Debating the influence of the Israeli Lobby

Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University have launched a national debate on the impact of Israel and its supporters on United States foreign policy.  In the community of international relations theorists, both are realists with distinguished publishing records.  Before the start of the Iraq War, they  opposed the Bush administration's plan to depose the Iraqi dictator arguing that the containment strategy of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton had kept Saddam Hussein in a box where he was not an imminent threat to U.S. national security.  They took their case to the Council on Foreign Relations where they debated leading neocons Max Boot and William Kristol. Both scholars have been guests on Conversations with History.  Their interviews provide background to an understanding of their scholarship on international politics. Mearsheimer's interview is here http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Mearsheimer/mearsheimer-con0.html and Walt's interview is here http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Walt/walt-con0.html