Sacred cows of the establishment

[ChinoCoug]

I just read Mearsheimer and Walt's book. I highly recommend it.

It is riveting (like a lot of IR books are), and very logically sequenced. You'll go through it like Harry Potter. First he provides a background of the ME conflict. Then he defines the parameters of the Israel lobby and its influence, lumping neocons in with the lobby. The he describes what the lobby did with respect to the Palestinians, Iraq war, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon.

It is a one-sided polemic. But they consider every counterargument that was raised to their original paper and are careful in their conclusions.

It did not diminish my respect for Jews or for Israel; as a matter of fact, my respect was enhanced, because Israelis and American Jews provided most of the primary source material for their evidence. Many Israelis are quite honest in their scholarship. And many Jews are Israel's most vociferous critics.