|
New IRmep book now available!
on Twitter!
Audio
|
Policy Briefs
IRmep policy briefs and are circulated to concerned citizens, key
legislators and foreign policy makers. They provide an analysis of
current US foreign policy in the Middle East, analysis of true US interests,
and strategies for closing the gap.
4/11/2007 US Taxpayer Dollars
and National Identity Going Down the Drain:
Cutting Off Funds for Flawed Neocon Fantasies
IRmep believes Congress needs to come together and
staunch the steady bleeding of American taxpayers, which is now entering its
fifth year. While we've opposed the US invasion since before it began, there
are five reasons why even supporters of a so-called "Global War on Terror"
now need to pull the plug before the Iraq debacle brings America to its
knees.
Reason #1: A "Credit Card" War Drags on Future Generations. The United
States is financing the Iraq occupation with deficit spending. In 2003
Americans rightly rejected the neoconservative plan for the Department of
Defense to "lease" air tankers for Middle Eastern air wars. That case
rightly put Pentagon and industry officials (though not the authors of the
plan) behind bars. Americans saw the deal for what it truly was: corruption.
Americans are now rejecting the idea that the cost of the misguided Iraq war
is being passed on to our future generations who will be repaying creditor
nations such as China that purchase US government bonds financing this
disastrous war. Like the tanker deal, Americans usually reject the idea of
paying interest above and beyond the base cost national security interests.
The Iraq war was deficit financed because it never was vital to the US's
true defense needs. The shell game of hiding the cost of the war to make it
palatable to American taxpayers is no longer feasible as interest rates
climb and the value of the dollar plunges. The "credit card financed war"
game is up.
10/5/2006
Israel Lobby Initiates Hispanic Strategy
"Invademos a Iran"
AIPAC, the tip of the Israel lobby spear in Washington,
began an executive search for a Deputy Director for Hispanic Outreach (PDF)
in August of 2006. Reporting directly to AIPAC's "National Outreach
Director" in Washington, the responsibility of the new deputy director will
be to "develop relationships with key members of the Hispanic community and
encourage their involvement in political advocacy in support of the
US-Israel relationship."
AIPAC's focus on the Hispanic community dovetails with an unprecedented
opportunity for Spanish language media outreach. Shareholders of Univision
Communications, the leading Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., voted
to sell the company last week to a group of private-equity firms for $12.3
billion. The deal was signed even though a higher bid from Mexican TV giant
Grupo Televisa was still on the table. Led by media mogul Haim Saban, the US
group acquired the equivalent of the "ABC" network in terms of Spanish
speaking US viewership. Among all Spanish-language US networks, Univision
averaged 3.7 million viewers followed by Telemundo at 880,000 and
TeleFutura's 660,000 viewers.
8/29/2006 The Clean Break Plan: A Conspiracy of Theories?
After being elected as Israel's Prime Minister in 1996,
Binyamin Netanyahu called on a group of policy advisors in the United States
to outline policy recommendations and future strategies Israel can adopt in
dealing with the U.S., the Palestinians and the Arab countries. The group,
which included Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser, produced a
document called, �A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.� The
document, which has been made public and analyzed by Smith and the Institute
for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, is being re-examined because many of
the recommendations, mainly toppling the government of Iraq, moving away
from the land for peace formula with the Palestinians and the
destabilization of �regional challengers� such as Syria, Iraq and Lebanon,
are in full implementation.
1/31/2006
Transforming Terrorists: An Israeli Case Study
There is much hubbub over the potential for Hamas to enter as a significant
player in the Palestinian government. Neoconservative pundits warn that this
will put the �terror masters� in control of any future Palestinian state,
leading to chaos and horror for Israel and the region.
This is not necessarily so. The transformation from terrorist to statesman
is the biography of many of Israel's founding fathers...
Waste Driven Demand Raises Petroleum Prices:
How Congressional SUV Subsidies Increase
Prices at the Pump and
The New Reality of Permanently High
Petroleum Prices
On December 12, 2005, the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA) released a revised oil price forecast through year
2030. On the supply side EIA sees increased use of coal and nuclear energy
as OPEC output grows more slowly than previous estimates. Most jarring to
American consumers is a $21 jump in per barrel prices. The revised
forecast also predicts increasing reliance on foreign energy suppliers even
as the US increases domestic production.
IRmep Policy Research Note October , 2005
US Tax-Exempt Charitable Contributions to Israel:
Donations, Illegal Settlements and Terror Attacks against the US
Israeli government officials recently disclosed that at least US $60 billion has
been spent financing illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. According to
Israeli prosecutor Talia Sasson, the Israeli government has systematically violated its
own laws by financing settlements from foreign donations, the official state budget and
secret military accounts. One global nonprofit, the World Zionist Organization, played a
central role in coordinating illegal settlement activities.
Opaque and fungible assets freed up by massive yearly US foreign aid to Israel are pouring
into settlement development and infrastructure building designed to partition key
Palestinian territories and annex others to the state of Israel. US nonprofits are
directly and indirectly financing the coordination of illegal settlement building,
encroachment, and violence against Palestinians. Recently disclosed charitable
contributions from US lobbyist Jack Abramoff laundered to finance violent armed Israeli
activity in the Palestinian territories is only the tip of the iceberg. Considered against
the findings of a groundbreaking new study revealing the causes of suicide terrorism,
Americans must confront a disturbing question: "Are tax exempt donations from
the US generating terrorist retaliation against America?"
