the Washington Institute in action - The Washington Institute for Near ...

the Washington Institute in action
the newsletter of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy | Summer 2008
Michael Stein, chairman emeritus
of The Washington Institute, honors
Benjamin, Stephen, and Jim Breslauer
at the 2008 Soref Symposium.
Read more about The Washington Institute’s
tribute to the Soref and Breslauer families, p. 4
Inside
2 A Message from Howard Berkowitz
and Robert Satloff
3 Trustee Delegation to the Middle East
4-5 The 2008 Soref Symposium
Plus Special news, announcements,
trustee events, and more
www.washingtoninstitute.org

2 | the Washington Institute in action
A Message from Howard Berkowitz
and Robert Satloff
Dear Friends,
Presidential campaigns are exciting events, not just for U.S.
citizens, but for people around the world who watch our democracy
in action. For The Washington Institute, elections
offer a unique opportunity to inject new ideas into the policy
discussion at a time when presidential candidates are open to
hearing innovative solutions to old problems. With issues in
the Middle East at the forefront of the McCain-Obama foreign
policy debate, the Institute is devoted to helping build
bipartisan consensus for core issues.
We already have noted outstanding success with the release
of our 2008 Presidential Task Force report on the future of
U.S.-Israel relations, titled “Strengthening the Partnership:
How to Deepen U.S.-Israel Cooperation on the Iranian Nuclear
Challenge.” This brief but powerful report underscores
five main points: the primacy of the Iranian nuclear threat; the
need to be cautious about a Cold War–style policy of deterrence;
the flawed December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate
on Iran; the call for heightened U.S.-Israel engagement
on all policy options; and the need for the U.S. president to
explain to Americans that stopping Iran from developing a
nuclear weapon is a U.S. strategic interest, not the product
of special pleading for Israel. Senior advisors to both presidential candidates—from
Democrats Tony Lake and Susan Rice to Republicans R. James Woolsey and Vin
Weber—were among the fifteen outside endorsers of this report. This is a great accomplishment,
given the heated political environment we see today.
Even before the ink was dry on the first report, the Institute launched a second Presidential
Task Force report on countering the ideology of radical extremism, a joint
effort of the Institute’s Project Fikra and Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
The purpose of this initiative is to dispassionately examine what works and
what does not in the fight against radical jihadist ideology, drawing on lessons from
“We already have noted outstanding success with the release of our
Presidential Task Force report on the future of U.S.-Israel relations, titled
‘Strengthening the Partnership: How to Deepen U.S.-Israel Cooperation
on the Iranian Nuclear Challenge.’ “
the Middle East and Europe. This analysis will provide the new president with nonpartisan,
professional proposals to wage the “battle of ideas.” Key members of the
two candidates’ foreign policy inner circles—Democrat Tim Roemer (a member of
the 9-11 Commission) and Republican Lorne Craner (president of the International
Republican Institute, which is chaired by John McCain)—serve on the Task Force’s
Steering Committee and are traveling with Institute senior fellows to London, Paris,
continued, p. 8
The Washington Institute
Executive Committee
President
Howard P. Berkowitz
Chairman
Fred S. Lafer
Chairman Emeritus
Michael Stein
Founding President and Chairman Emerita
Barbi Weinberg
Senior Vice Presidents
Bernard Leventhal
James Schreiber
Vice Presidents
Charles Adler
Benjamin Breslauer
Walter P. Stern
Secretary
Richard S. Abramson
Treasurer
Martin J. Gross
Committee Members
Richard Borow
Maurice Deane, emeritus
Gerald Friedman
Robert Fromer
Roger Hertog
Peter Lowy
Daniel Mintz
Fred Schwartz
Dimitri Sogoloff
Merryl Tisch
Gary Wexler
Next Generation Leadership Council
Jeffrey Abrams
Anthony Beyer
David Eigen
Adam Herz
Zachary Schreiber
Jonathan Torop
Board of Advisors
Warren Christopher
Lawrence S. Eagleburger
Alexander Haig
Max M. Kampelman
Samuel W. Lewis
Edward Luttwak
Michael Mandelbaum
Robert C. McFarlane
Martin Peretz
Richard Perle
James G. Roche
George P. Shultz
R. James Woolsey
Mortimer Zuckerman
www.washingtoninstitute.org
The Washington Institute is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Summer 2008 | 3
TRUSTEE DELEGATION TO THE MIDDLE EAST
In November 2007, a delegation of trustees and research fellows traveled in two
groups to countries in the Middle East. One group visited Turkey to study both
Turkish-U.S. relations and the future of Turkey’s secular democratic institutions.
The group was led by the director of the Institute’s Turkish Research Program, Soner
Cagaptay, as well as the Institute’s senior vice presidents, Jim Schreiber and Bud
Leventhal. The delegation spent two days in Ankara and one day in Istanbul and met
with policymakers, scholars, journalists, and community leaders. Post-trip analysis by
Soner reveals that Turkish foreign policy, which traditionally has been pro-Western,
now appears to have become complicated by a rapprochement with Iran and Syria,
posing a challenge for U.S. interests in the region.
The delegation dinner with Shimon Peres
The other delegation visited Jordan, discovering widespread concern there over
Iran’s expanding regional influence. Coming together in Israel, the entire group traveled
to Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Tel Aviv, meeting with high-level policymakers in
each location. In Israel and the Palestinian territories, it seemed apparent that real changes on the ground would be necessary in order
for further progress to occur in peace talks. According to Senior Fellow David Makovsky, the key to sustaining the momentum of the
2007 Annapolis agreement is to find ways for the people of the region, and not just policy mandarins, to perceive a serious commitment
to a peaceful future. Carolyn Edenbaum, who participated in two Institute study tours noted, “It is fascinating to see how the
meetings in conjunction with the Institute’s study tours help move issues forward.”
For more information about The Washington Institute’s study tours,
contact: Jeanne Epstein at 561-596-7624 or jepstein@washingtoninstitute.org
David Makovsky with Brig.
Gen. Yossi Baidatz, former Institute
military fellow
Jordan delegation leaves for
Petra via helicopter
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert
addresses Institute trustees
Ambassador Dennis Ross leading
the discussion with Fatah “Young
Guard” members in Ramallah
Trustee Jim Schreiber (left) and Senior
Fellow Soner Cagaptay (right) walking
with Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu
Briefing with Turkish army leaders

