John Mearsheimer

John Mearsheimer
Born	1947/12/14  Brooklyn,  New York,  USA
Member of	Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations/Members M-O, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

John J Mearsheimer (born 14 December 1947) is an American political scientist who was a vocal opponent of the 2003 Iraq War. His most controversial views concern the Israel lobby's influence over US government policy, especially with respect to its actions in the Middle East, which are detailed in a 2006 book "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy", co-authored with Stephen Walt in 2006. The book caused a storm of protest from Jewish organisations. Its publication was preceded by a similarly co-authored article published in the London Review of Books on 23 March 2006 and available on Wikispooks here.

Opinions on Israel/Palestine/Iran

Two State solution

During a presentation to the Palestine Center in Washington on 30 April 2010, Mearsheimer opined that the two-state solution is a “fantasy,” and predicted that the Palestinian territories “will be incorporated into a ‘Greater Israel,’ which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa.” This will, in turn, become “a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream.”

Israel's genocide in Gaza

On 24 December 2024, Mearsheimer wrote:

"The Moral Bankruptcy of the West"

On 19 December 2024, Human Rights Watch issued a 179-page report detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

On 5 December 2024, Amnesty International issued a 296-page report detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice found that a plausible case can be made that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Given the West’s presumed commitment to human rights and especially to preventing genocide, one would have expected countries like the United States, Britain, and Germany, to have stopped the Israeli genocide in its tracks.

Instead, the governments in those three countries, especially the United States, have supported Israel’s unimaginable behaviour in Gaza at every turn. Indeed, those three countries are complicit in this genocide.

Moreover, almost all of the many human rights advocates in those countries, and in the West more generally, have stayed silent while Israel executed its genocide. The mainstream media has made hardly any effort to expose and challenge what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Indeed some key outlets have staunchly supported Israel’s actions.

One wonders what people in the West who have either supported Israel’s genocide or remained silent tell themselves to justify their behaviour and sleep at night.

History will not treat them kindly.

Attacks on Iran

What If the US Does Attack Iran?

On 20 June 2025, following the 2025 Israeli attacks on Iran, Judge Napolitano conducted an interview with John Mearsheimer and posed the question: "What If the US Does Attack Iran? Mearsheimer concluded the interview by saying:

"Well my last thoughts are I hope there's some way that this can be brought to an end.

"I hope Trump has the good sense not to take the United States into this war. And I hope that the fact that he's not been talking so hawkishly the past two days means that he's beginning to see the light and then I hope he goes to great lengths to get the Israelis and the Iranians to do something to bring this to an end.

"Am I hopeful that will happen? No but that's sort of the best case I can make at this point in time."

On 21 June 2025, one day after the Napolitano/Mearsheimer interview, the "US Did Attack Iran." President Donald Trump announced:

"The attacks on the Fordow, Natanz and the Isfahan nuclear sites were a spectacular military success," arguing they were necessary to disable the Islamic Republic's nuclear enrichment capability.

In response Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of President Vladimir Putin’s Security Council, said:

"The enrichment of nuclear material - and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons - will continue.

"A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads."

Quotations

“Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a ‘balanced and realistic’ perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel’s agenda … Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP’s ranks”
John Mearsheimer,  Stephen Walt (January 2007) 

 

A Document by John Mearsheimer

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:The Israel lobby	essay	23 March 2006	Israel/Lobby	A forensic examination of the power of the 'Israel Lobby' in the affairs of the USA, focusing most notably on its influence on US foreign policy and comprising an alliance of Jews, Christian Zionists and Neo-Cons

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Valdai Discussion Club/2021	18 October 2021	21 October 2021	Sochi Russia	18th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled "Global Shake-Up in the 21st Century: The Individual, Values, and the State"

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:What If the US Does Attack Iran?	interview	20 June 2025	Andrew Napolitano	"I hope Trump has the good sense not to take the United States into this war. And I hope that the fact that he's not been talking so hawkishly the past two days means that he's beginning to see the light and then I hope he goes to great lengths to get the Israelis and the Iranians to do something to bring this to an end. Am I hopeful that will happen? No but that's sort of the best case I can make at this point in time." (John Mearsheimer on 20 June 2025)

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