Full Policy Brief HTML
PDF
IRmep
Policy Research Note May 1, 2005
Arming an Israeli Attack on Iran:
Why the US Should Cancel "Bunker Busters" for Israel
On April 28, 2005 the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the
sale of 100 GBU-28 "bunker buster" guided bombs to Israel. Designed to penetrate
hardened command centers located deep underground, the GBU-28 is a 5,000-pound
laser-guided bomb that uses a 4,400-pound penetrating warhead and contains 630 pounds of
high explosives.
The Israeli target for the GBU is no secret. For months Israeli intelligence, political
and policy operatives in the US have been presenting a case that Iran is secretly
developing nuclear weapons that threaten Tel Aviv and other Israeli population centers.
American skeptics will recall similar statements by Ariel Sharon who made claims along
with a network of American pundits that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been shipped
into Syria at the start of the US invasion of Iraq. Although the 1,700-member Iraq Survey
Team responsible for hunting WMD in Iraq officially announced on April 23, 2005 it found
no evidence of any weapons of mass destruction or transfer to Syria, proponents of
conflict with Syria and Iran continue to push their case forward. Like misleading
intelligence claims about Iraq, a GBU-28 sale could trigger an immediate, needless and
bloody conflict, only this time between the US and Iran (see Exhibit 1).
Full Policy Brief HTML
PDF
IRmep Policy Brief September 17, 2004
An End to Ambiguity: US Counter-proliferation from Tel
Aviv to Tehran
Whether or not Iran is currently pursuing nuclear weapons, American interests are
best served if all nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is reversed. Unfortunately,
recent US policies have only created conditions in which nuclear weapon acquisition is
seen as a means of survival for countries on the neoconservative policy “target
list”.
From the Iranian perspective, Israel has not only successfully developed its own arsenal
of nuclear weapons under a policy of “strategic ambiguity”, it has also shaped
US policy through American neoconservatives with ties to the Israeli Likud party. American
citizens must demand an effective counter proliferation strategy toward Tehran that first
eliminates the policy of “strategic ambiguity” operating in Tel Aviv and
Washington.
Full Policy Brief HTML
PDF
IRmep Policy Brief March 1, 2004
Saudi Accountability or US Job Elimination Act?
The Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2003 now under consideration in Congress is
rife with problems. Although the bill hopes to address the global scourge of terrorism,
evidence cited in the act is inaccurate, obsolete, or narrow to the point of
discriminatory.
A consequence of passing the bill into law would be heavy US employment losses. In
2003 US global exports partially recovered from post 9/11 trade declines. US exports to
Saudi Arabia currently provide 124,000 jobs in America and should reach 177,000 by 2012.
However, like many other countries, Saudi Arabia has shown a capability for
self-defense through economic retaliation. This could translate into 81,000 lost
jobs in the US beginning in 2004.
Most Americans reject disinformation and haste as a basis for sound solutions to complex
global problems, especially in the Middle East. The Saudi Arabia Accountability Act lacks
the integrity, accuracy and responsibility that form the foundation of American law.
Full Policy Brief HTML
PDF
IRmep Policy Brief July/August 2003
Dividends of
Fear: America's $94 Billion Arab Market Export Loss
The U.S. share of world merchandise exports to the Arab Middle East slid from 18% in 1997
to 13% in 2001. This occurred during import demand growth averaging 1% per year and
voracious demand for high value-added capital goods among Arab economies. The hardest hit
U.S. export sectors include civilian aircraft, agriculture, heavy transportation, as well
as telecommunications and industrial equipment. On the demand side, the broad U.S. export
downturn is driven by growing Arab boycotts against U.S. consumer and industrial goods.
These occur as a response to the perceived loss of U.S. regional foreign policy legitimacy
as seen through the eyes of Arab buyers. On the supply side, the increasing restrictions
on Arab business travel to the United States, and surging U.S. fear, xenophobia and legal
campaigns leveled against Arab business are positioned to accelerate the toll on future
trade. The IRMEP estimates that America has already lost U.S. $31 billion in exports
between 1998 and 2002. If the trend continues, the U.S. stands to lose an additional U.S.
$63 billion through 2007 for a ten year export loss of U.S. $94 billion.
Full Policy Brief HTML PDF
IRmep Policy Brief 3/27/2003
Clean Break or Dirty War?
...Great changes are seldom achieved without a
plan. The Israeli policy paper “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the
Realm” (ACB) was authored by a group of policy advisors to Israel. Subsequently,
nearly all members became influential policy makers operating within U.S. government,
media, and academic circles. Many of the ACB policies such as toppling the government of
Iraq are now in full implementation and present new challenges to the entire global
community. Others, such as the reform of Israel's economy have been abysmal failures,
though generating little visibility or impact outside of Israel.
In this paper, we evaluate the level of implementation of
these five summary goals, and their effect on the interests of the United States. However,
no set of policies ever come to fruition without an active and vocal distribution and
implementation network. ACB's legion of American shock troops are many. At its core,
key operatives (called the Neocons), working within the Bush Administration, policy
research “think tanks”, specialty press, and opinion columns have achieved
amazing success at seasoning and baking ACB policy agenda items within the tenuous mold of
“vital interests” of the United States itself.
Full Policy Brief HTML PDF |
Sign
up for IRmep's periodic email bulletins!