Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
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The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs is think tank that serves as the key nexus between the Israel lobby and the Military-Industrial Complex. It is registered as a "non-profit, non-partisan and nonsectarian educational" organization based in Washington. It emphasises the relationship between the U.S and Israel and is committed to "strengthening the strategic cooperation relationship between these two great democracies" [1]. It puts its current friendship with Israel down to the countries "confluence of energy, money, weapons and ideology", and argues the dangerous situation in Israel is caused "primarily by inter-Arab rivalries" [2].
Contents
The Israel Lobby-Military-Industrial Complex nexus
In fact, JINSA is one of the key pro Israel lobby groups. Ed Herman and Gerry O'Sullivan note that:
- JINSA is run by individuals closely identified with Israeli interests and may be regarded as a virtual lobbying organization for the state of Israel as well as a terrorism institute. The two are closely related, as one aspect of lobbying for Israel consists of trying to discredit the Palestinians and PLO as terrorists. JINSA also illustrates the multinational character and ambiguity of affiliation of the institutes and experts in the terrorism industry. JINSA vice-president Morris J. Amitay is former head of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel lobbying organization. [3] Others affiliated with JINSA as founders and board or advisory board members include Michael Ledeen and Walter Laqueur of CSIS, Jack Kemp, retired Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, and Max Kampelman, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Eugene Rostow, the latter three all Reagan administration officials as well as members of the Committee on the Present Danger and Committee for a Democratic Majority. [4]
- JINSA has produced numerous studies and newsletters detailing Soviet support for the PLO and alleging PLO backing for international terrorism, central points of Israeli propaganda. Until 1981, the JINSA newsletter was edited by the institute's executive director, Dr. Stephen Bryen, a former staffer for New Jersey Republican Senator Clifford Case. In 1979, Bryen had gone to work for the Coalition for a Democratic Majority. By 1980, he was running JINSA, and in 1981 he joined the Pentagon to work with Richard Perle.[5]
Other critics agree, that JINSA, in association with Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy is part of a cooperative initiative to influence governmental affairs in Washington in a manner favorable to Israeli, or Zionist, interests.[6]
From the JINSA website
- The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, non-partisan think-tank focusing on the national security interests of the United States. JINSA's aim is three-fold: to ensure a strong and effective U.S. national security policy; to educate American leadership figures on the vital strategic relationship between the United States and Israel; and to strengthening U.S. cooperation with democratic allies, including Taiwan, Jordan, Hungary, Turkey, India, and NATO member nations, amongst others.
- JINSA's policy recommendations for the U.S. government includes: national ballistic missile defense systems, curbing of regional ballistic missile development and production worldwide, increased counter-terrorism training and funding, prior to September 11th, substantially improved quality-of-life for U.S. service personnel and their families, support for joint U.S.-Israeli training and weapons development programs and a rejection of any peace process with the Palestinians that is not prefaced by a full renunciation of terrorism and a full and effective Palestinian effort to combat terrorism in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. Further, JINSA supports regime change in nation-states known to provide support or knowingly harbour terrorist groups, including Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Libya.
Flag and General Officer's Trip
- One of JINSA's most important programs is to invite, with the assistance of the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of State, retired U.S. senior military officers to Israel and Jordan. The General and Flag Officer's program, as it is known, allows participants to see with their own eyes, the problems facing the Middle East, in meetings with Israeli and Jordanian political and military leaders. More than 200 retired Admirals and Generals, including Shock and awe author Adm. Leon "Bud" Edney, USN, Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, USA, Maj. Gen. David Grange, USA, Maj. Gen. Jarvis Lynch, USMC, Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow, USA, Adm. Leighton "Snuffy" Smith, USN, Adm. Carl Trost, USN and Brig. Gen. Thomas White, USA, have participated in the trips over the last 21 years. Participation in the program makes no requirements of the invitees to make statements, form opinions or maintain any further relationship with JINSA, yet many trip alums have participated more than once, and 50 past participants co-authored a statement on violence in the Palestinian-controlled territories that appeared in the New York Times in October 2000.
Other Programs
- JINSA also acts as a liaison between the U.S. military, concerned U.S. citizens and America's leaders in Washington, facilitating base visits, symposia and publications that highlight future trends, growing threats and areas of concern, within the realm of U.S. national security.
- JINSA has also recently begun a program aimed at exchanging counter-terrorism experience and tactics between U.S. law enforcement agencies and the Israeli national police. The inaugural program, which included 12 police chiefs and sheriffs from departments in major American metropolitan areas, including the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) of New York and New Jersey, has already led to changes in U.S. counter-terrorism tactics.
