Is the Pro-Israel Lobby a Block on Reaching a Comprehensive Peace Settlement in the Middle East? Jonathan Rynhold Abstract: Contrary to many claims, the ‘pro-Israel’ factor is not the domi- nant constraint on any US efort to impose a comprehensive peace settle- ment. Nor did the pro-Israel lobby play a decisive role in the failure to reach a comprehensive peace in the 1990s. he most signiicant efect of the pro-Israel factor in the United States is to give Israel the beneit of the doubt by putting the onus on the Arab side to demonstrate its sincerity concern- ing peace. When Arab leaders have done this, they have greatly reduced the lobby’s ability to constrain US diplomacy. However, the greatest constraint on America relates to the balance of interests between the United States and the parties to the conlict themselves. For the parties the details of any agreement are of much greater importance than they are for the United States, hence they are willing to pay greater costs than the latter is willing to impose on any confrontation. Consequently, under most conceivable circumstances the United States cannot impose a comprehensive settlement. Keywords: coercive diplomacy, Israel, peace, pro-Israel lobby, United States Since the collapse of the Oslo peace process in 2000, there has been a wide-ranging debate as to the causes of that collapse and lessons to be learned in terms of future peacemaking. One argument that has received prominence is the idea that the United States should seek to impose a comprehensive peace settlement, on primar- ily Arab terms. A complimentary argument was that the power and inluence of the pro-Israel lobby prevented the United States applying the necessary pressure on Israel to achieve this objective (Allin and Simon 2003; Mearsheimer and Walt 2007; Slater 2002). Usually implicit in this argument is the idea that a comprehen- sive settlement is one of the most vital American strategic interests in the Middle East. he policy recommendation that follows from this analysis is that the US executive must seek to break the power of the pro-Israel lobby and then impose a comprehensive settlement on a recalcitrant Israel. 1 his article argues that this cluster of propositions is wrong. he pro-Israel lobby and pro-Israel sentiment certainly inluences and constrains US policy, but Israel Studies Forum, Volume 25, Issue 1, Summer 2010: 29–49 Association for Israel Studies doi: 10.3167/isf.2010.250105