{"id":39958,"date":"2026-10-18T16:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T13:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/w3.bilkent.edu.tr\/tr\/?p=39958"},"modified":"2026-10-19T21:28:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T18:28:04","slug":"pols-semineri-israels-lobby-in-america-damaging-dangerous-and-desperate-ian-s-lustick-university-of-pennsylvania-1630-19-ekim-2026-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/w3.bilkent.edu.tr\/tr\/pols-semineri-israels-lobby-in-america-damaging-dangerous-and-desperate-ian-s-lustick-university-of-pennsylvania-1630-19-ekim-2026-en\/","title":{"rendered":"POLS Semineri: \u201cIsrael’s Lobby in America: Damaging, Dangerous, and Desperate\u201d, Ian S. Lustick (University of Pennsylvania), 16:30 19 Ekim 2026 (EN)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk:
\n“Israel’s Lobby in America: Damaging, Dangerous, and Desperate”<\/strong><\/p>\n

by<\/p>\n

Ian S. Lustick
\nDepartment of Political Science
\nUniversity of Pennsylvania
\nilustick@sas.upenn.edu<\/p>\n

Date:<\/strong>\u00a0Monday, October 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Time:<\/strong>\u00a04:30 p.m. \/ Zoom meeting<\/p>\n

This is an online seminar. To request event details please send a message to department.<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his Farewell Address to Congress George Washington observed that the new American
\npolity was dangerously vulnerable to any domestic faction with a “passionate attachment” to a foreign country. Such a faction would have no natural opponent to balance its influence in Congress or over the Executive. Foreign policy toward that country would therefore be greatly distorted, leading to unnecessary and costly adventures abroad and the misallocation of national resources. Israel firsters in the United States have have proven Washington correct. President after President was forced to abandon diplomatic initiatives that might well have solved or greatly ameliorated the Arab-Israeli conflict because of furious opposition by the Israel Lobby. Known in Washington political circles as an “800 pound gorilla” the Lobby was able to force Presidents into choosing between pressuring Israel toward peace and losing an election or losing control of their legislative agenda. Changes in world politics, Israel’s transformation into a kind of “crazy state,” and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow ultrawealthy individuals to pour virtually limitless amounts of money into political campaigns, have greatly expanded the threat posed by the Lobby. In addition to damage to U.S. foreign policy and national security interests associated with the Lobby-enforced principle of “no daylight” between Washington and Jerusalem, Americans,
\nand American civil society as a whole, face threats to basic freedoms arising from an
\nantisemitism witch hunt against critics of Israel and U.S. policy toward Israel. Yes, public
\nopinion in America is changing, but the gap between what the people want and what
\npoliticians in Washington do remains.<\/p>\n

Short Bio<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ian S. Lustick is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania
\nand holds the Bess W. Heyman Chair.\u00a0 Professor Lustick received his BA from Brandeis
\nUniversity in 1971 and his PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley
\nin 1976.\u00a0 Before joining the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, he taught for
\nfifteen years at Dartmouth College.\u00a0 He has worked as an analyst on Israel-Palestinian affairs in the United States Department of State, and served as a consultant on Middle East policy and on national security and intelligence issues for most of the relevant agencies of the U.S. government. He has also done extensive work in the fields of social science methodology, political forecasting, and agent-based computer simulation modeling.\u00a0 He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a founder and past President of the Association for Israel Studies, and past President of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association.\u00a0 He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Carnegie Corporation.\u00a0 His dozens of articles have appeared in the leading journals of political science, Middle East affairs, and public policy. Among his books are\u00a0Arabs in the Jewish State:\u00a0 Israel’s Control of a National Minority\u00a0(1980);\u00a0For the Land and the Lord:\u00a0 Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel\u00a0(1988, 1994);\u00a0Unsettled States, Disputed Lands:\u00a0 Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza\u00a0(1993); and\u00a0Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality\u00a0(2019).\u00a0 His most recent book, co-authored with Eli Clifton, is titled\u00a0Israel’s Lobby:\u00a0America in the Grip of a Foreign Power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk: “Israel’s Lobby in America: Damaging, Dangerous, and Desperate” by Ian S. Lustick Department of Political Science University of Pennsylvania ilustick@sas.upenn.edu Date:\u00a0Monday, October 19, 2026 Time:\u00a04:30 p.m. \/ Zoom meeting This is an online seminar. To request event details please send a message to department. Abstract In his Farewell Address [\u2026] <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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