Editing Stephen Walt (section)

===''The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy''===
{{Main|The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy}}

In March 2006, [[John Mearsheimer]] and Walt, then academic dean of the [[Harvard Kennedy School]], published a working paper, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy",<ref>Mearsheimer, John and Walt, Stephen. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070202034826/http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011 "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"], JFK School of Government, Working Paper RWP06-011 (March 13, 2006). The JFK School of Government reportedly removed its logo from the working paper. See Rosner, Shmuel.  [https://web.archive.org/web/20060510111703/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=697960&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=2#article697960 "Kennedy School removes its logo from lobby 'study'"], Rosner's Blog, [[Haaretz]] (May 10, 2006).</ref> as well as an article entitled "The Israel Lobby" in the ''[[London Review of Books]]'', on the negative effects of "the unmatched power of the Israel Lobby". They defined the Israel lobby as "the loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer US foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction".<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Israel Lobby|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby|journal=London Review of Books|author=John Mearsheimer|author2=Stephen M. Walt|date=23 March 2006|volume=28 |issue=6 |access-date=2014-01-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115161401/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby|archive-date=2014-01-15|url-status=live}}</ref> Mearsheimer and Walt took this position, "What the Israel lobby wants, it too often gets."<ref>Mearsheimer, John and Walt, Stephen.  [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312094912/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3506 "Unrestricted Access"], [[Foreign Policy]] (May/June 2006).</ref>

The articles, as well as the bestselling [[The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy|book]] that Walt and Mearsheimer later developed, generated considerable media coverage throughout the world. Contending that Walt and Mearsheimer are members of a "school that essentially wishes that the war with jihadism had never started", [[Christopher Hitchens]] concluded that "wishfulness has led them to seriously mischaracterize the origins of the problem."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hitchens|first=Christopher|title=Overstating Jewish Power|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2006/03/overstating_jewish_power.html|journal=Slate|date=27 March 2006 |access-date=12 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218004248/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2006/03/overstating_jewish_power.html|archive-date=2014-02-18|url-status=live}}</ref> Former US ambassador [[Edward Peck (American diplomat)|Edward Peck]] wrote that the "tsunami" of responses condemning the report proved the existence of the lobby and "Opinions differ on the long-term costs and benefits for both nations, but the lobby's views of Israel's interests have become the basis of US Middle East policies."<ref name=peck>[http://independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1700 "Of Course There Is an Israel Lobby"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123045207/http://independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1700 |date=2016-11-23}}, ''[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]'', April 6, 2006.</ref>