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Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power
An unflinching exposé of Israel's Lobby, showing how its outsized influence works against our national interests and threatens our freedom.
The greatest story in geopolitics and in American domestic affairs is how the far-right government of a small Middle Eastern country came to hold a controlling interest in United States foreign policy. Israel’s lobby is now in a position to police the speech of American politicians, college students and journalists, and coerce and persuade the White House to back unpopular, costly, and ultimately national security-threatening policies. From the Biden administration’s unwillingness to bring American leverage to bear an end to genocidal violence that only harmed our national security interests, to the Trump administration’s role in lifting the parole restrictions on a spy who had sold vital government secrets, American subservience to its putative client state, Israel, is a vivid and vexing example of the tail wagging the dog.
Israel’s Lobby combines investigative journalism and political science to tie together the stories of American and Israeli oligarchs capturing the policymaking process in successive presidential administrations and the geopolitical, national security and domestic consequences of American foreign policy effectively sold to the highest bidder. Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick explain how shifts in global politics, Israel’s lurch to the extreme right, and the evisceration of American campaign finance laws make the influence of Israel’s lobby more costly and more dangerous today than it ever was before, why the lobby launched an antisemitism witch hunt to suppress opponents rather than attempt to defend Israel's policies, and how the Lobby not only distorts American policy but helps make Israel a “crazy” state.
Israel’s Lobby follows the money and lifts the veil on a seemingly unassailable feature of American politics, importantly detailing how we can unite around traditional American values and the importance of substantive debate to resist Israel-first vigilantism.
The greatest story in geopolitics and in American domestic affairs is how the far-right government of a small Middle Eastern country came to hold a controlling interest in United States foreign policy. Israel’s lobby is now in a position to police the speech of American politicians, college students and journalists, and coerce and persuade the White House to back unpopular, costly, and ultimately national security-threatening policies. From the Biden administration’s unwillingness to bring American leverage to bear an end to genocidal violence that only harmed our national security interests, to the Trump administration’s role in lifting the parole restrictions on a spy who had sold vital government secrets, American subservience to its putative client state, Israel, is a vivid and vexing example of the tail wagging the dog.
Israel’s Lobby combines investigative journalism and political science to tie together the stories of American and Israeli oligarchs capturing the policymaking process in successive presidential administrations and the geopolitical, national security and domestic consequences of American foreign policy effectively sold to the highest bidder. Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick explain how shifts in global politics, Israel’s lurch to the extreme right, and the evisceration of American campaign finance laws make the influence of Israel’s lobby more costly and more dangerous today than it ever was before, why the lobby launched an antisemitism witch hunt to suppress opponents rather than attempt to defend Israel's policies, and how the Lobby not only distorts American policy but helps make Israel a “crazy” state.
Israel’s Lobby follows the money and lifts the veil on a seemingly unassailable feature of American politics, importantly detailing how we can unite around traditional American values and the importance of substantive debate to resist Israel-first vigilantism.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published August 11, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 12, 2026
Landmark book on escalating problem that increasingly threatens American democracy.
August 11, 2026
I bought this the morning after Dr. El Sayed won in Michigan. I so wish the authors could have spoken about this toward the end! As someone whose life in America has been unfortunately defined by the Trump/Citizens United era, this was a must read. As the authors mention, the sheer disgust/horror at what we see everyday on our phones is changing the tide - Michigan's primary being an example that really emphasizes the message of hope in the last chapter. A very well-researched and important read.
August 23, 2026
The authors frame the Israel lobby as just another instance of rich billionaires enacting their preferred policies rather than what it actually is, namely the organized Jewish community leveraging its substantial wealth, power and will in the interests of the nation-state of the Jewish people. They want us to blame a handful of named billionaires (Saban, Adelson) which conveniently allows the rest of the Jewish community to wipe their hands clean and avoid uncomfortable introspection. What in any other context would be recognized as an obvious ethnic lobby, we must tiptoe around for the Jewish community because of the deep taboo against antisemitism, a taboo that frankly appears even stronger than that taboo against genocide itself.
