The Council for the National Interest (CNIonline.org) is a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization advocating a new direction for US Middle East policy. CNI was founded by former US Congressman Paul Findley. The mission of CNI is to encourage and promote a US foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values, protects US national interests and contributes to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as to restore a political environment in America in which voters and their elected officials are free from the undue influence and pressure of a foreign country, namely Israel.
On May 27, CNI’s sister organization, the Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNIF) placed a full-page advertisement titled, “AIPAC’s Agenda is Not America’s,” in the New York Times. The ad called for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to be registered under a proposed Foreign Lobby Registration Act (FLORA), which CNIF will be drafting and promoting this year. Such an act would require all lobbies that work on behalf of a foreign power to register and make their operations more transparent and reveal their source of funds and activities.
The CNIF ad ran in all regions of the US except the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. The same advertisement appeared in the May 24 edition of the Washington Times during the AIPAC annual policy conference, where the paper was distributed to attendees by a CNI Foundation employee.
An Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the ad can be seen at http://www.cnionline.org/pubs/ads/AIPACs-Agenda.pdf. To receive CNIF’s monthly newsletters, which include current information on Israel, Palestine and the Middle East, and analyses of the current state of the Middle East peace process, send contact information by e-mail to [email protected].