The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
Author John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
Country United States
Language English
Genre Politics
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date
 August 27, 2007
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 496 p.
ISBN 0-374-17772-4
OCLC 144227359
327.7305694 22
LC Class E183.8.I7 M428 2007

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy[1] is a book by John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, published in late August 2007. It was a New York Times Best Seller.[2]

The book describes the lobby as a "loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction".[3] The book "focuses primarily on the lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy and its negative effect on American interests".[4] The authors also argue that "the lobby's impact has been unintentionally harmful to Israel as well".[5]

Both Mearsheimer and Walt argue that although "the boundaries of the Israel lobby cannot be identified precisely", it "has a core consisting of organizations whose declared purpose is to encourage the U.S. government and the American public to provide material aid to Israel and to support its government's policies, as well as influential individuals for whom these goals are also a top priority".[6] They note that "not every American with a favorable attitude to Israel is part of the lobby",[6] and that although "the bulk of the lobby is comprised of Jewish Americans",[7] there are many American Jews who are not part of the lobby, and the lobby also includes Christian Zionists.[8] They also claim a drift of important groups in "the lobby" to the right,[9] and overlap with the neoconservatives.[10]

The book was preceded by a paper commissioned by The Atlantic Monthly and written by Mearsheimer and Walt. The Atlantic Monthly rejected the paper, and it was published elsewhere. The paper attracted considerable controversy, both praise[11][12][13][14][15] and criticism.[16][17]

Background

The book has its origins in a paper commissioned in 2002 by The Atlantic Monthly, but it was rejected for reasons that neither The Atlantic nor the authors have publicly explained.[18] It became available as a working paper at the Kennedy School's website in 2006.[19] A condensed version of the working paper was published in March 2006 by the London Review of Books under the title The Israel Lobby.[20] A third, revised version addressing some of the criticism was published in the Fall 2006 issue of Middle East Policy. The authors state that "In terms of its core claims, however, this revised version does not depart from the original Working Paper."[21]

The book was published in late August 2007.[22][23] The book differs from the earlier papers in several ways: it includes an expanded definition of the lobby, it responds to the criticisms that the papers attracted, it updates the authors' analysis and it offers suggestions on how the U. S. should advance its interests in the Middle East.[24] Notably, with his elaborated position on Israel in this book, Mearsheimer distanced his own position from such established scholars as Hannah Arendt and Hans Morgenthau and their support for Israel,[25] the latter of whom Mearsheimer had previously cited as significant to the development of his own writing in the field of international relations.[26]

A paperback edition was published in September 2008.[27]

Content of the preceding paper

In April 2006, Philip Weiss discussed some of the background to the creation of the paper in an article in The Nation.[28]

Mearsheimer and Walt argue that "No lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical".[20] They argue that "in its basic operations, it is no different from interest groups like the Farm Lobby, steel and textile workers, and other ethnic lobbies. What sets the Israel Lobby apart is its extraordinary effectiveness." According to Mearsheimer and Walt, the "loose coalition" that makes up the Lobby has "significant leverage over the Executive branch", as well as the ability to make sure that the "Lobby's perspective on Israel is widely reflected in the mainstream media." They claim that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in particular has a "stranglehold on the U.S. Congress", due to its "ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it."

Mearsheimer and Walt decry what they call misuse of "the charge of anti-Semitism", and argue that pro-Israel groups place great importance on "controlling debate" in American academia; they maintain, however, that the Lobby has yet to succeed in its "campaign to eliminate criticism of Israel from college campuses" (see Campus Watch and U.S. Congress Bill H.R. 509). The authors conclude by arguing that when the Lobby succeeds in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East, then "Israel's enemies get weakened or overthrown, Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding, and paying."[19] According to Mr. Mearsheimer "it’s becoming increasingly difficult to make the argument in a convincing way that anyone who criticizes the lobby or Israel is an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew.” The authors pointed to the growing dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq, criticism of Israel’s war in Lebanon and the publication of former President Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid as making it somewhat easier to criticize Israel openly.[12]

Reception

Professors John Mearsheimer (left) and Stephen Walt, authors of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

The March 2006 publication of Mearsheimer and Walt's essay, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", was highly controversial. The essay's central controversial claim was that the Israel lobby's influence has distorted U.S. Middle East foreign policy away from what the authors referred to as "American national interest." Alan Dershowitz opined that criticizing the Israel lobby promoted a charged debate about what constitutes antisemitic conspiracy theorizing;[29] others differ, however.

