An essential account of America’s most controversial alliance that reveals how the United States came to see Israel as an extension of itself, and how that strong and divisive partnership plays out in our own time. Our American Israel tells the story of how a Jewish state in the Middle East came to resonate profoundly with a broad range of Americans in the twentieth century. Beginning with debates about Zionism after World War II, Israel’s identity has been entangled with America’s belief in its own exceptional nature. Now, in the twenty-first century, Amy Kaplan challenges the associations underlying this special alliance. Through popular narratives expressed in news media, fiction, and film, a shared sense of identity emerged from the two nations’ histories as settler societies. Americans projected their own origin myths onto Israel: the biblical promised land, the open frontier, the refuge for immigrants, the revolt against colonialism. Israel assumed a mantle of moral authority, based on its image as an “invincible victim,” a nation of intrepid warriors and concentration camp survivors. This paradox persisted long after the Six-Day War, when the United States rallied behind a story of the Israeli David subduing the Arab Goliath. The image of the underdog shattered when Israel invaded Lebanon and Palestinians rose up against the occupation. Israel’s military was strongly censured around the world, including notes of dissent in the United States. Rather than a symbol of justice, Israel became a model of military strength and technological ingenuity. In America today, Israel’s political realities pose difficult challenges. Turning a critical eye on the turbulent history that bound the two nations together, Kaplan unearths the roots of present controversies that may well divide them in the future.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a multi-dimensional conflict with numerous forces working collectively from international structure, regional structure and domestic structure. This book aims to offer a comprehensive reading on the AIPAC, the U.S. Middle East Policy, Israel, structural fault lines, and creation of the Palestinian state. The book touches on specific aspects, such as; • The macro dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. • U.S.-Israel Special Relationship (1948-2019). • The American Jewry. • The AIPAC and its modus operandi in U.S. • The U.S. Middle East Policy. • Future of the Palestinian State in the Middle East. AIPAC is the strongest American-Jewish lobby in the United States. Many critics argue that AIPAC able to influence the U.S. Middle East policy, thus jeopardizes the U.S. national interest. For many decades, intangible factor, the soft power of American Jewry has been serving the national interest of Israel. American domestic structure is embedded within liberal democratic values, enable the American Jewish lobbies to operate successfully. This phenomena attracted attention of many scholars, such as; Samuel P. Huntington and George F. Kennan, Tony Smith, David Truman, John J. Mearsheimer, and Stephen M. Walt to produce valuable literatures. John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt assert that the AIPAC is dangerous to U.S. national interest. AIPAC plays an important role in preserving the U.S.-Israel “special relationship” in the American soil through lobbying strategy. A triangular pattern of relationships prevail between AIPAC, Israel and the U.S. Middle East policy. AIPAC serves to preserve the “special relationship” between Israel and U.S. in periods of peace and turmoil. Some critics say AIPAC projects dual nationalism in their modus operandi. AIPAC represents the loyal American Jews who wish to see the United States of America remains strong and powerful in international system. At the same time, AIPAC loves and supports Israel as the Jewish national home. AIPAC aims to see Israel secured and able to survive in the volatile Middle East region. Apparently AIPAC has certain level of influence over the US Middle East policy in creation of the Palestinian state. AIPAC ensures creation of the Palestinian state is safe to Israel’s national interest and national security. AIPAC often tries to direct the U.S. Middle East policy towards other contagious issues in the region to divert U.S. attention in the Palestinian peace process. Success and failure in AIPAC’s lobby depend on U.S. national interest in the region. AIPAC never possess insurmountable power to influence the US Middle East policy. AIPAC able to influence the U.S. Middle East policy when there is a convergence factor with the U.S. national interest. The prime force in the U.S. Middle East policy is undoubtedly the U.S. national interest. Followed by Israel’s security, security and stability of the Middle East. However, AIPAC as an instrument of policy should not be excluded from the study on the Palestinian state.

A bestselling historian uncovers the surprising roots of America’s long alliance with Israel and its troubling consequences Fights about the fate of the state of Israel, and the Zionist movement that gave birth to it, have long been a staple of both Jewish and American political culture. But despite these arguments’ significance to American politics, American Jewish life, and to Israel itself, no one has ever systematically examined their history and explained why they matter. In We Are Not One, historian Eric Alterman traces this debate from its nineteenth-century origins. Following Israel’s 1948–1949 War of Independence (called the “nakba” or “catastrophe” by Palestinians), few Americans, including few Jews, paid much attention to Israel or the challenges it faced. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, however, almost overnight support for Israel became the primary component of American Jews’ collective identity. Over time, Jewish organizations joined forces with conservative Christians and neoconservative pundits and politicos to wage a tenacious fight to define Israel’s image in the US media, popular culture, Congress, and college campuses. Deeply researched, We Are Not One reveals how our consensus on Israel and Palestine emerged and why, today, it is fracturing.

