Washington has poured billions into Israel's economy and military and, since 1967, Israel has undertaken innumerable operations on Washington's behalf against states that reject US supremacy and economic domination. The self-appointed Jewish state has become a watch-dog capable of sufficiently punishing neighboring countries discourteous towards the West. Stephen Gowans challenges the specious argument that Israel controls US foreign policy, tracing the development of the self-declared Jewish state through its efforts to suppress regional liberation movements integrated into the US empire as a pro-imperialist Sparta of the Middle East.