WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy:

The March 18 all-day conference "Israel's Influence: Good or Bad for America?" at the National Press Club will feature the following experts:

Susan Abulhawa is executive director of Playgrounds for Palestine, author of the bestselling novel Mornings in Jenin, and plaintiff in a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury over illegal settlement funding flows from U.S. charities.

Kirk J. Beattie is a professor at Simmons College and author of a new book, Congress and the Shaping of the Middle East. The book dissects the enormous power of lobbies, like AIPAC.

Rula Jebreal is an award-winning journalist, author, and foreign policy analyst. See news release.

Maria LaHood is deputy legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she defends the constitutional rights of Palestinian advocates in the US. 

Gideon Levy is a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and is widely considered the "dean" of Israeli journalism. See news release.

Jim Lobe served as Washington bureau chief of Inter Press Service from 1980 to 1985, and from 1989 to the present. In 2015 Lobelog.com received the Arthur Ross Media Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Roger Mattson is a former executive of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and author of the forthcoming book Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel.

Tareq Radi is a Palestinian-American organizer who works at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. He is a graduate of George Mason University (GMU), where he was a founding member of GMU's Students Against Israeli Apartheid.

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, writing thrice-weekly columns. He is a regular contributor to The American Conservative and Chronicles magazines.

Grant F. Smith is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) and author of the forthcoming book Big Israel: How Israel's Lobby Moves America, a comprehensive study of 336 Israel affinity organizations.

Philip Weiss is founder and co-editor of Mondoweiss, a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective. 

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05). See release.

For more speaker information visit http://IsraelsInfluence.org/speakers To register for this conference, lunch and reception visit: Eventbrite

Media credentials may be requested at: http://israelsinfluence.org/newsmedia/

SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy

Related Links

http://irmep.org/