- Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is a
Washington, D.C. -based non-profit neoconservative think-tank focusing on issues ofUnited States national security. JINSA's stated aim is threefold: to ensure a strong and effective U.S. national security policy; to educate American leaders on what it views as the vital strategic relationship between the United States andIsrael ; and to strengthen U.S. cooperation with democratic allies, including Taiwan,Hungary ,Turkey ,India , andNATO member nations, amongst others.JINSA's advisory board includes such notable figures as
Michael Ledeen ,Richard Perle , andR. James Woolsey , while Vice PresidentDick Cheney , former U.S. Representative to the United Nations John Bolton, and former Undersecretary of Defense for PolicyDouglas Feith were all on JINSA's Board of Advisors before they entered the Bush administration. JINSA is officially a non-partisan organization welcoming advisors from both sides of the aisle including Democrats such as former CongressmanDave McCurdy and current CongressmanSteve Israel .Policy positions
JINSA's policy recommendations for the U.S. government include:
* Enhanced WMD counterproliferation programs.
* National ballistic missile defense systems.
* Curbing of regional ballistic missile development and production worldwide.
* Increased counter-terrorism training and funding, prior toSeptember 11, 2001 attacks .
* Increased defense cooperation withIsrael .
* Substantially improved quality-of-life for U.S. service personnel and their families.
* Support for joint U.S.-Israeli training and weapons development programs.
* Regime change in "rogue" nation-states known to provide support or knowingly harbor terrorist groups, includingIraq ,Iran ,Syria ,Lebanon andLibya , and supports a re-evaluation of the U.S. defense relationships withEgypt andSaudi Arabia .Programs
General and Flag Officer's program
One of JINSA's most important programs is to invite, with the assistance of
the Pentagon and theU.S. Department of State , retired U.S. senior military officers to Israel and Jordan. The General and Flag Officer's program, as it is known, includes meetings with Israeli and Jordanian political and military leaders.More than 200 retired Admirals and Generals, including
Shock and Awe theorist Adm. Leon "Bud" Edney, USN, Lt. Gen.Jay Garner , USA, Maj. Gen.David L. Grange , USA, Maj. Gen.Jarvis Lynch , USMC, Maj. Gen.Sid Shachnow , USA, Adm.Leighton "Snuffy" Smith , USN, Adm.Carlisle Trost , USN and Brig. Gen.Thomas E. White , USA, have participated in the trips over the last 21 years. Participation in the program makes no requirements of the invitees to make statements, form opinions or maintain any further relationship with JINSA, yet many trip alums have participated more than once, and 50 past participants co-authored a [http://www.jinsa.org/articles/view.html?documentid=1071 statement on violence] in the Palestinian-controlled territories that appeared in theNew York Times in October 2000.Jason Vest , writing in "The Nation"Jason Vest , [http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020902&s=vest The Men From JINSA and CSP] , The Nation, September 2, 2002] , describes the program this way:"The bulk of JINSA's modest annual budget is spent on taking a bevy of retired US generals and admirals to Israel, where JINSA facilitates meetings between Israeli officials and the still-influential US flag officers, who, upon their return to the States, happily write op-eds and sign letters and advertisements championing the Likudnik line."
United States-Israeli law enforcement exchange
In 2002, JINSA initiated a program aimed at exchanging counter-terrorism experience and tactics between U.S. law enforcement agencies and their counterparts in the Israeli National Police. The primary focus of the program is to bring U.S. law enforcement executives (chiefs, sheriffs, deputies, etc.) to Israel for an intensive two week program aimed at educating U.S. law enforcement officials on the possible threats posed by the specter of domestic terrorism in the United States. Over the course of four trips, nearly 60 police chiefs and sheriffs from departments in major American metropolitan areas, including
Los Angeles ,California (LAPD ); Orlando,Florida ;Minneapolis ,Minnesota ; Chicago, and the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) ofNew York andNew Jersey , already lead to significant changes in local law enforcement counter-terrorism tactics and training.In addition, the Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP) brings Israeli police and counter-terror officials to the United States for intensive two-day seminars that to date have trained more than 1,500 law enforcement officers and officials around the U.S. LEEP has also played a life-saving role in training members of the U.S. Marine Corps in how to better protect civilians and soldiers, alike, against the threat of car and suicide bombers in
Iraq .Others
JINSA publishes U.S. policy-related publications including the semi-annual "Journal of International Security Affairs" as well as conference proceedings and monographs. For 22 years, JINSA published "Security Affairs" - a monthly newsletter. In 2004, JINSA published a reference book: " [http://www.profilesinterror.com/ Profiles In Terror: A Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations] " by
Aaron Mannes .Each fall, JINSA presents an annual [http://www.jinsa.org/articles/view.html?documentid=2173 Distinguished Service Award] , named in honor of the late-Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson to U.S. government leaders (generally a Senator or two members of the
United States House of Representatives ) for their career dedication to U.S. national security. Past honorees have included: Deputy Secretary of DefensePaul Wolfowitz (2002), SenatorJoe Lieberman (1997), SenatorMax Cleland (2000), then-Defense SecretaryDick Cheney (1991), all three Secretaries of the U.S. Armed Services (2001), CongresswomanJane Harman and CongressmanJim Saxton (2003), Indiana SenatorEvan Bayh (2004), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace (USMC) (2005), Senator John McCain (2006), and current Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.In addition, beginning in 2003, JINSA has honored six enlisted representatives of the U.S. Armed Services and U.S. Special Operations Command, each selected by their respective services, with the "Grateful Nation Award" for duty that, while exemplary, might otherwise go unrecognized.
