Proposes an alternative pro-Israel lobby that liberals can support.

The Israel lobby exerts incredible power and influence over America. Some identify only one organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as "the lobby" citing its influence on Capitol Hill. This is wrong. Many interconnected organizations channel their power and influence through AIPAC in Congress. Hundreds more "mini-AIPAC's" coordinate with AIPAC and their own national office to lobby state legislatures to pass model legislation and spending authorizations benefiting Israel-without publicly disclosing most of their lobbying activities. Others operate quietly, policing what is allowed to appear in mainstream news media and channeling "hush money" to civil rights organizations to keep them out of grassroots pro-Palestinian movements. Coordinated, effective and highly averse to public scrutiny, the Israel Affinity Organizations that make up the lobby have transformed America. While some informed voters know the U.S. provides more foreign aid to Israel than any other country, the total flow of charitable, tax dollar, military aid, intelligence and "opportunity cost" are unknown to those footing the bill-and the lobby is determined to keep it that way. Yet storm clouds are gathering over Israel's lobby. Public opinion polls asking the right questions indicate Americans are nowhere near as approving of unconditional support as many Israel lobbyists insist. Most American Jews have nothing to do with Israel lobbying organizations. More important, broad and deep societal changes, along with the technology-driven rise of alternative and social media, are transforming large numbers of Americans from mostly unaware supporters into informed and active dissenters. Big Israel is a comprehensive, historical, data-driven analysis of how the Israel lobby exerts influence across the United States. Based on a detailed review of more than 4,000 nonprofit organization tax returns, declassified U.S. government files and closely-held internal reports from Israel lobby organizations, Big Israel reveals how staid, respectable and bona fide social welfare organizations transformed themselves into a networked lobby for a foreign country-inflicting immense damage on average Americans. Big Israel offers many surprising insights into the Israel lobby's strengths and weaknesses so that Americans working for peace and justice in Middle East policymaking can finally turn down the rolling thunder of propaganda and take effective action.

The Israel Lobby," by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. They describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. Mearsheimer and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-reaching impact on America's posture throughout the Middle East—in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and the policies it has encouraged are in neither America's national interest nor Israel's long-term interest. The lobby's influence also affects America's relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, "Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington's ‘The Clash of Civilizations?' in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force." The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-about books in foreign policy.

Describes how the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel is due to the influence of the Israel lobby, which has a far-reaching impact on America's foreign policy decisions throughout the Middle East.

Traces Zionism in America and the activities of the pro-Israel lobby, officially created in 1954 as AZCPA (American Zionist Council of Public Affairs) and later called AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Mentions antisemitism and anti-Zionism and the possibility of an antisemitic backlash engendered by AIPAC's activities.