"It's also probably safe to assume that the ranks of those who want to see some loosening of the US embrace of Israel have grown since the Mearsheimer-Walt piece on the lobby appeared in the LRB in early 2006 - that is to say, before the Israeli military's poor performance against Hezbollah in the war on Lebanon; the failure of sanctions or Israeli threats of military action to stop Iran's nuclear program; the spread of Islamist insurgencies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia; and Israel's further political isolation in the wake of its assault on the civilian population of Gaza as well as the rise of the far right in Israeli politics committed to annexation of the West Bank and ethnic cleansing. All of these developments have prompted a reappraisal of whether Israel is still the asset it has historically been in the conduct of US foreign policy - a reappraisal which, it seems to me, would have transpired whether or not there were an Israel Lobby resisting it."
Yes, and just as all of this is occurring, the pro-Palestinian movement partly revolves around assertions by "realists" who want to adjust U.S. policy to better pursue "interests." This goes along with all of acrimoniousness of this debate, along with very real demonstrations of anti-Semitism among those who "blame the Jews" for U.S. foreign policy "failures." Meanwhile, those who are actually concerned about Palestinian rights and who operate from a principles leftist position are struggling to figure out how their concerns relate to this state of affairs, which for them is a sad one. As public opinion in this country changes dramatically, the ugly profile of the fraudulent "anti-Lobby" is in the ascendance. That does not bode well for practical measures to support the Palestinians.