*Subject:* The Israel Lobby Unmasked
<http://www.democracyinaction
Two professors from Harvard University and the University of Chicago
have just released an 81-page study on "The Israel Lobby and U.S.
Foreign Policy" that concludes that the "overall thrust of U.S. policy
in the [Middle East] is due almost entirely to U.S. domestic politics,
and especially to the activities of the 'Israel Lobby.'"
The study is currently available as a Harvard "working paper"
<http://www.democracyinaction
with extensive footnotes or as a shorter version
<http://www.democracyinaction
published in the London Review of Books.
The authors systematically examine the facts of the U.S.-Israel
relationship, concluding that Israel is neither a strategic asset nor a
"compelling moral case for sustained U.S. backing," and point a finger
squarely at the Israel lobby for "[managing] 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."
The authors examine the entire scope of the Israel lobby's efforts, from
its intimidation of the press, think tanks and academia into presenting
a misleading image of Israel to its success at co-opting the Congress
and the Executive Branch into implementing Israel's policy aims.
The paper is significant not just for its substance but also for the
fact that it was published at all. The authors note in their section on
the lobby's intimidation of the press: "Newspapers occasionally publish
guest op-eds challenging Israeli policy, but the balance of opinion
clearly favours the other side. It is hard to imagine any mainstream
media outlet in the United States publishing a piece like this one."
Stephen Walt
<http://www.democracyinaction
is Academic Dean and Professor of International Affairs at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His latest book is
"Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy" (W. W.
Norton & Co., 2005). According to his faculty website, he has previously
worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and as a Guest
Scholar at the Brookings Institution, in addition to consulting for the
Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and the
National Defense University.
John Mearsheimer
<http://www.democracyinaction
is a Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program
on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, where he
is an authority on security affairs and international politics. He
graduated from West Point in 1970 and served five years as an officer in
the U.S. Air Force.
Both authors previously wrote "An Unnecessary War,"
<http://www.democracyinaction
which argued against invading Iraq, in the January/February 2003 edition
of Foreign Policy magazine.
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