Herbert London

Dr Herbert I. London (born 1939) is the president of the US-based London Center for Policy Research and was the longstanding president of the neoconservative Hudson Institute from 1997 until 2011.

Biography

From a HJS profile circa 2008:

Dr. Herbert London is the President of the Hudson Institute, a world renowned think tank in Washington D.C. As one of America's leading social and political commentators he has written for nearly every major newspaper and journal in the U.S, including the New York Times and Washington Post. Dr London has also been a guest lecturer on several major radio and television news programmes both at colleges and universities, and has also appeared as co-host on the popular CNN programme, "Crossfire." He is the former chairman of the National Association of Scholars and a contributing editor for the St. Croix Review and the American Arts Quarterly. He is a Professor Emeritus of New York University and is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies as well as holding many other prominent roles.
Dr London was the Republican Candidate for the Mayor of New York in 1989. In 1990 he was the Conservative Party Candidate for Governor of New York gaining more votes than any third party candidate in the state's history. In 1994 he was the Republican Party candidate for New York State Comptroller only losing by a narrow margin in a close election.

Views

Against Iran negotiations

London has been an opponent of a negotiated agreement with Iran regarding Iran's development of nuclear technology:

For the Iranians, negotiation is cover for the pursuit of its goals... In the end, if U.S. action is neutralized by its own intelligence estimates and the much ballyhooed sanctions do not work in forestalling Iranian development of the bomb, there is little to do but pray. The question at that point is whether one prays to God or Allah.

On spying, racial profiling and deporting violent non-citizens

In an article for the American Spectator in 2006 London advocated the merging of law enforcement and intelligence operatives, 'preemption' in preventing terrorist attacks, and racial profiling:

The wall of separation erected between law enforcement and national security agents must be shattered. Human intelligence assets -- emasculated by the Church Commission -- should be restored. Spying is a nasty, but necessary, business in a world as dangerous as ours.

Similarly, preemption is a critical feature of prevention. We must use every legal, i.e. constitutional, means at our disposal to undermine terrorist cells. We should encourage the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Ser-vice) to deport non-citizens who foster violent activity. It is noteworthy that more than 80 percent of mosques preach anti-American dogma and some actively promote terrorism, according to Steve Emerson's recent studies.

And last, despite a reluctance to consider profiling -- understandable since racial and ethnic differentiation is appropriately frowned upon -- it should be noted that 80 year old grandmothers from Des Moines haven't been identified as terrorist "sleepers." Yet remarkably they are often treated in the same fashion at airports as those carrying Saudi Arabian passports.

On patriotism

In an article on the question of patriotism London remarked that:

Ending slavery or emancipating women... were morally justified and fulfilled through a reliance on the Enlightenment and Christian principles of human equality. These developments were not brought about by slaves or women, but by white Protestant men.

He went on to comment that:

The erosion of belief which afflicts the U.S. to some degree, Europe to a great degree and Israel as well, stands in stark contrast to Muslims who have a devotion to their faith and a geopolitical belief in its ultimate dominance.

US is the 'best hope for mankind'

In a December 2005 article London extolled the role of the United States in the world:

With the new year soon upon us, I have only one resolution: a reasserted devotion to the land I love and a commitment to fight without restraint for its continued glory. This place is, indeed, the last best hope for man-kind, and those who don't realize it are merely blinded by ideological rage.

Israel

London is a partisan supporter of Israel and the Israeli occupation. In 2002 he made the following comments in response to Israel's invasion of West Bank cities:

The world reaction to the Israeli military invasion in the West Bank provides graphic testimony of how deep-seated is the animus toward Jews... Could it be that world opinion is willing to countenance child sacrifice practised by the leadership in the Pal-estinian territory?... Clearly, the press corps has turned a blind eye to the suicide bombers who blithely kill innocent women and children in Israel. There is a virtually universal view that killing Jews is less significant than the Israeli De-fence Force retaliation in which Arabs are killed... The world's shame is that it has sided with the terrorists, with the madmen who are bloodthirsty and find sal-vation in killing Jews. Yet, the world should recall that Hitler found the same redemption in killing Jews for his Aryan nation and international opinion was largely silent. Now opinion is vocal, but it is vocal on behalf of the killers... Alone in the world, Israel turns to the United States just as Jews turned to the United States when the Holo-caust began. But U.S. President George W. Bush's claim that "enough is enough" is not so different from former US president Franklin Roosevelt's disbelief over millions of Jews being slaughtered in the 1940s.

In 2000 London referred to Palestinian writer and intellectual Edward Said as a 'self-described Palestinian by way of Egypt'.

Affiliations

• Hudson Institute
• Henry Jackson Society - International Patron
• Center for Security Policy - Contributor to CSP front group Family Security Matters
• MEMRI - board of Advisers
• Friends of the Israel Defense Forces - former National Board Member