As a result of the controversy created by Mearsheimer and Walt's article, the Dutch Backlight ('Tegenlicht') program produced a documentary entitled The Israel Lobby. Backlight is VPRO's regular international 50 minute documentary program.[30][31]

Praise

Former U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck wrote that "The expected tsunami of rabid responses condemned the report, vilified its authors, and denied there is such a lobby — validating both the lobby's existence and aggressive, pervasive presence and obliging Harvard to remove its name." Peck is generally in agreement with the paper's core thesis: "Opinions differ on the long-term costs and benefits for both nations, but the lobby's views of Israel's interests have become the basis of U.S. Middle East policies."[13]

Tony Judt, a historian at New York University, wrote in the New York Times, that "[in] spite of [the paper's] provocative title, the essay draws on a wide variety of standard sources and is mostly uncontentious." He goes on to ask "[does] the Israel Lobby affect our foreign policy choices? Of course — that is one of its goals. [...] But does pressure to support Israel distort American decisions? That's a matter of judgment." He concludes the essay by taking the perspective that "this essay, by two 'realist' political scientists with no interest whatsoever in the Palestinians, is a straw in the wind." And that "it will not be self-evident to future generations of Americans why the imperial might and international reputation of the United States are so closely aligned with one small, controversial Mediterranean client state."[14]

Juan Cole a professor at the University of Michigan, wrote at Salon.com,"Other critics have accused the authors of anti-Semitism, which is to say, of racial bigotry. Eliot A. Cohen of the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University published an emotional attack on the authors in the Washington Post, saying "yes, it's anti-Semitic." Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz also accused Mearsheimer and Walt of bigotry. The Harvard Crimson reported that "Dershowitz, who is one of Israel's most prominent defenders, vehemently disputed the article's assertions, repeatedly calling it 'one-sided' and its authors 'liars' and 'bigots.'" Cole continues to argue "Dershowitz went so far as to allege that the paper paralleled texts at neo-Nazi sites.

Michael Scheuer, a former senior official at the Central Intelligence Agency and now a terrorism analyst for CBS News, said to NPR that Mearsheimer and Walt are "basically right."[15] Israel, according to Scheuer, has engaged in one of the most successful campaigns to influence public opinion in the United States ever conducted by a foreign government. Scheuer said to NPR that "They [Mearsheimer and Walt] should be credited for the courage they have had to actually present a paper on the subject. I hope they move on and do the Saudi lobby, which is probably more dangerous to the United States than the Israeli lobby."[15]

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter, wrote: "Mearsheimer and Walt adduce a great deal of factual evidence that over the years Israel has been the beneficiary of privileged — indeed, highly preferential — financial assistance, out of all proportion to what the United States extends to any other country. The massive aid to Israel is in effect a huge entitlement that enriches the relatively prosperous Israelis at the cost of the American taxpayer. Money being fungible, that aid also pays for the very settlements that America opposes and that impede the peace process."[32]

In his review in The Times, journalist Max Hastings wrote "otherwise intelligent Americans diminish themselves by hurling charges of antisemitism with such recklessness. There will be no peace in the Middle East until the United States faces its responsibilities there in a much more convincing fashion than it does today, partly for reasons given in this depressing book."[33]

Adam Kirsch argued that Robert D. Kaplan's "deification" of Mearsheimer in The Atlantic in January 2012 showed that the authors of The Israel Lobby were winning the argument.[34]

Glenn Greenwald has endorsed the book's central thesis, arguing "Walt and Mearshiemer merely voiced a truth which has long been known and obvious but was not allowed to be spoken. That’s precisely why the demonization campaign against them was so vicious and concerted: those who voice prohibited truths are always more hated than those who spout obvious lies."[35]

Marxist historian Perry Anderson also endorsed the book's thesis, calling it "outstanding".[36]

