Politically the review is not known for following a consistent party political line, although Wilmers described herself as being "captivated by the left but not of it". Under her editorship the review's treatment of political matters sometimes attracted controversy. In 2006, an article by academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt was criticised in some quarters for its claim that the foreign policy of the United States was in the grip of an "Israel lobby". Wilmers has herself said, "I'm unambiguously hostile to Israel because it's a mendacious state", an assessment which has not gone unchallenged. An article by the Cambridge historian Mary Beard, published after the events of September 11, 2001, attracted some attention for suggesting that "America had it coming", and when David Marquand, the political historian and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, submitted a review praising Tony Blair's handling of the post-11 September period as "impeccable", Wilmers replied saying, "I can't square it with my conscience to praise so wholeheartedly Blair's conduct" and pulled the piece. Marquand announced that he was "utterly shocked".