JINSA Roundup: 2

1. An audience of over 800 prominent civic, business and Jewish community leaders of Houston gathered on 5 March for JINSA’s Annual Houston Dinner and the presentation of the JINSA Leadership Award to Randall Onstead. Keynote speaker Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, used the occasion to make a major foreign policy address. He called for a coherent vision for America in its actions abroad, including support for ballistic missile defense. Forbes called Israel America’s tried and true friend in the region. He called U.S.

1. An audience of over 800 prominent civic, business and Jewish community leaders of Houston gathered on 5 March for JINSA’s Annual Houston Dinner and the presentation of the JINSA Leadership Award to Randall Onstead. Keynote speaker Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, used the occasion to make a major foreign policy address. He called for a coherent vision for America in its actions abroad, including support for ballistic missile defense. Forbes called Israel America’s tried and true friend in the region. He called U.S. financial support of the PLO a “bribe,” and enthusiastically supported strong U.S.-Israel relations based on shared democratic and strategic interests.

2. JINSA hosted Maj. Gen. Cevik Bir, Deputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff, at a breakfast meeting on 21 February. An invited audience of more than 80 American military officers, Capitol Hill staff members and JINSA members hears Gen. Bir address Turkish relations with the United States and the visit of Turkey’s Defense Minister to Israel. He thanked the JINSA delegation of retired American General Officers and lay leaders that had recently been to Turkey, and credited the group with helping to regain lost momentum in Turkish-American relations. Gen. Bir stressed Turkey’s commitment to democratic ideals, secularism and Ataturk’s Constitution.

3. Political Islam: U.S. Policy Implications, a joint publication of JINSA and the Rabbi Marc. H. Tanenbaum Foundation, has been released. This monograph is the report of a colloquium held last year by JINSA, the Tanenbaum Foundation and the GW University Group Rights and Terrorism Studies Program, bringing together 52 scholars, diplomats and political activists to discuss the role of Islam within militant political movements and the foreign policy implications of this dynamic. Copies of the report are available from the JINSA office for $15. Multiple copes are available at a discount.

4. JINSA is pleased to advise you that “Voices United for Israel,” a Jewish-Christian partnership in support of Israel, headed by JINSA Board Member Esther Levens of Kansas City, will be hosting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a breakfast on 7 April at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. For reservation information, please call “Voices United” at 1-800-688-2204.