The furore ignited by two eminent professors from Harvard and Chicago who have challenged the value of the US-Israeli relationship deepened on Monday as the head of the Brookings Institute forcefully rejected their claims that his prestigious Washington think-tank was part of the “pro-Israel chorus”.

Professors Stephen Walt of Harvard and the University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer have kicked up a storm in academic and political circles with publication of an 83-page paper called “The Israel Lobby” in which they argue that the “unwavering support” of the US for Israel cannot be justified on strategic or moral grounds and is a result of a powerful and pernicious “lobby”.