Yigal Carmon

Yigal Carmon is the president of the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which he co-founded with Meyrav Wurmser in 1998. Carmon holds Israeli-American citizenship and held several positions in the Israeli government prior to founding MEMRI. According to his MEMRI profile Carmon has

briefed governments worldwide on issues ranging from jihad and terrorism to reform in the Arab world...and conducted briefings before Congress as well as at the State Department, Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department, Library of Congress, FBI, National Security Council, and NYPD counterterrorism division, and is frequently interviewed on a variety of Western channels, as well as on Arab TV.

Career

A former servant in the Israeli Military Intelligence, Colonel Yigal Carmon served in the Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence between the years of 1968 to 1988, during which time he was the Acting Head of Civil Administration in Judea as well as an Advisor on Arab Affairs for the Civil Administration. He was formerly an advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, and Benjamin Netanyahu. Although Carmon argues that MEMRI is a "research organization that doesn't engage in operational recommendation," he frequently engages in policy analysis in the media and at policy meetings and has written several articles on US mideast foreign policy issues in right-wing publications.

MEMRI

Carmon founded MEMRI to "monitor" mid-east media with a heavy emphasis on Arabic and Farsi because he believes that Western outlets don't accurately portray the correct message:

Because what we have seen is that what comes to the West from there is sometimes lacking in terms of what is being -- you have from the Arab world almost a double message.

In a 2002 debate with author and Electronic Intifada founder Ali Abunimah, Carmon was accused of using MEMRI to selectively translate particularly offensive pieces from middle east media outlets in an attempt to portray the messages as representative of the region as a whole:

NIMAH: and find racist anti-Arab, anti-Muslim expressions, it's very, very easy. In fact, you find them every day, and what they're doing with this so-called think tank, MEMRI...My point is that what they're trying to do is to pretend that the effect of the conflict is the cause of the conflict. The cause of the conflict is the fact that 4 million plus Palestinians do not have basic freedom and human rights, and no amount of spin...no attempt to pretend...that it's just media spin will take that away.

Debate with Brian Whitaker

After The Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker questioned the impartiality of MEMRI, Carmon engaged Whitaker in an email debate. Whitaker's criticism of MEMRI can be summarized as follows:

My problem with Memri is that it poses as a research institute when it's basically a propaganda operation. As with all propaganda, that involves a certain amount of dishonesty and deception. The items you translate are chosen largely to suit your political agenda. They are unrepresentative and give an unfair picture of the Arab media as a whole.

Affiliations

• Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) - Intelligence Member
• Israeli Government - Advisor to Shamir, Rabin and Netanyahu Administrations
• MEMRI - Co-founder, President
• Steven Emerson, associate