The notion that Jews are manipulating U.S. foreign policy against American interests is false but also the product of ignorance, explains Walter Russell Mead, the author of The Arc of a Covenant: The United Israel and the Fate of the Jewish People.

He joins JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin this week to discuss how misperceptions of Jewish power are both an anti-Semitic trope and a misplaced belief in the centrality of Israel or Zionism. In fact, other nations and leaders are almost always pursuing their own interests.

Even many Jews believe that supporters of Israel influence events when the decisions of each president, including the search for the “holy grail” of Middle East peace. are motivated by domestic concerns and not either a conspiracy or an exercise in Jewish power.