This book surveys discourse and opinion in the United States toward the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1991. Contrary to popular myth, it demonstrates that US support for Israel is not based on the pro-Israel lobby, but rather is deeply rooted in American political culture. That support has increased since 9/11. However, the bulk of this increase has been among Republicans, conservatives, evangelicals, and Orthodox Jews. Meanwhile, among Democrats, liberals, the Mainline Protestant Church, and non-Orthodox Jews, criticism of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians has become more vociferous. This book works to explain this paradox.

Portrait

Jonathan Rynhold is the director of the Argov Center for the Study of the Jewish People and the State of Israel in the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University, where he is also a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Dr Rynhold's research focuses on Israeli and American approaches toward the Middle East peace process. His work has been published in numerous academic journals, including Political Science Quarterly, Survival, and the Review of International Studies. He has also co-edited two volumes on Israeli elections in the Israel at the Polls series and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Fathom.