The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

"Political theorists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt show how the right to the pursuit of happiness presently enables foreign governments to exert adverse influence over foreign-policy questions of war and peace simply by coordinating the expression of private citizens' ostensible self-interest. Public-choice scholars and other curious individuals will relish the analysis and insights presented in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy . . . The book has three parts plus an additional 106 pages of detailed endnotes. The authors begin by documenting the 'uncritical and uncompromising relationship' that the United States has with Israel and the extraordinary amount of financial and military aid it provides to Israel . . . The book's second part comprises case studies that document the lobby's influence over U.S. policy toward individual Middle East nations and populations. The book's third and concluding section fittingly asks, 'What is to be done?' The disappointing conclusion is that very little appears to be possible at this juncture."—James A. Montanye, The Independent Review

"[In] an extended, more fully argued version of the London Review article . . . slowly, deliberately and dispassionately Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt lay out the case for a ruthlessly realistic Middle East policy that would make Israel nothing more than one of many countries in the region . . . Coolly, not to say coldly, Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt mount a prosecutorial brief against Israel's foreign policy and domestic policies, and against the state Israel itself . . . It is a little odd that so chilly a book should generate such heat. Most of Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt's arguments are familiar ones, and it is hardly inflammatory to point out that the major Jewish organizations tend to take a much tougher line on, say, a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem, the Iraq war or settlements in the West Bank, than most American Jews favor. The writers stand on eminently defensible ground when they argue for a more constructive, creative American role in peace talks."—William Grimes, The New York Times

"Mearsheimer and Walt were previously known as hard-core 'realists' who minimized the importance of studying domestic politics and culture to understanding foreign policy. They seem to have abandoned such 'structural realism' for what might be called 'political realism': the view that the beliefs, values, and interests of various domestic actors shape their perception of the national interest and that the interaction between these domestic forces and international conditions holds the key to understanding policy. This political realism is a significantly richer and more fruitful (if more intellectually demanding and methodologically complex) approach than the structural realism that Mearsheimer, especially, advocated in the past. One must also commend the two authors for their decision to focus on an important topic that has not received the attention it merits. The politics of U.S. policy in the Middle East is a subject that is not well understood . . . Mearsheimer and Walt have admirably and courageously helped to start a much-needed conversation on a controversial and combustible topic. There should be no taboos among students of U.S. foreign policy—no questions that should not be asked, no issues that should be considered too hot to handle, no relationships or alliances, however deep or enduring, that should not be regularly and searchingly reviewed. Walt and Mearsheimer's belief that the United States needs to find ways to bridge the gap between its current policies and the national aspirations of Palestinians and other Arabs is correct . . . Domestic politics, geopolitics: next is cultural politics—and especially the question of anti-Semitism. There have already been public charges of anti-Semitism, and more will come. Let me be unambiguously clear: those charges go too far. Mearsheimer and Walt state very clearly that they are not anti-Semites, and nothing in this book proves them wrong."—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs

“After reading The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, I remain impressed with Mearsheimer and Walt’s bravery. I also do agree with their main argument . . . An important service in pointing out how difficult it is to produce pragmatic decisions based on national interest in an area as important to the United States as the Middle East.”—Dimitri K. Simes, The National Interest