Meeting with Yehuda Levy; Terrorism Briefing with Judge Real; Steven Emerson’s Request Declined by the Council on Foreign Relati
On December 1, JINSA sponsored a breakfast meeting with Yehuda Levy, publisher of the Jerusalem Post. This meeting was attended by 30 retired Generals and Admirals who participated in JINSA’s trip to Israel.
Yehuda discussed the current political situation in Israel, especially in light of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. He discussed the rift in Israeli politics and said that Mr. Rabin’s death will make this rift wider and will make the polarization of the parties more pronounced.
On December 1, JINSA sponsored a breakfast meeting with Yehuda Levy, publisher of the Jerusalem Post. This meeting was attended by 30 retired Generals and Admirals who participated in JINSA’s trip to Israel.
Yehuda discussed the current political situation in Israel, especially in light of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. He discussed the rift in Israeli politics and said that Mr. Rabin’s death will make this rift wider and will make the polarization of the parties more pronounced.
In addition to the breakfast, JINSA set up meetings for Yehuda with various organizations including the Heritage Foundation, the Weekly Standard, and The Washington Times.
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On December 7, JINSA sponsored an in-house lunch briefing with Judge Baltazar Garzon Real, an internationally recognized expert on terrorism. Thirty leading experts from the Hill, media, law enforcement and Think Tanks came into the JINSA offices for this briefing.
Judge Real presented a paper and answered questions on International Terrorism, specifically Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. He ascribed its growth to three factors: the Middle East Peace Process, the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and the warlike conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Chechnya.
According to Judge Real “the Common nexus of these conflicts is a form of Islam that is impregnated by an exacerbated fanaticism, that is heralded as the only solution to all problems be they political, social, cultural, etc. Partisans of Jihad consider terrorism a legitimate form of fighting for the acquisition of their religious objectives.”
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Terrorism expert Steven Emerson has recently written several letters to the Council on Foreign Relations, asking them to sever the group’s ties with a newsletter called the Muslim Politics Report. Emerson’s main concern regarding the newsletter is that its views “are one and the same as Hamas and other violent militant Islamic organizations.”
The Council will not accede to Emerson’s request and see his arguments as academic. Although they see Muslim radicalism as a danger to the United States and its friends, “the council is in the business of public educations…not in the business of censoring knowledge of issues… (the council) is home to many views, advocates of none.”
JINSA believes in the importance of freedom of expression; however, it is not necessary for an institution to distribute and give credence to the points of view of Hamas and other like organizations under the rubric of education. We all get to pick and choose to whom and what we give a voice and an audience. The Council on Foreign Relations does not do itself credit when it gives a terrorist organization like Hamas a legitimate voice.