Summary of the Presentation on
From Reagan to Bibi
Allan Myer, who served on the Reagan National Security Council staff and is currently the Chairman of The Israel Project, gave a moving presentation to one of the largest audiences ever to attend a National Security Forum event.
During the Reagan administration, then Army Colonel Myer was asked to move to the NSC staff from the Pentagon to assist in securing passage of the controversial proposal to sell five AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft to Saudi Arabia. That initiative was approved by a narrow margin, following which Myer and the two officers accompanying him from the Pentagon were asked to stay in the White House. One of the officers was Colonel Dick Childress, a specialist in Southeast Asia and the second was an obscure Marine major named Ollie North, who managed to secure the Central American and counterinsurgency portfolios on the NSC staff. Myer had very interesting stories regarding the ambitious Colonel North’s bold and controversial moves to secure arms for the Contras and dispatching offensive weapons to Iran.
Myer also spent time discussing one of the key documents that he had a lead role in, that being the National Security Decision Directive 32 that laid out the Reagan administration’s strategy on dealing with the Soviet Union. After leaving the NSC, Myer was asked to join the White House speech writing team, where he worked alongside key figures such as Peggy Noonan and now Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
Myer assumed the Chairmanship of TIP just a year ago, following which he made his first trip to Israel. He described that as an extremely moving experience, one that lit dormant fires in his soul regarding the significance of being Jewish and a profound connectivity to the Jewish people. He emphasized that The Israel Project is nonpartisan and its primary focus is to promote pro-freedom, pro-democracy, pro-Jewish and pro-Israel issues. As such, recently TIP has concentrated its efforts on:
- The troubling Iran nuclear deal,
- Iran’s aggressive moves beyond its borders into Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and its increasing support to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon,
- Human rights abuses in Iran and Qatar,
- The chaos in countries that are Israel’s neighbors,
- And on the positive side, ongoing advances in Israel in areas such as medicine, applied science, state-of-the-art technology, and cybersecurity.
Myer turned his attention to the current chaotic and violent situation in the Middle East. He said that from an Israeli perspective there has been a steady “meltdown of American power and influence.” “If you are sitting in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv”, Myer said, ” here’s how the current geopolitical situation in the Middle East probably looks to Israeli decision makers”:
- There is a near vacuum of American and Western power and influence.
- The vacuum is being filled rapidly by Iran and Russia.
- Iran is doubling down on its offensive to control broad areas of the Middle East.
- Lifting of sanctions will give Iran the capability to double, triple or even to a greater extent, expand the military capability of its surrogate army in Lebanon – the Hezbollah.
- Hezbollah will become a far more capable force with ever increasing amounts of sophisticated weapons and with it, a far more dangerous threat to Israel and its people.
As the meeting was concluding, Myer was asked what was the difference between the Reagan administration signing arms control treaties with the Soviet Union and then separately dealing with the other issues, and the current Obama administration’s accord with Iran limiting Tehran’s capability to build nuclear weapons.
Myer responded this way: “The key difference is that after signing arms reduction treaties with the USSR, Reagan never left the game”. In fact, he “doubled down” and aggressively pursued policies that crippled the Soviet economy, highlighted Moscow’s human rights abuses, and sought to roll back the USSR’s advances in the third world.
In contrast, Myer concluded, that after signing the Iran nuclear accord, the Obama administration appears to be leaving the game, and in its wake is creating a vacuum of power in the region that is being filled by extremist elements.