David or Goliath? The Israel Lobby and Its Critics

Abstract

Although neither John Mearsheimer nor Stephen Walt speaks much Gaelic, they touched off academic equivalent of an Irish bar brawl in March 2006 by publishing a hard-hitting critique of American relations with Israel in London Review of Books. In The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, book-length version of that earlier essay, authors pull no punches in recounting what they regard as increasingly baleful influence of the Israel on recent U.S. foreign policy. Mearsheimer and Walt's bid for a knockout rests on two right uppercuts and a left hook that they summarize as follows: the United States provides Israel with extraordinary diplomatic and military support, lobby is principal reason for that support, and this uncritical and unconditional relationship is not in Amer ican national interest (p. 14). Drawing on a broad range of memoirs, news papers, and on-line sources detailed in more than 100 pages of footnotes, authors make a strong showing in this fifteen-round main event. Most scholars will readily agree that during six decades since Harry Truman extended recognition to newly established Jewish state, Amer ica has developed a special if not extraordinary relationship with Israel. Mearsheimer and Walt begin by reminding readers that since May 1948, United States has provided Israel with more than $150 billion in economic aid, with state-of-the-art military hardware (including tanks, jet fighters, and surface-to-air missiles), and with diplomatic support at United Nations and elsewhere. In theory, American rationale for serving as Jewish state's great benefactor seemed compelling. A well-armed Israel could be a stra tegic asset during Cold War by helping to prevent Soviet domination of Middle East, while a democratic Israel built by survivors of Holocaust