Author: Grant Smith

In September, pro-Palestinian members of Congress banded together to stop the Democratic House leadership’s bid to slip $1 billion in additional military foreign aid to Israel into must-pass legislation. Within days the funding reappeared in a standalone bill that quickly passed 420-9 even as Congress was stalemated on other more pressing legislation to raise the debt ceiling and repair infrastructure. Though stuck in the Senate, the extra aid seems sure to pass.

How does a lobby for a foreign government get its programs prioritized over those of the American people?

Distinguished historian and author Walter L. Hixson sits down for an extended Q&A with IRmep’s Grant F. Smith about Israel’s foremost US lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Hixson draws on insights and primary research from his new, peer-reviewed book, Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy.

Grant F. Smith is the author of the new book The Israel Lobby Enters State Government. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy IRmep in Washington, D.C. which co-organizes IsraelLobbyCon each year at the National Press Club.

Public confrontations with the Israel lobby’s systemic encroachments are the only means for politicians to beat it. In 2020 Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum stopped a massive coordinated Israel lobby media smear campaign in its tracks by accurately labeling AIPAC as a "hate group." Biden has the power to do the same, but unfortunately his entire career has been in servitude to injustice when it comes to Israel Palestine.

The Biden administration assumes power claiming it will reverse Trump administration policies it claims are harmful to Americans and the rest of the world. Biden will end the so-called Muslim ban – Executive order 13769 – on travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The US will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change and cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. Biden will issue mask mandates, extend moratoriums on evictions and even rejoin the World Health Organization.

Absent from the announced Biden 100-day program are any proposed reversals of Israel policies implemented by the Trump administration that seriously harm the United States and rest of the world. Rolling back those policies would require bucking the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which closely coordinates its activities with the Israeli government. One way to corral AIPAC would be to actually enforce the 1962 Department of Justice order that AIPAC register as an Israeli foreign agent.

Continue reading “Biden Could Reverse Six Harmful Israel Policies… With the Only Power That Stops Israel’s Lobby”

Why did it take a full year before a single mainstream mass media outlet reported on Virginia Israel Advisory Board corruption?

They had the free book: The Israel Lobby Enters State Government Project Biodiesel – The Jerusalem Connection and the Tobacco Commission

They had the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Special Report

There was the free Audio Book: The Israel Lobby Enters State Government

Antiwar.com was on the case!
Virginia Israel Advisory Board Deal Improper Says IG Head of a billion-dollar state funding pool promises to behave

The Scott Horton Show was all over it.
Grant Smith on the Unscrupulous Dealings of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board

It is now a Full Year Later….and Mainstream Media is only scratching the surface…

Watch this short YouTube video!

Thursday, September 10, 2020 – 12:00 Noon (EDT) (online event)

Sponsored by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

Free: Sign up on Eventbrite!

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Jewish Voice for Peace, will describe Jewish Zionism as a failing ideology for many younger American Jews who reject Israel’s oppressive occupation policies and bellicose actions toward Iran, as well as the relationship between U.S. and Israeli militarism. But how will this impact their future as activists in electoral politics? Will they remain mostly captive to the Democratic Party, voicing opposition while accepting candidates captured and mentored by AIPAC?

Allan C. Brownfeld, American Council for Judaism, discusses the growing disillusionment of American Jews, and some Israelis, with the Jewish state and Zionism. Young American Jews who champion civil rights at home, including the right to vote, freedom of movement, due process and equality, realize that Israel is denying those same basic rights to Palestinians. Peter Beinart, Seth Rogen, Marc Maron, and other Jewish Americans who are urging Israel to dismantle its apartheid policies face bitter attacks from the Israel lobby and Jewish Establishment organizations, charging they’ve “crossed a line.” Brownfeld will offer some suggestions about how progressive Jewish voters can influence both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Grant F. Smith is the author of the new book The Israel Lobby Enters State Government. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy IRmep in Washington, D.C. which co-organizes IsraelLobbyCon each year at the National Press Club.

Israel lobby organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America ($2-5 million), Friends of the IDF ($2-5 million) and the Israeli American Council ($1-2 million) are grabbing huge 100% forgivable loans from the CARES Act PPP program.

According to SBA data released on Monday, Israeli’s Bank Leumi has doled out a quarter to a half billion dollars under the PPP program, despite being called out for operating in the occupied West Bank.

Leumi has given sweetheart deals to fellow Israeli companies Oran Safety Glass (which defrauded the US Army on bulletproof glass contracts) and Energix, which operates power plants in the occupied Golan Heights and West Bank.

This exchange took place today on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.

This video clip with additional information is available on IRmep’s YouTube Channel.

Grant F. Smith is the author of the new book The Israel Lobby Enters State Government. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy IRmep in Washington, D.C. which co-organizes IsraelLobbyCon each year at the National Press Club.

Tysons Corner, VA – The premise of ABC’s business reality television series “Shark Tank” is simple. Celebrity investor “sharks” hear proposals from contestants pitching new product ideas. Winning ideas receive funding. Pitches that fall short are ripped to bloody shreds to the delight of mass audiences. How will the concept work for Israeli military contractors now that the U.S. Air Force has its own shark tank? According to Deborah Lee James, former Secretary of the US Air Force, small military contractors can immediately get a $100,000 credit card swipe after successfully making a quick pitch.

On February 3, Israeli military contractors hoping to win big US government contracts gathered at an event organized in Northern Virginia by the Virginia Israel Advisory Board (VIAB) and Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA). VIAB is an office of Virginia’s General Assembly. Though self-designated as an advisory board, VIAB functions more as an Israel export promotion council with a strange twist – it is funded entirely by Virginia – rather than Israeli – taxpayers. VIAB’s portfolio of projects – which often compete against homegrown US and Virginia companies – is powered by multitudes of grants and subsidized loans. Nevertheless VIAB has generated a string of failures due to its lack of market discipline, self-dealing and questionable activities conducted mostly in secret.

Continue reading “Former Air Force Secretary Pitches $100k ‘Shark Tank’ Swipes to Israeli Military Contractors”