Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An objective book that everyone should read, 16 April 2009
After first reviewing the extent of US financial and non-financial support for Israel, the authors ask whether Israel is a strategic asset or liability for the USA. They consider a number of arguments:
Helping contain the Soviet bear - relevant during the Cold War but not after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They give the example of the first Gulf War where any Israeli involvement would have been seriously damaging to US interests.
Partners against terror - the authors point out that US support for Israel is itself a prime cause for terrorism directed against US interests.
Confronting rogue states - they remind us that the states usually mentioned present no direct threat to the USA and that US support for Israel makes it harder to deal with rogue states.
Having decided that supporting Israel damages the USA, the authors evaluate whether moral considerations require American support for Israel notwithstanding. After doing so, they conclude that the moral case for the USA to support Israel is not currently justified, regardless of the arguments either way in 1947.
It would be easy to believe that US support for Israel is achieved by a conspiracy, with secret arrangements made in darkened rooms. The authors demonstrate that exactly the opposite is true. The Israel lobby operates in the full glare of publicity; there is no conspiracy.
The book shows how American supporters of Israel organise their campaigning efforts, raise money, lobby politicians and also dominate debate in the media and amongst think tanks. This is achieved by many people dedicating their time and money to promoting the cause of Israel. The authors point out that in a democracy a narrowly focused interest group can often get its way; a small number of Americans are passionate about Israel while the overwhelming majority are relatively indifferent either way. Accordingly, politicians find it helpful to appease the Israel lobby; safe in the knowledge that their doing so will not result in any meaningful loss of support from the rest of the population.
The book examines in detail how the lobby operates. One statistic stands out. Between 1990 and 2004, pro-Israel groups contributed nearly $57 million to candidates and parties while Arab American and Muslim Political Action Committees contributed slightly less than $800,000.
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88 of 116 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Criticism of Israels sadistic behaviour is not anti-semitic, 5 Dec 2007
When the Israeli army can shoot Palestinian children in the head in their own homes and foreign journalists in high visibility clothing, blow up entire Palestinian families picnicing on beaches, carpet bomb Lebanon so widely and indiscriminately that the land is not safe to tread for fear of stepping on unexploded Israeli bomblets, commit the mass theft of Palestinian homes and land for their own ends, then ghetto-ise their remaining population by witholding food and electicity, all under the 'anti-terrorism' banner, all with the express backing of the Israel Lobby in America, books like these need to be written.
If Scotland started behaving in the same way towards England, I'm pretty sure many English would be firing a few rockets over Hadrians Wall.
The bottom line is most Israelis I have heard and read think this behaviour is entirely appropriate and any criticism is met with a deliberate tactical charge of anti-semitism. I am glad books like this are finally coming to the surface and showing Israel for the sadistic, self-pitying, land grabbing bully it is.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brave and enlightening book., 19 Aug 2008
This meticulously researched book evolved from an article the authors had published in the 'London Review of Books' in 2006 and which provoked a heated debate worldwide.
The central charge from Mearsheimer & Walt is that a pro-Israel lobby shapes American foreign policy in a way that is harmful both to the US and to Israel itself. The authors argue convincingly that US unconditional financial and diplomatic support for Israel has damaged America's own interests in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and hampered any solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
This brave and enlightening book has been met with outrage and accusations of anti-semitism from the usual quarters although the authors' calm and rational analysis of the topic will hopefully lead to a "candid but civilized discussion of the lobby's influence".
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