4 | the Washington Institute in action
THE 2008 SOREF SYMPOSIUM
Our twentieth, and perhaps our finest ever.
Many ingredients go into a successful symposium—first-class
speakers, compelling issues, seamless organization, and a powerful rationale
that makes our efforts meaningful and important. This year’s
Soref Symposium—which included a special tribute to the Soref and
Breslauer families for their two decades of selfless support—had all of
those ingredients in abundance.
The rationale came from the urgent need
for America and its allies to confront one
of the most serious and sobering threats to
our common security: the prospect of a nuclear
Iran. Indeed, the challenge of preventing
Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons
hovered over our event—from the opening
keynote speech by the deputy head of the
U.S. intelligence community, Donald Kerr,
to the closing address by Israel’s deputy
prime minister, Haim Ramon.
“We’ve got a reasonable chance to continue
to advance the cause of democracy . . . the
rule of law, civil society, [and] institutions
of public reason . . . including in the parts of
the world where they are most absent—Central Asia and
the Middle East.”
—R. James Woolsey, former director of central intelligence
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey
and Ambassador Dennis Ross both underscored
the seismic implications of a
nuclear Iran—including the potential for
“Any compromise [with] ‘evil’ will ensure
failure, making strategy and morality
inextricably linked. Morally, Israel shares
beliefs in democracy and national
identity with the United States, and is strategically at the
forefront of the war against fundamentalism.”
nuclear terrorism, nuclear blackmail, and
nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle
East—and offered a series of practical
suggestions for how Washington could
lead international efforts to increase pressure
on the Iranian regime.
—Natan Sharansky, former Israeli minister and human rights advocate

