EMET Blog Feed
- Taxpayer Funded Public Relations for the Palestinians September 1, 2010 Sarah Stern
- Here We Go ’Round the Cactus Bush August 29, 2010 Sarah Stern
About
About EMET:
Ever since its inception sixty years ago, Israel has been on the front lines of the struggle to preserve both its very life and the values it embodies of democracy, human rights, tolerance and pluralism against the forces of radical Islam. However, its proud narrative has been lost in an almost deafening cacophony of moral equivalency and political correctness. It is EMET’s mission to educate policymakers in Washington, and the general public about the importance of Israel to the United States in their common struggle against radical Islam.
We, at EMET, believe that in the perception of the radical Islamists who have waged war against our civilization and its democratic values, the United States and Israel sit in a common trench. They believe that we, in the United States are the “Great Satan”, while Israel is the “minor Satan”. Each Israel concession, therefore, whether it be land withdrawals or releasing of prisoners with blood on their hands, is therefore regarded in their minds as a victory of the forces of radical Islam over the West. We regard ourselves as “intellectual revolutionaries” who aim to turn around the prevalent foreign policy paradigm that has been empirically proven to have been a colossal failure, through Israel’s heartbreaking withdrawals from Southern Lebanon in May of 2000 and of Gaza from July and August of 2005. We, at EMET have been educating the public at large, and policymakers within the foreign policy establishment in Washington that our current foreign policy paradigm of “land for peace” has not brought us any closer to its intended objective of “peace”, but has rather been regarded in the eyes of the terrorists who hate both Israel and the United States, as a reward for their terrorist tactics, only further endangering us all. The time is long overdue to re-examine the premises of that paradigm. We also believe that we, in the United States, have a great deal to learn from the sixty years of painful experience that Israel has unfortunately had in dealing with radical Islamic terrorism. We are constantly at work writing and publishing articles, appearing on radio and television, writing and circulating white papers, arranging for forums and bringing in speakers who can help to educate us here, within the United States, about some of the lessons learned from Israel’s long and arduous struggle with the enemies who hate both nations, equally. We are constantly at work educating them about the growing nature of the very real threat of radical Islam to both nations, and promote speakers who have a similar message.
In that vein, EMET has been the only organization that has undertaken the task of finding a few, rare courageous voices of people who hail from the Muslim and Arab parts of the globe, and who have risked everything, including their very lives to tell the truth about the nature of radical Islam and of the Arab world from which they hail. All of them have “fatwas”, or Islamic death threats, on their heads. We provide them with a forum on Capitol Hill and offer them some of the honor and recognition, which they so richly deserve. It is our hope that by doing this, we will not only be rewarding these people for their outstanding heroism, but we might be encouraging others to follow along in the path of the reformers.
About our Contributing Authors:
Sarah Stern- Sarah Stern is the founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a think tank and policy center based in Washington, DC.
She has had a rather lengthy history of advocacy for the state of Israel and the Jewish people. Right after the Oslo Accords had been signed, she had been contacted by three former Israeli diplomats who had worked in the embassy in Washington under the reign of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. They told her that they harbored grave suspicions that Chairman Arafat was not going to live up to one iota of the Accords he had just signed. They asked her if she would be their conduit to Capitol Hill, and help them to get the truth out about what it was that Chairman Arafat was actually saying to his people, in Arabic and how it differed from what he was saying to Western diplomats and journalists. Sarah immediately agreed, and was thrust full throttle into the fulcrum of the Middle East debate.
After a few years of doing this, pro-bono, Sarah was hired by the Zionist Organization of America to be their National Policy Coordinator, (from 1998 through 2004). After that, she became the Director of the Office of Legislative and Governmental Affairs of the American Jewish Congress, (from 2004 through April of 2006). Sarah had played a major role in the drafting and passage of many pieces of legislation, including the Syria Accountability Act, the Koby Mandell Act, and the resolution in support of Israel’s right to build a security fence, and the inappropriateness of the referral of Israel to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
She has worked on many other issues which include; the stationing of US troops on the Golan Heights, the sale of the Harpoon block missiles to Egypt, the hiring of Hamas agents to teach at the UNRWA camps, the issue of anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in our nation’s college campuses, the treatment of religious minorities by the Moslem world,
reform of the United Nations, and energy independence for the free world.
She has testified before the Senate Working Group on Religious Minorities and Human Rights about the treatment of Christians and other religious minorities by the Palestinian Authority, and has testified before the United States Commission on Civil Rights on anti-Semitism on our nation’s college campuses.
Sarah was one of a panel of three expert witnesses on the issue of anti-Semitism on our nation’s college campuses. As a result of their testimony, the US Commission on Civil Rights has determined that anti-Semitism on our nation’s campuses is a grave problem and that Jews are to be considered a protected minority.” They are now at work issuing concrete steps to help remedy the problem.
Sarah’s effort in the drafting, lobbying for, and passage of the Koby Mandell Act has resulted in the opening of an Office for the American Victims of Terrorism abroad, in the Department of Justice. The purpose of this office is to ensure that all Americans, irrespective of where they have been injured or harmed by acts of terrorism, (even areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority), will receive an equal chance for the rigorous pursuit of justice under the law, which will not be subordinated by diplomatic or political concerns.
Sarah has written many articles, and has been published in The New Republic Online, FrontPageMag,com, InFocusMagazine,The Jerusalem Post, the Washington Jewish Week, and the Middle East Quarterly. She is the author of one novel, “Cherished Illusions”, (2005, Balfour Books), and has written a chapter in Frank Gaffney’s widely acclaimed book, “War Footing” (Naval Press. 2006).
KyleS- Kyle Shideler is the Senior Research Fellow at the Endowment for Middle East Truth. He has worked as a researcher, public relations officer and blogger for a number of non-profit organizations concerned with the rise of Radical Islam. He has also worked as a radio station News Director and briefly as an English teacher in Beijing, China. Kyle Shideler has a B.A in Politics and Literature from Boston University’s University Professors’ Program.