WashingtonReportOnMiddleEastAffairs

One of the first people to witness the damage to the USS Liberty shares what he saw. The USS Liberty was attacked by Israel on June 8, 1967. Learn more at: https://www.wrmea.org/uss-liberty.html.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Jeanne Trabulsi has spent her career in education, communications, and public relations. She is presently coordinator of the Education Committee of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights and has taught at the university and K-12 levels for over 15 years. She is the founder of the Refugee Doll Project. The Project is partnered with the Welcoming Library, a pop-up collection of acclaimed picture books that feature New Arrival and New American families. The portable library travels between schools, public libraries, and community centers in Virginia to build an environment of welcoming and belonging. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Jeanne Trabulsi has spent her career in education, communications, and public relations. She is presently coordinator of the Education Committee of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights and has taught at the university and K-12 levels for over 15 years. She is the founder of the Refugee Doll Project. The Project is partnered with the Welcoming Library, a pop-up collection of acclaimed picture books that feature New Arrival and New American families. The portable library travels between schools, public libraries, and community centers in Virginia to build an environment of welcoming and belonging. Trabulsi outlines why VCHR opposes UN-designated "category G" human rights violator Energix Renewable Energies. She outlines how "bad practices" developed in Israeli occupied Palestinian and Golan Heights territories have been localized to Virginia's market. Trabulsi looks at how communities in Virginia are pushing back against Energix as it receives undue subsidies and influence across the commonwealth. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Jeanne Trabulsi has spent her career in education, communications, and public relations. She is presently coordinator of the Education Committee of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights and has taught at the university and K-12 levels for over 15 years. She is the founder of the Refugee Doll Project. The Project is partnered with the Welcoming Library, a pop-up collection of acclaimed picture books that feature New Arrival and New American families. The portable library travels between schools, public libraries, and community centers in Virginia to build an environment of welcoming and belonging. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Radhika Sainath is a senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal. Her writing has appeared in Jacobin, The Nation and Huffington Post. She's working on her first novel, set in Palestine during the Second Intifada. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Roger Waters is an English rock musician, singer-songwriter and composer best known for his work with the legendary rock band Pink Floyd. Over the last few years, he has emerged as one of the world’s most prominent advocates for Palestinian human rights and a cultural boycott of Israel. In June 2009, Waters spoke against the wall Israel built on Palestinian land. Later that year he pledged his support to the Gaza Freedom March. In 2011, Waters announced that he had joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in solidarity with Palestinians. He has said he is disillusioned with UK foreign policy toward Israel. After accusations lodged by the Anti-Defamation League and other Israel advocacy organizations, Waters responded that, "I deplore the policies of the Israeli government in the occupied territories and Gaza. They are immoral, inhuman and illegal. I will continue my non-violent protests as long as the government of Israel continues with these policies. ...It is difficult to make arguments to defend the Israeli government's policies, so would-be defenders often use a diversionary tactic, they routinely drag the critic into a public arena and accuse them of being an anti-Semite.” Waters has also long campaigned for five indigenous groups and 80 farmer communities in Ecuador fighting energy giant Chevron’s destruction of the environment. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

