A splendid, well researched tome on how money buys influence to pander to dogma. The annotations are impeccable.

This book initially angered me so much that I had to stop reading it for awhile. I could not, or did not, want to believe what it said. A week or two after the initial anger, I decided to sit down and read it and it is an eye opener.
I find the evidence compelling and I agree to the extent that I believe our government has been manipulated into a lop-sided foreign policy favoring only Israel -- something that has to change if we are to become an honest broker in any peace attempt in the region. I've seen too much of the destruction rendered by Israel's bombs in Lebanon to believe anything else.
That these authors had the courage to swim against the tide of popular opinion in the U.S., however misguided that opinion may be, is a credit to their effort. Whether all of their statements are fact will be up to the historians. But what they say is, for me, substantive.

They displayed the highest level of academic integrity as well as an unbiased look into the influence of the Israeli Lobby.

This book makes a very strong case for the
Zionist Lobby and it's out-of-proportion-to
-it's-size influence in Washington. I am still
not convinced that the zionist-khazars are the
main power behid the throne, so to speak, but
their influence is very far and wide and this
book is better than anything the numbskull W.
A. Carto and his jew-baiter/half-jew Bernard
Pi(e?)per have ever come out with. Highly rec-
ommended to me by the Producer R. Jaeger of the
prestegious 'Fiat Empire' / Ron Paul DVDs series.

It saddens me that our government in the United States is so manipulated by a foreign government (Israel) - It doesn't take much research to find what Israel's true intentions are. We provide billions of dollars EVERY YEAR in aide and weapons to a country the size of New Jersey (multiple times more then entire Sub-Saharan Africa)

Research topics "USS Liberty" or "Lavon Affair" to find Israel's true intentions.

When will America realize our shortcomings and fix it? We are letting Israel destroy our country.

As a PhD candidate in national security policy, I have beceome very familiar with the writings of Mearsheimer and Walt. Until now I had admiored their acumen, but now after reading this muckraking piece of intellectual trash, I have to reconsider all their writings.

The criticisms are wide and have all been covered by many witers and thinkers of considerable heft. Where do I start? The logical underpinings of this book are baseless. In sorth, U.S. support for Israel is motivated by a commitment to the only established democratic state in the region, widespread sympathy for Jewish suffering in the Holocaust, and Israeli suffering from Palestinian terrorist attacks.

To the extent that the Israel lobby acts in a cohesive manner (remember that when you get N number of Jews in a room, you always get N+1 opinions), it is undoubtedly a political force to be reckoned with in Washington, but not a force that has any more power than any other lobby. Plus it's a lobby that has no formal organization, no formal communication, and no is apparently made up from anyone who could possible have sympathetic hankerings to Israel.

Then of course there is the canard that Israel pushed the US to attack Iraq -- not true. Israel would have liked the US to leave Iraq alone and focus on the more iminent threat to Israel, i.e. Iran.

This "book" (work of fiction?) is so riddled with incorrect facts and poor citations, I can't even get started. I will list a few :

* Walt and Mearsheimer update the centuries-old "blood libel" by claiming that citizenship in Israel is based on "blood kinship." In fact non-Jews are citizens.
* The authors intentionally quote David ben-Gurion out of context so as to make it appear that he is saying the exact opposite of what he actually said.
* The authors claims that "Contrary to popular belief, the Zionists had larger, better-equipped, and better-led forces during the 1947-49 War of Independence...."
* They insist that "The mainstream Zionist leadership was not interested in establishing a bi-national state or accepting a permanent partition of Palestine." This is entirely false as Israel accepted the original mandate and was attacked at the commmencement of their Statehood.
* Walt and Measheimer repeat Yasir Arafat's "Bantustan" accusation - that Prime Minister Barak didn't offer the Palestinians a contiguous West Bank in 2000 - concluding, contrary to the published maps, that "no Israeli government has been willing to offer the Palestinians a viable state of their own."

For more, just look at this extensive rebuttal by an eminent scholar: [...]

An excellent and honest analysis as to why there can never be peace in the Middle East as long as the US is the broker.

US politicians so often side with Israel because we share common values and common enemies. To think there is some nefarious reason is just a paranoid conspiracy theory.

Of course the US is biased in favor of Israel. Why would it be desirable to be even-handed between democratic Israel and oppressive, anti-western Arab/Muslim dictatorships? Israel is a democracy with freedom of religion, freedom of press, rights for minorities and women. Israel is a stalwart ally of America and votes more often with the US in the UN than any other country. The Arabs on the other hand have societies whose values we find anathema. Honor killings are rampant. Women are oppressed. Gays are jailed. There is no freedom of religion or freedom of the press. In Saudi Arabia, women aren't even allowed to drive and cannot leave their house without a man's permission. In the Palestinian Authority, religious leaders sermonize that infidels (that's us westerners) are evil, that one should never be friends with a Christian and that all Jews should be killed.

Now if Walt and Mearsheimer had done a book about the heavy-handed, far-reaching and detrimental effect of the Saudi oil lobby, that would be a book I would want to read. Saudis have funded extremist schools, mosques, professors and chaplains all over the world, including in American universities, highschools, prisons and the military.

I'm very glad this book came out and hope millions of people will read it. Anyone familiar with the work of the conservative columnist Joseph Sobran will know how dangerous and ruthless the pro-Israeli lobby. They nearly ruined his career in the 80s with their bogus charges of "anti-Semitism." The authors make the same point in 2007 that Sobran and Pat Buchanan made 15-20 years ago: aid to Israel is doing far more harm than good to the United States. The authors point out--correctly-- that millions of Muslims in the Middle east hate the U.S. because of our unquestioning support for Israel.

The authors point out that the major terrorists like bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed have explicitly said they launched 9-11 mainly because they despise the U.S. for assisting Israel in persecuting the Palestinians. They also assert--with evidence-- that Congress is utterly dominated by the Lobby. It has reached the point where a foreign government utterly controls the Congress. (Simply witness the lack of criticism from Capitol Hill against Israel during the bombing of Lebanon). The lobby openly boasts of controlling Congress, so this is not a conspiracy theory. I highly urge any concerned citizen to read this book.

Superbly researched and well written, the book is the long overdue start of an open, rational debate on US foreign policy towards Israel, a topic that is sadly discussed far too little given the magnitude of its global importance.

The two most courageous individuals (Mearsheimer & Walt) to step up and tell the truth.

