Taboo subjects: The Israel lobby

Recently a Harvard and an U. of Chicago professor co-wrote a paper in the London review of books entitled The Isreal Lobby

Their main thesis:

Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical.

It is an interesting article if just for the fact that they are discussing a taboo subject in American politics. Salon ran two pieces about it that points out its lamentable shortcommings: Is the "Israel lobby" distorting America's Mideast policies? and a commentary by historian Juan Cole Breaking the silence The overwrought response to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's brave paper only confirms its thesis.

Also interestingly, the piece was originally commissined by the Atlantic Monthly and rejected, only later to be picked up a rewritten version by the London Review of Books. If you have the time, the expanded essay is on the Harvard website.