Name: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
ISBN: 9780374177720

Stephen M. Walt

John J. Mearsheimer

R Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science Co-Director of the Program on International Security Policy John J Mearsheimer

In a provocative new study, the authors describe how the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel is due to the influence of the Israel lobby, which has a far-reaching impact on America's foreign policy decisions throughout the Middle East.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

John Balek

I first heard about The Israel Lobby last summer. I put it on my list of books to read and when the events of this month came up, I thought I should finally get around to finally reading it.

I have read a lot of books of the Palestinian plight and Arab history but I haven't really looked into the global influence of Israel, especially its influence on America. As an American, this is a tough subject. Looking at how our political actions and tax dollars have funded and supported these human rights violations is a difficult subject to confront. I think The Israel Lobby does a great job of tackling this subject in a way that is informative while debunking many of the counter arguments used to excuse these actions.

I don't think many people realize how influential the pro Israel lobby is, on all aspects of American Politics. One of the biggest revelations I took away from this book was that one of my state's current senators has had a decades long political career, solely due to pro Israel funding. This senator has never seemed overtly pro Israel, compared to other politicians, but it goes to show just how much of a stranglehold the lobby has on political power.

Back in March of 2020 I was approached by one of the organizations mentioned in this book, looking to hire me. At the time this was one of the few job options available. I had heard about these kinds of organization before but I had never really seen one first hand. I spent about 10 minutes looking at their website and could immediately see the red flags. There was a lot of coded language used to hide their aggressions towards the Palestinians behind a vail of helping bring Christian and Jewish values together. I was really bothered by their actions and how they marketed themselves. It was a hard subject to have to address in my professional life and I was worried how my response could affect future job prospects. Luckily, I was able to find other opportunities but it shows just how powerful these organization are in American society.

The Israel Lobby was published in 2007 and is very much a product of the Bush Administration. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As someone who started learning about global politics during this time, it was really valuable to reevaluate the information given to me at that time and see the bias behind it and how the message has been controlled for so long.

Overall, I learned a lot from this book and would recommend it to any American interested in lobby persuasions and American foreign politics, regardless of their interest in Israel/Palestine because it really goes to show the power of lobbies, and there is no lobby more powerful than the pro Israel lobby.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

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