David Duke endorsed the book because he claims it is similar to his own views and stances. Duke has said that "It is quite satisfying to see a body in the premier American university essentially come out and validate every major point I have been making since even before the war even started."[37] Walt and Mearsheimer rejected Duke's endorsement, writing "We have no control over who likes or dislikes our article, and we regret that Duke exploited it to promote his racist agenda, which we utterly reject." [38]

Mixed reviews

The paper was described as a "wake-up call" by Daniel Levy,[39] former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and said it is "jarring for a self-critical Israeli" and lacks "finesse and nuance." In a March 25 article for Haaretz, Levy wrote, "Their case is a potent one: that identification of American with Israeli interests can be principally explained via the impact of the Lobby in Washington, and in limiting the parameters of public debate, rather than by virtue of Israel being a vital strategic asset or having a uniquely compelling moral case for support".[40] Levy also criticized Mearsheimer and Walt for confusing cause and effect; he added that the Iraq war was already decided on by the Bush administration for its own reasons.[41]

Columnist Christopher Hitchens agreed that "AIPAC and other Jewish organizations exert a vast influence over Middle East policy", and stated that the paper "contains much that is true and a little that is original" and that he "would have gone further than Mearsheimer and Walt". However, he also says, paraphrasing a statement popularly misattributed to Samuel Johnson, that "what is original is not true and what is true is not original", and that the notion that the "Jewish tail wags the American dog... the United States has gone to war in Iraq to gratify Ariel Sharon, and... the alliance between the two countries has brought down on us the wrath of Osama Bin Laden" is "partly misleading and partly creepy".[42] He also stated that the authors "seriously mischaracterize the origins of the problem" and produced "an article that is redeemed from complete dullness and mediocrity only by being slightly but unmistakably smelly."[43]

Mitchell Plitnick, Director of Education and Policy for Jewish Voice for Peace, wrote an extensive critique of the book, while also stating firmly that "The ideas Walt and Mearsheimer present are not comfortable and, in my view, sometimes not accurate. But they are not personally anti-Semitic, nor are they motivated by animosity toward Israel." Plitnick details his view that Walt and Mearsheimer seriously overstate "The Lobby's" role in policymaking, although their influence in Congress is considerable. He also challenges the view that Israel was a prime motivator in the invasion of Iraq, saying "...it was clear that Iraq was no threat to Israel. There was simply no reason for Israel to risk alienating a large segment of the American people in order to push for this war and, in fact, they did not. It was an American misadventure, and the Israeli involvement was by American request, not on their own impetus." Plitnick sees US Mideast policy as consistent with US policy in other places and based on an analysis with which both he and Walt and Mearsheimer would disagree, but saying "The Lobby" is responsible is overstating the matter.[44]

Joseph Massad, professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University, writes, "Is the pro-Israel lobby extremely powerful in the United States? As someone who has been facing the full brunt of their power for the last three years through their formidable influence on my own university and their attempts to get me fired, I answer with a resounding yes. Are they primarily responsible for U.S. policies towards the Palestinians and the Arab world? Absolutely not." Massad then argued U.S. policy is "imperialistic", and has only supported those struggling for freedom when it is politically convenient, especially in the Middle East.[45]

In describing the last of three "surprising weaknesses" of the paper, Eric Alterman writes in The Nation, "Third, while it's fair to call AIPAC obnoxious and even anti-democratic, the same can often be said about, say, the NRA, Big Pharma and other powerful lobbies. The authors note this but often seem to forget it. This has the effect of making the Jews who read the paper feel unfairly singled out, and inspires much emotionally driven mishigas (craziness) in reaction. Do these problems justify the inference that the authors are anti-Semitic? Of course not."[46]

Michelle Goldberg[18] gives a detailed analysis of the paper. She writes about some "baffling omissions", e.g. : "Amazingly, Walt and Mearsheimer don't even mention Fatah or Black September, Munich or Entebbe. One might argue that Israel has killed more Palestinians than visa versa, but it doesn't change the role of spectacular Palestinian terrorism in shaping American attitudes toward Israel." She also finds valuable points: "Walt and Mearsheimer are correct, after all, in arguing that discussion about Israel is hugely circumscribed in mainstream American media and politics.... Indeed, one can find far more critical coverage of the Israeli occupation in liberal Israeli newspapers like Haaretz than in any American daily."

