February 18, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - The first week in
February was memorable for the failed impeachment of
President Donald Trump, the “re-elect me” State of
the Union address and the marketing
of a new line of underwear by Kim Kardashian.
Given all of the excitement, it was easy to miss a
special State Department press briefing
by Ambassador James Jeffrey held on February
5th regarding the current situation in Syria.
Jeffrey is the United
States Special Representative for Syria Engagement
and the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to
Defeat ISIL. Jeffrey has had a distinguished career
in government service, attaining senior level State
Department positions under both Democratic and
Republican presidents. He has served as U.S.
Ambassador to both Turkey and Iraq. He is, generally
speaking, a hardliner politically, closely aligned
with Israel and regarding Iran as a hostile
destabilizing force in the Middle East region. He
was between 2013 and 2018 Philip
Solondz distinguished fellow at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a think tank
that is a spin-off of the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He is currently a WINEP
“Outside Author” and go-to “expert.”
Professor John Mearsheimer
of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt,
academic dean at Harvard University ‘s Kennedy
School of Government, describe WINEP as “part of the
core” of the Israel Lobby in the U.S. They examined
the group on pages 175-6 in their groundbreaking
book The
Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy
and concluded as follows:
“Although WINEP plays down its links to
Israel and claims that it provides a ‘balanced
and realistic’ perspective on Middle East
issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is
funded and run by individuals who are deeply
committed to advancing Israel’s agenda … Many of
its personnel are genuine scholars or
experienced former officials, but they are
hardly neutral observers on most Middle East
issues and there is little diversity of views
within WINEP’s ranks.”
In early 2018 Jeffrey co-authored a WINEP special
report on Syria which urged “…the Trump
administration [to] couple a no-fly/no-drive zone
and a small residual ground presence in the
northeast with intensified sanctions against the
Assad regime’s Iranian patron. In doing so,
Washington can support local efforts to stabilize
the area, encourage Gulf partners to ‘put skin in
the game, drive a wedge between Moscow and Tehran,
and help Israel avoid all-out war.”
Note the focus on Iran and Russia as threats and
the referral to Assad and his government as a
“regime.” And the U.S. presence is to “help Israel.”
So we have Ambassador James Jeffrey leading the
charge on Syria, from an Israeli perspective that is
no doubt compatible with the White House view, which
explains why he has become Special Representative
for Syria Engagement.
