, respectively, survey a wide coalition of pro-Israel groups and individuals, including American Jewish organizations and political donors, Christian fundamentalists, neo-con officials in the executive branch, media pundits who smear critics of Israel as anti-Semites and the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which they characterize as having an "almost unchallenged hold on Congress." This lobby, they contend, has pressured the U.S. government into Middle East policies that are strategically and morally unjustifiable: lavish financial subsidies for Israel despite its occupation of Palestinian territories; needless American confrontations with Israel's foes Syria and Iran; uncritical support of Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon, which "violated the laws of war"; and the Iraq war, which "almost certainly would not have occurred had [the Israel lobby] been absent." The authors disavow conspiracy mongering, noting that the lobby's activities constitute legitimate, if misguided, interest-group politics, "as American as apple pie." Considering the authors' academic credentials and the careful reasoning and meticulous documentation with which they support their claims, the book is bound to rekindle the controversy. (Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"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"