The Israel Project (TIP) is a Washington- and Jerusalem-based lobbying outfit that aims to provide journalists and the public with information about Israel and the Middle East with the goal of giving a "more positive public face" to the country. Claiming to be a "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization impacting world opinion to help achieve security and peace for Israel," the group advocates a number of positions similar to other hardline and neoconservative pro-Israel groups. It supports the controversial wall along the West Bank, advocates a hardline against Iran, and actively promotes the work of hawkish think tanks and writers.
Though it is a young organization, soon after it was founded, TIP quickly generated enormous attention and support. In August 2004, for example, when Amb. Arye Mekel, Israel's new consul general in New York, made his first public appearance in the United States, it was at an event organized by TIP and held on a yacht at New York's Chelsea Piers. Reported the New York Sun: " The Israel Project, founded in 2002, is a newcomer to the already crowded field of American pro-Israel organizations. But it seems to be welcomed by the established groups: also in attendance at the event yesterday were the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, and the executive vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Michael Miller."
More impressive was TIP's July 19, 2007, press conference held on Capitol Hill to publicize the "Iranian threat," at which a number of current and former congressional members and well-known neoconservative pundits spoke, including Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. According to TIP's website, among those speaking at the event were Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV), and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY). Engel, who serves on TIP's board of advisers, told the audience: "This is our Munich. We need to stand up to Iran and tell them they cannot thumb their noses at world opinion" (quoted in Inter Press Service, July 23, 2007).
Many 2008 presidential candidates contributed statements to the press conference, including Sen. Joe Biden, (D-DE), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), former Sen. John Edwards, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). In his statement, Obama said: "Allowing Iran, a radical theocracy that supports terrorism and openly threatens its neighbors, to acquire nuclear weapons is a risk we cannot take. All nations need to understand that, while Iran's most explicit and intolerable threats are aimed at Israel, its conduct threatens all of us."
TIP has both a board of advisers and a board of directors. The advisers include 15 current and former U.S. senators and representatives—as well as actor Ron Silver. Divided almost equally among Democrats and Republicans, advisers include Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), former Sen. Rick Santorum, Engel, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). The board of directors is led by Chairman Michael Gelman, a Clinton appointee to the Holocaust Memorial Council and founding partner of the accounting firm Gelman, Rosenberg, & Freedman, and by Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, TIP's founder, director, and main media personality.
Although the organization is not represented by any of the usual neoconservative suspects who typically populate the boards of like-minded organizations, TIP's website prominently promotes many hardline outfits and personalities. Its "Israel-Related Links" and "Sources" pages provide information and links to the Meyrav Wurmser-founded Middle East Media Research Institute; Clifford May and Walid Phares of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Gaffney and CSP; David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council; and Ken Timmerman of the Middle East Data Project.
TIP's core activities include funding public opinion polls on U.S. views of Israel and its neighbors and producing TV commercials promoting an Israel-centric vision of Middle East peace. In early 2004, for example, the group began running 30-second TV ads across the United States, which according to UPI (February 18, 2004) featured "mothers of victims killed in suicide bombings" in an effort to build support for building the so-called security barrier between Israel and the West Bank.
During the Summer 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, TIP hired Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research to undertake an opinion poll aimed at measuring U.S. public support for Israel as that country bombed southern Lebanon. According to Christian Science Monitor, the TIP poll found that support for Israel had risen to 60% by July 2006, up from 45% that January. Asked about the poll, TIP's Jennifer Laszlo Mizrah said: "Americans are so close to Israel that when Israel's at war, they really rally around Israel." She added, however: "You can't expect that that level of excitement will sustain throughout a military engagement" (July 24, 2006).
According to TIP's 2004 Form 990, the group received more than $4 million in "direct public support," up from $1.8 million in 2003. Most of its nearly $3 million 2004 operating expenses were devoted to "research" and "advocacy." Close to $2 million on advocacy was aimed at conducting "outreach and education to improve U.S. understanding of the vital nature of a strong relationship between Israel and other countries around the world, primarily the United States." (TIP's 2003 and 2004 Form 990s are available on Guidestar.org.)
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Contact Information
The Israel Project (Washington Office)
2020 K Street, NW; Suite 7600
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: 202-857-6644
Fax: 202-857-6674
E-mail: info@theisraelproject.org
Web: www.theisraelproject.org/
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