Michael Massing, contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, writes: "The lack of a clearer and fuller account of Palestinian violence is a serious failing of the essay. Its tendency to emphasize Israel's offenses while largely overlooking those of its adversaries has troubled even many doves." On the other hand, he writes: "The nasty campaign waged against John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt has itself provided an excellent example of the bullying tactics used by the lobby and its supporters. The wide attention their argument has received shows that, in this case, those efforts have not entirely succeeded. Despite its many flaws, their essay has performed a very useful service in forcing into the open a subject that has for too long remained taboo."[47]

Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, gives a detailed point by point critique of the paper.[48]Zunes also writes that "The authors have also been unfairly criticized for supposedly distorting the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though their overview is generally quite accurate", and took issue with Joseph Massad's interpretation of Mearsheimer's and Walt's argument: "[T]here is something quite convenient and discomfortingly familiar about the tendency to blame an allegedly powerful and wealthy group of Jews for the overall direction of an increasingly controversial U.S. policy."[48]

Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT, said the authors took a "courageous stand" and said much of the criticism against the authors was "hysterical". But he asserts that he did not find the thesis of the paper very convincing. He said that Stephen Zunes has rightly pointed out that "there are far more powerful interests that have a stake in what happens in the Persian Gulf region than does AIPAC [or the Lobby generally], such as the oil companies, the arms industry and other special interests whose lobbying influence and campaign contributions far surpass that of the much-vaunted Zionist lobby and its allied donors to congressional races." He finds that the authors "have a highly selective use of evidence (and much of the evidence is assertion)", ignore historical "world affairs", and blame the Lobby for issues that are not relevant.[49]

In a review in The New Yorker, David Remnick writes, "Mearsheimer and Walt give you the sense that, if the Israelis and the Palestinians come to terms, bin Laden will return to the family construction business. It's a narrative that recounts every lurid report of Israeli cruelty as indisputable fact but leaves out the rise of Fatah and Palestinian terrorism before 1967; the Munich Olympics; Black September; myriad cases of suicide bombings; and other spectaculars. ... The duplicitous and manipulative arguments for invading Iraq put forward by the Bush Administration, the general inability of the press to upend those duplicities, the triumphalist illusions, the miserable performance of the military strategists, the arrogance of the Pentagon, the stifling of dissent within the military and the government, the moral disaster of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, the rise of an intractable civil war, and now an incapacity to deal with the singular winner of the war, Iran—all of this has left Americans furious and demanding explanations. Mearsheimer and Walt provide one: the Israel lobby. In this respect, their account is not so much a diagnosis of our polarized era as a symptom of it."[50]

Writing in Foreign Affairs, Walter Russell Mead applauds the authors for "admirably and courageously" initiating a conversation on a difficult subject, but criticizes many of their findings. He observes that their definition of the "Israel lobby" is amorphous to the point of being useless: anyone who supports the existence of Israel (including Mearsheimer and Walt themselves) could be considered a part of the lobby, according to Mead. He is especially critical of their analysis of domestic politics in the United States, suggesting that the authors overstate the magnitude of lobbying in favor Israel when considered relative to overall sums spent on lobbying—only 1% in a typical election cycle. Mead considers their wider geopolitical analysis "more professional" but still "simplistic and sunny" on alternatives to a U.S.-Israeli alliance; he notes, for instance, that simply threatening to cut off aid to Israel in order to influence its behavior is misguided policy, given that other powers such as China, Russia, and India might well view an Israeli alliance as advantageous, should the United States withdraw. Mead rejects any antisemitic intent in the work, but feels that the authors left themselves open to the charge through "easily avoidable lapses in judgment and expression."[51]

Criticism

Benny Morris, a professor of Middle East history at Ben-Gurion University, prefaced a very detailed analysis with the remark: "Like many pro-Arab propagandists at work today, Mearsheimer and Walt often cite my own books, sometimes quoting directly from them, in apparent corroboration of their arguments. Yet their work is a travesty of the history that I have studied and written for the past two decades. Their work is riddled with shoddiness and defiled by mendacity."[52]