In trying to justify their billionaire-centric framing, the authors cite a few recent, selectively chosen polls indicating that Israel does not appear to rank amongst the top of American Jews' political priorities. There are several concerns with their reasoning. For one, perhaps the ranking isn't very high, because support for Israel is so taken for granted in the American political system that the average Jew simply doesn't need to care. As an analogy, when water is free and abundant, water may not be our highest political priority. And yet during times of genuine crisis, genuine insecurity, the Jewish community rallies for its own. The weeks after October 7 was one such time. Take a November 2023 poll by the JFNA: a full 87% of American Jews supported military aid to Israel at the time, close to 30% higher than the general population (source). It was precisely during this period that the genocide was at its highest death rate, with roughly a thousand children being killed per week, usually at home with their families, in what was the most aggressive aerial bombardment since WWII, with munitions almost entirely sourced from American military aid.
Every year, and particularly following October 7th, hundreds of upper-middle-class Jewish-American youth join the IDF as lone soldiers or visit Israel through the so-called "Birthright" trip. Many others make aliyah outright. Other young American Jews, those who remain in America and attend college, often join organizations like Hillel, where they dox, bully and harass Palestinians and their supporters and falsely slander them as antisemites. Often they openly liaise with the Israeli Foreign Ministry (see documentary "The Lobby", al-Jazeera). These young people are educated and propagandized as Zionists not by any billionaire, but their own Jewish teachers, mentors and rabbis. Jewish day schools are aggressively Zionist, as shown in the recent film "Israelism". Virtually every synagogue in the US is resolutely pro-Israel and pro-genocide. Auctions for illegally occupied land in the West Bank are not infrequent at American synagogues. IDF génocidaires are invited to give talks at these synagogues. Yet the congregations do not complain and even so-called anti-Zionist Jews remain queasy about pro-Palestinian protests nearby such synagogues. This is a community-wide problem, with Zionism ingrained culturally, not just the pet project of a few billionaires. American Jews overwhelmingly support established Jewish Zionist institutions like the ADL (poll). These elite Zionist institutions are not an aberration but rather a reflection of the broader community.
It is true that support for Israel among young American Jews is decreasing in recent years. But after a genocide, after an illegal, monstrous war of aggression against Iran, is that really good enough? Is it unreasonable for the Palestinian nation, and the American public forced to fight and die for a war on behalf of the Jewish state, to expect genuine accountability and introspection? Clifton and Lustick do not provide that.
Ultimately, studying the lobby purely through the lenses of money and campaign finance law gives a misleadingly narrow perspective. It begs the question why this particular lobby happened to become so effective, as opposed to many others. Understanding the ethnic, the tribal and the ideological nature of the phenomenon is what is paramount.
In trying to justify their billionaire-centric framing, the authors cite a few recent, selectively chosen polls indicating that Israel does not appear to rank amongst the top of American Jews' political priorities. There are several concerns with their reasoning. For one, perhaps the ranking isn't very high, because support for Israel is so taken for granted in the American political system that the average Jew simply doesn't need to care. As an analogy, when water is free and abundant, water may not be our highest political priority. And yet during times of genuine crisis, genuine insecurity, the Jewish community rallies for its own. The weeks after October 7 was one such time. Take a November 2023 poll by the JFNA: a full 87% of American Jews supported military aid to Israel at the time, close to 30% higher than the general population (source). It was precisely during this period that the genocide was at its highest death rate, with roughly a thousand children being killed per week, usually at home with their families, in what was the most aggressive aerial bombardment since WWII, with munitions almost entirely sourced from American military aid.
Every year, and particularly following October 7th, hundreds of upper-middle-class Jewish-American youth join the IDF as lone soldiers or visit Israel through the so-called "Birthright" trip. Many others make aliyah outright. Other young American Jews, those who remain in America and attend college, often join organizations like Hillel, where they dox, bully and harass Palestinians and their supporters and falsely slander them as antisemites. Often they openly liaise with the Israeli Foreign Ministry (see documentary "The Lobby", al-Jazeera). These young people are educated and propagandized as Zionists not by any billionaire, but their own Jewish teachers, mentors and rabbis. Jewish day schools are aggressively Zionist, as shown in the recent film "Israelism". Virtually every synagogue in the US is resolutely pro-Israel and pro-genocide. Auctions for illegally occupied land in the West Bank are not infrequent at American synagogues. IDF génocidaires are invited to give talks at these synagogues. Yet the congregations do not complain and even so-called anti-Zionist Jews remain queasy about pro-Palestinian protests nearby such synagogues. This is a community-wide problem, with Zionism ingrained culturally, not just the pet project of a few billionaires. American Jews overwhelmingly support established Jewish Zionist institutions like the ADL (poll). These elite Zionist institutions are not an aberration but rather a reflection of the broader community.
