The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy
by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
Penguin, HK$143
The authors' arguments against Washington's pro-Israel lobby were aired in 2006 in an article in The London Review of Books. That piece, which suggested a loose coalition of individuals and groups influences US foreign policy in ways that favour Israel, sparked incendiary debate. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote that the lobby helped mould America's actions in not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also the Iraq invasion and confrontations with Iran and Syria. They contended that these policies would hurt the interests of the US and Israel. The book that resulted from that essay, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, offers a fuller portrait of the lobby and a closer look at its evolution and the prickly issue of dual loyalty. The second Lebanon war of 2006, which had not taken place when the original article was published, allows the pair to argue more forcefully about the lobby's profound powers. The authors will attract increased criticism for their extended work, but that's a good thing: more critics also means closer scrutiny of the arguments and a deeper understanding of the issue.