Former government officials

Former Director of the CIA James Woolsey also wrote a strongly negative review, remarking that "... Reading [Walt and Mearsheimer's] version of events is like entering a completely different world." Woolsey contends the authors "are stunningly deceptive", and feature a "commitment to distorting the historical record is the one consistent feature of this book", proceeding with a few examples.[53]

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that the paper has not had "any great impact on the general public. The American public continues to support the relations [between the two countries], and resistance to any threat to the survival of Israel."[54]

Members of organizations

The American Jewish Committee (AJC): executive director David A. Harris has written several responses to the paper and more recently to the book. His article in the The Jerusalem Post discusses the difficulty Europeans have in understanding America's "special relationship" with Israel and the resulting eagerness of European publishers to fast track the book. "Although the book was panned by most American reviewers, it will serve as red meat for those eager to believe the worst about American decision-making regarding Israel and the Middle East."[55] AJC also published several critiques of the paper, many of which were reproduced in newspapers around the world. AJC's Anti-Semitism expert, Kenneth Stern, made the following argument against the paper: "Such a dogmatic approach blinds them from seeing what most Americans do. They seek to destroy the "moral" case for Israel by pointing at alleged Israeli misdeeds, rarely noting the terror and anti-Semitism that predicates Israeli reactions."[56]

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL): National Director Abraham H. Foxman wrote a book in response to Mearsheimer and Walt's paper, entitled The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control [57][58] where he allegedly "demolishes a number of shibboleths . . . a rebuttal of a pernicious theory about a mythically powerful Jewish lobby." [59] Former Secretary of State George Shultz wrote in the Foreword to the book, "... the notion. U.S. policy on Israel and Middle East is the result of their influence is simply wrong." [60][61] The ADL also published an analysis of the paper, describing it as "amateurish and biased critique of Israel, American Jews, and American policy" and a "sloppy diatribe".[62]

Other critical organizations and affiliated individuals include the Dore Gold from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,[63] and Neal Sher of AIPAC.[64]

Journalists

Those critical of the paper include Caroline Glick of The Jerusalem Post;[65] columnist Bret Stephens;[66][67] and editor of Jewish Current Issues Rick Richman.[68][69]

John Judis, a senior editor at The New Republic and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote: "I think Walt and Mearsheimer do exaggerate the influence of the Israel lobby and define the lobby in such an inclusive way as to beg the question of its influence."[70]

In a review in the Denver Post, Richard Cohen writes, "Where Israel is wrong, they say so. But where Israel is right, they are somehow silent. By the time you finish the book, you almost have to wonder why anyone in their right mind could find any reason to admire or like Israel. ... They had an observation worth making and a position worth debating. But their argument is so dry, so one-sided — an Israel lobby that leads America around by the nose — they suggest that not only do they not know Israel, they don't know America, either."[71]

In an address to Stanford University, author and journalist Christopher Hitchens said that Mearsheimer and Walt "think that they are smarter than the American imperialists. If they were running the empire, [Mearsheimer and Walt] wouldn't be fooled by the Jews. They'd be making big business with the Saudis instead and not letting Arabs get upset about Zionism. Well, it's an extraordinary piece of cynicism, I would say, combined with an extraordinary naiveté. It doesn't deserve to be called realistic at all."[72]

Scholarly reaction to the criticism

Harvard's Kennedy School of Government removed its logo, more strongly wording its disclaimer and making it more prominent, and insisting the paper reflected only the views of its authors.[73][74][75] The Kennedy School said in a statement: "The only purpose of that removal was to end public confusion; it was not intended, contrary to some interpretations, to send any signal that the school was also 'distancing' itself from one of its senior professors"[76] and stated that they are committed to academic freedom, and do not take a position on faculty conclusions and research.[77] However, in their 79-page rebuttal to the original papers criticisms, former Harvard dean Walt ensures that it was his decision - not Harvard's - to remove the Harvard logo from the on-line Kennedy school version of the original.".[78]

Mark Mazower, a professor of history at Columbia University, wrote that it is not possible to openly debate the topic of the article: "What is striking is less the substance of their argument than the outraged reaction: to all intents and purposes, discussing the US-Israel special relationship still remains taboo in the U.S. media mainstream. [...] Whatever one thinks of the merits of the piece itself, it would seem all but impossible to have a sensible public discussion in the U.S. today about the country's relationship with Israel."[79]

