John Mearsheimer

Clearly the most controversial book I ever wrote.

Well, the argument that Steve Walt and I made, actually we wrote an article first and, uh, which appeared in the London review of books.

Uh, and then we wrote the book itself.

Uh, our argument is that the lobby is a loose coalition of, uh, individuals and organizations, uh, that push American policy in a pro Israel direction.

Uh,

And basically, the lobby is interested in getting Israel – excuse me, getting the United States – and here we're talking mainly about the American government – to support Israel no matter what Israel does.

And our argument is that if you look at the relationship between the United States and Israel, it's unprecedented in modern history.

This is the closest relationship that you can find between any two countries in recorded history.

It's truly amazing the extent to which Israel and the United States are joined at the hip.

And we support Israel no matter what, almost all the time.

And our argument is that that is largely due to the influence of the lobby.

The lobby is an extremely powerful interest group.

Now, it's very important to understand that the American political system is set up in ways that allow interest groups of all sorts to wield great influence.

So in the United States, you have an interest group or a lobby like the National Rifle Association that makes it well nigh impossible to get gun control, right?

And so with the Israel lobby, you have this group of individuals and organizations that wield enormous influence on U.S.

policy toward the Middle East.

And this is...

not surprising given the nature of the American political system.

So our argument is that the lobby is not doing anything that's illegal or illicit or immoral or unethical.

It's just a good old-fashioned American interest group, and it just happens to be extremely powerful.