The JINSA Crowd, Part 1

Speaking before the National Press Club on October 11, 2001, Winston Churchill, grandson of Britain's famous prime minister, recalled asking Israel's General Sharon in 1967 what was to become of the Palestinians. Churchill stated that Sharon's "chilling" reply was, "We'll make a pastrami sandwich of them." By this he meant that Palestinians in the occupied territories would be separated by layers of Israeli settlements. Surely, that has come to pass. Churchill went on to say that after the 1973 war, Sharon telephoned Churchill boasting, "We have peace. A piece of Egypt. A piece of Lebanon. A piece of Jordan. And a piece of Syria." One might wonder if it was to this definition that President Bush was referring when he labeled Sharon "a man of peace." Bush's statement was made following a peace-making trip which Secretary of State Colin Powell made to the Middle East in 2002, as described in Karen DeYoung's book "Soldier---The Life of Colin Powell." Powell realized the importance of Israeli/Palestinian peace but was up against strong opposition. DeYoung writes, "Cheney, Rumsfeld and their senior aides continued to urge Bush to think small in terms of any Mideast initiative, although Powell privately questioned why the defense secretary was being allowed a decisive say on what was essentially a diplomatic issue." (p.355) "Powell referred to Rumsfeld's team as the 'JINSA crowd.' JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, was a Washington-based organization that equated U.S. national security with a strong backing for Israel's defense needs. Feith, a Washington lawyer who had actively opposed Mideast peace talks for most of his career, had served on its board, as had Perle and Cheney." (p.356)