David Steinmann

In 2000, Steinmann was a signatory to a Middle East Forum (MEF) report coauthored by Daniel Pipes, who founded the MEF, and Ziad Abdelnour, who founded the now mostly defunct U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL); Steinmann served on the USCFL board and continues to serve on the board for the Middle East Forum. The report, "Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role," called for U.S. military action to force Syria out of Lebanon and disarm Syria of alleged weapons of mass destruction. Other signatories included Elliott Abrams, Paula Dobriansky, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Michael Rubin, and David Wurmser (see "Ending Syria's Occupation," May 2000).

Among the rightist policy wonks and retired Israeli and American military officers who often populate the boards of hardline, pro-Israel organizations, Steinmann is an unusual player. He has been with the William Rosenwald Family Fund since 1976. According to the foundation's Form 990, Steinmann was the foundation's only paid officer in 2005, serving as president and treasurer (GuideStar.org). Steinmann also plays a leading role at American Securities, L.P., a merchant and investment banking firm in New York (New York Times, November 1, 1996).

In 2005, the Rosenwald Fund had more than $25 million in assets and donated more than $1.7 million to dozens of organizations including Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI), MEF, JINSA, the Golan Fund, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), the American Jewish Committee, American and Israel Research and Friendship Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute (2005 Form 990). Steinmann is on the board or closely affiliated with several of these organizations, including the America-Israel Friendship League (along with Jack Kemp and Paul Valelly, among many others—see AIFL U.S. Board). Steinmann was also a founding member of One Jerusalem, which says its sole objective is to keep Jerusalem united under Israeli rule.

Steinmann penned an article for the right-wing website Family Security Matters in 2006, portraying the West in a cultural war with Islamic society. He wrote: "When one party comes to the conflict with an unyielding, intolerant insistence on having it done their way, as so many Muslims do when they come to western countries, then our tried and true approach to conflict resolution—tolerance, compromise, understanding, flexibility—fails and we are left having yielded to demands which, were they to have been seen and understood in the context of a multi-faceted on-going, protracted cultural and religious war would never have been made" (Family Security Matters, November 14, 2006).

In a 1995 opinion piece, Steinmann compared the "Israel peace process" (conveniently leaving the Palestinians out of the peace process) to the debate in the United States about abortion saying, "The discussion among Israel's friends, at least in the United States, about the peace process very quickly became subject to labels. One was either for or against peace when, in fact, it is difficult to find anyone who is against peace, only people who are concerned about the government's negotiating techniques and ultimately the security of the State of Israel."

With Steinmann at its helm, JINSA helped lead the debate in the United States about Israel's policy in the Golan Heights during "land-for-peace" negotiations with Syria following the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. At the height of the Israel-Syria negotiations, JINSA organized events debating Middle East security issues, and insisted the forums were not anti-peace process. "Having played an enormous role in the creation and sustenance of the Jewish State, and having been encouraged to do so at every turn financially, politically, and emotionally, it is really unfair now to say to American Jewry that the expression of legitimate concerns about the current process is somehow an expression of opposition of peace," he claimed in a 1995 opinion piece. "It is time for the Israeli government to recognize that many of those whom it denigrates as opposing peace have been among its most fervent supporters" ("American Jews and the Israel Peace Process," Jewish Advocate, September 14 1995).

Steinmann is a fervent supporter on the Golan Heights issue. Among his many other institutional affiliations, he is a member of the Golan Fund, which supports expanding Jewish life in the Golan Heights by strengthening 32 communities and the city of Qatzrin, and the American Friends of Qatzrin, an organization that funds Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights.

Government Service

Private Sector

Education

Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Board of Advisers profile: David P. Steinmann, http://www.jinsa.org/about/adboard/adboard.html.

Daniel Pipes and Ziad Abdelnour, "Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role," Middle East Forum Lebanon Study Group, May 2000, http://www.meforum.org/research/lsg.php.

Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003, Public Law 108-175, December 12, 2003.

David P. Steinmann, "American Jews and the Israel Peace Process," Jewish Advocate , September 14, 1995.

Jason Vest, "The Men from JINSA and CSP," Nation, August 15, 2002, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020902/vest/2.

Lawrence Van Gelder, " William Rosenwald Dies: Benefactor to Many Was 93," New York Times, November 1, 1996, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E6D81E39F932A35752C1A960958260.

David P. Steinmann, " America Must Adapt to Radical Islam's Strategies in our Homeland," Family Security Matters, November 14, 2006, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=414758.

Center for Security Policy, Board of Directors, http://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/Home.aspx?CategoryID=47&SubCategoryID=51.

Middle East Forum, Board of Governors, http://www.meforum.org/governors.php.

America-Israel Friendship League, U.S. Board, http://www.aifl.org/html/web/about_board_us.html.

Center for Jewish Studies Advisory Board, http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/Jewish_Studies/cfjs.htm .

One Jerusalem, Founding Members, http://www.onejerusalem.org/history.asp.

William Rosenwald Family Organization, 2005 Form 990, GuideStar.org.

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