Summer 2008 | 5
“We assess that convincing the Iranian
leadership to forgo the eventual
development of nuclear weapons will
be difficult, given the linkage many
within the leadership see between nuclear weapons
development and Iran’s key national security and foreign
policy objectives. . . . ”
—Donald Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence
On other key issues, more than 350 senior
officials, journalists, and diplomats in attendance
heard former Palestinian Authority
political advisor Ghaith al-Omari deliver
a stinging rebuke of former president
Jimmy Carter for his overture to Hamas,
while former U.S. ambassador to Syria
Theodore Kattouf suggested that, even in
the best of circumstances, Syrian leader
Bashar al-Asad would never pursue a Sadatlike
option of turning away completely
from his radical allies in Iran and Hizballah
in order to make peace with Israel or build a
relationship with the United States.
These are only the highlights of our remarkably
successful 2008 Soref Symposium.
Perhaps you saw some of it on
C-SPAN, which broadcast the entire event
live, coast-to-coast. If you missed it, you
can still watch all the speeches and presentations,
including the private trustee
briefings, on the Institute’s award-winning
website, www.washingtoninstitute.org.
Simply go to “Multimedia” after signing
on to the password-protected Trustee
Area of the website.
For their part, former Israeli ambassador
Itamar Rabinovich and former Israeli
minister Natan Sharansky made stirring,
often impassioned pleas to counter
the creeping anti-Semitism that passes
for criticism of Israel and its warnings
about the existential nature of the Iranian
threat.
“What the United States can do is help
design the process that will enable the
Palestinians and the Israelis to withstand
the [presidential] transition . . . and to
strengthen the chances for reaching a peace deal.”
— Ghaith al-Omari, senior fellow at the American Task Force for Palestine and former
political advisor to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas

6 | the Washington Institute in action
Thanks to you
we are forging new
relationships behind
the scenes
Presidential Task Forces for
the remainder of 2008
Combating the Ideology
of Radical Extremism
Aims to advise the next administration
on the most effective
methods of fighting jihadist ideology
and improving U.S. policy in
this critical arena.
Preventing Nuclear
Proliferation in the
Middle East
Aims to clarify the requirements of
preventing Iran and other nations
from developing nuclear-weapons
programs, rather than deterring
that capability after it is created.
Strategic Dialogues
in 2008
Breakdown/Breakthrough
Project
Aims to “accentuate the positive and
limit the negative” in how the Bush
administration hands over the U.S.
role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process to its successor.
The Israeli-Palestinian
Security Assessment Project
Aims to provide independent
recommendations on defining the
appropriate role for the United
States in the security aspects of an
Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
Fedaks’ legacy gift
sets new standard
The leadership and staff of The Washington
Institute express their deep appreciation to
Marilyn and Michael Fedak for their generous
bequest of $10 million to continue the
Institute’s vital work. The Fedaks’ bequest
is the largest one-time contribution ever received.
“The Washington Institute is an enormously
influential voice in the conversation about
the future of the Middle East. We believe
that its role will only become greater in coming
years as growing turbulence threatens
the region,” said Michael Fedak. “We want
to help ensure that the Institute has the financial
resources to remain at center stage,
and we hope that our bequest inspires other
trustees and supporters to make similar
commitments.”
Dinner will honor Dr. Kissinger
On October 6, 2008, The Washington Institute
will host the second annual Scholar-Statesman
Award Dinner in New York City. This year, the Institute
honors former secretary of state Dr. Henry Kissinger for his
extensive career in public service and the contributions he has
made to scholarly literature in the field of foreign affairs.
The date of this year’s dinner is particularly noteworthy as it coincides
with the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.
Dr. Kissinger’s diplomacy was instrumental in bringing about the end of that war and in launching
subsequent Egyptian-Israeli negotiations that gave birth to the Arab-Israeli “peace process.”
Over a lifetime of public service, Dr. Kissinger served as a consultant to several government agencies
including the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the National Security Council, and the
Department of State. He served as secretary of state under President Richard Nixon and later Gerald
Ford from 1973 to 1977.
Scholar-Statesman Award Dinner Chairs
Ahuva and Martin Gross
Co-Chairs
Sidney Lapidus, Zachary Schreiber, and Marcia Robbins-Wilf
For more information on ways to leave a legacy
gift to The Washington Institute, please
contact Laura Milstein at 202-452-0650.