Sut Jhally is a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation. He has won the Distinguished Teacher Award at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where the student newspaper has also voted him "Best Professor." Jhally is the producer of over 40 documentaries on media literacy topics in cultural studies, advertising, media and consumption. Also the author of six books and numerous scholarly and popular articles, Jhally teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses which focus on media, public relations and propaganda, as well as gender, sex and representation. His books include Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well-Being (1988) with co-authors Stephen Kline and William Weiss, and The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society (1987). Jhally’s documentary “The Occupation of the American Mind” focuses on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel's favor. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club John Kiriakou is an author, journalist and former CIA officer specializing in the Middle East. He was the first U.S. government official to confirm in December 2007 that waterboarding and other forms of torture were used to interrogate prisoners captured overseas. He was also the first CIA officer to be convicted for passing classified information to a reporter and served a 30 month prison sentence. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Gideon Levy is a columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, which he joined in 1982. He spent four years as the newspaper’s deputy editor and is currently a member of its editorial board. He is widely considered the “dean” of Israeli journalism—as well as “the most hated man in Israel.” As Levy has written, “Treating the Palestinians as victims and the crimes perpetrated against them as crimes is considered treasonous.” Levy writes the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 30 years, as well as political editorials for the newspaper. His columns about politics, money, how Israel's military occupation is changing Israeli society and about U.S.-Israel relations are widely read and discussed around the world. Levy was the recipient, with Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb, of the 2016 Olof Palme Prize for their “fight against occupation and violence.” He has also received the Peace Through Media Award, at the 2012 International Media Awards; the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His book, The Punishment of Gaza, was published in 2010. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club. Rev. Dr. Don Wagner recently retired as national program director of Friends of Sabeel-North America. Prior to that he was a professor of Middle East studies at North Park University, where he was also the director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. During the 1980s he was the national director of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rev. Wagner has served churches in New Jersey and Evanston, IL. He is the author or co-author of five books dealing with Palestinian human rights, Christian Zionism, a theological critique of Zionism and a history of Christianity in Palestine-Israel. These include Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians (1995) , Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land (2014) and Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000 (2003). The history and theology of Christian Zionism is a central topic of the book he is currently writing. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Huwaida Arraf is a mother, human rights advocate, attorney, and first-generation American running to represent Michigan's 10th Congressional District. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Edward Ahmed Mitchell is an attorney and former journalist who serves as the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Paul Noursi has been active with the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) since its founding in 2016. He is also active with several other organizations working for peace and justice in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, the New Dominion PAC, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Arab American Democratic Caucus of Virginia. He was also a Barack Obama Delegate to the Virginia State Convention in 2008, a Bernie Sanders Delegate to the Virginia State Convention in 2016 and 2020, and he has served on various Get-Out-the Vote and Democratic campaigns. Noursi has lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. He has a BS in Civil Engineering, an MS in Engineering Management, and is a licensed and practicing civil engineer with wide-ranging experience in land development and public works in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Hanan Ashrawi was the first woman to be elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2009. She served as the official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process from 1991-1993 and participated in the 1991-1992 Madrid peace conference as a member of the Palestinian Leadership Committee delegation. In 1993, Dr. Ashrawi founded the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights (PICCR) to investigate Israeli and Palestinian human rights violations. She chronicled her involvement in her book This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (1995). In 1996, Ashrawi was elected and subsequently reelected many times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. In 1996, she also accepted the post of Minister of Higher Education and Research. In 1998, Ashrawi founded and continues to serve in MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. In December 2020, she resigned from the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club Walter L. Hixson since 2019 serves as columnist and contributing editor at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. This is his second book on the Israel lobby following Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict. (Cambridge University Press, 2019) He is the author of several books focused on the history of US foreign relations, including American Foreign Relations: A New Diplomatic History (Routledge, 2015), American Settler Colonialism: A History (2013, Palgrave-Macmillan), The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy (Yale University Press, 2008). The new book by distinguished historian Walter L. Hixson—Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of U.S. Middle East Policy—offers a compelling history of the most powerful lobby acting on behalf of a foreign government in all of American history. Hixson will summarize the book's finding that the Israel lobby has played and continues to play the crucial role in enabling aggression, the suppression of Palestinian rights, and the failure to achieve a comprehensive Middle East peace. Hixson explains why there will never be peace in the Middle East until the monolithic Israel lobby is neutralized. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. See https://www.IsraelLobbyCon.org for more information.

