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'''Middle East Media Research Institute''' (MEMRI), according is a Israeli propaganda organization that selectively translates materials from the Arab/Muslim/Iranian press purportedly demonstrating hostility against Israel/Jews. According to the Institute's MEMRI web site, : "MEMRI emphasizes the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel."<ref>Middle East Media Research Institute, [http://web.archive.org/web/19991118000658/http://memri.org/about.html "About The Institute: Mission Statement"], Middle East Media Research Institute MEMRI website, archived from November 1999.</ref> It "explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East."<ref>Middle East Media Research Institute, [http://www.memri.org/aboutus.html "About Us"], Middle East Media Research Institute website, accessed March 2009.</ref>

According to its website, founded in February 1998 by former/current Israeli intelligence officers "to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in Berlin, London, and Jerusalem, where MEMRI also maintains its Media Center. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian."

MEMRI's stance is that it is opposed to Islamic fundamentalism, not Islam itself, although the integrity of this position may be questioned because of links on MEMRI's website to certain evangelical Christian organizations who take a harder line on Islam. [[Yigal Carmon]], MEMRI's founder, is a former advisor on terrorism to the Israeli Prime Ministers, [[Yitzhak Shamir]] and [[Yitzhak Rabin]], so he actually worked for both Labor and [[Likud]] governments. Praise for MEMRI should be taken with a grain of salt since it is almost always motivated by politics, not the quantity or quality of MEMRI's work.

MEMRI has gained currency with most pro-Israel writers, as well as right-wing publications. For example, [[New York Times]] writer [[Thomas Friedman]], a an influential foreign affairs columnist, has used MEMRI translations a number of times in his columns. MEMRI is cited in several publications, such as The Times, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, The Jerusalem Post, The National Review, The Toronto Sun, Wall Street Journal, Libertad, [[FrontPageMag.com|FrontPageMagazine]], Columbia Journalism Review, Associated Press, etc. <ref>[http://memri.org/mediaall.html]</ref> ==Translations==In an October 7, 2005, ''Nieman Watchdog'' [http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=showcase.view&showcaseid=0027 article] about MEMRI, published by the [[Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University]], Alex Kingsbury wrote: :"MEMRI monitors broadcast media an average of 16 hours per day and advertises its 'in-house capability to translate, subtitle and distribute the segments from Arab TV in real time to Western news channels across the world.'  :"'Our goal is bridging the language gap between the Middle East and the West,' [said] MEMRI executive director [[Steven Stalinsky]]. :"Out of offices in Washington, Berlin, Baghdad and Jerusalem, the Institute provides translations in English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian. They regularly monitor the print media in numerous countries, religious sermons, textbooks and a host of television channels including [[Al Arabiya|Al-Arabiya]] TV (Dubai), Al-'Alam TV ([[Iran]]), Iqra TV ([[Saudi Arabia]]), Syrian TV ([[Syria]]) and Al-Majd TV ([[United Arab Emirates|UAE]]). :"MEMRI boasts 75,000 subscribers to its daily mailing list, including many journalists and academics, who receive regular updates about new translations. The institute also delivers briefings on Middle Eastern media to the [[FBI]] and [[Congress]], Stalinsky [said]. :"Video clips and translated transcripts are MEMRI's bread and butter. ... The institute has been the target of criticism for highlighting inflammatory statements from the vast stream of Middle Eastern media. Stalinsky [said] that while there is editorial judgment in deciding what gets translated, the Institute also covers and amplifies the voices of Middle East reformers."

In November 2004, MEMRI threatened Middle East scholar [[Juan Cole]] (Univ. of Michigan) with a [[SLAPP's|SLAPP]] lawsuit unless he retracted some of his claims. <ref>[http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/intimidation-by-israeli-linked.html MEMRI tries a SLAPP] Juan Cole's website, November 2004.</ref>

:"So is MEMRI, which translates articles from the Arabic press into English for thousands of US subscribers, in any way involved in all this? Its director formerly served in&hellip; Israeli military intelligence. How much of what we "know" from "Arab sources" about "[[Hizballah|Hizbullah]] terrorism" was simply made up by this fantasy factory in Tel Aviv? <br>As someone who reads the Arabic press quite a lot, this sort of revelation is extremely disturbing.<br>I also saw an allegation that British military intelligence had planted stories in the US press about [[Saddam Hussein|Saddam]]'s [[Iraq]].<br>You begin to wonder how much of what you think you know is just [[propaganda]] manufactured by some bored colonel. No wonder post-Baath Iraq looks nothing like what we were led to to expect by the press, including the Arab press!" <ref>[http://www.juancole.com/2005/01/israeli-arab-news-cycle-i-found-this.html]</ref>

