Middle East Forum

The Middle East Forum is a right-wing Zionist think tank founded by Daniel Pipes's in 1990.

"The Forum holds that the United States has vital interests in the region; in particular, it believes in strong ties with Israel, Turkey, and other democracies as they emerge; works for human rights throughout the region; seeks a stable supply and a low price of oil; and promotes the peaceful settlement of regional and international disputes."[1]

Its committee and boards mostly include such right-wing Zionists as David Steinmann and Dalck Feith (father of Douglas Feith). MEF is closely linked to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where Pipes was an adjunct scholar.

MEF publishes the Middle East Quarterly (MEQ), edited by Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Martin Kramer, previously the director of Tel Aviv University's Dayan Centre are its senior editors.

Funding

"Here is the information on the “Middle East Forum” (which isn't a “forum” at all, it is just some sugar daddy giving Pipes $20 million a decade, on which he pays no taxes, apparently for the purpose of smearing and bullying people with whom he disagrees).

• Revenue: $2,136,592
• Expenses: $2,024,412
• Assets: $519,519
• Liabilities: $185,966

— Juan Cole, Dec. 8, 2004.

Forum Activities

• Campus Watch
• Middle East Quarterly
• Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
• www.danielpipes.org (web site of the Forum's director, Daniel Pipes)

Personnel and Board Members

List of Experts

Source

• Ziad Abdelnour, Managing Partner, TechCapital Access LLC; Bio.
• Mitchell G. Bard, Executive Director, American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE); Bio.
• Ilan Berman, Vice President for Policy, American Foreign Policy Council
• Patrick Clawson, Deputy Director, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Bio.
• Gil Elan, Associate Director, Northwest Region, Middle East Forum; Bio.
• Khalid Durán, Director, Council on Middle Eastern Affairs; Bio.
• John Eibner, Director of Human Rights, Christian Solidarity International (CSI); Bio.
• Joseph Farah, Editor and Chief Executive Officer, WorldNetDaily.com; Bio]
• Gary Gambill, Editor, Middle East Intelligence Bulletin; Bio.
• Martin Kramer, Editor, Middle East Quarterly; Bio.
• William Kristol, Editor, the Weekly Standard; Bio.
• Habib Malik, Professor of history, Lebanese American University; Bio.
• Laurent Murawiec, Analyst, Hudson Institute
• Daniel Pipes, Director, Middle East Forum; Bio.
• Robert Satloff, Director of Policy and Strategic Planning, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Bio.
• Jonathan Schanzer, Soref Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Bio.
• Tashbih Sayyed, Editor and Publisher, Pakistan Today; Bio.
• Meyrav Wurmser, Director, Center for Middle East Policy, Hudson Institute; Bio.

Board Members

Source: Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Dec. 8, 2004. (Comments below by Cole)

• David P Steinmann, Chairman, Steinmann is also President of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a pro-Likud warmongering organization that seeks "total" war against Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians, and which helped drag the United States into its current Iraq quagmire. The Pentagon's Douglas Feith is a long-time JINSA activist.
• Jack Bershad, (here identified as legal adviser to Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
• Irwin Hochberg, (Irwin Hochberg, national campaign chair of Israel Bonds, chairman of the International Commission of the Anti-Defamation League, and former chairman of the Jewish Federation of New York; Board Member of the Zionist Organization of America, which has steadfastly supported Israeli colonization of the West Bank and the dispossession of its Palestinians. Of the recent proposed peace plan worked out by Israeli and Palestinian doves at Geneva, Morton A. Klein, the president of ZOA said: "It is outrageous for individuals acting in opposition to the democratically-elected government of Israel to negotiate an 'accord' that undermines Israel's security by putting pressure on Israel to retreat to indefensible borders and divide its own capital, Jerusalem.")
• Albert Wood, (Prominent philanthropist connected to the Zionist Organization of America)
• Steven Levy
• Daniel Pipes, President
• Scott Rosenblum, (Member, Golden Circle of far rightwing U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon that unites Likud supporters and Phalangist brownshirts)
• Lawrence Gould
• Lawrence Grodman
• Jerry Sorkin

Contact

1500 Walnut Street
Suite 1050
Philadelphia, PA 19102
TEL: (215) 546-5406
FAX: (215) 546-5409
E-Mail: info@meforum.org

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Other Related SourceWatch Resources

• Neoconservative

External Links

• The 50 Top Experts on Lebanon and the Middle East, United States Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL).
• Juan Cole, Character Assassination, Informed Comment, Dec. 8, 2004.