A New Foreign-Policy Think Tank Lines Up a Roster of Israel-Haters

George Soros—a billionaire who supports numerous left-liberal causes, including several anti-Israel organizations—and Charles Koch—a billionaire who supports numerous conservative and libertarian causes—don’t agree on much. But they have joined forces to create the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. The new think tank bills itself as in favor of peace and diplomacy, and against overseas interventions. As Eliana Johnson notes, it has thus far hired several people with a habit of promoting anti-Israel, and even anti-Semitic, conspiracy theories:

Lawrence Wilkerson, a nonresident fellow at the institute [and formerly Colin Powell’s chief of staff], said in a 2007 documentary that “the Jewish lobby in America” and “AIPAC in particular” played an outsize influence in the run-up to the [2003 Iraq] war—and, in fact, had more of an impact than the administration’s belief that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction or the president’s belief in spreading democracy. . . . [Wilkerson] came under fire again in 2013 for arguing that Syrian chemical-weapons use “could’ve been an Israeli false-flag operation.” There is no evidence to support such a claim.

The Quincy Institute is also home to several experts who have accused American Jews of being loyal primarily to Israel, a charge that has often been used to slur Jews. . . . The Quincy expert Eli Clifton [has suggested] that the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies was originally a mouthpiece for the Israeli government and has insinuated itself into the American bureaucracy.

The retired diplomat Chas Freeman, who authored the Quincy Institute’s first policy brief in December, . . . in a speech in Moscow, accused American Jews of constituting an Israeli “fifth column” inside the United States.

These experts are less vocal, however, about other ethnic foreign-policy lobbies in the United States. In fact, the Quincy Institute’s cofounder and executive vice-president, Trita Parsi, is also the founder of the National Iranian American Council, which has battled accusations that it serves as a mouthpiece for the Iranian government.

Read more at Washington Free Beacon

More about: Anti-Semitism, f, Foreign Policy, Israel Lobby

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula