2015 Welcoming Remarks

Dale Sprusansky: Good morning everyone. I’m Dale Sprusansky. I’m the assistant editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. The Washington Report is co-hosting today’s event with the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. I’d like to give you a warm welcome. Thank you for coming out early today, perhaps before the rain starts. You’re wise people. My job is to do some housekeeping for today’s event.

This event is being live-streamed on our website, so questions can be submitted on Twitter @IsraelLobbyUS… 

Lots of our authors will be signing books later today, throughout the day [see p. 2]. The book signing schedule can be found on the back of your program. If you’d like to re-watch something or share this event with friends and family, it will be online on our website within 24 hours and transcripts will be up shortly after that. 

I am going to introduce Grant Smith, who will be moderating and speaking on the first panel, “What is the Israel Lobby and How Does it Work?” Grant is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, or IRmep—again, one of the co-sponsors of today’s event. He is the author of several books on the Israel Lobby and its various activities. He also recently has been engaged in several lawsuits with the Department of Defense and the CIA in an effort to get information on Israel’s nuclear weapons program released. With that, Grant will take the reins.