- In addition, JINSA officials have served as official and unofficial representatives of the United States on visits to more than 30 nations, including roles as election observers in former Soviet-bloc republics.
- Each fall, JINSA presents an annual Distinguished Service Award, named in honor of the late-Senator Henry M. Scoop Jackson to U.S. government leaders (generally a Senator or two members of the U.S. House Representatives) for their career dedication to U.S. national security. Past honorees have included: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (2002), Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (1997), Senator Max Cleland (2000), then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney (1991), Senator Jon Kyl (2010) and all three Secretaries of the U.S. Armed Services (2001).
Organizational History
- Founded in 1976, JINSA began as the only U.S. think tank that put "the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship first," citing a concern that U.S. leaders were mistakenly neglecting the relationship between the United States and the only democracy in the Middle East. In the late 1980s, JINSA underwent a profound repurposing of mission which, although retaining the interest in maintaining and strengthening the U.S.-Israeli defense relationship, widened its focus to U.S. defense and foreign policy, in general, with missions and meetings with national leaders and military officials from countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Belgium, South Korea, India, Bulgaria, Italy, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Costa Rica, Spain, Eritrea, Jordan, China and Germany, to name a few.
- JINSA, a nationally-recognized 501(c)(3) organization, maintains a staunchly non-partisan stance in its official policies and statements, but according to critics, it is closely associated with the neoconservative movement.
Target Iran
JINSA has been pushing for war against Iran since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It holds special animus towards President Barack Obama for not taking more aggressive action against Iran. Curiously for an organization dedicated to the well-being of a foreign state, JINSA has repeatedly faulted Obama's perceived lack of patriotism. On the occasion of Obama's 2010 speech to the UN general assembly, JINSA announced to its members: 'He stood before the world and trashed the United States.'[7]
Israel Lobby split over New START
In November-December 2010, Barack Obama's push for a new arms reduction treaty with Russia -- supported even by the Republic foreign policy establishment -- caused a split among Israel's supporters in the United States. Leading the opposition were the Emergency Committee for Israel and JINSA, the Likud arm of the lobby. David Ganz, the new president of JINSA issued an open letter to the American Jewish Committee on 29 November 2010 calling on them to oppose the treaty.[8]
Affiliations
- JCPA
- AIPAC
- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
- Center for Security Policy
- Journal of International Security Affairs - JINSA's flagship publication.
- Project for the New American Century
- Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Advisory Board (August 2000)
Advisory Board (March 2003)
Principals
- Stephen Bryen - former executive director (1980-1981)
- Shoshana Bryen – May 1981 to June 1991 Bryen served as JINSA's Executive Director and current (2008) Security Policy Director[9]
- Douglas Feith In 1992, was Vice Chairman of JINSA's Advisory Board [10]
- Tom Neumann - executive director
- Norman Hascoe - former President
- David Ganz - President
Contact, References and Resources
Contact
Websites:
Blog:
- http://jinsa.wordpress.com (The Sentry)
Twitter:
Address:
- 1307 New York Avenue, NW Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005 (new location since November 2010)
Resources
- Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, extract from The "Terrorism" Industry
- JINSA's Official Site
- The Men From JINSA and CSP, Jason Vest, The Nation, 15 August 2002
- Rightweb Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
- Sourcewatch Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
References
- ↑ Jewish Institute-About, accessed on 19 April 2006
- ↑ Jewish Institute-Mission Statement, cited on 19 April 2006
- ↑ Edward Tivnan, The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), Chap. 6
- ↑ The Committee for a Democratic Majority was formed in 1973 by the neoconservative minority of the Democratic party as an opposition entity to carry out a running attack on the democratic majority; this group joined Reagan en masse after his 1980 victory. The CPD was organized in 1976 by a larger but overlapping set of cold warriors and reactionaries determined to turn back the clock on social policies and to move toward a national security state. See Saloma, Ominous Politics, pp. 123-27.
- ↑ Edward Herman and Gerry O'Sullivan Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, extract from The "Terrorism" Industry, New York: Pantheon, 1991, p. 88-9.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ 'The UN General Assembly, Part I: The President and Ahmadinejad,' JINSA Report #1025, 24 September 2010
- ↑ David Ganz, An Open Letter to America’s Jewish Community, JINSA, 29 November 2010
- ↑ Shmuel Rosner, Shoshana Bryen, Haaretz, 11 April 2008
- ↑ [2]
