Friends of Israel Initiative

The Friends of Israel Initiative (FOII) is a “pro-Israel” advocacy organization founded and chaired by former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar. According to Aznar, the organization is intended to form a “strategic alliance between Jews and non-Jews.”[1]

Officially launched at a British House of Commons event hosted by the Henry Jackson Society in July 2010, FOII says it aims “to counter the growing efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and its right to live in peace within safe and defensible borders.”[2]

The group’s website has a page devoted to its “Founder Members,” who include several well known international figures, including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, the rightist Catholic theologian George Weigel, former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, and former Czech Republic President Václav Havel.[3]

FOII emphasizes that its key concerns are “radical Islamism” and Iran. According to its website: “Although the peace process is important, the members of the Friends of Israel Initiative are even more concerned about the onslaught of radical Islamism as well as the specter of a nuclear Iran, both of which threaten the entire world.”[4]

The group’s activities include publishing “working papers” and brief “dispatches and alerts” covering topics related to Israel. It also hosts events and promotes op-eds written by its members.[5]

Although FOII is headquartered in Madrid, Spain,[6] the organization had over $1.5 million in total revenues in 2012 in the United States alone, according to its 2012 Form 990.[7]

Views

FOII and its members have campaigned vociferously against the Obama administration’s diplomatic approach towards resolving the Iranian nuclear dispute. In a November 2012 Wall Street Journal op-ed written shortly after Iran and world powers agreed to extend the deadline to reach a comprehensive agreement to July 2015, FOII Chairman José María Aznar claimed: “In our willingness to play Iran’s game, I believe that we are marching toward signing a very bad deal with Iran.” Aznar went on: “This is not the time to make more concessions, but the time to put more pressure on the ayatollahs.”[8]

In an April 2014 “working paper,” FOII member Richard Kemp argued that demands on Iran during the nuclear talks should be broadened. “The international community should impose a price on Iran for continuing its support of terrorism against Israel. It should take full account of Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism in any decisions made on whether or not to relax sanctions and financial measures on Iran, as well as other relevant concessions, as a result of ongoing nuclear negotiations,” Kemp wrote. “It should condition further progress on these negotiations on Iran’s support for terrorism against Israel.”[9]

A July 2014 working paper claimed that Israeli settlements are not an obstacle to reaching peace with the Palestinians and that they are not illegal under international law. “Settlements have become an exaggerated issue in the diplomatic discourse over Israel,” wrote Kemp. “Settlement activity, like the construction of homes and schools, does not constitute a violation of Israel’s signed agreements with the Palestinians.”[10]

Kemp added: “The assertion that settlement activity is a violation of international law is not universally accepted, though it is frequently stated in UN debates and in the declarations of the European Union.”[11]