History
Founded in 1976, JINSA began as the only U.S. think tank that put "the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship first," citing a concern that U.S. leaders were mistakenly neglecting the relationship between the United States and Israel. JINSA's founding, according to Jason Vest
Jason Vest , [http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020902&s=vest The Men From JINSA and CSP] , The Nation, September 2, 2002] , was prompted by "neoconservatives concerned that the United States might not be able to provide Israel with adequate military supplies in the event of another Arab-Israeli war."In the late 1980s, JINSA underwent a profound repurposing of mission which, although retaining the interest in maintaining and strengthening the U.S.-Israeli defense relationship, widened its focus to general U.S. defense and foreign policy, with missions and meetings with national leaders and military officials from countries as diverse as
Ethiopia ,Belgium ,South Korea ,India ,Bulgaria ,Italy , theRepublic of China ,Uzbekistan ,Costa Rica ,Spain ,Eritrea ,Jordan , thePeople's Republic of China ,Hungary ,United Kingdom andGermany , to name a few.JINSA, a charitable
501(c)(3) organization, maintains a staunchly non-partisan stance in its official policies and statements. According to unnamed critics, JINSA is closely associated with the neoconservative movement and U.S. Military Industrial Complex.2008 rebuke of the Conference of Presidents
JINSA director Tom Neumann rebuked the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations leader Malcolm Hoenlein for the conference's decision to disinvite the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nomineeAlaska governorSarah Palin from an anti-Iran rally. [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/jinsa-condemns-decision-presidents-conference/story.aspx?guid=%7B656A81C9-CC3E-4AF1-BD2B-F04864904FBF%7D&dist=hppr] . Hoenlein's decision was based on several of the sponsors demands that their nonprofit status not be jeopardized through involvement in a program that would have provided a forum to one candidate and not others, a violation of the law.Fact|date=September 2008 But Neumann and others rebuked Hoenlein for partisanship.Criticism
Jason Vest , writing in the left-wing "The Nation"Jason Vest , [http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020902&s=vest The Men From JINSA and CSP] , The Nation, September 2, 2002] , alleges that JINSA, along withFrank Gaffney 'sCenter for Security Policy , are "underwritten by far-right American Zionists" and both believe strongly that"'
regime change ' by any means necessary inIraq ,Iran ,Syria ,Saudi Arabia and thePalestinian Authority is an urgent imperative. Anyone who dissents -- be itColin Powell 'sState Department , theCIA or career military officers -- is committing heresy against articles of faith that effectively hold there is no difference between US and Israeli national security interests, and that the only way to assure continued safety and prosperity for both countries is through hegemony in the Middle East -- a hegemony achieved with the traditional cold war recipe of feints, force, clientism and covert action."Colin Powell , according to Karen DeYoung's 2006 biography of PowellDeYoung, Karen, , Knopf, October 10, 2006, ISBN 1-4000-4170-8] , stated that JINSA had influenced Vice PresidentRichard Cheney [ [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19490] Lelyveld, Joseph. "The Good Soldier;" "New York Review of Books", 2 November 2006. Accessed 19 March 2007.] and others in the Bush administration to rid Israel of Palestinian Arabs' supporters and protect Israel's security by neutralizing Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Libya by invading and changing those regimes.ee also
*
Foreign policy interest group
*American Jewish Committee
*Jewish Council for Public Affairs
*American Israel Public Affairs Committee
*The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations .
*Center for Security Policy - Another Washington think tank with overlapping membership and interests
*Saban Center for Middle East Policy
*Washington Institute for Near East Policy References
External links
* [http://www.jinsa.org Official website]
* [http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy] A Harvard Study, March, 2006
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