Mearsheimer and Walt are the most courageous individuals who stepped up and told the truth about Israel and the Jewish Lobby and their influence on the U.S. foreign policy. The reason I say that is because everyone who criticizes Israel and their lobbies in the U.S. either lose their jobs or their lives get ruined. Every politician who criticizes Israel and their lobbies will never get re-elected again and this has happened many times so far. Look what happened to Henry Ford who was one of the richest people in the country, he criticized the Jews and ended up paying a big price for doing that, they made him go down on his knees and beg for forgiveness and wrote a letter apologizing for the comments he made about and the Jews that was publicized for everyone to read. Also look at what happened to Mel Gibson, he criticized Israel and the Jews and paid the price, they made him go on national TV and apologized for the comments he made. The Jewish lobby in the U.S. is not big, but they have very powerful individuals who can make things happen, they include business people and politicians (Democrats and Republicans).
This subject is like a taboo, if you talk about it, you get cursed. The Jewish lobby is worse than the Mafia, and their largest branch is AIPAC and ADL, and then comes AEI, WINEP and others. They control the most powerful U.S. government branch (The Pentagon). You do not hear much about them because they work behind the scenes. There are a good percentage of them that work for the White House. Politicians who disagree with them keep quiet because they know the consequences; some spoke up and never got re-elected again.
When a U.S. politician gets elected for Congress or the Senate, they go through a training class conducted by a Jewish organization (AIPAC) and they are taught how to support Israel and why. Then AIPAC flies them to Israel to meet the rest of the gang and go through more training. AIPAC is a branch of the Israeli government the Likud Party
which works closely with the U.S right wing politicians and the right wing Christians.
The Likud party's purpose is to remove the Palestinians completely out of Israel and to make Israel 100% Jewish state and that's what the right wing Christians in the U.S. believe in, it is a prophecy to be fulfilled by both.
Their belief is the Jewish state (Israel) should extend from the Euphrates river to the Nile river, which means Israel, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are considered to be the land of Israel and their plan is to fulfill this prophecy.
Our government is run by a foreign government (Israel), but no one dares to stop it. They are exposed to highly classified materials and they control the U.S. election system. Why do you think Bush won both terms, technically he lost both terms, but with AIPAC's slight hand magic, he turned out to be the elections' winner in both terms and according to Israel's government and the Jewish lobby, he is considered to be Israel's best friend. One year before Bush ran for office, he spent the entire year meeting with powerful Jewish leaders in the U.S. and Israel and they made sure that he would not lose elections in order for their plans to be carried out exactly the way they presented to him. In my opinion, any president of the U.S. is nothing but a puppet hanging on strings and Israel holds the stick and wiggles him around.
The purpose of AIPAC and its affiliates is to help Israel become 100% Jewish state. The Israeli government claims that the Palestinians are like Cancer, it is difficult to remove.
In the early 1950's after Israel became a country, the Jews in Egypt were blowing up American facilities to make it look like it was done by the Egyptians, then one of their missions failed that resulted in the capture of one of them and he confessed, some were arrested and some fled to Israel. Their mission was to make the Americans think that it was the Egyptians behind the plot and have the U.S retaliate against Egypt, because Egypt was considered a big threat to Israel, but then Israel got only a slap on the wrist and Israel was pardoned by the U.S. government.
Again, in June of 1967, the USS Liberty ship which was a U.S. Navy/NSA spy ship in the international waters in the Mediterranean See outside the sea limits of Israel conducting a look out mission monitoring the tension between Israel and Egypt. The Israeli Air Force and their Navy attacked the USS Liberty with the intension of completely destroying it and kill everyone on board and blame it on the Egyptians, but the crew of the USS Liberty was able to fix the communication equipment and sent a SOS signal to its fleet, when Israel realized that the USS Liberty crew was able to communicate with their navy fleet, they halted their attack and claimed that it was a mistaken identity claiming they thought it was an Egyptian warship on its way to attack Israel even though the U.S. flags on the USS Liberty were visible, so Lyndon Johnson who was the President at the time was pressurized by Israel and the Israeli Lobby to keep quiet, so Johnson went with the scam and published a letter saying that Israel did not mean to do that because they did not know it was a U.S. Navy ship and the surviving crew of the USS Liberty was told to keep quiet and never to discuss this incident with anyone. Again, Israel got nothing but a slap on the wrist and was informed that if they do it again make sure not to get caught.
Again with September 11, the Israeli government was aware of what was about to take place in New York, but they kept quiet to let it happen and make the U.S. retaliate. Israel's mission is to make the U.S. do the dirty job for Israel and fight their wars. It is done this way in case if something goes wrong, the fingers will be pointed at the U.S. instead of Israel. Just like the war in Iraq, it was Israel who pushed the U.S. to attack Iraq and look at what is happening now, it is failing and many Iraqi civilians killed and many U.S. soldiers killed and the fingers are pointed at the U.S. instead of Israel. And Israel is now drawing the blueprints for the U.S. to attack Syria and Iran.
Also, Hamas is known to be a terrorist group, but we need to understand how Hamas was established. When the first Palestinian intifada (the uprising) erupted in the mid 1980s, the Israeli government looked for different tactics to eliminate/silence the Palestinians, therefore the Israeli government established the group Hamas and recruited Palestinian individuals trained by the Israeli government (of course, they were on the payroll) and supplied them with arms, their mission was to create a civil war among the Palestinians where it suppose to have the Palestinians kill each other and destabilize their communities. Eventually, some were captured by the Palestinians and executed. So the Palestinians decided to establish their own militia and called themselves Hamas which was the name of the original group the Israeli government established. The Israeli government tried many different tactics to eliminate the Palestinian population. One of their tactics was to poison the drinking water that fed the Gaza Strip and some parts of the West Bank in the 1970s, they polluted their drinking water with chemicals to prevent the Palestinians from having children, eventually the plot was uncovered and Israel got a slap on the wrist. They tried the same tactic in the mid 1980s and also the plot was uncovered and again Israel got a slap on the wrist.
Sadly, the American public has no clue about any of this because they are kept in the dark. Since we do not know anything about foreign policies, we tend to believe everything our government and the media tell us. This is the most effective way to brain wash the public. You fill their heads with propaganda and the rest is easy. We are considered to be the most illiterate people in the world when it comes to politics and international affairs, we seem to think that we are on the top of the world and everyone else should follow our lead. We don't seem to know that our country is run by foreign government and fanatics.
The majority of the Jews in Israel disagree with the Israeli government policies and their actions against the Palestinians and they all know how powerful the Jewish lobby is in the U.S. and they are concerned that the Israeli government and the Jewish lobby in the U.S. are causing more harm to the Jews themselves. Even the Orthodox Jews (the religious party) in Israel are ashamed of their own government and they even disagree with the way Israel came to exist and they claim Israel was illegally created by stealing someone else's land.
That's how powerful the Jewish Lobby is in the United State.

