The contentious debate over The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, the new book by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen W. Walt (of the University of Chicago and Harvard University respectively), continues to play out -- sometimes in the most unlikely places.

The latest flashpoint centers on Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is serving as a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama. Last week the ubiquitous Alan Dershowitz called for Obama to distance himself from Brzezinski because of an essay the former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter wrote for Foreign Policy [subscription only]. In the essay, Brzezinski said Mearsheimer and Walt "have rendered a public service by initiating a much-needed public debate on the role of the ‘Israel lobby' in the shaping of U.S. foreign policy." 

The tension was compounded when The New York Sun reported that the Obama campaign had raced to take down a small ad for the campaign's Web site that appeared as one of several "sponsored links" on the Amazon.com page for the book. 

"The ad has been removed from the site because the views of the book do not reflect the views of Senator Obama on the U.S.-Israel relationship," an Obama spokesman told The Trail, a blog of The Washington Post.

"The idea that supporters of Israel have somehow distorted U.S. foreign policy, or that they are responsible for the debacle in Iraq, is just wrong," the spokesman said.