:If you rely on MEMRI for your knowledge of Arab discourse, you are really not informed. Arab public opinion, based on MEMRI's releases, is reduced or caricatured to either [[Osama Bin Laden|Bin Laden]] fans or [[George W. Bush|Bush]] fans, while Arab public opinion is mosty a fan of neither people. --As'ad AbuKhalil <ref>[http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2005/09/academics-for-bush-and-his-wars-fouad.html]</ref>

:Although widely used in the mainstream media as a source of information on the Arab world, it is as trustworthy as Julius Streicher's Der Sturmer was on the Jewish world. --Norman Finkelstein <ref>[http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=605]</ref>

It turns out that Sultan had appeared on a daytime al Jazeera show, roughly equivalent to Jerry Springer, that Western Educated Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouly had not issued a fatwa, and as he is not a recognized [[w:Mufti|Mufti]], had he issued a fatwa, it would not be considered in any way, authoritarian.

== Principals and Staff : 2012 ==<table align="center" cellpadding="2%" cellspacing="0" border="1" width="80%" style="font-size:10pt"><tr><th colspan="3" bgcolor="palegoldenrod">Board of Directors: 2012</th></tr><tr><td width="33%">[[Oliver Revell|Oliver "Buck" Revell]] Chairman</td><td width="33%">[[Elliott Abrams]]</td><td width="33%">[[Steven Emerson|Steve Emerson]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Jeffrey Kaufman]]</td><td>[[Robert Reilly]]</td></tr> <th colspan="3" bgcolor="palegoldenrod">Board of Advisors: 2012</th><tr><td>[[Bernard Lewis]]</td><td>[[Elie Wiesel]]</td><td>Gen. [[Michael V. Hayden]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Jose Maria Aznar]]</td><td>[[Stephen J. Trachtenberg]]</td><td>[[Donald Rumsfeld]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[James Woolsey]]</td><td>[[John Bolton]]</td><td>[[John Ashcroft]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Ehud Barak]]</td><td>[[Irwin Cotler]]</td><td>[[Mort Zuckerman]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Chin Ho Lee]]</td><td>[[Michael Mukasey]]</td><td>[[Deborah Lipstadt]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Norman Podhoretz]]</td><td>[[William Bennett]]</td><td>[[Christopher DeMuth]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Paul Bremer]]</td><td>[[George Weidenfeld]]</td><td>[[Yehuda Bauer]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Alfred Moses]]</td><td>[[Herb London]]</td><td>[[Stuart Eizenstat]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Josef Joffe]]</td><td>[[Natan Sharansky]]</td><td>[[James Q. Wilson]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Edgar Bronfman]]</td><td>[[Max Kampelman]]</td><td>[[Jana Hybaskova]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Alan Dershowitz]]</td><td>[[Yohanan Friedmann]]</td><td>[[Khaled Fouad Allam]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Lafif Lakhdar]]</td><td>[[Shaker Al-Nabulsi]]</td><td>[[Magdi Khalil]]</td></tr><tr><td>[[Faraj Sarkouhi]]</td></tr><th colspan="3" bgcolor="palegoldenrod">In Memoriam:</th>

In its original website of 1998, MEMRI listed 6 staff members: its President and cofounder Israeli Colonel Yigal Carmon, cofounder Dr. Meyrav Wurmser (Executive Director), <tr><td>[[Richard Holbrooke]]</td><td>[[Aaron MannesJack Kemp]] (Director of Research), </td><td>[[Yotam FeldnerJeane Kirkpatrick]] (Director of Media Analysis), </td></tr><tr><td>[[Stacey LakindIrving Kristol]] (Research Associate), and </td></tr><th colspan="3" bgcolor="palegoldenrod">Staff</th><tr><td>[[Aluma SolnickYigal Carmon]] (Research Associate). Stacey Lakind left in late 1998, <br>President and Aaron Mannes in early 2001; the others were still MEMRI staff as of October 5, 2001, when MEMRI stopped listing its employees on its website. Dr. Meyrav Wurmser left in early 2002 to join the founder</td><td>[[Hudson InstituteSteven Stalinsky]]; she was replaced as <br>Executive Director by </td><td>[[Steven StalinskyMenahem Milson]]. [http:<br>chairman of Board of Advisors</td></www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12715]tr>