The two most courageous individuals (Mearsheimer & Walt) to step up and tell the truth.

Mearsheimer and Walt are the most courageous individuals who stepped up and told the truth about Israel and the Jewish Lobby and their influence on the U.S. foreign policy. The reason I say that is because everyone who criticizes Israel and their lobbies in the U.S. either lose their jobs or their lives get ruined. Every politician who criticizes Israel and their lobbies will never get re-elected again and this has happened many times so far. Look what happened to Henry Ford who was one of the richest people in the country, he criticized the Jews and ended up paying a big price for doing that, they made him go down on his knees and beg for forgiveness and wrote a letter apologizing for the comments he made about and the Jews that was publicized for everyone to read. Also look at what happened to Mel Gibson, he criticized Israel and the Jews and paid the price, they made him go on national TV and apologized for the comments he made. The Jewish lobby in the U.S. is not big, but they have very powerful individuals who can make things happen, they include business people and politicians (Democrats and Republicans).
This subject is like a taboo, if you talk about it, you get cursed. The Jewish lobby is worse than the Mafia, and their largest branch is AIPAC and ADL, and then comes AEI, WINEP and others. They control the most powerful U.S. government branch (The Pentagon). You do not hear much about them because they work behind the scenes. There are a good percentage of them that work for the White House. Politicians who disagree with them keep quiet because they know the consequences; some spoke up and never got re-elected again.
When a U.S. politician gets elected for Congress or the Senate, they go through a training class conducted by a Jewish organization (AIPAC) and they are taught how to support Israel and why. Then AIPAC flies them to Israel to meet the rest of the gang and go through more training. AIPAC is a branch of the Israeli government the Likud Party
which works closely with the U.S right wing politicians and the right wing Christians.
The Likud party's purpose is to remove the Palestinians completely out of Israel and to make Israel 100% Jewish state and that's what the right wing Christians in the U.S. believe in, it is a prophecy to be fulfilled by both.
Their belief is the Jewish state (Israel) should extend from the Euphrates river to the Nile river, which means Israel, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are considered to be the land of Israel and their plan is to fulfill this prophecy.
Our government is run by a foreign government (Israel), but no one dares to stop it. They are exposed to highly classified materials and they control the U.S. election system. Why do you think Bush won both terms, technically he lost both terms, but with AIPAC's slight hand magic, he turned out to be the elections' winner in both terms and according to Israel's government and the Jewish lobby, he is considered to be Israel's best friend. One year before Bush ran for office, he spent the entire year meeting with powerful Jewish leaders in the U.S. and Israel and they made sure that he would not lose elections in order for their plans to be carried out exactly the way they presented to him. In my opinion, any president of the U.S. is nothing but a puppet hanging on strings and Israel holds the stick and wiggles him around.
The purpose of AIPAC and its affiliates is to help Israel become 100% Jewish state. The Israeli government claims that the Palestinians are like Cancer, it is difficult to remove.
In the early 1950's after Israel became a country, the Jews in Egypt were blowing up American facilities to make it look like it was done by the Egyptians, then one of their missions failed that resulted in the capture of one of them and he confessed, some were arrested and some fled to Israel. Their mission was to make the Americans think that it was the Egyptians behind the plot and have the U.S retaliate against Egypt, because Egypt was considered a big threat to Israel, but then Israel got only a slap on the wrist and Israel was pardoned by the U.S. government.
Again, in June of 1967, the USS Liberty ship which was a U.S. Navy/NSA spy ship in the international waters in the Mediterranean See outside the sea limits of Israel conducting a look out mission monitoring the tension between Israel and Egypt. The Israeli Air Force and their Navy attacked the USS Liberty with the intension of completely destroying it and kill everyone on board and blame it on the Egyptians, but the crew of the USS Liberty was able to fix the communication equipment and sent a SOS signal to its fleet, when Israel realized that the USS Liberty crew was able to communicate with their navy fleet, they halted their attack and claimed that it was a mistaken identity claiming they thought it was an Egyptian warship on its way to attack Israel even though the U.S. flags on the USS Liberty were visible, so Lyndon Johnson who was the President at the time was pressurized by Israel and the Israeli Lobby to keep quiet, so Johnson went with the scam and published a letter saying that Israel did not mean to do that because they did not know it was a U.S. Navy ship and the surviving crew of the USS Liberty was told to keep quiet and never to discuss this incident with anyone. Again, Israel got nothing but a slap on the wrist and was informed that if they do it again make sure not to get caught.
Again with September 11, the Israeli government was aware of what was about to take place in New York, but they kept quiet to let it happen and make the U.S. retaliate. Israel's mission is to make the U.S. do the dirty job for Israel and fight their wars. It is done this way in case if something goes wrong, the fingers will be pointed at the U.S. instead of Israel. Just like the war in Iraq, it was Israel who pushed the U.S. to attack Iraq and look at what is happening now, it is failing and many Iraqi civilians killed and many U.S. soldiers killed and the fingers are pointed at the U.S. instead of Israel. And Israel is now drawing the blueprints for the U.S. to attack Syria and Iran.
Sadly, the American public has no clue about any of this because they are kept in the dark. Since we do not know anything about foreign policies, we tend to believe everything our government and the media tell us. This is the most effective way to brain wash the public. You fill their heads with propaganda and the rest is easy. We are considered to be the most illiterate people in the world when it comes to politics and international affairs, we seem to think that we are on the top of the world and everyone else should follow our lead. We don't seem to know that our country is run by foreign government and fanatics.
The majority of the Jews in Israel disagree with the Israeli government policies and their actions against the Palestinians and they all know how powerful the Jewish lobby is in the U.S. and they are concerned that the Israeli government and the Jewish lobby in the U.S. are causing more harm to the Jews themselves. Even the Orthodox Jews (the religious party) in Israel are ashamed of their own government and they even disagree with the way Israel came to exist and they claim Israel was illegally created by stealing someone else's land.
That's how powerful the Jewish Lobby is in the United State.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand the influence of the Israel Lobby on US affairs!!!!

John J. Mearsheimer (R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and Program on International Security Policy - University of Chicago) and Stephen M. Walt (Professor of International Affairs - John F. Kennedy School of Government - Harvard University) should, in my opinion, be nominated for the Pulitzer prize in literature for this work. They won't be. Trust me.The Israel Lobby won't allow it.