It is true that support for Israel among young American Jews is decreasing in recent years. But after a genocide, after an illegal, monstrous war of aggression against Iran, is that really good enough? Is it unreasonable for the Palestinian nation, and the American public forced to fight and die for a war on behalf of the Jewish state, to expect genuine accountability and introspection? Clifton and Lustick do not provide that.
Ultimately, studying the lobby purely through the lenses of money and campaign finance law gives a misleadingly narrow perspective. It begs the question why this particular lobby happened to become so effective, as opposed to many others. Understanding the ethnic, the tribal and the ideological nature of the phenomenon is what is paramount.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Heavily researched, this book presents a thorough and careful review of a powerful influencer in the US: Israel’s Lobby.
It was captivating from the start describing how a private jet was taking a convicted spy out of US after the 2020 US election. What was going on?
This book is packed with information. It draws comparison from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to politics of today. In President George Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796, he warned of the dangers regarding personal attachments by American citizens toward foreign countries.
It opened up with a lengthy analysis of Israel’s Lobby. A small group of wealthy Americans created AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to cultivate a strong relationship between the US and Israel. This organization has aggressively pushed their beliefs, policies and agendas forward. It ultimately has influenced American elections.
It goes back to the Supreme Court’s case Citizen’s United v. FEC in 2010. The ruling now allows corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited amounts on elections. American billionaires took advantage of this creating super PACs. They funded candidates who followed their demands and support toward Israel.
This book references numerous dates, articles and names the ultra-rich Americans with the amounts they have donated along with threat of uncertainty it has created with world politics. It highlights the federal investigation of diversity programs in universities and organizations, devastation of Gaza and wars in Iraq and Iran. It goes back to why Israel’s demand upon US political system hasn’t been challenged.
I’d like to say that I understood everything that was mentioned. But the learning curve was steep and one has to realize that there’s a constant flow of activity happening behind the scenes at all times. It turned into an educational experience for me. It makes me think of Aristotle’s words: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
My thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC. The views I share are my own.
It was captivating from the start describing how a private jet was taking a convicted spy out of US after the 2020 US election. What was going on?
This book is packed with information. It draws comparison from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to politics of today. In President George Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796, he warned of the dangers regarding personal attachments by American citizens toward foreign countries.
It opened up with a lengthy analysis of Israel’s Lobby. A small group of wealthy Americans created AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to cultivate a strong relationship between the US and Israel. This organization has aggressively pushed their beliefs, policies and agendas forward. It ultimately has influenced American elections.
It goes back to the Supreme Court’s case Citizen’s United v. FEC in 2010. The ruling now allows corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited amounts on elections. American billionaires took advantage of this creating super PACs. They funded candidates who followed their demands and support toward Israel.
This book references numerous dates, articles and names the ultra-rich Americans with the amounts they have donated along with threat of uncertainty it has created with world politics. It highlights the federal investigation of diversity programs in universities and organizations, devastation of Gaza and wars in Iraq and Iran. It goes back to why Israel’s demand upon US political system hasn’t been challenged.
I’d like to say that I understood everything that was mentioned. But the learning curve was steep and one has to realize that there’s a constant flow of activity happening behind the scenes at all times. It turned into an educational experience for me. It makes me think of Aristotle’s words: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
My thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC. The views I share are my own.
August 19, 2026
A great analysis of AIPAC's impact on U.S. foreign policy, particularly its support for Israel's policies of permanent warfare, the occupation of Palestine, and the genocide in Gaza. Written in a very engaging way.
August 25, 2026
I look forward to the last time the phrase “Israel has a right to exist” is uttered
August 28, 2026
Eventually there will be an emperor has no clothes moment.
August 28, 2026
A collaboration between radical political scientist Ian Lustick and anti-interventionist Quincy Institute co-founder Eli Clifton, this book is mainly an expose of AIPAC and its influence on American policymakers. The authors do go to great lengths to discuss specific policies and avoid antisemitic tropes, though the title does not do them any favors. They make some good points, and their analysis of Israeli internal (?) politics was very good, but it is also difficult to objectively measure the "influence" of any lobbying group since money spent does not necessarily translate directly into policy. On the other hand, it would be idiotic to deny that political spending has a major impact on congressional politics. In the unpredictable era of Trump and in the aftermath of Citizens United, lobbying is a major issue for many Americans. This book was uneven but informative, largely focusing on domestic debate about Israel without providing any future roadmap for Israel/Palestine conflict resolution.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews