An excellent intelligence source:
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Middle East Forum at 30
By Gregg Roman
Dear Friends and Supporters, As we near the end of 2023, we gear up to celebrate Middle East Forum's 30th anniversary in 2024. We deeply appreciate your steadfast support over these years, which has been instrumental in upholding Western values.
MEF and its allies are combatting pernicious and malign Middle East and Islamist actors both at home and abroad. The October 7 attack marks a significant period for not only us but also for all stakeholders interested in the region's stability and prosperity.
Our resolute commitment to fight extremism and promote American interests has yielded significant accomplishments.
Here are ten of them:
Uncovering American Funding for Hamas and its Supporters: Our investigations and subsequent influence on congressional legislation have been vital in dismantling Hamas's financial network and tackling antisemitism on college campuses.
Adoption of Israel Victory Plan: The Knesset Israel Victory Caucus's adoption of our legislative platform signals a strategic shift towards defeating Hamas and Palestinian rejectionism.
Driving Divestment from Qatar: Our 'Divest from Qatar' campaign has successfully urged U.S. companies to rethink their investments in Qatar due to its alleged support for Hamas following attacks in Israel.
Revealing Israeli Public Opinion: Our polls have shown a robust Israeli consensus for decisive action against Hamas, underscoring the need for Israel to put its own security policies first.
Advocacy for DETERRENT Act: We have supported the DETERRENT Act to shed light on foreign funding in U.S. universities, emphasizing the need for accountability from countries like Qatar and Turkey.
Triumphs in Cybersecurity: We successfully intercepted a cyber-attack from Mint Sandstorm, linked to the IRGC, safeguarding our data and validating our investment in cybersecurity measures.
Activism in California: Our activism led to the elimination of commendations for radical Islamist groups in California's HR 52, and we have repeated the same in 10 other states through MEF Action.
Exposing Qatar's Deception: We unveiled critical evidence of Qatar's deceptive practices in the U.S. justice system, strengthening our mission to uncover Qatar's influence and intimidation tactics.
Highlighting U.S.-Iranian Connections: Our investigation into U.S.-based entities tied to the Iranian regime demands federal action, particularly in sectors like the American pistachio trade and radical Shi’ite mosques.
Congressional Response to Iranian Influence: Our expose triggered Congressional actions to investigate Shi’ite mosques in the U.S. affiliated with the Iranian regime under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
You will find a brief summary of each of our projects’ work in 2023 below, along with a glimpse of our plans for 2024.
If you have already contributed to MEF, we thank you. If you haven't donated to MEF in 2023, you can do so here or mail a check to:
Middle East Forum
1650 Market Street, Suite 3600
Philadelphia, PA 19103
We appreciate your readership and your support for MEF.
Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Gregg Roman
Israel Victory: A Shift in Consensus
Israel's military and political establishment has shifted towards the concept of Israel Victory over the Palestinians, with leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant expressing the importance of defeating Hamas.
Why it matters: This shift in consensus is significant because it marks a departure from the previous approach of managing the conflict and instead emphasizes the goal of achieving a decisive victory.
The big picture: The broader context is a recognition that economic enticements alone are not enough to pacify the Palestinians, and that a decisive military victory is necessary. This view is necessary to counter calls for a ceasefire that stops short of fully defeating Hamas.
What's next: The Middle East Forum is working to ensure that the momentum and will to complete this mission is not lost. Failure to do so would bring only more of the same terrorism.
MEF's Unprecedented Focus
For the first time in MEF’s nearly 30-year history, the entire staff has been (temporarily) focused on a single issue in its writing, media appearances, briefings in Jerusalem and Washington, activism, and more.
Why it matters: This level of focus is a reaction to the urgency of the issue at hand. It also shows how MEF is agile enough to organize when a crisis happens.
By the numbers: MEF has published 210 articles, appeared over 200 times on TV and radio networks, and actively engaged with audiences on social media since October 7.
The big picture: The Hamas Massacre focused attention on this long-festering problem. MEF took advantage of this to ensure every area of our influence was brought to bear in Israel, the Unites States and the rest of the world.
What's next: MEF is using this as a way to point out all the other dangers Islamist groups pose. Especially state sponsors of terror like Iran, Qatar and Turkey.
MEF's Legislative Actions
MEF is now a top resource for leaders in Israel, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, with meetings held with more than 1,000 government officials and national security experts in the U.S and Israel in 2023.
Why it matters: Islamist influence has infiltrated many of our most important institutions including: government, education, and law enforcement. MEF works to expose and remove their ability to promote their agenda.
By the numbers: MEF has helped introduce dozens of pieces of legislation. It has worked to introduce a bill on Qatar's support of Hamas, and assisted Senators to draft a bill targeting Shia militias in Iraq and Syria.
The big picture: Our mission is to devise the best strategies and turn them into policies. MEF's legislative actions are a tangible result of these efforts and serve to combat Islamist influence.
What's next: MEF will expand our actions to combat more areas where the malign actions of these groups still reach.
MEF's Advocacy Initiatives
MEF Action works with all our projects to ensure the public adds their voices to our efforts to enact positive policy changes. These campaigns cover a diverse number of issues.
By the Numbers: MEF Action (MEFA) generated a total of 19 major grassroots campaigns in 2023 to ensure that policy makers and thought leaders knew about our proposals and more importantly took action. Some examples:
We are calling to freeze Qatari assets in the U.S. and other democracies due to their support for Hamas and other terror groups. MEF advocates have sent more than 15,000 emails to leaders on this topic.
MEFA director Benjamin Baird thwarted the California Assembly’s attempt to honor multiple extremist Muslim organizations.
We played a pivotal role in the months-long campaign to oust Professor Mohammad and Iranian shill Jafar Mahallati from his tenured position at Oberlin College.
We spurred a House investigation into Princeton University and Seyed Hossein Mousavian for his Iran influence activities.
Why it matters: The best policies need to be explained and propagated in order to gain support. Our efforts ensure they cannot be ignored.
And
If they aren't they should be. The problem with most Islamists is they bathe in hate.
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Dexter Van Zile: Is CAIR on the Ropes?
by Marilyn Stern
Middle East Forum Webinar
https://www.meforum.org/65379/dexter-van-zile-is-cair-on-the-ropes
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Dexter Van Zile, managing editor of the Middle East Forum's Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), spoke to a December 18 Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a U.S. Islamist organization. The following summarizes his comments:
Nihad Awad, national executive director of CAIR, declared in a speech at a conference that he was "happy" Gazan Palestinian Arab civilians invaded Israel with Hamas during the October 7 massacre of Israelis. His comments were roundly condemned as antisemitic by President Biden's White House spokesman, who confirmed CAIR's removal from the administration's campaign against antisemitism.
Although Awad complained that his comments were taken "out of context," CAIR has been engaged in hostile remarks about Israel and Jews since its founding in 1994. Contrary to the progressives in the Democratic party, campus activists, and other leftists who support the Hamas terror group, President Biden is of the generation with the "historical memory" of World War II. He responded with a "visceral objection" to Hamas's October 7 pogrom, given the parallel between the atrocities committed during the attack and the worst acts perpetrated by the Nazis against Jews.
Mainstream America is strongly supportive of Israel, but Western Europe, with its greater number of Muslim migrants from countries where Jew-hatred and misogyny is widespread, is more susceptible to the influence of Islamist organizations and its threat to women and Jews. In the U.S., however, the pro-Hamas demonstrations "provide cover" for CAIR. It promotes itself as a "civil rights organization" opposed to antisemitism, despite its actions and pronouncements to the contrary. It has gained influence by presenting itself as the gatekeeper organization advocating for American Muslims, aided in that role by a lack of scrutiny from mainstream media.
The danger from CAIR and other Islamist organizations that purport to protect Muslim rights in the U.S. is that the poison of antisemitism they inject into U.S. society promotes hostility against Jews and Israel. Although Awad's rhetoric finds a willing audience among "the young and the woke" who are indoctrinated with anti-Israel ideology, Biden's condemnation provides an opening to "marginalize" CAIR.
Antisemitism is not only a moral and ethical threat to society, but also a "strategic threat" to the U.S. because the "Islamist hostility towards Jews in a civil society has knock-on effects." By fomenting distrust, it degrades social cohesion in society as a whole, thereby affecting every American. Biden's condemnation of CAIR invites opponents of Islamist organizations like CAIR to "draw a cordon sanitaire" to marginalize these organizations. Fostering conflict between ethnic groups by Islamist organizations, and particularly their hatred of American Jews, should be declared "intolerable."
CAIR's feet need to be held to the fire over their campaign of Jew-hatred, which makes them "outliers" worthy of disdain in a civil society. The organization should be singled out for its history of Jew-hatred and double-speak apologetics. This can be achieved by exposing its hypocrisy as a self-proclaimed human rights organization. If CAIR is unable to abide by civilized standards, it should be exiled. Setting healthy boundaries will promote a trickle-down effect into the body politic and inoculate society against toxic Islamist activities.