For anyone who has an interest in Israeli-American relations, this book is now required reading. Furthermore, if you are interested in garnering a vastly greater understanding of the influence of special interest groups on the American political process, this book is a superb place to begin.

This book is controversial, not due to the positions the authors take or an imbalance in the way they delve into the issues, it is because the book is the most detailed and comprehensive look ever put in print regarding the genesis and current state of relations between the U.S. and Israel.

I found so many things so incredibly enlightening that I won't go into all of them here. One area that was terribly interesting is how right wing evangelicals in the U.S. have developed an intriguing, yet duplicitous relationship with Israel. There were also horrifying realities illuminated by the authors...realities some people would like us to forget or overlook.

However, this book contains incredibly important insights into the removing the obstacles that block the avenues for progress in establishing a legitimate homeland for the Palestinian people...a peace and place and a possibility whose realization is illuminated more clearly by this work from John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.

The most tremendous work I've ever been privileged to read on illuminating the "way ahead" for understanding both current and future possibilities for U.S.- Israeli relations - and the fate of those who must have the courage to speak up for change and the realization of peace in the Middle East.

My vote for Pulitzer Prize in 2008.

Hard to see how the authors could be seriously labelled "anti-Semitic". Not only do they support Israel's continued existence, but they encourage American aid should the Jewish state be existentially threatened. What they do not support is an expansionist Israel, nor an American Mid-east policy in lock-step with Israel's, nor an Israel lobby that prevents honest discussion of these issues. Calling the book anti-Semitic is simply an easy way of avoiding the substantive issues raised there. No need to discuss points already made by others, except to insist that the authors have shown how the discussion can proceed without the bloody shirt of anti-Semitism being tossed in.

The authors provide an excellent review of the US foreign policy in the Middle East and offer a new US strategy for this troubled region. The new strategy is based on identifying US interests in the region, protecting those interests, developing a new constructive relationship with Israel, ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution,and transforming the Israel loppy into a constructive force. It is by far the most realistic roadmap to peace and Just in the Middle East.

This is a fascinating volume, as time is progressing we are now finding more information in the public space of what happened in Palestine in 1948 which seems to give rise to all that has followed. I would suggest that most reasonably well read people would understand that the jewish lobby in the U.S. of A. has a significant influence on the administration, as it does on politicians in many other countries.
The arguments presented in this book really leave unanswered the question of just how powerful is the lobby.
It is reasonable to conclude that it was the major factor in the decision to invade Iraq.
In assessing the response to the recent NIE report on Iran from both the Lobby and the Israeli Knesset you are entitled to give great credibility to the work.
But just how powerful is the lobby, this book puts it in the category of "scary" in fact "very scary", the deeds and words of the current presidential candidates confirm this.
Most of the PAC's are not reasonable people, they are dishonest, indecent and fabricators of all manner and their influence way exceeds their number. Most readers shall find this book illuminating.

It is refreshing to see a competent academic response to the Pro-Israel lobby published in the mainstream media. I will bow to the eloquent praises of previous reviews and succinctly say this is an important and much-needed analysis of America's support for the Middle East's pariah.

It has been a very well known fact that from the very beginning Israel was against the US attacking Iraq and advised us NOT to do so and the reasons were many, destabilization of the area one of them. We chose not to listen to Israel (they DO have excellent intelligence) and invaded anyway. M&W blame the "lobby" for getting us into that debacle. When a book is so basically wrong what can you believe about the rest? Seriously flawed.

The entire issue concerning the zionist Jewish theft of Palestine, its war criminality, and my overwhelming support for Professors John Mearsheinmer and Stephen Walt is best explained by this remarkably profound statement by John Sheehan: "Everytime I hear someone say that Israel is the only friend we have in the Middle East I remember when, before there was an Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East." That one single statement tells it all.

Yousef Salem

This book while well researched, and written by reputable scienties (God help their careers from now), has add nothing new. At least to my old knowledge. America which has been run by the Jew lobby since the 50s is unfortuantly not being able to recognize that the only firend they have in the middle east is actualy their only liability that is dragging them down. Hatred from across the globe, 9/11 and the economy slip are only the begging...We really need to be fair or we will realy be stripped off from being the superpower...

This book by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt is very informative. But to counter the threat of the Israeli lobby, which has proved to be immensely harmful to the United States and to the world, it is necessary to use an equal and opposite force, as the law of Physics states. Gentle, and scattered, both in time and place, written and verbal protests will not do any good. Of course, any action that has to be taken must be comlpetely non-violent and law abiding. We will have to use economic means. Nothing else will work.

Every so often I wonder when a US president will wake up, smell the coffee and realize that unconditional US support for Israel isn't all that helpful to the US. Or even to Israel.

Israel hasn't been in any great military danger to its existence ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is in plenty of danger from terrorism, yes, but none of its neighbors can win a war with it. On the other hand, some Arabs are ready to recognize it, assuming the Palestinians accept a peace settlement. Would likely peace terms suit Israel entirely? Doubtful, but settlements are usually give and take. Is holding on to Hebron worth another 50 years of this mess? The one thing that Israel really can't give ground on is allowing an unlimited right of return, a position shared by the authors.

This book really covers two things: how Israel manages to lobby itself into getting very very favorable US support. And how the US doesn't benefit all that much from providing that support. I understand foreign and military affairs well enough to agree that the cost benefit is not good for the US. I can't really comment on their view on how the lobby works, because it would require more knowledge about Washington special interest groups than I have.

Is it anti-Semitic to agree with the book? I happen to have the same opinions about Cuba, because Cuban-American pressure groups have managed to twist US foreign policy way out of line with its interests. So, yes, it is possible to influence US foreign policy by lobbying. Is it illegal? No, but pretending it doesn't happen is naive. Am I an anti-Cuban bigot? Not that I am aware of, but fire away anyway. For the record, I do support the existence of Israel.

Some problems with the book:

a) The authors claim that the influential parts of the lobby represents the right wing of both Israeli and American Jews, with little regard for the more moderate elements. But they do not explain much how this comes to pass, especially how the Likud agenda is much more represented than others' or how more moderate Israeli governments fail to use their leverage in the US to promote peace negociations.

A negotiated settlement is, IMHO, in the long term interest of Israel, but the authors do not explain sufficiently why it is so and why the bulk of the pressure groups is so much against it.

b) In general, there is insufficient coverage of Israel proper. Israel is a democracy that relies heavily on coalition governments due to its electoral system. Countries with similar systems include India and Italy. Both illustrate how hard it is to make difficult decisions and how easy it is for small parties to exercise disproportionate power. Understanding that sheds a lot of light on Israeli politics.

c) The book sometimes glosses over Israel's options in a very rosy light. For example, the Lebanon war is presented as being all Israel's fault. Well, how exactly do you deal with rockets launched from a sovereign neighboring country that doesn't bother stopping militias? Certainly NOT with cluster bombs, but diplomacy can only go so far. Again, the authors fail to inform re. Israeli particulars, which were that Olmert wanted to establish his military leadership credentials to the voters.

d) US policy can be unproductive in the Middle East, but in cases such as Iran, not all of the bad decisions come at Israel's suggestion. The US has a deep dislike of Iran and Israel occasionally gets along better with Iran than the US. The US management of Iraq, post-invasion, has been disastrous up to late 2006 at least, but more through neo-con hubris and incompetence than to any Jewish lobby.

Why dispiriting reading? Because the authors make it pretty clear the obtuseness of US Middle Eastern foreign policy is no accident. That makes it unlikely to change any time soon, despite their suggested remedies at the end.

Every so often I wonder when a US president will wake up, smell the coffee and realize that unconditional US support for Israel isn't all that helpful to the US. Or even to Israel.

Israel hasn't been in any great military danger to its existence ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is in plenty of danger from terrorism, yes, but none of its neighbors can win a war with it. On the other hand, some Arabs are ready to recognize it, assuming the Palestinians accept a peace settlement. Would likely peace terms suit Israel entirely? Doubtful, but settlements are usually give and take. Is holding on to Hebron worth another 50 years of this mess? The one thing that Israel really can't give ground on is allowing an unlimited right of return, a position shared by the authors.

This book really covers two things: how Israel manages to lobby itself into getting very very favorable US support. And how the US doesn't benefit all that much from providing that support. I understand foreign and military affairs well enough to agree that the cost benefit is not good for the US. I can't really comment on their view on how the lobby works, because it would require more knowledge about Washington special interest groups than I have.

Is it anti-Semitic to agree with the book? I happen to have the same opinions about Cuba, because Cuban-American pressure groups have managed to twist US foreign policy way out of line with its interests. So, yes, it is possible to influence US foreign policy by lobbying. Is it illegal? No, but pretending it doesn't happen is naive. Am I an anti-Cuban bigot? Not that I am aware of, but fire away anyway.

Some problems with the book:

a) The authors claim that the influential parts of the lobby represents the right wing of both Israeli and American Jews, with little regard for the more moderate elements. But they do not explain much how this comes to pass, especially how the Likud agenda is much more represented than others' or how more moderate Israeli governments fail to use their leverage in the US to promote peace negociations.

A negotiated settlement is, IMHO, in the long term interest of Israel, but the authors do not explain sufficiently why it is so and why the bulk of the pressure groups is so much against it.

b) In general, there is insufficient coverage of Israel proper. Israel is a democracy that relies heavily on coalition governments due to its electoral system. Countries with similar systems include India and Italy. Both illustrate how hard it is to make difficult decisions and how easy it is for small parties to exercise disproportionate power. Understanding that sheds a lot of light on Israeli politics.

c) The book sometimes glosses over Israel's options in a very rosy light. For example, the Lebanon war is presented as being all Israel's fault. Well, how exactly do you deal with rockets launched from a sovereign neighboring country that doesn't bother stopping militias? Certainly NOT with cluster bombs, but diplomacy can only go so far. Again, the authors fail to deal with Israeli particulars, which were that Olmert wanted to establish his military leadership credentials to the voters.

d) US policy can be unproductive in the Middle East, but in cases such as Iran, not all of the bad decisions come at Israel's suggestion. The US has a deep dislike of Iran and Israel occasionally gets along better with Iran than the US. The US management of Iraq, post-invasion, has been disastrous up to late 2006 at least, but more through neo-con hubris and incompetence than to any Jewish lobby.

Why dispiriting reading? Because the authors make it pretty clear that things will have to get a lot worse before they get better.

Every so often I catch myself wondering when a US president will wake up, smell the coffee and realize that unconditional, and biased, US support for Israel isn't all that helpful to the US. Or even to Israel.

Israel hasn't been in any great military danger to its existence ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is in plenty of danger from terrorism, yes, but none of its neighbors can win a war with it. On the other hand, some Arabs are ready to recognize it, assuming the Palestinians accept a peace settlement. Would likely peace terms suit Israel entirely? Doubtful, but settlements are usually give and take. Is holding on to Hebron worth another 50 years of this mess? The one thing that Israel really can't give ground on is allowing an unlimited right of return, a position shared by the authors.

This book really covers two things: how Israel manages to lobby itself into getting very very favorable US support. And how the US doesn't benefit all that much from providing that support. I understand foreign and military affairs well enough to agree that the cost benefit is not good for the US. I can't really comment on their view on how the lobby works, because it would require more knowledge about Washington special interest groups than I have.

Is it anti-Semitic to agree with the book? I happen to have the same opinions about Cuba, because Cuban-American pressure groups have managed to twist US foreign policy way out of line with its interests. So, yes, it is possible to influence US foreign policy by lobbying. Is it illegal? No, but pretending it doesn't happen is naive. Am I an anti-Cuban bigot? Not that I am aware of, but fire away anyway.

Some problems with the book:

a) The authors claim that the influential parts of the lobby represents the right wing of both Israeli and American Jews, with little regard for the more moderate elements. But they do not explain much how this comes to pass, especially how the Likud agenda is much more represented than others' or how more moderate Israeli governments fail to use their leverage in the US to promote peace negociations.

A negotiated settlement is, IMHO, in the long term interest of Israel, but the authors do not explain sufficiently why it is so and why the bulk of the pressure groups is so much against it.

b) In general, there is insufficient coverage of Israel proper. Israel is a democracy that relies heavily on coalition governments due to its electoral system. Similar countries include include India and Italy. India and Italy both illustrate how hard it is to make difficult decisions and how easy it is for small parties to exercise disproportionate power. Understanding that sheds a lot of light on Israeli politics.

c) The book sometimes glosses over Israel's options in a very rosy light. For example, the Lebanon war is presented as being all Israel's fault. Well, how exactly do you deal with rockets launched from a sovereign neighboring country that doesn't bother stopping militias? Certainly NOT with cluster bombs, but diplomacy can only go so far. Again, the authors fail to deal with the Israeli particulars, which were that Olmert needed to establish his military leadership credentials to the voters.

d) US policy can be unproductive in the Middle East, but in cases such as Iran, not all of the bad decisions come at Israel's suggestion. The US has a deep dislike of Iran and Israel occasionally gets along better with Iran than the US. The US management of Iraq, post-invasion, has been disastrous up to 2006 at least, but more through neo-con hubris and incompetence than to any Jewish lobby.

