The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
Posted by bobodod on 18 November, 2007
This fascinating presentation aired on the “It’s Your World” radio series released by the World Affairs Council:
Originally publishing “The Israel Lobby” as an essay in the London Review of Books in March 2006, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s analysis of the Israel Lobby and its influence on U.S. foreign policy was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Having deepened and expanded their argument to confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran, Mearsheimer and Walt join the World Affairs Council for a public exchange in San Francisco, where they will discuss their contention that the material and diplomatic support provided by the United States to Israel is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. They argue that this lobby has a far-reaching impact on America’s posture throughout the Middle East-in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The discussion is available in streaming video via RealPlayer and in downloadable MP3 format. Note that the MP3 doesn’t have the correct file extension and the filename must be appended with “.mp3″ (without the quotes). The entire show is just over an our long and counts as college credit somewhere, I’m sure. It’s getting a bullet point on my resume no matter what. Either way, please take my word for it, it’s worth the time.
(For Windows computers, I highly recommend Real Alternative in place of the invasive RealPlayer, and Foobar2000 for playing all audio files. Mac OS-based systems will receive my enlightened recommendations once someone donates a MacBook Pro with 15.4″ LED LCD, 2.4GHz CPU, hologram projector and flux-capacitor at 1.21 Jigawatts.)
