Walt and Meirsheimer in response to the Gelb review in the NYT Book Review

From the letters section of the Book Review:

"Gelb also suggests that “vitriol about the Iraq war” — a war we strongly opposed — motivated our decision to write about the lobby. This is incorrect. We began researching the lobby’s influence in the spring of 2002, well before the Iraq debate heated up, and we were invited to write the original article by The Atlantic Monthly in October 2002, nearly six months before the war began. We chose this topic because our research led us to the conclusion that unconditional support for Israel — combined with Israel’s actions in the occupied territories — was undermining America’s standing around the world and exacerbating our terrorism problem. Influential groups in the lobby had also encouraged the United States to pursue confrontational policies in the Middle East that were in neither America’s nor Israel’s interest. As scholars, we felt it was important to encourage a more open discussion of this situation, and that is why we wrote our book."

The Leslie Gelb review:
Dual Loyalties - New York Times