Why dispiriting reading? Because the authors make it pretty clear that things will have to get a lot worse before any US president smells the coffee.

It's about time to read a book that describes the zionist lobby with a great detail and logical approach without fearing the backlash that was inflected on many other writers in the past 60 years.

I am very pro Israel and support an Israel without Arab citizens. However due to my conversations with Israelis and the reading of books coming out of Israel I know that the far right elements of the Israel Lobby do not represent the views of many moderate and liberal Jews. These far right elements are the same as the Evangelical Christians and the Cheney, Bush cabal that have supported a jingoistic philosophy towards the rest of the world, and have put the entire world at risk of war.

There are plenty of U.S. senators and representative who will attest to the fact that they must kowtow to the far right AIPAC or have their political careers ruined. Be careful for what you wish AIPAC, your vitriolic attacks on anyone who even suggests a different viewpoint from yours may create your anti-semitism which you seem so rabidly determined to find!

The Jews are today treating the Palestinians like we used to treat the Indians and Blacks in this country. The Israeli far right encourages settlements which bulldoze the Palestine settlements, replace them with Jewish settlers, who themselves form the equivalent of a Ku Klux Klan to harass and sometimes kill the original inhabitants. The founding of just about any country usually involves genocide of some kind. The Israelis recognized this from the early Zionist movement and their are plenty of Jewish writers and politicians that will attest to this fact. This does not upset me all that much since it is the way the world works. But it is time that Israel and the U.S. realize that it is going to take an infinite amount of resources to neutralize the entropy which Israel is fighting. Yes the Palestinians have their suicide bombers, but it looks likes the Israel Lobby (not the Israelis themselves) would rather have the whole world including Israel commit suicide rather then come to some sensible accommodation with the rest of the Middle East. I wonder if Israel itself decides to go for peace whether the Ultra Right AIPAC will permit this, after all they are safe in the U.S. , and somehow I'm sure are able to bear the deaths and destruction that Israel will have to suffer in order to support their selfish far right ideology.

An extremely well written documented conduit into what and who motivates the transgressions that have brought us to the point of self destruction...

Before buying this book, I'd read an article about the groundbreaking paper written by the same authors, so I knew, more or less, what to expect from this title. I'd say this book is very well written and the authors support every argument they present with irrefutable (or at least not so easily refutable) evidence given that they use information that appeared in the Israeli Press. As in any other subject, a "taboo" approach can save the day and ruin the years that follow it, and this book is a warning to people so that they will not place their livelihood in the control of the powerful few who will certainly further their interests to the exclusion of everyone else's.

Walt and Mearsheimer are marketing geniuses. They know how to take a dry, not very popular subject and make it sexy. Whether in this book or at speaking engagements they spend a good amount of time implying just how 'brave' and 'courageous' they are to publish this book in the face of massive pressure and threats. Take away the 'they don't want you to read this' factor, and the book is unextraordinary.
Walt and Mearsheimer then spend a good amount of time explaining that they're not antisemitic and they do in fact support Israel's right to exist as well as the principal of Western support for Israel. The problem with the 'Israel Lobby', they assert, is that it causes the USA to do things it otherwise wouldn't do.
Like the Iraq invasion of 2003.
Now, most intelligent, reasonable people would not accept the veracity of that statement on face value. It's conspiracy theory territory.
Which brings me to my point. While this book is useful in that it describes the mechanics of a particular lobby group(s) in action, it adds very little new information to the Middle East and American foreign policy debate.
In other words, take away all the conspiracy talk that imbues this work and its scholastic value is minimal.
It has shock value. And the utterances of its more enthusiastic supporters are reminiscent of Ron Paul supporters or 911 Truthers: there's a great conspiracy out there covering up the truth that 'they' don't want you to see.
That's how you sell books.
By all means, let's have a rational discussion about American foreign policy in the Middle East. But when you strip away all the hype from a book like this you're left with 'The Lobby got us in Iraq'. That's not a particularly valuable insight, and that's why this book doesn't merit serious plaudits--not because 'The Lobby' doesn't want you to read it.

The authors should be given a Nobel Peace Prize for their courage on speaking up on the accurate, but considered taboo, facts that Israel controls many of the national security apparatus of Washington DC. The authors point out how well Israel has done in infiltrating the US political and education system to promote their own agenda. Especially of concern is how the Israel lobby has control over the universities in the US, the scientific review process and the think tanks in Washington. It is no wonder that we don't hear about any of this on the media, since Israel also controls the media. Well done Israel ! Read this book, tell you friends about the book, and make sure you know the difference between a nation state (i.e. country) and a religion when making assessments. The book and facts inside of it are about another country (Israel) having control over US policy. Not about antisemitism. Scary, embarrassing, and harsh reality findings -- no wonder the rest of the world looks at the US and wonders why are current foreign policy is the way it is!

There are several individuals who will denounce this book as "anti-semitic" and various labels along those lines, they refuse to see this book for what it is, a scholarly appeal that puts forth not only the conflict we are facing as a country, the counterproductive ramifications on both U.S. and Israeli interests, but also includes the manner in which we must proceed to eradicate this dangerously powerful lobby's influence on the international stage. Whether you agree with Mearsheimer and Walt or not is irrelevant, this is a book that anyone seriously interested in the realm of modern politics must read and re-read, its analysis and conslusions are profound yet very explicit and practical. I would recommend this book to every individual who believes in the value of public discourse that shapes democracy.

If you have scrolled down to this point looking for an academic review, this ain't it scroll on. After reading about one half of the book I discovered nothing I didn't already know. So I defaulted to reading only the 'conclusions' at the end of the remaining chapters. I selected this book because of the title. I expected to find the answer the most significant foreign policy event in my lifetime to be generously covered. Not so.Only a short paragraph in "notes" about Israel's attack on the unarmed communications ship in international waters the USS Liberty in 1967. What I did get from the book was confirmation of my long standing view that all the trouble in the world is caused by international Jewery who have infiltrated all governments and secrete organizations in the world to promote the "New World Order"with Israel in control of the one and only goverment. That Israel is a friend and or ally of the USA is preposterous. This is a quote from "The Jewish Century" by Yuri Slezkind : "Jews and Gypsies are service nomads"

John Simpson

No one could make it more clear that the US Congress and President are under the extraordinary influence of the Israel lobby, such that no one is likely to be elected to President of the US without approval of the Israel lobby, and we would not be in Iraq except for their influence.
Every American should read this from cover to cover before voting.