Aluma Solnick appears to have changed her name to <tr><td>[[Aluma DankowitzTufail Ahmad]], in which case she is now <br>Director of MEMRI's Reform South Asia Studies Project. </td><td>[[http:Nimrod Raphaeli]]<br>Senior Analyst</td><td>[[Mansour Al-Hadj]]<br>director of the Reform in The Arab and Muslim World project</www.memri.orgtd></bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16704]tr>

As of January 17, 2002, MEMRI had a much larger number of employees [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id<th colspan="3" bgcolor=7996] and had "over 30palegoldenrod" in August 2002, with the current number unknown). Citing bomb threats, it provides no information on their identities beyond stating that they are align="of different nationalitiesleft" and different religions. These include or have included: *[[B. Chernitsky]]/Tchernitzky (Research Fellow, 2003) [http:/>Source</www.nuitdorient.com/n2112.htm]th><tr>*[[Allan Polak]] (Director of Communications, 2002) [http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page<td colspan=archives&Area"3" align=ia&ID"left" style=IA13803]*[[Jan Cleaver]] (2002) [http"font-size://memri.org/book/MEMRI_Book_PGS.pdf]*Dr. [[Nimrod Raphaeli]] (Chief Analyst, joined 200110pt; Iraqifont-born Israeli, former [[World Bank]] employee) [httpstyle://www.meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2003/issue3/raphaeli.pdf]*[[Ayelet Savyon]] (Director of Iranian Media Project, 2001) [httpnormal">Memri://www.memri.org/bin/french/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA8001]*[[Ronen Sebag]] (Research Associate, 2001)[http://www.ourjerusalem.com/arabpress/story/ap20010101.html]*[[Eli Carmeli]] (Research Associate, 2000) [httpAbout Us<ref>MEMRI://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/isreport/marapr00/armed.html] *[[Miriam Posner]] was Associate Director of Communications and Special Projects until recently[http://www.panimmemri.org/Newscontent/NewsList.cfm?c=30], having since moved on to [[PANIM]], "the Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values". *[[Jess Sadick]] claims to have helped found the organization, but to have left in 1998. [http://www.defenddemocracy.orgen/biographies/biographies_showabout.htm?doc_id=205008]*[[Adam Pashut]About Us] (supposedly Research Fellow, 2004) has a name meaning "simple person" in Hebrew, and is presumably a pseudonym. [httpAccessed://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12249]29 January 2012) *The Berlin branch's Director is Dr. Jochen M? (2004) [http:/</www.digberlin.deref></termin.php]td>*Richard Wachtel, spokesman for the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) (2007) [http:/</www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/6/27/82923.shtml]tr>*Other members or ex-members include [[Goetz Nordbruch]], Research Fellow, 2001 [http:/</www.mafhoum.com/press/48P2.htm]; Director, 2002 [http://memri.org/book/MEMRI_Book_PGS.pdf] and German domain name contact; and [[Mirjam Glä³¥r]] (2003). [http://d-a-s-h.org/dossier/07/17_MEMRI.html]table>

The Jerusalem branch includes:*[[Yael Yehoshua]] (Research Fellow, 2003) [http://www.nuitdorient.com/n2112.htm]*[[Ezra Dalumi]] (2004) [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=53919]*[[Angi Jacobs]] (2002) [http://memri.org/book/MEMRI_Book_PGS.pdf]*[[Menahem Milson]] (Lt. Col. (ret.), Academic Advisor)*Yotam Feldner and Aluma Solnick are also now based there. [http://memri.org/book/MEMRI_Book_PGS.pdf]. *The domain names contacts for its site are [[Shmuel Segev]] MEMRI previous Principals and [[Noga Feldner]] of [[Amutat Yesodot Shalom]] (Organization for the Foundations of Peace); the former may be the author and [[MaarivStaff]] journalist.

:Email: memri@AT memri.org

[[Category:IslamIslamophobia]][[Category:Israel]][[Category:Mediapropaganda]][[Category:Middle East]]