MEF Accomplishments

From January through August 2021:

Think

We educate decision-makers and the public.

• Writings – We published 302 articles in the first eight months of 2021 on topics ranging from Qatar's influence on Afghanistan and the limits of Israel's Iron Dome, to the radicalization of Muslim children and the narrowing Saudi gender gap. Our work appeared in mass publications such as Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal; D.C.-focused publications such as The Hill and The Washington Examiner; foreign publications such as The Jerusalem Post and The Toronto Sun; and specialist publications such as Defense News and Nordic Monitor.


• Webinars – Recent topics in our thrice-weekly series have focused on the Taliban's Victory, Saudi Arabia's next generation leadership, and France's changing attitude toward Islamism. In March, our webinar on Biden administration foreign policy featuring Forum president Daniel Pipes with Elliott Abrams, a top foreign policy official in the Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump administrations, was featured on C-SPAN. Former Vice President Mike Pence will appear this fall. To sign up for notices of future events, click here. For past ones, go to YouTube.

Action

We team subject matter experts with activists to promote American interests at home and across the globe.

• Ending University Ties with Terrorists – We twice helped frustrate plans by unrepentant Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled to address U.S. universities, first at San Francisco State University, then at the University of California, Merced. We worked with Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, and Eventbrite to cut her off; and with Congressman Doug Lamborn for a Justice Department investigation.


• Exposing Islamist Influence Operations – We uncovered a Pakistani influence operation – which utilizes lobbyists, congressmen, terror supporters, and well-organized grassroots networks of American Pakistani Muslims – to advance Islamist interests in the U.S. while attacking India, using Kashmir as a pretext.


• Promoting an Israel Victory over the Palestinians – In Israel, we won a major Supreme Court case allowing us to plaster our provocative Victory billboards across the country. In the U.S., we encouraged the "outside-in" approach over "peace-processing," leading to Israel's new relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.


• Countering Islamists on the local level – We exposed Manhattan District Attorney candidate Tahanie Aboushi's numerous links to Islamists and anti-Israel extremists, publishing our findings in the Jewish News Syndicate. The office is one of the most powerful legal institutions in America, and polls showed Aboushi "neck and neck" at the top of the race. Following our publication she faded, ending up in third-place.

Compliments (including back-handed ones)

• "The Middle East Forum is widely known for its meticulous journalistic investigations in the U.S."– Indo-Asian News Service via Yahoo News, May 30, 2021.


• "The Israel Victory Project has begun to insinuate itself into the Israeli political discourse." – Aharon Klieman's lament in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, April 8, 2021.