Author: Grant Smith

Delivered to The Israel Lobby and American Policy 2018 conference March 2, 2018 at the National Press Club

The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference was solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). This is a rush transcript.

Dale Sprusansky: I would like to introduce Grant Smith of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, a co-sponsor of this event. Grant and his organization are committed to uncovering and documenting how the Israel lobby works and operates through its research and its Freedom of Information Act requests. Grant is the author of several books on the lobby, his most recent being Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America. That book is available for sale at our bookstore and is also now available online as an audiobook.

So with that, I’d like to welcome Grant to the stage who will provide an overview of the lobby and of today’s events. Thank you.

Grant Smith: Thank you, Dale. Welcome, everybody. As he said, I’m going to be reviewing the Israel lobby’s agenda in some detail. It explains, I think, best why we’ve invited this particular group of experts to speak today. I’ll try to mention as many of them as I can as we review the stakes, the very high stakes, and challenges that are being presented here in the United States and globally which are higher than ever before.

The Israel lobby, in terms of a nonprofit sector snapshot – and this is coming out of the database that was compiled for my book Big Israel – is an ecosystem of organizations that advance Israel at very many levels. This is on track to be a $6.3 billion industry in 2020. Nearly 500 separate medium-sized to major organizations – with, certainly, AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League and many others at the top – but if you add it up, it’s almost 17,000 employees, half a million volunteers working in organizations that have the advancement of Israel as one of their primary objectives in the United States.

Continue reading “Grant Smith: An Overview of the Israel Lobby Agenda”

Washington, DC – On May 8, 2017 IRmep (Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy) Director Grant F. Smith filed an emergency motion (PDF) asking the US Court of Appeals for an injunction on the immanent transfer of US foreign military assistance to Israel.

On May 5 President Trump signed into law a temporary spending measure designed to keep the US government running until September. The law included $3.7 billion in foreign aid to Israel.

Continue reading “IRmep Asks Appeals Court To Block Trump Transfer of $3.7 Billion in US Aid to Nuclear Israel”

Delivered to The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference March 24, 2017 at the National Press Club

The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference was solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). This is a rush transcript.

Grant Smith: Everybody, we need to start. So please take your seats. While you do, we’re going to roll a very short clip of an interesting panel that took place. Everyone has been talking about J Street. Well, this is a J Street panel. We’re just going to roll a very short clip about a former fundraiser speaking on J Street, Stephanie Schriock [now president of Emily’s List], and her experience in obtaining startup capital for political campaigns. Can you cue [“Beholden to Israel and AIPAC Even before Running for Office”], Nart [Shekim]?

Janet McMahon: Hi. For those of you who may be just joining us on our livestream video, I’m Janet McMahon, managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. One of our main focuses is keeping track of members of Congress and the pro-Israel PAC contributions so many of them receive. I think Grant Smith made it clear this morning that these pro-Israel members of Congress increasingly do not reflect the views of the majority of Americans.

Today I’m very happy to introduce two Democratic former members of Congress who do reflect those views. Fortunately, I don’t have to introduce them to each other, since they have been colleagues and friends for nearly a quarter of a century. We thought it would be fascinating and informative to hear a conversation between them about their experiences as congressmen and how they continued to win re-election for decades despite the opposition of the Israel lobby.

Jim Moran, on my far right, represented Virginia’s 8th congressional district, just across the river from here, from 1991 until he retired in 2015. He was the mayor of Alexandria, VA from 1985 to 1990, when he defeated incumbent Stanford Parris. As a congressman, Jim was a staunch critic of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – an issue which never seems to die – and of the major role the Israel lobby played in pushing for the disastrous US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Of Irish decent, Jim is the son of professional football player James Moran, Sr. and the brother of Brian Moran, the former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. He is currently a professor of practice at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Nick Rahall, to my immediate right, is the grandson of Lebanese immigrants and the longest serving ever member of Congress from West Virginia, whose 3rd and 4th districts he represented from 1977 to 2015. He was one of only eight House members to vote against the authorization for use of military force against Iraq in 2002 that preceded the US invasion. He has repeatedly expressed concern about America’s relationship with Israel stating, “Israel can’t continue to occupy, humiliate, and destroy the dreams and spirits of the Palestinian people and continue to call itself a democratic state.”

Continue reading “Retired Reps. Jim Moran and Nick Rahall: What it Takes To Beat the Israel Lobby in Congress”

As presented at the “The Israel Lobby and American Policy” conference presented March 24, 2017 by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy.

Public opinion polling is important, but little of it accurately measures what the American public thinks about key Israel/lobby issues. This survey series begins to fill in that information deficit.

Focused, accurate polling should guide elected representatives, who can then act in the broader public interest. Polling about Israel lobby programs reveals a large gap between US government actions demanded by the lobby and policy outcomes the public prefers.

The Israel lobby’s growth, size, composition and division of labor has become better understood since the disastrous US invasion of Iraq (which the lobby quietly supported) and the more recent battles over the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) signed by the Obama administration (which the lobby publicly, though unsuccessfully, opposed). This report uses the neologism “Israel/lobby” to express the oftentimes simultaneous public relations campaigns and lobbying programs pursued by the Israeli government in coordination with top advocacy organizations lobbying for Israel within the United States. Key US organizations include the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Hundreds more, including a small number of evangelical Christian organizations, play a role within a vast ecosystem that demands unconditional US support for Israel.

Continue reading “American Attitudes About Israel/Lobby Programs”

Former Defense Department analyst Lawrence A. Franklin was convicted of felonies for passing in 2004 classified military information to two American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists and an Israeli diplomat. Franklin worked for Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, a major proponent of the disastrous US Iraq invasion. The AIPAC officials tried to use Franklin’s information to get the US to militarily "pivot" toward Iran by getting coverage that Iran was attacking the US in the Washington Post. The two AIPAC officials – Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman – were charged but avoided conviction. Shortly after Obama took office, the Department of Justice abruptly dropped a very solid criminal case developed by the FBI.

Israel affinity organizations and their leaders generally lobby hard to get non-prosecution (urging "prosecutorial discretion") for cases of major U.S. crimes that benefited Israel. When that fails, coordinated efforts are made to overturn felony convictions. On October 18, 1961 JFK pardoned "Hank" Greenspun’s felony conviction for smuggling arms during Israel’s War of Independence after intense lobbying. On January 20, 2001 Bill Clinton pardoned "Al" Schwimmer, founder of Israel Aircraft Industries, for similar crimes. On January 1, 2009 George W. Bush issued a posthumous pardon for B-17 bomber smuggler Charles T. Winters after intense lobbying by more than 28 members of congress, the American Jewish Committee, and Jewish federations. Many of argued that crimes committed for Israel should not be punished and that many others had done much more and not been punished.

Continue reading “Who Wants Obama To Pardon Lawrence Franklin?”

Washington – A lawsuit filed Monday in the D.C. federal district court challenges U.S. foreign aid to Israel.

IRmep’s Center for Policy and Law is holding a conference call briefing about the lawsuit August 11 at 10AM EST.

Register online to receive the conference call phone number, access code and briefing materials at: http://IRmep.org/AidLawsuit.htm.

Registration closes 9PM on August 10.

The US is finalizing a ten-year memorandum of understanding which will reportedly boost aid to $4-5 billion per year. The director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) in the suit challenges the authority of the president and US federal agencies to deliver such foreign aid to Israel. Such aid violates longstanding bans on aid to non-signatories to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) with nuclear weapons programs. Since the bans went into effect US foreign aid to Israel is estimated to be $234 billion.

Continue reading “Lawsuit Aims To Block US Foreign Aid to Israel – Conference Call”