‘Lobby’ Review Reviewed

Steven L. Spiegel’s review of Edward Tivnan’s “The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and America’s Foreign Policy” (The Book Review, May 31) seems quite biased.

In faulting the book for, among other things, relying on interviews “with either Israeli critics or prominent American Jewish dissenters,” Spiegel is not challenging the factual content of the interviews, but dismissing them with labels.

He similarly dismisses out-of-hand an anecdote recounted in the book because its source is former Sen. James Abourezk, “who has since become heavily engaged in Arab-American political activities,” implying that Abourezk is thus automatically and universally suspect.

I have recently learned, to my amazement, that U.S. taxpayers’ money goes to the Israeli government at the rate of $1,000 or more per year from every American. I’m curious as to how this came about, and whether or not it serves the broad interests of either country. I, and perhaps many others, need a book answering these questions. Maybe the book in question does so. It’s impossible to know from Spiegel’s review.

MARIAN TEETER

Los Angeles