Solsticewitch13's BOS: MEF Monthly Newsletter

Thursday, December 1, 2016

MEF Monthly Newsletter - December 2016

Dear Readers:

My name is Gregg Roman and I’m director of the Middle East Forum. I’d like to introduce this second issue of MEF Monthly with some interesting news from 2016.

Oscar Wilde wrote that "You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies" and the same holds true for an organization. In 2016, MEF’s enemies came in hard and fast:

When George Soros' hacked emails were dumped on the internet for public scrutiny, it exposed an application for funding from the Center for American Progress to his Open Society Foundations, to "research and track the activities of the most prominent drivers of Islamophobia," specifically naming the Middle East Forum.

After Campus Watch uncovered the troubling ties of San Francisco State University to a Palestinian institution, the Middle East Studies Association proceeded to attack MEF for the supposed "harassment” of the professor who led the effort “for her political views" and named MEF as one of several "politically motivated nonacademic organizations which seek to stifle perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." That then rallied the anti-Israel brigades, the opponents of academic accountability, and apologists for terrorism. Of course, none of them addressed the real issues we raised.

The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled MEF President Daniel Pipes a "prominent anti-Muslim extremist" in its recently published "media guide", an act that got it widely condemned, including in Tablet Magazine and National Review.

An alert customer of British internet provider O2 noticed that the company effectively censored DanielPipes.org; when pushed to justify this, the British Board of Film Classification quickly apologized and overturned the ban.

When Sam Westrop, the research director at Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) was sued in Great Britain by Mohammed Ali Harrath of the Islamist-oriented Islam Channel, who Westrop (correctly) called a "convicted terrorist," MEF helped Westrop hire a barrister and launch a rigorous defense based on truth.

On learning that the Erdoğan regime imprisoned Middle East Quarterly contributor and former Turkish ambassador Tuncay Babali on absurd charges of having collaborating in the July 15th coup d’état, MEF launched a Facebook campaign exposing over 2.5 million people to our writings critical of the regime.

In other cases, the Forum went on the offensive, and won.

We defeated the notorious anti-Israel and pro-Islamist UK politician George Galloway in London’s High Court. The Legal Project funded the successful defamation action brought by Galloway’s ex aide, Aisha Ali-Khan, who Galloway accused of conspiring with the UK Counter-Terrorism Command to run a “campaign of dirty tricks” against him. He has since then withdrawn the allegations, and agreed to pay legal costs and damages.

When a federal district judge in 2010 summarily dismissed a Forum-funded fraud lawsuit against the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), MEF continued financially to back the plaintiffs until a U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the decision, delivering another legal victory for the Forum.

After this tumultuous year, the one ahead promises to be exciting for those who fight Islamism, promote sound US Mideast policy, and warn of Islamist incursions into our constitutional order. Indeed, MEF is doubling down on its commitment to promote American interests in the Middle East and protect American values from Middle Eastern threats. The work begun 23 years ago by Daniel Pipes continues, stronger than ever.

I invite you to join us.

Sincerely,

Gregg Roman

Director

Middle East Forum

PHOTOGRAPHS: (FROM TOP LEFT TO BOTTON RIGHT)

Turkish citizens protest a proposed law in Ankara to free 3,000 men who married children, including men who raped them, from MEF fellow Burak Bekdil's recent article, "Turkey Weighs Freedom for Child Rapists".
Rep. Keith Ellison's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, past support of Louis Farrakhan, and use of apologetics for Palestinian jihad are wrong for the DNC, as contended by MEF research fellow Oren Litwin in his recent piece, "Ellison's Extremism Wrong for the DNC".
U.S. Middle East envoy John Wolf meets with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in June 2008, exemplifying MEF president Daniel Pipes' case for "America's Know-Nothing Diplomacy".
PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and foreign minister Shimon Peres received the Nobel Peace Prize following the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords, an event MEQ editor Efraim Karsh describes as a "strategic blunder" in "Why the Oslo Process Doomed Peace".

MEF's Washington Project gathered bipartisan support for a bill reaffirming longstanding United States policy in support of a direct bilaterally negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and opposition to United Nations Security Council resolutions imposing a solution to the conflict, negating President Obama's effort to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State at the United Nations.
MEF's Jihad Intel research fellow, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi documented Islamic State leadership in Mosul, discovering the group is mostly Iraqi and local to Ninawa province, having embedded itself as an underground mafia network for years, before the fall of Mosul city to ISIS in summer 2014.

MEF vigorously promoted the work of anti-Islamist Muslim writing fellows, including: Burak Bekdil who writes critically about Turkey’s Islamist president and laments the lack of press freedom in Turkey; Tarek Fatah who sees radical Islam as the cause of Brexit and calls on Canada to address the threat of jihad; Raheem Kassam who shows how migrants are committing disproportionately high rates of crime in Germany and confronts London’s new Muslim mayor over his extremist past; and Hilal Khashan who surveys religious intolerance in the Gulf States.
After exposing an ill-conceived student exchange program in the U.S., MEF's Campus Watch initiative and Washington Project met with staff of Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), member of the House Education Committee; Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security; and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Campus Watch and the Washington Project subsequently sent letters to the chairs and ranking members of the nine congressional committees with jurisdiction over the issue, requesting federal action to prevent American universities from forming alliances with terrorist friendly overseas institutions.

MEF Education Fund grantee, Stop the ISM, infiltrated the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement, as well as other BDS-supporting organizations, exposing their inner workings and identifying key leaders,
leading to a new Israeli government task force dedicated to deporting these anti-Israel activists.
MEF Education Fund grantee, Palestinian Media Watch, provided evidence to Israeli authorities that Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher Khaled Al-Mughrabi incited the murder of Jews. The result: Mughrabi was arrested, convicted of incitement, and sentenced to 11 months in jail.

Web Editor and Research Fellow - Gary Gambill

Gary C. Gambill has been associated with the Middle East Forum for nearly fifteen years, first as editor of the online publication Middle East Intelligence Bulletin (2002-2004) and moderator of its New York lecture series (2003-2004), then later as general editor (2011) and writing fellow (2012-2013). Since 2014, Gary has served as the Forum's research fellow and web editor. Click here to follow Gary Gambill on Facebook.

“I’m also kind of a roaming op-ed editor and placement coordinator, working with writing fellows, directors and staff on an ongoing basis.” Gambill told MEF Monthly. After focusing most of his research and writing on Lebanon and Syria for years, Gambill has migrated to other subjects where he says the “interesting puzzles” are, writing a series of well-received articles on the Iranian nuclear program last year and now two articles into a series on anti-Semitism. But Gambill says he’s an editor at heart. “It’s much more fun working with others to better develop their arguments than figuring out what I want to say.”

Tuesday, December 7th

Parlor Meeting with Daniel Pipes in Boston

A special briefing on the Syrian civil war, the prospect of US support for a Palestinian state, a post-election assessment of MidEast policy, and a report on developments on Middle East studies at North American universities. (This is a complimentary event for MEF supporters contributing $250 or more per year.)

Contact: Patel@MEForum.org

December 8th through December 16th

Lunch with Daniel Pipes in New York and California

Join MEF president Daniel Pipes for lunch and a Middle East briefing. Mr. Pipes will offer a tour d'horizon, touching on Trump administration options, the prospect of Obama’s coming out for a Palestinian state, developments in the region, and report on his just-completed trip to 10 heavily populated migrant areas in Europe. (Complimentary for MEF supporters contributing $250 or more per year.)