Dr. Walter L. Hixson, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Akron
Since World War II the Israel lobby has exerted enormous influence over US foreign policy. Yet with a few notable exceptions, scholars and journalists have done a poor job of researching and analyzing the lobby, in part because they are routinely smeared for doing so. Building on his previous study, Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict, Walter Hixson explains how Israel and the U.S. lobby have collaborated for decades to distort history and fend off challenges to Israel’s congenital aggression in Palestine.
Dr. Hixson’s talk will provide an overview of the history of the lobby, including its role in obscuring Israel’s history of violent aggression as well as the Zionist state’s persistent opposition to pursuing a Middle East peace accord. The talk will conclude with discussion of the crucial role that the lobby and US public opinion are playing in the present and future of the conflict. Today the Israel lobby is mobilizing its considerable wealth and power to enhance and expand its propaganda mission, but at the same time Zionist advocacy groups face unprecedented challenges that offer opportunities for the advocates of peace and justice in Palestine.
Biography of Speaker
Dr. Walter L. Hixson is the author of myriad books and articles, including most recently Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict (Cambridge, 2019). He serves as Contributing Editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Dr. Hixson has been a history professor for 36 years, achieving the rank of distinguished professor at the University of Akron. His other books include American Settler Colonialism: A History (2013) and The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and US Foreign Policy (2008).
