Middle East Forum

Middle East Forum logo, Screengrab from Middle East Forum

The Middle East Forum (MEF) is a right-wing Zionist think-tank based in Philadelphia, USA. It was founded by Daniel Pipes in 1990.

Politics and ideology

MEF reflects the extreme politics of its founder and has an explicitly right-wing and Zionist agenda. Its homepage states:

The Middle East Forum, a think tank, seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East. It defines U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, whether terroristic or lawful; working for Palestinian acceptance of Israel; improving the management of U.S. democracy efforts; reducing energy dependence on the Middle East; more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia; and countering the Iranian threat. The Forum also works to improve Middle East studies in North America.

MEF’s declared Mission restates the above and adds that:

MEF sees the region, with its profusion of dictatorships, radical ideologies, existential conflicts, border disagreements, political violence, and weapons of mass destruction as a major source of problems for the United States. Accordingly, it urges active measures to protect Americans and their allies.

In 2014 MEF revised its mission statement to remove mention of 'robustly asserting US interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia'. Analysis by Rightweb surmises that the reason for this change 'could be that Israel and Saudi Arabia are strategically moving closer together, united by a common desire to maintain status quo in the region and counter a rising Iran'.

Activities

On its website MEF declares it seeks to 'help shape the intellectual climate in which U.S. foreign policy is made'.This is achieved through “public outreach” to US and foreign media, and through programmes seeking to intimidate opponents of its ideology.

Public outreach

MEF’s public outreach is directed primarily at US intellectual elites through articles in influential newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post; and through lectures and speaking tours in Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle, and Boston. MEF scholars produce a weekly newspaper column which runs in the New York Post and the Jerusalem Post, and they appear regularly on US and foreign television and radio.MEF also publishes the Middle East Quarterly which it declares to be “the only journal on the Middle East consistent with mainstream American opinion.”

Intimidation of opponents

MEF founder Daniel Pipes is notorious for smearing and bullying his opponents. The pro-war journalist Christopher Hitchens writes that Pipes “confuses scholarship with propaganda” and “pursues petty vendettas with scant regard for objectivity.”Two MEF projects pursue Pipe’s “propaganda” and “petty vendettas”; Campus Watch focuses on US academia whilst Islamist Watch “combats the ideas and institutions of lawful Islamism”.

Legal Project

The Middle East Forum's Legal Project was reportedly established to 'protect the right in the West to freely discuss Islam, radical Islam, terrorism, and terrorist funding'. It has provided financial support to 'critics' of Islam and Counterjihad activists facing prosecution and those convicted to facilitate appeals. Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders and French anti-Muslim activist Christine Tasin are among those who have received funds, according to right-wing news site Breitbart.

In May 2009 the Legal Project presented a Washington DC conference on 'Islamist lawfare', in collaboration with the Federalist Society Center for National Security Law, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

The director of the Legal Project during this period was Brooke Goldstein.

Funding and finances

Middle East Forum's IRS approval was granted in January 1995. According to its latest available tax filings it had an income of $5,907,628 in year ending 2013/12, and assets of $3,237,739.

Its business is described as: 'International, Foreign Affairs and National Security : Promotion of International Understanding'and Other Instructions and Training Activities: Publishing activities

Known funders

• Bradley Foundation aka The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc
• Chisholm Foundation
• Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation
• Federation Foundation of Greater Philadelphia
• GBRG Inc
• Metropolitan Philanthropic Fund Inc
• Svetlana and Herbert M Wachtell Foundation
• William H. Donner Foundation
• Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
• Klarman Family Foundation

2013 filings

Funders: Newton D & Rochelle F Becker Foundation, Mz Foundation, Jewish Federation Of Greater Philadelphia, Jewish Community Foundation Of The Jewish Fed Council Of Greater L A, Jewish Communal Fund, Fairbrook Foundation

Organisations that MEF funds

Its 2013 tax filings show that MEF gave Gatestone Institute USD $1,383,471 and $1,098,878 in 2012 The purpose cited was research.

Through its Middle East Forum Education Fund (MEFEF) it states that it 'distributes about $2 million annually in separately earmarked funds to some 75 individuals and groups, all of them working to promote the Forum's goals of forwarding American interests and preserving Western civilization'.

Although 'a number of MEFEF recipients work quietly behind the scenes', MEF's website cites recent funding 'public accomplishments' as:

• Americans for Peace and Tolerance – 'Released a video exposing an anti-Israel workshop used in 28 US high schools. In response, the school featured in the video said 'there are no plans for this program to return'.
• Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law – Met with a senior aide to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to show that the law requiring 'diverse perspectives' in taxpayer-funded university Middle East Studies public outreach programs is not being followed. The following month, Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies announced the end of its K-12 outreach program.'

• NGO Monitor – 'Exposed the Swiss government's multi-million dollar funding of non-governmental organizations that demonise Israel and support boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. As a result, 10 Swiss MPs condemned an anti-Israel event in Zurich sponsored by the Swiss Foreign Ministry'.

