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At the beginning of the book Walt and Mearsheimer define the Israel lobby as a loose coalition of organizations and individuals. Thus in their worldview, organizations as diverse as the Israel Policy Forum and the Zionist Organization of America are part of the Israel lobby. Similarly, individuals as diverse as former UN ambassador John Bolton, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, former Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Sen. Russ Feingold constitute parts of this powerful lobby.

Even if one defines the lobby as "loose coalition," it presupposes some degree of coordinated action and information sharing toward specific legislative and policy goals. I can assure Walt and Mearsheimer that Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean have never joined the AIPAC staff on any phone call to discuss how to defeat a Saudi arm sale, let alone how to ensure a U.S. military strike on Iran.

The real Israel lobby (whether you define it as AIPAC or a bit more broadly to include a number of other organizations) did not meaningfully participate in the debate on Iraq because it did not have the power to meaningfully impact that debate — not when large arrays of very powerful interest and ideological groups clashed over the question of America going to war.

There are other portions of the Walt and Mearsheimer narrative that also fail to reflect the realities of the domestic politics behind the U.S.-Israel relationship. For example, in one chapter the authors attempt to demonstrate that the Israel lobby dominates the public relations battle. If the authors had bothered to interview nearly any Jewish communal leader, they would have found that the Jewish community’s lack of a public relations strategy on behalf of Israel has been a source of contention for decades.
For all of the book’s footnotes, there are a great many factual errors in the text. For example, the authors inflate the Jewish percentage of the U.S. population by 50 percent. At another point in the narrative they state that AIPAC’s former executive director, Tom Dine, was "reportedly" fired in 1993 because he was insufficiently hawkish. This was not the case, and a check of the authors’ own sources (as listed in the footnotes) contradicts their claim.

One of the professors’ arguments — their complaint that they and others who criticize Israel or the domestic Israel lobby are subject to charges of anti-Semitism — is not totally lacking in merit. Some of us in the Jewish community too quickly resort to the charge of anti-Semitism. Terms like anti-Semitism and racism should be reserved for only the most obvious cases lest they lose some of their power to shock and shame.
But if the charge of anti-Semitism is, at times, overused it appears that Walt and Mearsheimer are guilty themselves of overusing the charge of censorship. Time and time again they tell their readers how difficult it is to challenge Israel and its defenders. They tell us how difficult it is to find a forum for their views and complain of the personal price they must pay to speak the truth. Yet the authors have gained a great deal of press and fame for their original essay and this book. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, "methinks the gentleman doth protest too much."

Yes, if this book were an undergraduate paper it might receive a passing grade — if nothing else for its extensive footnoting and basic understanding of how the Jewish community and allies are organized for Israel advocacy. And yes, as an ideological polemic it also has some merit — particularly for the straightforward way that it makes its debating points. But as a serious academic work that effectively shines the light on the domestic politics of the friends of Israel, it deserves a big fat "F."

By all appearances Walt and Mearsheimer started with their conclusions and then shoehorned their research into a narrative that fit their conclusions. It’s not what you’d expect from a couple of professor from Harvard and Chicago.

Ira Forman is the co-editor of "Jews In American Politics." He currently serves as the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC). From 1978-1981 he served as a lobbyist and the first political director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).