Cracks in the Covenant: The Left’s Clash with U.S.-Israel Relations

In 2006, an essay by political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt created a furore in the American intellectual and political landscape. Their provocative thesis, later expanded into the book ‘The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,’ argued that the United States’ ‘special relationship’ with Israel was not based on shared democratic values or strategic interests, but on the outsized influence of a powerful pro-Israel lobby. The book’s central thesis - that a powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States shapes

American foreign policy to the detriment of both American and Israeli interests - touched a raw nerve in Washington and beyond. Accusations of anti-Semitism, charges of bias, and passionate defences of U.S.-Israel relations came thick and fast. The book sparked a debate that, even over a decade later, still reverberates in foreign policy circles.

They argued that the U.S. was making decisions, particularly in its unwavering support for Israel, that were not in its strategic interest. They claimed that America’s ongoing support for Israel makes so little strategic sense that it can only be explained by the irresistible pressure applied by the Jewish-owned media, by Jewish lobbyists, by Jewish policy wonks and by their fellow travellers on the Christian right.

In their view, the lobby pushed for policies that often clashed with broader U.S. interests in the region, especially in relation to Arab states, and contributed to a perception of American bias, which they argued helped fuel anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

The controversy they sparked touched on something undeniable: America’s relationship with Israel is unique, and it has been, for decades, a defining feature of U.S. foreign policy. Rooted in history, religion, and geopolitical strategy, this US-Israel bond is often seen as unshakable, regardless of the shifting sands of Middle Eastern politics.

This relationship is apparent amid Isarel’s ongoing onslaught to wipe out terror outfits like Hamas and Hezbollah regardless of the mounting civilian cost in lives. U.S. presidents, regardless of party affiliation, have consistently offered unwavering support to Israel, with billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic backing at international forums.

Ever since Israel embarked on its ferocious retaliation against Hamas following the October 7 attacks, American college campuses, as well as ‘progressives’ and ‘liberals’ across the globe including Europe and India, erupted in a paroxysm of pro-Palestine support and firestorm of condemnation, sometimes downright vicious, against Israel. Observers have drawn parallels between these demonstrations and the anti-Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s.

There is a supreme historical irony here: The so-called Left around the globe today is in an unforgiving mood, stridently chastising Israel for being colonialists and oppressors, ruthlessly prosecuting their ‘genocidal’ war against the victimized Palestinians.

And yet, once upon a time, leftist movements in Europe and the United States once viewed Zionism as a cause aligned with progressive and anti-colonial struggles.

The early Zionist movement, with its emphasis on socialist values and its promise of creating a new, just society in Palestine, was widely embraced by left-wing intellectuals and political activists while Zionist pioneers, particularly in the kibbutzim, envisioned agrarian communes where wealth was shared and class distinctions erased - principles that resonated with socialists worldwide.

In commentator Walter Russell Mead’s splendidly nuanced ‘Arc of a Covenant’ which delves into the forgotten history of left-wing support for Zionism, the author emphasizes that many on the left saw the creation of Israel as a form of anti-colonial resistance, particularly in the context of post-World War II decolonization movements. The book is a counterpoint to the work of Mearsheimer and Walt, and dismisses the Israel Lobby theory as a “rancid urban legend.”

Then, there was the alignment between labour movements in the U.S. and Zionism, especially during the interwar years. The Histadrut, Israel’s powerful labour union, was closely tied to the international socialist movement with figures like David Ben-Gurion were admired by left-wing activists for blending socialism with the pursuit of Jewish self-determination.

However, this sense of solidarity between the global left and Zionism began to unravel in the 1960s and the 70s with the decline of Israel’s labour party, with the rise of Palestinian nationalism and Israel’s increasingly militarized stance.

Between 1948 and 1967, leftist intellectuals had admired Zionism for its socialist underpinnings and its kibbutzim, agricultural collectives that embodied socialist ideals. However, following Israel’s triumph in the Six-Day War of 1967, the Left began to recast the Jewish state as an imperialist power, turning what was once solidarity into animosity.

But to cast the U.S.-Israel relationship merely as the result of lobbying or political machinations would be way off the mark: it is a deeply rooted relationship founded upon American values, historical experiences, and strategic interests.

The US-Israel relationship has developed through a series of pivotal historical moments, notably the aftermath of World War II and the establishment of Israel in 1948. The United States, shaped by its own history of struggle for independence and democracy, found in Israel a kindred spirit—a nation forged from adversity and committed to the principles of self-determination and liberty.

The relationship between US and Israel can be traced right back to America’s Puritan origins, to a time when the early settlers saw themselves as inheritors of the biblical narrative, with America itself as a kind of Promised Land. The narrative of Jews returning to the Promised Land resonated powerfully with Americans when the Jewish State was founded in 1948.

Whereas Mearsheimer and Walt focus on the influence of the Israel lobby, often painting it as a powerful force that distorts American interests, Mead emphasizes the broader cultural and ideological currents that have shaped U.S. support for Israel. U.S. support for Israel has historically acted as a stabilizing factor in a volatile region, aligning with American interests in promoting democracy and countering extremist ideologies.

While a pro-Israel lobby does exist inside the United States, it is only one of many interest groups, and that, thanks to the structure of U.S. democracy, such lobbies succeed only when they have broad public backing. In other words, powerful lobbies depend on public opinion for their power; they do not create that opinion. And the American public happens to be very pro-Israel — for a long list of organic reasons that have nothing to do with AIPAC, George Soros or the Sulzbergers.

Today, going by the cacophony of the ‘liberal’ protests taking place around the globe against Israel  (often tinged with antisemitism), the Left would appear not to have forgiven the Jewish State for its success and survival.

However, regardless of Ivy League students and their professors with fancy post-modernist ideologies, ordinary Americans do not think there is anything strange about their country’s support for Israel; such scepticism is best reserved for some coastal elites and peripheral intellectuals, with leisure time and wealth on their hands.

(In our concluding part tomorrow, we look at the shifting dynamics of Israel’s relations with India, how our country shifted from a broadly pro-Palestine stance under Nehru and Indira Gandhi to one favouring Israel under Modi, and what the future holds for the Middle East and India’s role usher in peace and stability to a strife-torn region)