Difference between revisions of "Middle East Forum"
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=== Board Members === | === Board Members === | ||
Source: Juan Cole, [http://www.juancole.com Informed Comment], Dec. 8, 2004. (Comments below by Cole) | Source: Juan Cole, [http://www.juancole.com Informed Comment], Dec. 8, 2004. (Comments below by Cole) | ||
| − | + | *[[Daniel Pipes]], President | |
| − | *[http://www.jinsa.org/about/adboard/adboard.html David P Steinmann], | + | *[http://www.jinsa.org/about/adboard/adboard.html 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. |
*[http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:pRnqlOlVkE8J:www.jfpsnj.com/voiceonline.asp%3FintCategoryID%3D79%26intArticleID%3D101+%22Jack+Bershad%22+Israel&hl=en Jack Bershad], (here identified as legal adviser to Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs). | *[http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:pRnqlOlVkE8J:www.jfpsnj.com/voiceonline.asp%3FintCategoryID%3D79%26intArticleID%3D101+%22Jack+Bershad%22+Israel&hl=en Jack Bershad], (here identified as legal adviser to Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs). | ||
*[[Irwin Hochberg]], (Irwin Hochberg, [http://www.zoa.org/pressrel2000/20000919b.htmthe 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.") | *[[Irwin Hochberg]], (Irwin Hochberg, [http://www.zoa.org/pressrel2000/20000919b.htmthe 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) | + | *[[Albert Wood]], (Prominent philanthropist connected to the [[Zionist Organization of America]]) |
*[[Steven Levy]] | *[[Steven Levy]] | ||
| − | |||
*[[Scott Rosenblum]], (Member, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/barry-tom2.html Golden Circle] of far rightwing [http://www.freelebanon.org/gc-f.htm U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon] that unites Likud supporters and Phalangist brownshirts) | *[[Scott Rosenblum]], (Member, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/barry-tom2.html Golden Circle] of far rightwing [http://www.freelebanon.org/gc-f.htm U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon] that unites Likud supporters and Phalangist brownshirts) | ||
*[[Lawrence Gould]] | *[[Lawrence Gould]] | ||
*[[Lawrence Grodman]] | *[[Lawrence Grodman]] | ||
*[[Jerry Sorkin]] | *[[Jerry Sorkin]] | ||
| − | *[[Steven J. Rosen]] - director of the Forum's Washington Project (who is 'monitoring the personnel and policy development of the Obama | + | *[[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 | *[[Supna Zaidi]] - former staff | ||
Revision as of 14:01, 8 October 2015
The Middle East Forum (MEF) is a right-wing Zionist think-tank based in Philadelphia, USA. It was founded by Daniel Pipes in 1990.
Contents
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.[1]
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.[2]
Activities
On its website MEF declares it seeks to 'help shape the intellectual climate in which U.S. foreign policy is made'.[3]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.[4]MEF also publishes the Middle East Quarterly which it declares to be “the only journal on the Middle East consistent with mainstream American opinion.”[5]
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.”[6]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”.[7]
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'.[8] 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.[8]
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. [9]
The director of the Legal Project during this period was Brooke Goldstein.
Funding and finances
Known funders
- Gatestone Institute - in 2013 gave MEF USD $1,383,471 and in 2012 gave $1,098,878 [10]
- 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
Organisations that MEF funds
- 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
- Streseman Stiftung - overseas organisation not specified on IRS 990s
- The Phyllis Chesler Organization - $23,750 in 2013
- REPORT - $10,000 in 2013
- The Louis D. Brandeis Center - $51,000 in 2013
Summary from the Economic Research Institute
- Revenue: $2,267,173
- Assets: $1,029,240[11]
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.[12]
- The Russell Berrie Foundation gave $273,016.22 from 2001- 2009 [13]
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
|
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 [14]
- Haras Rafiq [15], 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
Notes
- ↑ Homepage of the Middle East Forum website, (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ Middle East Forum website, About the Middle East Forum: Mission (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ Middle East Forum website, About the Middle East Forum: Mission (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ Middle East Forum website, About the Middle East Forum: Mission (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ Middle East Forum website, About the Middle East Forum: Activities (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ Christopher Hitchens, ‘Pipes the Propagandist’, Slate.com, 11 August 2003
- ↑ Islamist Watch Homepage (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Oliver Lane, COURT OF APPEAL OVERTURNS CONVICTION OF WOMAN PROSECUTED FOR INSULTING ISLAM, Breitbart News, 22 December 2014, accessed 3 February 2015
- ↑ Conference on Islamist Lawfare - May 19, Washington DC, The Legal Project, 8 May 2009, accessed October 2015
- ↑ Gatestone Institute, Conservative Transparency database, accessed 3 March 2015
- ↑ Economic Research Institute, Middle East Forum Nonprofit Organization Information (accessed 30 May 2008)
- ↑ The Counterjihad Movement: the global trend feeding anti-Muslim hate, Hope Not Hate, 2011, p61.
- ↑ Source: CAP research based on the seven foundations’ Form 990s files with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service from 2001 to 2009, Center for American Progress, Donors to the Islamophobia network, Fear, Inc, p.14
- ↑ Robert Spencer,Resisting Stealth Jihad, Middle East Forum, January 2009
- ↑ Haras Rafiq, [Detoxifying Islamists], Middle East Forum, 27 January 2010