Criticism of the paper was itself called "moral blackmail" and "bullying" by an opinion piece in The Financial Times: "Moral blackmail — the fear that any criticism of Israeli policy and U.S. support for it will lead to charges of anti-Semitism — is a powerful disincentive to publish dissenting views...Bullying Americans into a consensus on Israeli policy is bad for Israel and makes it impossible for America to articulate its own national interest." The editorial praised the paper, remarking that "They argue powerfully that extraordinarily effective lobbying in Washington has led to a political consensus that American and Israeli interests are inseparable and identical." [80]

Mearsheimer and Walt's response to the criticism

Mearsheimer stated, "[w]e fully recognised that the lobby would retaliate against us" and "[w]e expected the story we told in the piece would apply to us after it was published. We are not surprised that we've come under attack by the lobby."[81] He also stated "we expected to be called anti-semites, even though both of us are philo-semites and strongly support the existence of Israel."[76]

Mearsheimer and Walt responded to their critics in a letter to the London Review of Books in May 2006. [82]

Also in May 2006 the authors posted a response on the liberal[15] news and opinion website AlterNet.[83]

In December 2006 the authors privately circulated a 79-page rebuttal, "Setting the Record Straight: A Response to Critics of 'The Israel Lobby'".[78]

In the book published in August 2007 the authors responded to criticisms leveled against them. They claimed that the vast majority of charges leveled against the original article were unfounded, but some critiques raised issues of interpretation and emphasis, which they addressed in the book.[84]

Endorsement by Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden recommended the book in one of his audiotapes, saying that "after you read the suggested book[s], you will know the truth, and you will be greatly shocked by the scale of concealment that has been exercised on you."[85]

In response to queries from friends as to how he felt having bin Laden endorse his book, Stephen Walt responded that he did not feel the same gratification he felt when others recommended the book "given what bin Laden has done in the past and given what he stands for."[86] Walt then conjectured that Bin Laden endorsed the book "because he understands -- along with plenty of other people -- that the combination of unconditional U.S. support for Israel and Israel's brutal treatment of the Palestinians is a source of great resentment in the Arab and Islamic world. This is hardly an original insight on his part either."[86] Walt added, "Ironically, bin Laden's 'endorsement' of our book could even be a self-defeating gesture. If enough people were to read our book and U.S. policy were to evolve in the manner we recommend, bin Laden's call to arms would fall on deaf ears and he'd become even more irrelevant than he is today"[86]

David Rothkopf, Walt's colleague at Foreign Policy, attacked Walt's response to the bin Laden endorsement saying:

"Walt's response gets really good when he then goes so far as to suggest that Osama's embrace of his book only proves his point that the Israel lobby ... is used as a justification by terrorists. Blind to the irony all his book did was weave precisely the kind of fabric of partial truths and old biases that are used to dress up the hatreds of demagogues everywhere, Walt actually has the chutzpah to try use the news that the most evil man in the world is reading his work as a soap box from which to once again sell his argument (and books)."[87]

Debate

The London Review of Books organised a follow-up debate on the paper, moderated by Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, also professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.[88]

The panelists were John Mearsheimer; Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Israeli foreign and security minister and the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy; Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, also Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution; Tony Judt, professor in European Studies and director of the Remarque Institute at New York University; Rashid Khalidi, professor of Arab Studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University; and Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace.

