Judt's views on the Middle East became headline news in the autumn of 2006 following the cancellation - an hour before it was due to start - of a public lecture he was to give, entitled "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy", at the Polish consulate in New York. The Polish consul, Krzysztof Kasprzyk, later acknowledged that he had been contacted by a number of Jewish groups - including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, who were concerned about the subject of Judt's address. "The phone calls were very elegant but may be interpreted as exercising a delicate pressure," Kasprzyk said.