1. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy by Stephen M. Walt
A Hard Truth
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 200 6, 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.
Features:
Steven Rosen, the former AIPAC official, illustrates AIPAC's power for the
New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg by putting a napkin in front of him and
saying, "In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy

2. senators on this napkin." As Mearsheimer and Walt make clear, this is no
idle boast, and they go on to say, "As will become clear, when issues
relating to Israel come to the fore, Congress almost always votes to
endorse the lobby's positions, usually in overwhelming numbers".
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 W MD 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

3. 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 possibi lity of congressmen being elected on a "Anti
Israel" platform but they rightly point out that this could easily slide into
anti-semitism and it is clear that the majority of American Jews aren't
Likudniks and opposed the war in Iraq. They don't like the AI PAC /
Wolfowitz group but they lose out to the extremists, 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" ).
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