Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Revealed: How pro-Israel lobbying groups influence the Middle East policies of Britain, the US and others

In 1896, a Jewish state was a pipe dream. Zionists mooted places as diverse as Palestine and Argentina, and most Jews in Britain and the US remained aloof from the ideologists. Today support for Israel is a sine qua non of British and American political life, and the overwhelming majority of Jews identify as Zionists. How did this happen?

Ilan Pappe unveils how a lobby changed the map of the Middle East. Zionists exerted pressure on the Congress, cracked down on dissent in the Labour Party and relentlessly smeared critics. Groups funded by the Israeli state pushed for unprecedented military aid, recognition of unlawfully occupied territories and the erasure of Palestinian rights. Lobbying for Zionism shows us how a dangerous consensus was built – and how it might be dismantled.

About The Author

Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is a professor of history at the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. He is also the author of the bestselling The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld), A History of Modern Palestine (Cambridge), The Modern Middle East (Routledge), The Israel/Palestine Question (Routledge), The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel (Yale), The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge (Verso) and with Noam Chomsky, Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians (Penguin). He writes for, among others, the Guardian and the London Review of Books.

• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.6 x 23.37 cm