No one could make it more clear that the US Congress and President are under the extraordinary influence of the Israel lobby, such that no one is likely to be elected to President of the US without approval of the Israel lobby, and we would not be in Iraq except for their influence.
Every American should read this from cover to cover before voting.

I am not yet too far into the book but it is already clear: This is a story begging to be told.

In 2006, John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, wrote an essay in the London Review of Books on the Israel lobby. This generated a huge controversy, so they wrote this book to provide more evidence for their claim that the lobby harms US and Israeli interests.

Chapter 1 details the US state's aid to Israel: $154 billion, mostly grants, 75% military. Israel is the largest recipient of US aid ($500 per person per year), even though Israel ranks 29th in the world by income.

Chapter 2 asks whether Israel is a strategic asset to the USA, and concludes that it may have been during the Cold War, but is now a liability. Chapter 3 asks whether the US state backs Israel because of their shared values, or because Israel is `for peace', and answers no to both. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 examine the lobby's members, activities, funding and its influence on policy-making in Washington and on the public through the media and academia.

Part II studies the lobby's role in shaping recent US policy in the Middle East, and its effects. Chapter 7 examines the lobby's hostility to the Palestinians and shows how it has neutered any hints of US support for the two-state solution. Chapter 8 looks at how the lobby, among others, urged the disastrous attack on Iraq. Chapter 9 examines the lobby's hostility to negotiations with Syria and Chapter 10 looks at its threats to Iran.

Chapter 11 studies the US state's unconditional support for Israel's attack on Lebanon. War supporters lied that US policy `reflected the will of the American people', but most Americans did not back the war, though the Clintons did.

Finally, in Chapter 12 the authors note that US interests are to keep the oil flowing, discourage the spread of WMD and reduce anti-US terrorism. Current US policies, promoted by the lobby, fuel anti-Americanism, increase the terrorist threat and encourage the spread of WMD.

These policies have not been in either US or Israeli interests. As the authors write, "Enabling Israel's refusal to recognize the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations has not made Israel safer." Unfortunately, none of the presidential candidates wants any change in US Middle East policy. All uncritically support Israel.

The authors propose a better policy: withdraw US forces from the Middle East and press Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestine. They urge the USA to treat Israel as a normal state, reduce its aid dramatically, and oppose its settlement policy and apartheid `wall'. Mearsheimer and Walt make a very good case that the Israel lobby is both effective and counter-productive.

Mearsheimer and Walt should be commended for providing a forum for discussion on this sensitive topic. Both are premier international relation theorists and presents an honest assessment, without bias, on the current relationship between the U.S. and Israel. I recommend this book to anyone interested in finding out more on one of the most powerful lobby groups in our country or how our national policy with Israel operates. My advice is to give this book a chance, withhold any judgement until you actually read this well written work.

Supplementary information such as the excellent, online video "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" help discuss how Israel manipulates and distorts American public perceptions through the voices of Israeli & American Jewish scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts.

It's about time this information comes out to the general public. And it has taken two renown scholars to bring it to us. However, as expected, they have been attacked and called many things, but at the end of the day, the facts remain. If you haven't read it, and are the least bit interested in current U.S. foreign policy, then do yourself a favor and open your eyes.

This book is based on the authors' original academic publication, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy". It is called by the authors a "working paper" and can be found at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of government (http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011).

Harvard University Law School professor Alan Dershowitz wrote a response that I found very compelling (http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/research/working_papers/facultyresponses.htm). He points out the many factual inconsistencies, logical errors, and just plain faulty reasoning.

The abstract of Dershowitz's response states, "the working paper...presents a conspiratorial view of history in which the Israel Lobby has a "stranglehold" on American foreign policy, the American media, think tanks and academia...Dershowitz demonstrates that the paper contains three types of major errors: quotations are wrenched out of context, important facts are misstated or omitted; and embarrassingly weak logic is employed."

The authors readily advertise their academic credentials and use them as a basis for corectness. Reading the many posts here, clearly many people rely on those credentials. Dershowitz makes the point, "one of the authors of this paper has acknowledged that 'none of the evidence represents original documentation or is derived from independent interviews.' In light of the paper's errors, and its admitted lack of originality, [he] asks why these professors would have chosen to publish a paper that does not meet their usual scholarly standards, especially given the risk - that should have been obvious to 'realists' - that recycling these charges under their imprimatur of prominent authors would be featured, as they have been, on extremist websites."

It behooves anyone interested in buying this book to at least read Dershowitz's response. I find his reasoning crystal clear. I did read the original working paper. Even before I read professor Dershowitz saying the same thing, I was especially surprised (in an apparently scholarly work) at the sources used by the authors such that absolutely no critical merit is attributed to the source. That is, so long as someone somewhere wrote it then it must be true.

As several others have also pointed out, as a matter of policy, Israel strongly advised the U.S. against an invasion of Iraq. It was communicated at several levels including from then Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon to George W. Bush. As Israel "pushing" the U.S. into a war with Iraq is largely the basis of this book, the facts on the ground tend to fly on the face of the authors' contentions.

I hesitate to suggest to someone not to read something. In my opinion, if you are looking for an honest critical look at the structure of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, this is not the book. The authors do raise relevant points regarding the wisdom of the support of Israel by the U.S., but I have to strongly agree that this book is a rehash of the most common antisemitic conspiracy theories. And, I use the term antisemitic with care; it applies in this case.

The Israel Lobby, by Mearsheimer and Walt, is a highly detailed and well research book on the operations of the Israel Lobby in the United States. The writers main intention is producing this book is to point out that US national interests are being adversely affected by many of the policy choices encouraged by the Lobby.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 outlines many of the arguments used to justify the large amount of support given to Israel by the US, which the authors precede to critique one by one. These arguments include the moral support for Israel as a democracy, its importance as a strategic ally, defining what the Lobby is and methods is uses to operate. They conclude that it is the influence of the Lobby that gives rise to such massive support.

The second part of the book details the Lobby's impacts on US foreign policy, through the use of specific examples, such as Iran, Syria, the wars in Iraq and Lebanon. In each case the authors have gathered substantial amounts of evidence, much of it from the Lobby itself, to show how it sought to achieve its aims and influence US foreign policy. They conclude that US and sometimes Israeli interests have been repeatedly damaged through each of these misadventures.