• Shurat HaDin – Won a $655.5 million judgment in a US court against the Palestinian Authority, for its role in six terrorist attacks resulting in the deaths of American citizens.

Oversees donations

According to IRS filings from 2012, the Middle East Forum spent a total of $807,616 funding projects in the Middle East.

The grantees receiving this funding are not declared, but in that year the forum gave a total of $787,616 to oversees causes.

Other 'select recipients' are:

Adi Schwartz | AMCHA Initiative | Algemeiner | Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC, Australia) | Banafsheh Zand | Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA, Germany) | B'nai B'rith Moshe Dayan (France)| Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) | Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (CDHR) | Center for Security Policy (CSP) | Citizens For National Security | David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC) | Defending America For Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) | Danish Free Press Society (Denmark) | Discourse Institute (Great Britain) | Dispatch International (Denmark) | Emerson Vermaat (Netherlands) | Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) | European Coalition for Israel (ECI, Belgium) | Ezra Levant (Canada) | Friends of Israel Initiative (FOII, Spain) | Fuel for Truth (FFT) | Helle Merete Brix (Denmark) | Human Rights Voices | I Like Israel (ILI, Germany) | Im Tirtzu (Israel) | Independent Secular Movement (MIS/SIM) | Iranian-American Forum | Israel Institute for Strategic Studies | Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum (ICRF, Israel) | Jewish News Service Inc. | Joe Kaufman | Joshua Charles | JSS News (France) | Michael Mandelbaum | Morning Star News | Nima Gholam Ali Pour | NoBadDeal.com – Shraga Simmons | Patrick Poole | Philippe Karsenty (France) | Phyllis Chesler | Project Oasis | Raymond Stock | Richard Benkin | Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS, Greece) | Shireen Qudosi | Stop Iran Rally | Tariq Ismail | Véronique Chemla (France) | William Mayer | Wolfgang G. Schwanitz |

Recent tax filings grant amounts known

• American Friends of IDC - $6,000 in 2013
• Citizens For National Security - $10,000 in 2013
• Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA)- $10,000 in 2013
• Endowment for Middle East Truth - $10,000 in 2013 and 2012
• Friends Of Elnet - $10,000 in 2012
• Friends of Israel Initiative - $62,500 in 2013
• In Search of Truth - $10,000 in 2013
• Jewish News Service - $30,000 in 2013
• Middle East Media Research Institute - $7,500 in 2013
• Stresemann Stiftung - overseas organisation not specified on IRS 990s but cited by the foundation.
• The Phyllis Chesler Organization - $23,750 in 2013
• REPORT Inc - $10,000 in 2013
• The Louis D. Brandeis Center - $51,000 in 2013 for 'research'
• Sidney Austin LLP - $25,000 for 'research'

Payees: Taube Foundation For Jewish Life And Culture, Shalem Foundation (Research - Eval - Promoting Org Respon & Transparency-Report-Inc) Middle East Media And Research Institute Inc, Jewish News Service Inc, Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation

Summary from the Economic Research Institute

Revenue: $2,267,173

Assets: $1,029,240

Tax Returns

Tax Returns 1999 | Tax Returns 2000 | Tax Returns 2001| Tax Returns 2002 | Tax Returns 2003 | Tax Returns 2004 | Tax Returns 2005 | Tax Returns 2006

Donations

• Citizen Times - funds this online German political magazine, which publishes articles and interviews in German and English by counterjihad figures like Raymond Ibrahim, Ingrid Carlqvist and Soeren Kern and cross-posts from or publicises the websites of the Gatestone Institute, Dispatch International and Middle East Forum.

• The Russell Berrie Foundation gave $273,016.22 from 2001- 2009

Conferences

MEF co-sponsored the 2008 Rome conference 'Identity Crisis: Can European civilization survive?, held under the auspices of the European Freedom Alliance in conjunction with the European University of Rome and the Lepanto Foundation. Panelists included counterjihad activists Robert Spencer and Bat Y'eor.

Personnel and Board Members

Middle East Quarterly

• Efraim Karsh - editor (as of 1 July 2010)
• Martin Kramer - former editor
• Michael Rubin - senior editor
• Denis MacEoin - senior editor

List of Experts

Ziad Abdelnour Mitchell G. Bard Ilan Berman Patrick Clawson Gil Elan Khalid Durán John Eibner Joseph Farah Gary Gambill

Martin Kramer William Kristol Habib Malik, Professor of history, Lebanese American University; Bio. Laurent Murawiec, Analyst, Hudson Institute Daniel Pipes, Director, Middle East Forum; Bio. Robert Satloff 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)

• Daniel Pipes, President
• 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
• 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
• Steven J. Rosen - director of the Forum's Washington Project (who is 'monitoring the personnel and policy development of the Obama Administration in the Middle East.')
• Supna Zaidi - former staff

Affiliations

• Robert Spencer
• Haras Rafiq , now managing director of the Quilliam Foundation

Contact

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

---