National Summit to Reassess the US-Israel "Special Relationship": I) Paul Pillar: Are threats to Israel's security inflated to justify occupation and U.S. support? II) Philip Giraldi: Is Israel a U.S. ally? III) Mark Perry: Mossad poses as CIA? National security reporting IV) Gareth Porter: The "Manufactured Crisis" and drive for U.S. / Israel military actions against Iran V) Stephen Walt: The "special relationship" and what has changed since "The Israel Lobby" book.

U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel has grown significantly and steadily throughout the past 60 years and now dwarfs annual American foreign assistance to all other nations. Research indicates the U.S.-Israel "special relationship" is a major factor in foreign hostility towards Americans. Some experts suggest that Israel has been central to U.S. wars in the Middle East.

However, the huge public backlash against Israel lobby-generated momentum for U.S. attacks on Syria and Iran indicates that Americans are concerned about the direction of U.S. foreign policy, how it is made, and those trying to make it. Despite such concerns, Congress has not examined the impact of Israel lobbying influence on overall U.S. national security and international standing since the 1960s. The time has therefore come for an expert inquiry with broad American citizen participation.

This historic summit will provide an in-depth, multifaceted inquiry into this critical subject matter. Panelists will include former military and diplomatic personnel, intelligence officers, scholars, economists, researchers and a variety of other subject-matter experts and authors often shut out of key discussions in public forums and news media outlets. Members of the public will be allowed to ask the key questions and network with other attendees.

This nonpartisan symposium will examine the impact of the U.S.-Israel relationship on Americans. Speakers and attendees will include military, diplomatic, intelligence, academic, governmental, research organization and economic experts, as well as former and current members of Congress.

Εάν θα έπρεπε να επιλέξω ιεραρχώντας τις ομιλίες, θα πρότεινα οπωσδήποτε την ομιλία I) του Paul Pillar και την ομιλία III) όπου ένας -σχεδόν- συγκλονιστικός Mark Perry ξεκαθαρίζει ορισμένα βασικά πράγματα. Οι ομιλίες II) και IV) έχουν ενδιαφέροντα -και ίσως για κάποιους «καυστικά»- στοιχεία (την τελευταία ομιλία την παραθέτω κυρίως για λόγους συμβολικούς). Συνολικά οι ομιλίες της συνόδου είναι είκοσιτέσσερις (24). Εδώ έχω επιλέξει πέντε τις οποίες θεώρησα κομβικές.

Paul Pillar retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. Earlier he served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units at the CIA covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Professor Pillar also served in the National Intelligence Council as one of the original members of its Analytic Group. He has been Executive Assistant to CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence and Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He has also headed the Assessments and Information Group of the DCI Counterterrorist Center, and from 1997 to 1999 was deputy chief of the center. He was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution in 1999-2000. Professor Pillar is a retired officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and served on active duty in 1971-1973, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

Philip Giraldi is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Giraldi is a recognized authority on international security and counterterrorism issues. He is a regular contributor to Antiwar.com in a column titled "Smoke and Mirrors" and is a Contributing Editor who writes a column called "Deep Background" on terrorism, intelligence, and security issues for The American Conservative magazine. He has written op-ed pieces for the Hearst Newspaper chain, has appeared on Good Morning America, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and local affiliates of ABC television. He has been a keynote speaker at the Petroleum Industry Security Council annual meeting, has spoken twice at the American Conservative Union's annual CPAC convention in Washington, and has addressed several World Affairs Council affiliates. He has been interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Britain's Independent Television Network, FOX News, Polish National Television, Croatian National Television, al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, 60 Minutes, and Court TV. He prepares and edits a nationally syndicated subscription service newsletter on September 11th issues for corporate clients. Giraldi is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a group that advocates for more even handed policies by the U.S. government in the Middle East.

Mark Perry is an American author specializing in military, intelligence, and foreign affairs analysis who has authored eight books: Four Stars: The Inside Story of the Forty-Year Battle Between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and America's Civilian Leaders, Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA, A Fire In Zion: Inside the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, Conceived in Liberty, Lift Up Thy Voice, Grant and Twain, Partners In Command, and Talking To Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies. Perry's articles have been featured in a number of leading publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Newsday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Plain Dealer. He is a graduate of Northwestern Military and Naval Academy and of Boston University. Perry is the former co-Director of the Washington, D.C., London, and Beirut-based Conflicts Forum, which specializes in engaging with Islamist movements in the Levant in dialogue with the West. Perry served as co-Director for over five years. Perry served as an unofficial advisor to PLO Chairman and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from 1989 to 2004. Perry has appeared on numerous national and international televised forums and is a frequent guest commentator and expert on Al-Jazeera television, has appeared regularly on CNN's The International Hour and on Special Assignment. Perry's books have met with critical acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other publications. He has served as editor of Washington D.C.'s City Paper, and The Veteran, the largest circulation newspaper for veterans. Perry was also Washington correspondent for The Palestine Report, and is currently a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Perry is the recipient of both the 1995 National Jewish Book Award for his second book, A Fire In Zion, as well as journalism's prestigious "Project Censored" Award.

Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and historian who specializes in U.S. national security policy. He writes regularly for IPS and has also published investigative articles on Salon.com, the Nation, the American Prospect, Truthout and The Raw Story. His blogs have been published on Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Counterpunch and many other websites. Porter was Saigon bureau chief of Dispatch News Service International in 1971 and later reported on trips to Southeast Asia for The Guardian, Asian Wall Street Journal and Pacific News Service. He is the author of four books on the Vietnam War and the political system of Vietnam. His most recent book is Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. The book highlights the impact that the United States' alliance with Israel had on Washington's turning the International Atomic Energy Agency into a tool of its anti-Iran policy.

Stephen M. Walt is professor of International Affairs at Harvard University; previously taught at Princeton University, University of Chicago; consultant for the Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and the National Defense University. He presently serves on the editorial boards of Foreign Policy, Security Studies, International Relations, and Journal of Cold War Studies.

Walt also serves as Co-Editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs. Author of The Origins of Alliances, which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award and, with co-author John J. Mearsheimer of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

1) Ο ιστότοπος της συνόδου - 2) Το πρόγραμμα της συνόδου και παραπομπές στα απομαγνητοφωνημένα κείμενα και τα βίντεο των ομιλητών (Video, Audio and Speaker Transcripts).

"..a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."

George Washington, Farewell Address

- Προς -Ίσραηλινή- γνώσιν.

- Paul Pillar: Iran, Russia, Gaza: Why They Need to Be Considered Together

- Israel and the BRICS.

- Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy and Why Neoconservatism Still Matters.

- I) Το Ισραήλ ως έθνος-κράτος, οι παγκόσμιες/περιφερειακές ισορροπίες και η μεταψυχροπολεμική περίοδος και II) Όταν η επαγρύπνηση υπονομεύει την ελευθερία του λόγου.

- Περί εθνικισμού, δημοκρατικής ιδεολογίας -«τέλους της ιστορίας»- του Fukuyama, και χειρισμού της Μέσης Ανατολής από τους ουιλσονιανούς ιδεαλιστές και τους νεοσυντηρητικούς. Η προσέγγιση του εριστικού κ. John Mearsheimer και σύγκριση του έργου του με αυτό του Kenneth Waltz.

- Περί «κοινής γνώμης».