The Arc of a Covenant

by Walter Russell Mead

History

Politics

International Relations

672 Pages

"Mead's rigorous scholarship dismantles conventional wisdom about the Israeli-American relationship, revealing a far more complex and surprising history than either supporters or critics of Israel acknowledge."

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of God and Gold and Special Providence comes a groundbreaking work that overturns conventional understanding of the Israeli-American relationship and explores the fate of the Jewish people. In this brilliant investigation, one of America's premier foreign policy scholars contends that both pro- and anti-Zionists have unintentionally collaborated in creating a myth of monolithic American-Jewish support for Israel. This myth, Mead argues, exaggerates Jewish unity concerning Israel, overstates the influence of Jewish lobbyists, and underestimates the potential for change in the relationship between the two nations. Mead unveils surprising historical evidence, including the little-known fact that non-Jews such as J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller lobbied for a Jewish homeland well before the foundation of the modern Zionist movement. He demonstrates how many Jewish Americans today feel deeply conflicted about Israel's right-wing nationalists, and how developments under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama drove the most heated American debate over Israel since the 1940s. Throughout, Mead's singular intelligence and lively prose cut through layers of opaque history and politics, illuminating a more nuanced understanding and pointing toward a better way forward.

Our Take

Walter Russell Mead brings formidable scholarship and intellectual courage to one of the most contentious topics in American foreign policy. What sets The Arc of a Covenant apart is Mead's refusal to accept simplistic narratives from either side of the Israel debate. By excavating forgotten history—like Protestant financiers championing Zionism decades before Theodor Herzl—Mead reveals how Christian theology and American imperial interests shaped support for a Jewish state in ways that complicate our understanding of the present relationship. His analysis of internal divisions within the American Jewish community challenges the widespread assumption of unified support for Israeli policies, particularly regarding settlement expansion and treatment of Palestinians. Mead writes with the analytical rigor of an academic but the accessibility of a skilled journalist, making complex geopolitical dynamics comprehensible without oversimplification. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not just the Israeli-American relationship but how American foreign policy actually works. Readers who appreciated Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's The Israel Lobby will find a more historically grounded and less polemical analysis here, while fans of Mead's previous work like Special Providence will recognize his trademark ability to challenge conventional wisdom with deeply researched arguments. For those engaged with Middle Eastern politics, American Judaism, or the future of American diplomacy, The Arc of a Covenant is indispensable.