The distinguished historian and WRMEA columnist Dr. Walter L. Hixson discussed the unique and distinctive aspects of the US-Israel "special relationship." What assumptions underpinning the “special relationship” traditionally fit neatly into America's own history and national identity, such as "manifest destiny," "chosen" peoplehood, vanquishing the "savage" and settler colonialism? How did the rise of the formidable Israel lobby--by far the most powerful lobby representing a foreign nation in American history—exploit that identity to win the tiny nation of Israel more US military assistance and unconditional diplomatic support than any other country in the world? Now that Americans are grappling with their founding mythologies, can Israel's and its lobby's grip on the American psyche and body politic endure? Copies of Hixson's latest two books are available from Middle East Books and More. Imperialism and War: The History Americans Need to Own https://www.middleeastbooks.com/products/imperialism-and-war-the-history-americans-need-to-own-by-walter-l-hixson Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy https://www.middleeastbooks.com/products/architects-of-repression-how-israel-and-its-lobby-put-racism-violence-and-injustice-at-the-center-of-us-middle-east-policy-by-walter-l-hixson

Webinar with expert analysis of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) interaction with political action committees (PACs). We also explored what factors may be driving AIPAC to be more interested in tightly coordinating campaign spending. Finally, we discussed what impact this may have on Americans and took questions from participants. ********************************************************************** Subscribe to this YouTube channel for future EXTRA! webinars. Visit https://www.wrmea.com​ to subscribe or get a sample copy of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Buy books at Middle East Books and More: https://www.middleeastbooks.com​ Sign up for EXTRA! and other announcements via email from WRMEA at https://tinyurl.com/WRMEAemail​ And/or IRmep at https://tinyurl.com/IRmepemail

Extended interview with distinguished historian and author Walter L. Hixson about his book Imperialism and War: The History Americans Need To Own." Grant F. Smith of IRmep asks Hixson about the origins of "American exceptionalism," enduring founding mythologies, and why most scholars and journalists exploring American militarism focus almost exclusively on the post-WWII period. Hixson explores the idea that America only goes to war reluctantly or has made the world "safe for democracy." Points covered the proper starting date for analysis of imperialism, Jamestown, restraint on settler colonization, ethnic cleansing, "manifest destiny", the Spanish American War, the Anti-Imperialist League, and post WWII dynamics. Hixson carries his analysis of imperialism and war from the arrival of Columbus in the Americas through the present date. Related links: YouTube: "Settler Colonialism from America to Palestine" https://youtu.be/H38MYjCcX3U Middle East Books & More https://www.middleeastbooks.com/products/imperialism-and-war-the-history-americans-need-to-own-by-walter-l-hixson Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/Imperialism-and-War-The-History-Americans-Need-to-Own-Audiobook/B09D51YDHN Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Imperialism-War-History-Americans-Need/dp/098277575X

Extended interview with distinguished historian and author Walter L. Hixson focusing on Chapter 7, "AIPAC in Command" of his 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 of IRmep asks Hixson about his research background, when he started looking into the Israel lobby and books published by elite academic publishers. They then turn to a single chapter from the book to explore the role and function of the Israel lobby in the United States. Related links: YouTube: "The Israel Lobby: What Everyone Needs to Know." https://youtu.be/GPhMT_c8M20 YouTube: "Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict" https://youtu.be/5frVOAuW6Gg YouTube: "Settler Colonialism from America to Palestine" https://youtu.be/H38MYjCcX3U Middle East Books & More https://www.middleeastbooks.com/products/architects-of-repression-how-israel-and-its-lobby-put-racism-violence-and-injustice-at-the-center-of-us-middle-east-policy-by-walter-l-hixson?_pos=1&_sid=24ef9d5c9&_ss=r Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/Architects-of-Repression-Audiobook/B09158G699 Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Architects-Repression-Israel-Violence-Injustice/dp/0982775776

As detailed in his new book, Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism, Israel and its U.S. lobby were key proponents of the disastrous 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, as well as providing the ideological underpinnings of a "global war on terror." Today they are virtually alone in advocating a U.S. war on Iran. How likely is it that the Biden administration will attack Iran? What would be the consequences? Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from ScottHorton.org. He has conducted more than 5,400 interviews since 2003. Horton's 2017 book is titled Fool's Errand: Time to End the War on Afghanistan.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) speaking on the House floor, on May 13, 2021.

At a congressional hearing on April 29, 2021, Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now explained why military aid to Israel is illegal under U.S. law.