A professor of international relations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, Stephen M. Walt discusses how unconditional support for Israel has had negative effectis on both U.S. foreign policy and Israel itself. Walt is the author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-written with Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago. Hugely controversial when it was published in 2007, the book’s premise that the clout of the Israel lobby shapes U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has since been widely accepted. Walt speaks about what has changed since the book was published and notes that as the case for unconditional support for Israel has waned, efforts to shut down discussion of Israeli policies have intensified.