Reply #41: Mearsheimer and Walt are Neorealists trying to explain away an anomaly in their worldview

[Hippo_Tron]

Neorealism resounding rejects the idea that domestic politics plays a substantial role in international affairs. Furthermore, it argues that states always act in their own rational self interest in order to maximize their security. Therefore when presented with a blatantly obvious instance where domestic politics do play a role and a reasonable case that the US isn't acting in a manner that maximizing its own security by helping Israel, they try to explain it away by saying that it's a novelty due to the fact that Israel has essentially infiltrated the US government in order to make it act in the interests of Israel.

Of course there are far more instances where domestic politics play a substantial role in international affairs and I'm sure that if they were as blatant as the Israel case, Mearsheimer and Walt would be writing a book to try and explain them away as well. Furthermore, they completely ignore the fact that the Neocons think we're in an existential struggle with the giant boogeyman of "radical Islam" and that they believe we need to westernize the Middle East in order to win the war. If one does indeed believe that crap, then one would certainly believe that Israel is vital to advancing US interests.