The writers of this book are not anti-Semitic, nor are they `self-hating Jews', as pointed out by a number of other reviewers. Instead, their first concern is for the safety and security of the United States of America. Nor are either of them can be considered left of centre liberals and indeed Mearsheimer has shown himself to be what could rightly be termed a hawk though his other writings such as `The tragedy of great power politics', where he strongly defends the thesis of offensive realism. As they point out in their conclusions, it is the fact that many of the policies advocated by the Lobby are not in the best national interest of the US and sometimes of Israel itself and indeed may actually be making the US's position in the Middle East more dangerous.

This book should be read for what it is, being a strong attack on policies that are not in the best interest of the US, rather than as an attack on Israel or the Jewish people.

After reading the LRB article in '06 I was dumbfounded by the negative response the authors received. Therefore, it came as no suprise when this timely, honest, and much needed analysis of US/Israel relations received much the same treatment. To paraphrase Joseph Welch in defense of the authors, I would say to those critics who level the charge of anti-semitism, "Let us not assassinate these men further. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"
This book strives to obtain for the reader a historically accurate and politically realistic perspective on Americas relationship with Israel. It traces the machinations of the Israel lobby which works quite effectively to advance the interests of Israel, often-times at odds with Americas interests. The conclusion at the end of the book lays out a hopeful plan for the United States and Israel, together with the Palestinians, to finally expedite the inevitable and make a lasting peace. A peace that will benefit greatly the state of Israel, the United States, the fledgling Palestinian state, and the world. Blessed are the peacemakers Mearsheimer and Walt.

The authors Mearsheimer and Walt have done an outstanding job of objectively looking at the United Staes Foreign Policy and how it is influenced by the Israeli lobby. More to the point the authors reference in detail how the Israeli lobby influences (yes buys off) our legislative and executive branch to shape a foreign policy favorable to Israel. The irony is that the policy that is shaped is ofetn extremely detrimental to both the US and Israel. A must read if the US is ever to be a real player in obtaining world peace. Extremely well referenced!

A tiny segment of our population has gained an outrageously disproportionate and dangerous influence over our political machinery and as a result this country is on a foreign policy path that is counter to its best interests.

Few Americans with any stature have had the courage to openly discuss this topic since doing so guarantees them the all-to-often career destroying label of "Anti-Semite". This modern day scarlet letter is defined and applied by the same group that benefits most by the problems outlined in this book staying in the only place where they can perpetuate... in the shadows and off the radar of the American public.

Average Americans are too busy to dissect the intricacies of the world as a whole and as a result they depend on their leaders and the media to distill important world issues for them. It is an effective method in most circumstances, but what if our media and politicians are scared silent on certain important issues for fear of being slapped with a label that has destroyed the reputations of many good people who raised questions in this area? What if these people we depend on avoided breaching this complicated topic for fear that they will be left hanging out to dry by a public with a short attention span on one side and a powerful and relentless special interest group on the other?

Only the boldest choose to take on this topic knowing the wrath they will surely face and the authors of this book are among the most principled and capable in this group of patriots. But as potent as the Israel lobby is when ganging up on those with public personas, they are powerless against grass roots individuals since there is a limit on how many people can be labeled as "Anti-Semitic" before everyone starts to wonder about the real motivations for doing so.

This is an important issue and the consequences for letting it continue to fester could eventually be catastrophic for this country. Read this book, discuss this topic with others, and get this important issue out into the open where it can be seen in the light. Once that is accomplished our media figures and politicians will be free to talk about what is best for our country without fear of a character assassination coming from this well positioned but tiny segment of our population. Open dialog is the only way to derail this hidden agenda.

The Israel Lobby in America is one form of democracy in action. Lobbying of the congress is as American as apple pie: it is just the way Washington operates. This book argues that the Israel Lobby is simply more successful than any other lobby, and in particular, when discussing the causes of the Iraq war the authors argue (plausibly in my opinion although Dr Alan Greenspan disagrees) that oil interests had very little to do with that. The Lobby's unequalled success has been in ensuring that contrary points of view are hardly heard in America. Knowing as they do what kind of response this opinion provokes, Mearsheimer and Walt carefully deny that they are suggesting a `conspiracy' on the grounds that all the Lobby's activities are legal and unconcealed. Let us therefore avoid such a word in considering the rights and wrongs of ensuring public conformity by bombardment of dissidents with letters and emails, by public smears, by letting congresspersons, journalists and academics know what they had better not say if they know what's good for them, and by shouting down the opposition generally.

It reminds me of Churchill's note in the margin of a speech - `Argument weak: so shout.' Really, arguments are not the point. The point is that the interests of Israel, defined as whatever Israel says they are, shall be implemented rigorously. Reason is treason because it can't be trusted to stay on-message. The familiar justifications are nonsense. Democracy has nothing to do with it all: America's main support in the middle east comes from those pillars of democracy Saudi Arabia Jordan and Egypt; and where public opinion is heard at all as in Lebanon or Iraq there seems little enthusiasm for America's ideas of it. Grandiose baritone declamations that Israel and America are bound together in a united battle against terrorism are sleight of hand - local Israeli conflicts with Hamas or Hezbollah are not connected with dispersed Al Qaeda cells worldwide unless all persons called Ali or Tariq are all much the same to you, secular Shi'a Syria gave America valuable intelligence about Sunni Al Qaeda, Israel provides America with nothing in the `war on terror', but America is doing Israel's bidding in Israel's attempts to crush an ever-renewing succession of perceived threats, real, hyped or plain bogus. God is apparently not too reliable either, telling Israel they can have Palestinian land but telling jihadists something different.

In all this the book seems to me to state the obvious, and I can't see how any fair-minded person who takes the slightest trouble to consider the history of the western nations in the middle east can perceive Islamic grievances as some manifestation of irrational evil. Sure, terrorism against civilians is a crime, but it is how anti-colonial struggles are usually conducted, unless by Gandhi. American revolutionaries employed it against Britain, so did the Mau-mau in Kenya, so did the IRA in England with American money, so did Mandela in South Africa. So did Irgun in the Palestine Mandate against Britain, and it is the Jewish historian Benny Morris whom the authors quote as suggesting that it was Irgun who gave the Palestinians the idea.

Putting my own gloss on the text, I see the picture thus. During the post-Ottoman Palestine Mandate Arthur Balfour proposed a Jewish homeland in their ancestral territory. Ben-Gurion in 1937 was quite clear that this was a matter of land-seizure, as such requiring violence against civilians. The hideous atrocity of the Holocaust understandably reinforced this proposal, and Europe, which had perpetrated the Holocaust, supported the idea in a very Euro