Martin Kramer

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Martin Kramer is an analyst working at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, since 2002. He is also in a senior position at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Centre, since 2006. He has also been affiliated with the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University, since 2007[1]

He is the co-convener of Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH), since 2007. He is also been an Administrator of The Washington Institute Book Prize, since 2008[2]

Formerly he worked at the Moshe Dayan Centre for 25 years eventually becoming director.[3]

Activities

History

Views

Comments about aid to Palestinians

At the Tenth Annual Herzliya Conference in 2010 Kramer gave a short speech in which he linked population growth and especially a large proportion of young men in a society with radicalization and violent extremism, saying this could be countered through population control measures and would "happen faster if the West stops providing pro-natal subsidies for Palestinians with refugee status." [4] Critics branded this "genocidal", since the definition of genocide in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes measures “intended to prevent births within” a specific “national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”[5] The directors of the Weatherhead Center at Harvard dismissed these accusations as "baseless".[6]

On American support for Israel

Kramer has argued that not because of "Holocaust guilt or shared democratic values" but because aid to Israel "underpins the Paz Americana in the Eastern Mediterranean" and provides "a low-cost way of keeping order in part of the Middle East."[7] John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt argue that this interpretation "exaggerates the benefits of this relationship and understates the costs"[8]

Kramer has also said that he knows of no "unbiased terrorism expert" who believes "American support for Israel is the source of popular resentment, propelling recruits to al Qaeda."[9]

Affiliations

Publications

  • Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslim Congresses. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. 250 pp.
  • Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival: The Politics of Ideas in the Middle East. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1996; paperback, 2008. 297 pp.
  • Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America. Washington: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001. 137 pp.
  • Protest and Revolution in Shi’i Islam. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1985; second printing, 1987. 156 pp. [in Hebrew].
  • Shi‘ism, Resistance, and Revolution. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press; London: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1987. 324 pp. Access via Questia (full text).
  • Middle Eastern Lives: The Practice of Biography and Self-Narrative. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1991. 168 pp.
  • The Islamism Debate (Dayan Center Papers, no. 120). Tel Aviv: The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, 1997. 178 pp.
  • The Jewish Discovery of Islam: Studies in Honor of Bernard Lewis. Tel Aviv: The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, 1999. 311 pp.

Resources

  • Martin Kramer's website Sandbox - martinkramer.org

Notes

  1. Martin Kramer on The Middle East, www.martinkramer.org, Personal CV, Accessed 01-March-2009
  2. Martin Kramer on The Middle East, www.martinkramer.org, Personal CV, Accessed 01-March-2009
  3. Elliot Jager,A Progressive First From a Conservative Think Tank, Jerusalem Post, accessed June 14, 2012
  4. Superfluous Young Men, MartinKramer.org, accessed June 14 2012
  5. Harvard Fellow Calls For Genocidal Measures to Curb Palestinian Births, Electronic Intifada, accessed June 14 2012
  6. WCFIA at Harvard: accusations are baseless, MartinKramer.org, accessed June 14 2012
  7. Martin Kramer, "The American Interest", Azure 5767, no. 26 (Fall 2006): 24-5
  8. Mearsheimer, J. and Walt, S., (2008), The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. London, Penguin Books.
  9. Martin Kramer, "The American Interest", Azure 5767, no. 26 (Fall 2006): 24-5
  10. Democracy and Security Conference, List of Participants, Accessed 25-February-2009
  11. Text of Conference Invite Email