LRB "Israel Lobby" debate online

For those that have been following the furore kicked up over Mearsheimer and Walt's provocative piece in the London Review of Books in March this year, entitled "The Israel Lobby", this link is certainly worth checking out. Mearsheimer and Walt's basic claim was that there exists a loose yet powerful and effective grouping of pro-Israeli individuals and institutions in the US that exercise their influence over the political process - both by positive lobbying and the negative silencing of critics - to "distort" US foreign policy with regard to Israel.

Reaction was predictably vociferous, and basically two-pronged: the first raised the issue of anti-semitism, while the second focused on the quality of the scholarship involved. Both are discussed at length during the linked debate, which took place last month, and involved Mearsheimer himself, Tony Judt, and some of those mentioned by name in the article, Martin Indyk and Dennis Ross. The debate was chaired by Anne-Marie Slaughter. Few punches were pulled.

Certainly worth a look. Other interesting pieces, some directly linked, some less so, can be found here, here and here.