A new history of the American Jewish relationship with Israel focused on its most urgent and sensitive issue: the question of Palestinian rights American Jews began debating Palestinian rights issues even before Israel's founding in 1948. Geoffrey Levin recovers the voices of American Jews who, in the early decades of Israel's existence, called for an honest reckoning with the moral and political plight of Palestinians. These now‑forgotten voices, which include an aid‑worker‑turned‑academic with Palestinian Sephardic roots, a former Yiddish journalist, anti‑Zionist Reform rabbis, and young left‑wing Zionist activists, felt drawn to support Palestinian rights by their understanding of Jewish history, identity, and ethics. They sometimes worked with mainstream American Jewish leaders who feared that ignoring Palestinian rights could foster antisemitism, leading them to press Israeli officials for reform. But Israeli diplomats viewed any American Jewish interest in Palestinian affairs with deep suspicion, provoking a series of quiet confrontations that ultimately kept Palestinian rights off the American Jewish agenda up to the present era. In reconstructing this hidden history, Levin lays the groundwork for more forthright debates over Palestinian rights issues, American Jewish identity, and the U.S.‑Israel relationship more broadly.

Does America’s pro-Israel lobby wield inappropriate control over US foreign policy? This book has created a storm of controversy by bringing out into the open America’s relationship with the Israel lobby: a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape foreign policy in a way that is profoundly damaging both to the United States and Israel itself. Israel is an important, valued American ally, yet Mearsheimer and Walt show that, by encouraging unconditional US financial and diplomatic support for Israel and promoting the use of its power to remake the Middle East, the lobby has jeopardized America’s and Israel’s long-term security and put other countries – including Britain – at risk.

Covers the entire range of the history of U.S. foreign relations from the colonial period to the beginning of the 21st century. A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations is an authoritative guide to past and present scholarship on the history of American diplomacy and foreign relations from its seventeenth century origins to the modern day. This two-volume reference work presents a collection of historiographical essays by prominent scholars. The essays explore three centuries of America’s global interactions and the ways U.S. foreign policies have been analyzed and interpreted over time. Scholars offer fresh perspectives on the history of U.S. foreign relations; analyze the causes, influences, and consequences of major foreign policy decisions; and address contemporary debates surrounding the practice of American power. The Companion covers a wide variety of methodologies, integrating political, military, economic, social and cultural history to explore the ideas and events that shaped U.S. diplomacy and foreign relations and continue to influence national identity. The essays discuss topics such as the links between U.S. foreign relations and the study of ideology, race, gender, and religion; Native American history, expansion, and imperialism; industrialization and modernization; domestic and international politics; and the United States’ role in decolonization, globalization, and the Cold War. A comprehensive approach to understanding the history, influences, and drivers of U.S. foreign relation, this indispensable resource: Examines significant foreign policy events and their subsequent interpretations Places key figures and policies in their historical, national, and international contexts Provides background on recent and current debates in U.S. foreign policy Explores the historiography and primary sources for each topic Covers the development of diverse themes and methodologies in histories of U.S. foreign policy Offering scholars, teachers, and students unmatched chronological breadth and analytical depth, A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations: Colonial Era to the Present is an important contribution to scholarship on the history of America’s interactions with the world.

The way we live, work, and die-alone and with other Americans-have so many hidden layers that we might as well say that there are two Americas: one we think we know and the other virtually unknown to us. Such a thought is compelling enough to motivate a sociologist to start writing down what he thinks about the hidden America. Then, what emerges from this effort is a picture of America that is at once so familiar and so alien. It is the alien part of America that troubles us, that scares us, and that pushes us to escape into louder, more colorful, and more pleasant unreality. As our escapism becomes more urgent each day, so does its testimony to the emptiness and loneliness of our solitary existence. Huer discusses this alien part of America in American Paradise.

From one of the world’s most prominent thinkers, an urgent warning of the threat that U.S. power poses to humanity’s future as well as a sharp indictment of both American foreign policy and the national myths that support it The Myth of American Idealism offers a timely and comprehensive introduction to the incisive critiques of U.S. power that have made Noam Chomsky a “global phenomenon,” one of the most widely known public intellectuals of all time. Surveying the history of U.S. military and economic activity around the world, Chomsky and his co-author Nathan J. Robinson vividly trace the way the American pursuit of global domination has wrought havoc in country after country – without, ironically, making Americans any safer. And they explore how dominant elites in the United States have pushed self-serving myths about this country’s commitment to “spreading democracy,” while pursuing a reckless foreign policy that served the interest of few and endangered all too many. Chomsky and Robinson range across the globe, offering penetrating accounts of Washington’s relationship with the Global South, its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan –all justified with noble stories about humanitarian missions and the benevolent intentions of American policy makers. The same kinds of myths that have led to repeated disastrous wars, they argue, are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China that imperil humanity’s future. Examining nuclear proliferation and climate change, they show how U.S. policies are continuing to exacerbate global threats. For well over half a century, Noam Chomsky has committed himself to exposing governing ideologies and criticizing his country’s unchecked use of military power. At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative, The Myth of American Idealism offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions he has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism.

Israel's Armor provides a foundational history of the Israel lobby and its influence on American foreign policy.