This is a hotly debated topic. The John Mearsheimer view is that "The Lobby" [1] has effective control over US foreign policy. There's a lot of evidence for th

This is a hotly debated topic. The John Mearsheimer view is that "The Lobby" [1] has effective control over US foreign policy. There's a lot of evidence for this such as AIPAC indirectly unseating anti-Israel candidates. The Thomas Massie primary was the most expensive in history. $35 million. For a primary. Noam Chomsky on the other hand rejects the notion of "the lobby" [2], instead arguing that Israel is an tool of American imperialism. Then-US Secretary of STate of Alexander Haig is widely believed to have described Israel as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" [3] in a resource-rich region even though that term originated in the Pacific in WW2. The US has had an interest in disrupting Pan-Arab Nationalism [4], preferring a divided Middle East to guarantee access to oil. The truth lies somewhere in between. There are clearly material interests and the US could shut down Israel in a day if it so chose. But the US has taken actions that clearly aren't in its national interest and the perfect example is the current Iran war. Under no circumstances was this ever going to end well. The military knew it. General Caine tried to stop it when Trump didn't heed his warnings [5]. The US intelligence community was against it. also saying Iran wasn't developing a nuclear weapon [6]. Trump instead listened to Miriam Adelson, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad, who collectively (allegedly) convinced him it would be a Venezuela-like regime change operation. This move will (IMHO) go down as the largest strategic blunder in US history and it will reshape geopolitics in the Gulf, Europe and Asia for decades. Even other wars that were lost (eg Vietnam, Korea) didn't have this kind of impact. The US could essentially walk away from those at little cost. My point is that you can't take the Chomsky view as this being purely materialist. It just doesn't fit the evidence. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Fore... [2]: https://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/chomsky-materialism-and-the-israel-lobby-thesis/ https://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/chomsky-materialism-and-the-i... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_aircraft_carrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_aircraft_carrier [4]: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v12/d35 https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v12... [5]: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/25/politics/caine-iran-hegseth-trump https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/25/politics/caine-iran-hegse... [6]: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-intel-community-agreed-before-war-iran-wasnt-developing-nuclear-weapon-ex-counterterrorism-chief https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-intel-community-agreed-b...