Book by Amy Kaplan traces the cultural and political construction of Israel as an American icon, 'our Israel', from the 1940s through the post-9/11 era, examining how Israel came to be imagined in American popular culture, politics, and media as a uniquely American ally and democratic symbol. Kaplan analyzes films, literature, political speeches, and journalism to show how this cultural attachment has shaped US foreign policy and made critical discussion of Israeli policies difficult in American public discourse. Valuable for researchers in American studies, cultural history, and Middle East policy studies examining how the US-Israel alliance has been culturally constructed and why critical discussion of Israeli policies remains politically constrained in American public discourse.