A press conference was held after the debate.[89]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mearsheimer, John J. and Walt, Stephen (2007). The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-17772-4.
  2. ↑ "New York Times Best Seller List". New York Times. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2009-04-14. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy was ranked 12th place on the non-fiction list for a total of one week.
  3. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p.5
  4. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007)p.8
  5. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p.9
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p.113
  7. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p.115
  8. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p.132
  9. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) pp.126-128
  10. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) pp.128-132
  11. ↑ Essay Linking Liberal Jews and Anti-Semitism Sparks a Furor. By Patricia Cohen. NY Times, January 31, 2007.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Backlash Over Book on Policy for Israel. By Patricia Cohen. NY Times, August 16, 2007
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Of Course There Is an Israel Lobby, Edward Peck, April 6, 2006
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy, Tony Judt, New York Times Op-ed, April 19, 2006
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Paper on Israel Lobby Sparks Heated Debate, Deborah Amos, National Public Radio, April 21, 2006
  16. ↑ Clyne, Meghan. Harvard's Paper on Israel Called 'Trash' By Solon, New York Sun, March 22, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.
  17. ↑ Tim Rutten (September 12, 2007). "Israel's lobby as scapegoat". Los Angeles Times.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Michelle Goldberg, Is the "Israel lobby" distorting America's Mideast policies?, Salon.com, April 18, 2006
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Mearsheimer, John J. and Walt, Stephen. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Kennedy School of Government Working Paper Number:RWP06-011, March 13, 2006.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 The Israel Lobby, London Review of Books, Volume 28 Number 6, March 23, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.
  21. ↑ John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt (Fall 2006). "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy". Middle East Policy XIII (3): 29–87. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4967.2006.00260.x. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  22. ↑ Walt, Stephen M.; Mearsheimer, John J. (2007). The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-17772-4.
  23. ↑ The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy official web site
  24. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p. x-xi
  25. ↑ Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.
  26. ↑ Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, Fifth edition, 1978.
  27. ↑ ISBN 978-0-374-53150-8
  28. ↑ Weiss, Philip. "Ferment Over 'The Israel Lobby'", The Nation, April 27, 2006
  29. ↑ Dershowitz, Alan. "Debunking the Newest—and Oldest—Jewish Conspiracy: A Reply to the Mearsheimer-Walt "Working Paper" Apr. 2006. Harvard Law School." 17 Jan. 2007.
  30. ↑ Backlight: the Israel Lobby on Netherlands Public Broadcasting.
  31. ↑ The Israel Lobby: The Influence of AIPAC on US Foreign Policy on Google Video.
  32. ↑ Zbigniew Brzezinski, A Dangerous Exemption, Foreign Policy, Jul/Aug 2006. Reprinted
  33. ↑ Hastings, Max. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, The Times, September 2, 2007.
  34. ↑ Kirsch, Adam (18 January 2012). "Framed". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  35. ↑ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/18/friedman_14/
  36. ↑ http://newleftreview.org/II/48/perry-anderson-jottings-on-the-conjuncture#_edn3
  37. ↑ "Of Israel, Harvard and David Duke". The Washington Post. March 26, 2006. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  38. ↑ http://mearsheimer.uchicago.edu/pdfs/A0043.pdf
  39. ↑ Levy, Daniel So pro-Israel that it hurts, Haaretz, March 25, 2006. Accessed March 26, 2006. Mirrored here
  40. ↑ Goldberg, Nicholas. Who's afraid of the 'Israel Lobby'?, The Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2006. Accessed March 26, 2006.
  41. ↑ Ralph Seliger (June 21, 2009). "The Israel Lobbies: Left, Right and Center". In These Times.
  42. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher. Overstating Jewish Power: Mearsheimer and Walt give too much credit to the Israeli lobby, Slate, March 27, 2006. Accessed March 29, 2006.
  43. ↑ Quoted in Dean's World.
  44. ↑ Mitchell Plitnick,
  45. ↑ Joseph Massad, Blaming the lobby Al-Ahram Weekly, March 23–29, 2006