Events and photo gallery
Summer 2008 | 7
2 3
1
5
4
6 7 8
1 Trustee and former Soref fellow Jonathan Torop with his son at the 2008 Soref Symposium. 2 Benjamin, Stephen, and Jim Breslauer
are honored at the 2008 Soref Symposium as the Institute remembered Helene and Samuel Soref. 3 Major General (ret.) Eytan Ben-
Eliyahu and Robert Satloff at the April 2008 Southern California Symposium. 4 Barbara Lafer asks a question of Ambassador Dennis
Ross at the 2008 Soref Symposium. 5 Robert Satloff, Farah Pandith, and J. Scott Carpenter at the Annual Fred S. Lafer Symposium
in New York City. 6 Barbi Weinberg, Michael Stein, Fred Lafer, and Howard Berkowitz—past and present Institute presidents.
7 Robert Fromer (left) with the Institute’s Wexler-Fromer fellow, Martin Kramer. 8 Martin Gross (left) and Ambassador Itamar
Rabinovich at the 2008 Soref Symposium.
UPCOMING REGIONAL AND NATIONAL EVENTS
September 19-21, 2008: Weinberg Founders Conference,
Lansdowne Resort and Conference Center, Leesburg, VA
October 6, 2008: Scholar-Statesman Award Dinner honoring Dr. Henry Kissinger,
Plaza Hotel, New York City
December 22, 2008, 3:30 pm: Florida Symposium and Reception,
Palm Beach Country Club, Palm Beach, FL

8 | the Washington Institute in action
continued from p. 2
and Amsterdam to see firsthand the ways
in which extremism challenges Europe
today. The personal relationships our experts
build with influential policymakers
in the course of this effort are sure to be
invaluable.
Two other initiatives we have recently
launched focus specifically on the vagaries
of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in
the final months of the Bush administration.
The first—our Israeli-Palestinian
Security Assessment Project—brings together
three independent, well-respected
security experts (former deputy national
security advisor J.D. Crouch, former undersecretary
of defense Walter Slocombe,
and retired four-star general Montgomery
Meigs)—to survey the security aspects of
negotiations and assess how Palestinian
statehood can affect U.S. security interests
for the Levant and for our regional
partners. The second—our Breakdown/
Breakthrough Project—analyzes lessons
learned from the last year of the Clinton
administration, which saw both an unprecedented
effort to broker a peace agreement
and an outbreak of the worst violence in
the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The project asks whether one of those
outcomes can occur before President Bush
leaves office.
In addition, the Institute continues with
other important activities, such as the
full-day seminar on Iran that we recently
hosted for the U.S. Navy; the behind-thescenes
advice we provide to agencies that
devise and implement sanctions on Iran;
the private briefings our senior fellows
give to the White House, National Security
Council, or intelligence agencies; and
the face-to-face meetings that take place
between our experts and the secretary of
state, the chairman of the joint chiefs of
staff, and even the president of the United
States.
The impressive investment we make in
the Institute’s human capital—our experts—would
not be possible without the
generous support of our trustees. Your
contributions to our uniquely significant
programs and events show that you recognize
the importance of building bipartisan
support for all of these vital issues.
Cordially,
Howard Berkowitz
President
Robert Satloff
Executive Director
Presidential
Task Force
on the Future
of U.S.-Israel
Relations
2008 PR E SI DE N T I A L TA SK FORC E S
Task Force on the Future
of U.S.-Israel Relations
Strengthening
the Partnership
How to Deepen U.S.-Israel
Cooperation on the
Iranian Nuclear Challenge
Download at WashingtonInstitute.org
The decisions facing the next U.S. president will
affect the future of the region you care about
Be a part of the debate. Reserve your place now.
The Washington Institute’s Annual
Weinberg Founders Conference
September 19-21, 2008
Lansdowne Resort and Conference Center
Leesburg, Virginia
For reservations or more information, contact Ali Medlin
at 202-452-0650 or amedlin@washingtoninstitute.org