Similarly, recent congressional hearings of Ivy League presidents exposed the moral rot on U.S. campuses as each administrator equivocated with ambiguous statements instead of condemning campus demonstrations calling for the genocide of Jews and elimination of Israel. They, too, need to understand that if they remain silent in the face of behavior to "keep Jews out of the public square," they will be marginalized as outliers.
Will the Muslim community and the imams continue to choose Islamist organizations, or will they eschew CAIR and the like?
Furthermore, the acceptance by many of America's top universities of billions of dollars in foreign money from countries like Qatar that fund radicalization on campuses has had a net negative impact on these institutions. Documenting and exposing foreign money's malign influence on American institutions requires legislation to counter powerful lobbying groups that block transparency. MEF has extensively documented charitable federal funding of Islamist organizations in the U.S., but there remains a greater need to expose the institutions that are not reporting monies received from overseas.
Another way to marginalize CAIR is for Congress to hold it accountable for spreading antisemitism and violating its 503c status. If CAIR and other Islamist organizations in the U.S. are not challenged, America risks the nightmare Europe is experiencing from societal division and clashing values that are resulting in internecine hostility.
Alternative Muslim organizations such as Muslims Against Antisemitism (MAAS) promote Muslim interests without disparaging Jews. Zuhdi Jasser's organization, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AFID), counters Islamism and empowers Muslims to be advocates of American values of universal human rights, liberty, and freedom. Ultimately, it comes down to the average American Muslim and their choices. Will the community and the imams continue to choose Islamist organizations, or will they eschew CAIR and the like? "They're the ones that essentially are the gatekeepers right now, and we need to see that change."
Marilyn Stern is communications coordinator at the Middle East Forum.
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Israel’s 81st Day of War
By Sherwin Pomerantz
On this 81st day of war in Israel, we have suffered over 160 casualties from the fighting with no end in sight. To date Hamas has fired over 13,000 rockets into Israel since the start of the war with approximately 2,000 of them having fallen within Gaza and causing a large number of casualties there. Hamas still holds 129 hostages and it is known that 22 hostages have been murdered by Hamas during their time in Gaza.
In an address to a Knesset plenum Monday attended by families of the hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described how an International Red Cross Representative told him “no” when he asked her to deliver crucial medicine to hostages.
“I met with the Red Cross; I handed over a box of medicine for some of the hostages. Some of them really need it.” He continued, “I told a representative to take this box to Rafah; she said no. It was a difficult conversation.”
Netanyahu’s account of the Red Cross flatly refusing to deliver medicine and aid to hostages is consistent with testimonies by hostage families who recounted similar interactions with the humanitarian organization. According to the Geneva Convention, the role of the Red Cross in a war zone is to visit the hostages, deliver medical supplies, and bring updates to families.
To date the United States has delivered more than 10,000 tons of military weapons and equipment to Israel since the start of the war on Oct. 7, Channel 12 reported on Monday. These shipments have arrived in 244 cargo planes and on 20 ships. According to the report, Israel’s Defense Ministry has acquired nearly $2.8 billion in additional materiel from the United States. This includes “armored vehicles, armaments, personal protective equipment, medical supplies, ammunition and more.” Additionally, the report states that Israel’s military production lines are working around the clock during the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday presented conditions for peace between Israel and the Palestinians: 1) the destruction of Hamas; 2) the demilitarization of Gaza and 3) the deradicalization of Palestinian society. “These are the three prerequisites for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors in Gaza,” he wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
He argued that because Hamas has promised to repeat Oct. 7 “again and again” the only proportional response is to completely eliminate it. He warned that “unjustly blaming” Israel for civilian casualties “will only encourage Hamas and other terror organizations around the world to use human shields. To render this cruel and cynical strategy ineffective, the international community must place the blame for these casualties squarely on Hamas. It must recognize that Israel is fighting the bigger battle of the civilized world against barbarism.”
Israel’s military announced today that they expected some retaliation from Iran for the killing over the weekend of a senior IRGC officer at his Damascus home. Iran’s president has warned of retaliation against Israel, although it is not clear what form it will take.
What has been most revealing over the last days, is the incredible support being provided by the troops in the IDF and their commitment to see the battle with Hamas through to the end as elucidated by the government. After almost 12 weeks of fighting morale remains high and commitment to battle remains strong. May their efforts be blessed and the outcome be successful.
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