The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

Anti-Semitism and Social Crisis (1899)

“…If this analysis is correct, it would account for the rise in global anomie and link the economic and geopolitical crises described here. 28 In this context it is worth recalling the rumors, spread by Arab and Iranian media, that Israel was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 (Cox 2001;Michael 2008); Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's remarks that "the Jews rule the world by proxy" and "get others to fight and die for them" (Reuters 2003); and the allegation that the "Israel Lobby" is to blame for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 (Mearsheimer and Walt 2007). What Wilson (1982:422) wrote about the Jewish (albeit in a pathological way) at three levels: the global level, where it is believed that the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state would cleanse the Middle East of a foreign and polluting element and thus bring about harmonious and peaceful relations between the Muslim world and the West; the regional level, where it helps to unify an otherwise heterogeneous Muslim world and at the same time to construct an equally heterogeneous Europe in postnationalist terms as the progressive and civil antithesis to a putatively backward and anti-civil Jewish nationalism; and lastly the political-ideological level, where it serves to unify an extreme left bereft since the end of the Cold War of the ideologies that once gave it coherence while brokering alliances between the extreme left and Islamist groups (e.g., the Respect Party in Britain).…”

The Israel Lobbies: A Survey of the Pro-Israel Community in the United States

“…Condensed versions of their argument earlier appeared in the London Review of Books and on the Web site of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; seeMearsheimer and Walt (2006a, b). 4.…”

Is the Pro-Israel Lobby a Block on Reaching a Comprehensive Peace Settlement in the Middle East?

“…One argument that has received prominence is the idea that the United States should seek to impose a comprehensive peace settlement, on primarily Arab terms. A complimentary argument was that the power and infl uence of the pro-Israel lobby prevented the United States applying the necessary pressure on Israel to achieve this objective (Allin and Simon 2003;Mearsheimer and Walt 2007;Slater 2002). Usually implicit in this argument is the idea that a comprehensive settlement is one of the most vital American strategic interests in the Middle East.…”