fair.org
Truth in Labeling
Despite ties to two governments, WINEP succeeds in neutral pose
By Ali Abunimah and Sam Husseini
When the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, recently became the most senior U.S. diplomat ever to have his security clearance suspended, the New York Times (9/23/00) provided a brief sketch of his "unusual career," listing some of the positions Indyk has held in the past. One of them was Indyk's former post as head of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP).
But the Times didn't mention that prior to founding WINEP in 1985, Indyk served as head of research at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)--a group that proudly dubs itself "America's Pro-Israel Lobby." Indyk's smooth transition from one group to the other speaks volumes about WINEP, one of the most influential foreign affairs think tanks in Washington.
WINEP sometimes so dominates media discussion that on at least one occasion (6/28/93), the PBS NewsHour featured not one but two WINEP analysts (Laurie Mylroie and Michael Eisenstadt). Patrick Clawson, WINEP's director of research, has emerged as one of the media's favorite pundits on Iraq and is frequently cited as a source by newspapers like the Washington Post, L.A. Times and Boston Globe, as well as appearing repeatedly on CNN, NBC, PBS and NPR. The institute's board includes both Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report, and Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic.
In WINEP's early days, there was little confusion in the media about where the group stood: The New York Times (9/17/88) referred to WINEP as "a group with a pro-Israeli orientation" (7/20/86), while the Los Angeles Times (9/17/88) called it "staunchly pro-Israeli." In 1989, a Washington Post profile (3/24/89) noted that Indyk disliked the description of the institute as "pro-Israeli." "The image that I would like to convey," Indyk explained, "is that we are friendly to Israel but doing credible research on the Middle East in a realistic and balanced way."
But such truth in labeling has largely disappeared as WINEP has morphed into merely a respected "research and study center" (New York Times, 9/17/88), a "private research organization" (L.A. Times, 8/26/90) or a "private think tank" (Boston Globe, 7/15/92). Today, WINEP's roots and strong associations with Israel--as well as with the U.S. government--are seldom mentioned by either print or broadcast media, though WINEP staff are ubiquitous as experts and commentators.
In contrast to more candidly pro-Israel groups like CAMERA or FLAME, WINEP's pro-Israel perspective is usually couched in the language of scholarly debate. With its ostensible neutrality unchallenged, WINEP enjoys an unrivalled platform in the media to push its decidedly non-neutral views on the Middle East.
One of Indyk's declared early goals was to place WINEP's thinking about how the U.S. should approach Middle East policy at the heart of government. It has scored undeniable success with this strategy. Each presidential election year, WINEP reports have provided much of the framework for U.S. policy assessment, and authors of the reports joined the Bush and Clinton administrations. It was Indyk who first unveiled the Clinton administration's "dual containment" strategy for the Persian Gulf. And the administration has heeded Indyk's advice on negotiating peace treaties between Israel and its neighbors.
Success with disseminating its ideas was soon followed by success in getting WINEP staffers into the actual government positions with responsibility for the policy areas that most concerned WINEP. Indyk himself was appointed to the National Security Council by President Clinton in 1993, and since then has twice been named U.S. Ambassador to Israel, with a stint as assistant secretary of state for the Near East in between. Dennis Ross, who was a resident scholar at WINEP after working for the Bush State Department, is currently President Clinton's special envoy to the Middle East.
Not only have WINEP staffers found homes in senior U.S. government posts, the organization has itself become a home for both present and former U.S. government and military officials: In addition to hosting a serving Air Force lieutenant colonel as its national defense fellow, the current head of WINEP's "Turkish Program," Alan Makovsky, was a long-time official at the State Department with responsibilities in the Middle East, particularly northern Iraq, and Southern Europe. WINEP's board has no fewer than three former U.S. secretaries of state, and an array of former ambassadors and National Security Council staffers.
WINEP also has a comfortable relationship with the Israeli military, political and media establishments, particularly with the Jafee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Israelis such as Yossi Olmert and Dore Gold (both served in Benjamin Netanyahu's government) are well-represented among WINEP authors and former fellows. Israeli military analyst and Ha'aretz correspondent Ze'ev Schiff is currently an associate scholar, as is Israeli TV journalist Ehud Yaari. The current visiting military fellow is Yossi Baidatz from the Israel Defense Forces.
Even as its staffers rotate in and out of senior government posts, WINEP gets to play the role of the outside analyst. Its Iraq expert, Patrick Clawson, was even quoted in the Washington Post (9/30/00) as a "critic of U.S. policy on Iraq." Clawson blamed "international concern about the suffering of ordinary Iraqis" for causing the administration's support for the U.N. sanctions to weaken. But Clawson added that the damage wasn't too severe: "This [softening of the sanctions] is not life-threatening," Clawson cheerfully told the Post. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, the sanctions have led to the deaths of about 500,000 Iraqi children under age 5 since 1990.
There are no Arabs, Arab-Americans or advocates for Palestinian rights on WINEP's board or permanent staff, though among the visiting fellows for 2000 are two Egyptian academics and a Jordanian who was formerly an advisor to Prince Hasan, an ally of U.S. policy in the region.
Visitors to its website are greeted with the declaration that "the Washington Institute has become a highly respected and widely quoted source for the policymaking community and the media." This is one claim that is hard to dispute. It’s an achievement that reflects well on WINEP’s public relations skills, but it doesn’t say much for establishment media’s ability to cite diverse, balanced sources. |
