Mitchell Bard, executive director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and one of the leading authorities on U.S. Middle East policy, will be the featured speaker at the 40th Annual Israel Bond Dinner at Traditional Congregation Saturday, Oct. 19. Bard is the author of the just-published book, “Israel Matters: Understand the Past–Look to the Future” as well as a new novel, “After Anatevka – Tevye in Palestine.” He holds a doctorate degree in political science from UCLA and a master’s degree in public policy from Berkeley. 

Although reservations for the dinner are closed, the Jewish Light spoke with Bard in advance of his upcoming talk.

What is the mission of the AICE and how does it relate to the work of the Israel Bond Organization?

AICE’s basic mission is to bring Israel to the world. We engage in four main activities: 1. Providing facts about Middle East issues to help students and others understand them better. To help, we publish the book “Myths and Facts.” 2. We run the Jewish Virtual Library, the most comprehensive online resource on Jewish history and culture in the world. 3. Our Israel Scholar Development Fund has supported books on Israel, postdoctoral fellows and conferences. We have supported grad students pursuing Ph.D.s in Israel-related fields and we bring Israeli professors to teach in U.S. colleges. 4. We help students learn to combat de-legitimization and inform them about how to be proactive in setting a positive agenda on campus and what to do when problems arise.  To prepare students for the possibility of anti-Israel activities arising from any Israeli action related to Iran, we have created the IranIntelligence.com.

The New York Times last week ran a Page One story that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “lonely voice of skepticism” about the so-called “moderation” of the new President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.  Do you share Bibi’s skepticism or do you think he is refusing any possibility that Iran could give up its nuclear weapons goal through negotiations?

I don’t think BIbi is alone in his opinion — he is just one of the few leaders willing to speak the truth publicly. On IranIntelligence.com we document the history of Iran’s nuclear program, the motivations behind it and the way that Rouhani and others have used negotiations to cover their continued work toward a bomb. Everyone hopes negotiations will succeed, but few people believe an agreement can be reached that will dismantle Iran’s capability to build a bomb now or in the future.

At the United Nations General Assembly gathering last month, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was welcomed as a head of the non-member State of Palestine.  Is it time that the United States and Israel recognize that his claim of Palestinian statehood should be accepted?   Is there a realistic chance for a breakthrough in the new peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians?

Palestine is not a state in any of the normal senses of the word. Recognition is a major chip the president should withhold until he gets the Palestinians to agree to accept Israel as a Jewish State, end incitement and terror and agree to a two-state solution roughly along the lines of the Clinton/Barak plan. It is always worth pursuing peace; no one wants peace more than the Israeli people, but the current turmoil in the Middle East should have buried the Arabist canard that the Palestinian issue is the source of all trouble for the U.S. in the region. I don’t know of any Israelis who believe an agreement is possible at this time and it would behoove the Obama administration to focus on the conflagrations in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and potentially, Jordan and Lebanon. 

Back in the day, advocacy for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and support for causes like Israel Bonds was the norm in American Jewish communities. In recent years, Israel has become a much tougher cause to sell. Traditional is the only St. Louis Jewish congregation to still sponsor an Israel Bonds Dinner. How do you account for this decline and what can be done to turn things around?

As I understand it, Bonds is still meeting its goals and often exceeds it. Obviously, the economy had an impact in recent years. I don’t think bonds are well understood as an investment and that not enough has been done to solicit young people. I grew up in synagogues that always had a bond appeal but rabbis are increasingly afraid of being political on the bimah. We need to explain that Israeli political decisions are not the essence of Israel and that you may disagree with a family member but you don’t cut them off financially over differences of opinion. It is in everyone’s interest to help strengthen Israel because only a strong Israel will have the confidence to take the difficult risks it faces to make peace.

Has the impression that Israel is now more self-sufficient hurt the ability of Israel Bonds and other pro-Israel groups in terms of finding supporters?

It’s possible publicity of Israel’s many successes may mislead people to believe Israel doesn’t need the support of Israel Bonds. But consider the needs here in the United States, despite the fact that we’re the richest, most powerful country in the world. The peace process gets all the headlines, but Israelis have real problems, such as water shortages, poverty, Israeli Jewish-Arab relations, secular-haredi, an education system that has been suffering from declining budgets. Add this to the potential security threats poised by the spread of radical Islam and the potential development of an Iranian nuclear bomb — which will set off an atomic arms race in the region — and no one should have any doubt about Israel’s need for ongoing investment through Israel Bonds.