An undergraduate debating society at Yale University has voted 44-25 in favor of ending America's "special relationship" with Israel.
Yale University.
Photo: Courtesy:Ragesoss
The vote at the Yale Political Union came after a three-hour debate between students and University of Chicago political science Prof. John Mearsheimer, who, with colleague Stephen Walt, has been a fierce advocate of upending the power of pro-Israel lobbyists in Washington.
Mearsheimer and Walt are the authors of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, in which they argue that Israel and its US supporters were instrumental in pushing the US to war in Iraq.
Junior Laura Marcus, a humanities student who plans to become a Conservative rabbi, said she suggested inviting Mearsheimer because he was sure to provoke controversy.
"It's important for our fall political season that we have debates that people connect with, not just on an intellectual level, but on an emotional one," Marcus told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday.
More than 300 students turned out for Monday's debate, though fewer than a third stayed for the final vote.
The vote follows similar, though more extreme resolutions, last year from Oxford University's student union against the influence of pro-Israel lobbyists.
