Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic

In 1896, a Jewish state was a pipe dream. Zionists mooted places as diverse as Palestine and Argentina, and most Jews in Britain and the US remained aloof from the ideologists. Today support for Israel is a sine qua non of British and American political life, and the overwhelming majority of Jews identify as Zionists. How did this happen?Ilan Pappe unveils how a lobby changed the map of the Middle East. Zionists exerted pressure on the Congress, cracked down on dissent in the Labour Party and relentlessly smeared critics. Groups funded by the Israeli state pushed for unprecedented military aid, recognition of unlawfully occupied territories and the erasure of Palestinian rights. Lobbying for Zionism shows us how a dangerous consensus was built – and how it might be dismantled.