Michael Makovsky is the CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a neoconservative advocacy group that promotes hardline U.S. policies in the Middle East and works to establish ties between U.S. and Israeli security officials. A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, Makovsky reportedly served in the Israeli army.[1]
Makovsky has promoted numerous confrontational "pro-Israel" U.S. policies in the Middle East, particularly on Iran. For instance, Makovsky opposed a 2013-2014 interim deal struck between Iran and the P5+1 negotiating powers to exchange limited sanctions relief for restrictions on Iran's nuclear enrichment while a comprehensive deal was negotiated. He was especially critical of the Obama administration's refusal to consider leveraging new sanctions against Iran during the comprehensive negotiations, accusing the president of taking a "potential source of leverage off the table."[2] Critics of the new sanctions—which were introduced by Sens. Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez and vigorously supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—argued that they were designed to scuttle the talks altogether.
In a 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed coauthored with former Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Makovsky argued that if the administration wouldn't agree to pass new sanctions on Iran, it should instead arm Israel with B-52 bombers and "bunker buster" bombs capable of destroying underground facilities like the Iranian enrichment plant at Fordow. "Iranian planners," they wrote, "might hope that [Israel's existing bunker buster arsenal] will prove insufficient to do major damage. The U.S. should remove such doubt by providing Israel with the capability to reach and destroy Iran's most deeply buried nuclear sites." By arming Israel with such advanced weaponry, Makovsky and his coauthor concluded, Washington "would send a signal that its ally, which already has the will, now has the ability to prevent a nuclear Iran. Once they are delivered—ideally as the current six-month interim deal is set to expire in July—Iran will be put on notice that its nuclear program will come to an end, one way or another."[3]
Critics argued that making such a weapons transfer would implicitly green-light an Israeli strike on Iran and effectively make U.S. policy toward Iran contingent on Israel's discretion about using the weapons. In his memoir, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recalled counseling President George W. Bush against a similar transfer in 2007. "I recommended saying no to all the Israelis' requests," Gates wrote. "Giving them any of the items on their new [military wish] list would signal U.S. support for them to attack Iran unilaterally: 'At that point,' [Gates told Bush,] 'we lose our ability to control our fate in the entire region.' I said we would be handing over the initiative regarding U.S. vital national interests to a foreign power."[4]
michael-makovsky
Track Record
Makovsky has long been associated with key neoconservative figures, many of whom he worked with in the Washington office of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-created entity that governed Iraq in the wake of the 2003 invasion.[5] The office operated within the Donald Rumsfeld Pentagon, where Makovsky served under Douglas Feith and reportedly advised the Office of Special Plans.[6] Before joining the George W. Bush administration, he worked as an energy market analyst for trading companies, "focusing on markets and hedging strategies for oil, petroleum products, natural gas and electric power, as well as regulatory and tax issues."[7]
Before joining JINSA in April 2013, Makovsky worked for six years as foreign policy director at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), an ostensibly centrist think tank that espoused a hawkish approach on Iran and other foreign policy issues during Makovsky's tenure. His track record also includes working as a visiting fellow at the rightist Claremont Institute and at the Institute of Contemporary British History.
Some reports suggest that Makovsky, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, has associated in the past with various far-right Israeli factions. Discussing his research into Makovsky's background, Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com wrote: "A USA Today article published in 1995 quotes a Michael Makovsky who lived at a settlement in the West Bank, and was a friend of Yigal Amir—the right-wing extremist who murdered Yitzhak Rabin. According to this report, Makovsky's extremist allegiances aren't limited to palling around with assassins. He was reportedly a member, in his student days at least, of the neo-fascist 'Betar' organization, which has a military structure (members wear uniforms, and engage in 'drills') and calls for a 'Greater Israel.'"[8]
On Iran
A major theme in Makovsky's work on Iran is the purported need to maintain a "credible" military threat against the country. In this regard, he has proposed arming Israel with sophisticated weaponry that could encourage Tel Aviv to unilaterally strike Iran, opposed negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear energy programs, and called for U.S. military build up in the region.
In a March 2012 Weekly Standard article published during the lead-up to President Barack Obama's appearance at the annual AIPAC convention, Makovsky argued that the United States should work to prevent Iran from developing the "capability" to build nuclear weapons—in contrast to preventing the acquisition of the weapons themselves.[9] In another Standard article published in February 2013, Makovsky claimed that Iran was using the P5+1 negotiations with the UN Security Council and Germany to delay "the day when it is ready to make the dash to a nuclear weapon," thus skirting the Israeli "red line" of nuclear capability, but ultimately "ensuring that the dash will be as short as possible." Makovsky did not elaborate on how exactly the United States could prevent Iran from securing nuclear capability, except to say that Washington "should make abundantly clear, in both word and deed, that it remains committed to using all means of power to prevent a nuclear Iran."[10]
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