Middle East Books and More Winter/Spring Book Talk Series
 

Our new book talk series begins tomorrow at Middle East Books and More with Grant F. Smith's book, The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. (See below)

Also, don't miss Michael Fischbach's talk on his latest book, The Movement and the Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left, next week.

All talks are free and open to the public.

About the Event:

What happens when a major Israel lobbying organization actually becomes part of the government? It has already happened in Virginia!

Author Grant F. Smith presents findings from his new book, The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. Smith will explore:

1. What is VIAB and where did it come from?

2. Is it really an advisory board, or stealth, taxpayer-funded Israeli export promotion board?

3. In what ways do VIAB board members participate in the supposed "job generating" investment projects they bring to Virginia?

4. What is the track record of VIAB's secret, code named projects such as "Jonah, " "Turbine," and "Biofuels?"

5. What Israeli companies are actually behind the projects and what state funding have they received?

6. Which code-named projects have been listed on the UNHCR list of entities profiting from the Israeli occupation?

7. Is VIAB the harbinger of a near future of Israel and its lobby operating inside government?

Join us for a lively presentation, Q&A and opportunity to purchase author signed paperback copies of the book exposing the expanding state corruption scandal that nobody is talking about!

 

About the Author:
 

Grant Smith is the director of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). He is the author of the 2016 book Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America and Divert! Numec, Zalman Shapiro and the Diversion of U.S. Weapons-Grade Uranium Into the Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program (2012).

Smith has also written two histories of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). America’s Defense Line: The Justice Department's Battle to Register the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Government and Foreign Agents: AIPAC from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal.

Smith’s reports about the Israel lobby and Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to reveal official U.S. policy on Israel’s nuclear program appear frequently in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Antiwar.com news website. His organization, IRmep, co-sponsors with the Washington Report this year's conference, "Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home and Abroad."