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Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Walter Russell Mead.

Walter is an American foreign policy scholar, columnist, and professor known for his analysis of

U.S. foreign policy. He's a longtime writer for the Wall Street Journal and the author of many

great books, including my personal favorite, The Ark of the Covenant.

In this episode, we talk about the virtues and vices of the America First movement.

We talk about the history of Christian Zionism in America, which I can guarantee you is more interesting and surprising than you think. We talk about where anti-Semitism comes from,

historically and psychologically. We talk about the problems with Johnemitism comes from historically and psychologically.

We talk about the problems with John Mearsheimer's Israel lobby thesis and much more.

So without further ado, Walter Russell Mead.

Okay, Walter Russell Mead.

Thanks so much for coming on my show.

Great to be here.

So I want to talk to you today about a set of topics that are directly in your wheelhouse related to the many books you've written, many opeds you've written.

In particular, I'm a fan of your book, The Ark of the Covenant. It really does what a great book should do, which

is give you deep context on an issue that you're never going to get from articles, really.

And in that case, it's deep context on the U.S.-Israel relationship, which is center stage right now.

I very recently had Glenn Greenwald on my podcast to debate the influence of the Israel lobby over the American government where he and I are very much

on opposite sides of that issue. And so I guess I want to start there with that book. What was your

goal in writing the Ark of the Covenant? What were you reacting to? And how did you,

...