  46. ↑ Eric Alterman,AIPAC's Complaint The Nation, May 1, 2006 (posted April 13, 2006)
  47. ↑ Michael Massing, The Storm over the Israel Lobby, New York Review of Books, June 8, 2006
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Stephen Zunes, The Israel Lobby: How powerful is it really?, Mother Jones, May 18, 2006
  49. ↑ Noam Chomsky, The Israel Lobby? ZNET, March 28, 2006
  50. ↑ David Remnick (September 3, 2007). "The Lobby". The New Yorker.
  51. ↑ Mead, Walter R. (November–December 2007). "Jerusalem Syndrome: Decoding The Israel Lobby" (– Scholar search). Foreign Affairs 86 (6): 160–168. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  52. ↑ Benny Morris, And Now For Some Facts, The New Republic, May 8, 2006; posted April 28, 2006
  53. ↑
  54. ↑ Michal Lando (March 30, 2008). "Kissinger: US public still committed to Israel".
  55. ↑ http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?blog_post_id=1516 Jpost
  56. ↑ When All Else Fails: The Israel Lobby at ajc wire - blog of the american jewish committee
  57. ↑ The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and The Myth of Jewish Control
  58. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt's Anti-Jewish Screed: A Relentless Assault in Scholarly Guise
  59. ↑ Publishers Weekly
  60. ↑ Forward by George Shultz in The Deadliest Lies by Abraham H. Foxman
  61. ↑ "CNN.com Video". CNN. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  62. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt's Anti-Israel Screed: A Relentless Assault in Scholarly Guise, Anti-Defamation League Analysis, March 24, 2006. Accessed March 28, 2006.
  63. ↑ Dore Gold , Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, JERUSALEM ISSUE BRIEF, March 24, 2006.
  64. ↑ Neal M. Sher , The Jewish press, December 20, 200
  65. ↑ Caroline B. Glick, , Jewish World Review March 26, 2006
  66. ↑ Bret Stephens , The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2006 (username and password needed)
  67. ↑ Israpundit » Blog Archive » The Israel Conspiracy
  68. ↑ , The Jewish Press, March 29, 2006
  69. ↑ Bret Stephens: “Meet the Israel Lobby”, Speech at the University of Chicago May 3, 2006, Delivered to Chicago Friends of Israel, Israel Week 2006 Keynote
  70. ↑ John Judis. Split Personality The New Republic Online via the Carnegie Endowment for International Peacewebsite, February 8, 2007
  71. ↑ Richard Cohen (September 12, 2007). "Why does America support Israel?". Denver Post.
  72. ↑ "The War on Terror Revisited." May 9, 2006. Podcast. "Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies." Forum on Contemporary Europe. 30 June 2009.
  73. ↑ Clyne, Meghan. "A Harvard School Distances Itself from Dean's Paper", New York Sun, March 22, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.
  74. ↑ Rosner, Shmuel. "Harvard to remove official seal from anti-AIPAC 'working paper'", Haaretz, March 23, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.
  75. ↑ Safian, Alex. "Harvard Backs Away from "Israel Lobby" Professors; Removes Logo from Controversial Paper", Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, March 22, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Borger, Julian. "US professors accused of being liars and bigots over essay on pro-Israeli lobby", The Guardian, March 31, 2006. Accessed March 31, 2006.
  77. ↑ Bhayani, Paras and Friedman, Rebecca. "Dean Attacks 'Israel Lobby'", The Harvard Crimson, March 21, 2006. Accessed October 10, 2013.
  78. ↑ 78.0 78.1 Philip Weiss,"Walt and Mearsheimer Rebut (and Humble) Their Critics", January 9, 2007
  79. ↑ Mazower, Mark. "When vigilance undermines freedom of speech", Financial Times, April 3, 2006
  80. ↑ America and Israel, The Financial Times, April 1, 2006. Copied here.
  81. ↑ Mekay, Emad. "Israel Lobby Dictates U.S. Policy, Study Charges", Inter Press Service News Agency, March 22, 2006. Accessed March 26, 2006.
  82. ↑ Mearsheimer, John J. and Walt, Stephen. letter to the London Review of Books, May 11, 2006.
  83. ↑ A Response to Critics of "The Israel Lobby", AlterNet, May 10, 2006
  84. ↑ Mearsheimer and Walt (2007) p.x
  85. ↑ Otterman, Sharon and Mackey, Robert. Bin Laden’s Reading List for Americans, The New York Times, September 14, 2009.
  86. ↑ 86.0 86.1 86.2 Walt, Stephen M. "What Osama Bin Laden didn't understand about The Israel Lobby." Foreign Policy. 15 September 2009. 17 September 2009.
  87. ↑ Rothkopf, David. "Walt, Mearsheimer, and why Osama Bin Laden is reading The Israel Lobby." Foreign Policy. 16 September 2009. 17 September 2009.
  88. ↑ "The Israel Lobby: Does it Have Too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy?", ScribeMedia.org, October 11, 2006
  89. ↑ The post-debate press conference, London Review of Books, October 12, 2006

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