Think tanks

Following on Backspin’s recent listing of the 18 Most Asked About Israeli Sites let’s go over some of the best pro-Israel think tanks out there. (Before I get to the think tanks, here’s one more Israeli government site that’s probably worth being familiar with: MASHAV, where you can learn about the good works Israel does for countries who routinely condemn Israel in the UN.)

Part of the impetus for listing the think tanks is the recent re-design of GLORIA. GLORIA or Global Research in International Affairs (Center) is run by Prof. Barry Rubin and is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya. Also affilated with the IDC is the ICT or the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

I highly recommend the GLORIA site for up-to-the-minute papers on current topics concering the Middle East. I am not as familiar with the ICT website, but I’ve occasionally found good material there as well.

There is also the The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which is affiliated with Tel Aviv University. Its output appears to be very much within the mainstream of Israel’s political world.

The Saban Center looks like it produces pretty standard leftist research. Like the INSS it appears to have strong ties to newsmakers, though not geared as exclusively to Israel as the INSS.

Another think tank that I rely on is the Jerusalem Council for Public Affairs. Run by Dr. Dore Gold, a former advisor to PM Netanyahu, it produces papers by academic and military experts. It also runs Daily Alert a daily report with “clippings” from major news stories regarding Israel. Daily Alert is available by e-mail.

The Middle East Forum is run by Daniel Pipes and features a number of related organizations. It’s experts are mostly academic and they produce essay for the Middle East Quarterly as well as op-eds for the media. A number of its offerings – including weekly columsn by Dr. Pipes – are available via e-mail.

The one final think tank that I’ll mention is the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It’s run by Robert Satloff and its most famous member is Dennis Ross, advisor to presidents. It features a wide array of experts and its members often contribute op-eds or magazine length essays.

It’s probably unfair to refer to these thank-tanks as pro-Israel, although most of them do produce work is considered pro-Israel. They do, however, focus on the Middle East. They all produce work that can be useful in supporting your work.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.