In other words, does Israel help or hinder the efforts of the US to maintain its dominant economic and military position in the oil-rich Persian Gulf? Does Israel help of hinder the efforts of the US government to maintain close relationships with the major pro-US Sunni governments: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt? Does Israel help or hinder US efforts to counter Islamic fundamentalism? Does it help or hinder the efforts of the US to establish and enormous network of bases and fleets in and surrounding the Persian Gulf, from Southern Europe and Turkey, to the Horn of Africa, to the "stans," to the Indian Ocean? Does Israel help or hinder the efforts of the US to engineer a discreet Vietnam-type retreat from Iraq in order to later square off against Iran?

Like Jimmy Carter and Mearsheimer & Walt, Ritter has sided with the foreign policy realists on this question. He calls for the US to sever its relationship with Israel until Israel comes clean on its nuclear weapons and stops provoking war against Iran. Unlike Carter and Mearsheimer & Walt, though, Ritter does not even mention the Palestinians.