Jewish and Zionist Influence at the Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations (hereafter CFR) has often been argued to be one of the most important forums for the determination of the foreign policy of the United States. This simplistic view has come in for some judicious and well-deserved criticism from scholars of the subject. (1)

While I don't hold to the view that the CFR has relatively little influence other than as talking shop as suggested by Schulzinger. (2) I also think it is important not to overstate it, but rather to see the CFR as one of an interlocking sequence of complementary and competing foreign policy think tanks jockeying for prominence and influence in the North American political landscape.

I think we can reasonably suggest however that the CFR is one of the more important and successful of these organizations given the prominence of its senior membership and sheer staying power in the arena of intellectual debate on the subject.

Therefore it is of great interest to us to ascertain the extent of jewish and Zionist influence within the CFR.

Let’s begin by going back to 2016 and looking at the CFR's Board of Directors of 36 members where we find the following jewish individuals: (3)

David Dalin (4)

David Rubenstein (5)

Richard Haass (6)

Zoe Baird (7)

Alan Blinder (8)

Blair Effron (9)

Laurence Douglas Fink (10)

Stephen Friedman (11)

Thomas Glocer (12)

John Paulson (13)

Ruth Porat (14)

Richard Salomon (15)

Despite claims to the contrary I can find no evidence that the following individuals are jewish:

Donna Hrinak (16)

Richard Pepler (17)

Timothy Geithner (18)

Therefore we can see some 12 out of the 36 members of the Board of Directors of the CFR are jewish. This is 33 percent of the total membership of the Board of Directors.

If we include the doubtful claim of jewish ancestry to CFR Board Member Colin Powell then we have 13 out of the 36 members being jewish. This is 36 percent of the total membership of the Board of Directors.

This is significant as jews are circa 2 percent of the population of the United States of America, (19) which means they are 16.5 times over-represented in the Board of Directors of the CFR than in the general population (18 times if you include Colin Powell).

This is scary enough, but when we note other the views of other Board Members then it gets positively alarming.

Let's look at them shall we?

Nicholas Burns is a Zionist who in 2008 was honoured for his championing of Israel's cause and advocating the bombing of Iran in the United States by the ‘American Jewish Committee’. (20)

Stephen Hadley is a Zionist who in 2004 gave a speech before the ‘American Jewish Committee’ advocating the bomb of Iran and stressing the need to combat 'anti-Semitism' globally. (21) Incidentally Hadley also frequently appears with Israeli generals and leaders on political platforms. (22)

Richard Pepler is a Zionist who regularly dines with jewish actors and actresses as well as (then) high-ranking Israeli politicians like Shimon Peres. (23) He also spoke at the Israeli Presidential Conference in 2013. (24)

James Stavridis' political views are unclear, but when he was honoured in 2011 by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA): he spoke of his deep commitment to security of Israel and his love for the country. (25)

Vin Weber - the disgraced former Republican Congressman and lobbyist - has written for national newspapers arguing for an Israel-centric foreign policy in the Middle East and replying to criticisms of said state. (26) Further demonstrating his Israel First credentials Weber uses 'friendship to Israel' as central part of his criteria for why Egypt's President Sisi (basically the head of a military junta) should be supported and lauded. (27)

Weber also happens to be a fairly prominent neo-Conservative as demonstrated by the fact that he was one of the founding members of 'The Project for a New American Century'. (28)

Christine Todd Whitman is another individual who pushes Israel's agenda in the United States with her avid promotion of what Finkelstein has termed 'The Holocaust Industry'. (29) She is also heavily en hoc to jewish interests since - as former AIPAC apparatchik Mitchell Bard has pointed out - jews were primarily responsible for getting her elected as Republican governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001. (30)

That is an additional 6 documented supporters of Zionism on the Board of Directors of the CFR in 2016. This brings supporters of jewish interests and Zionism to 18 out of 36 members (or 50 percent). If we include Colin Powell in that we go up to 19 out of 36 members (or 53 percent).

Yet there is only one person - Margaret Warner - on the 2016 Board of Directors of the CFR who has ever been accused of anti-Zionism and even then that accusation was made by Israel's hard-line right-wingers: the Likudniks. (31)

One possible anti-Zionist versus eighteen/nineteen confirmed Zionists on the Board of Directors of the CFR in 2016: who do you think has more influence?

Moving on to the Officers of the CFR (who are employees of the Board of Directors) in 2016:

Carla Hills (Co-Chairman)

Robert Rubin (Co-Chairman)

David Rubenstein (Vice Chairman)

Richard Haas (President)

Keith Olson (Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)

The jews - who are also members of the Board of Directors - are Robert Rubin, David Rubenstein and Richard Haass.

Now while there are a plethora of Vice Presidents (all of whom are non-jewish) I would note that the Board of Directors sets the tone and the Vice Presidents are merely senior employees not decision-makers in the ideological biases behind the scenes at the CFR.

The Vice Presidents aren't likely to substantially disagree with their bosses who after all pay their wages and control their bonus awards. Therefore we can see that the key is that out of the five officers with influence (since four are members of the Board of Directors, while the other is the Chief Financial Officer) that three (i.e., 60 percent) are jewish.

However when we pan back to look at the members of the Board of Directors in 2016 who were Emeritus or Honorary (who may or may not have influence) who number six people in total. We note a similar preponderance of jewish and pro-Zionist individuals.

To wit:

Madeline Albright (Director Emerita) (32)

Martin Feldstein (Director Emeritus) (33)

Maurice Greenberg (Honorary Vice Chairman) (34)

In addition to these three jewish individuals we have Leslie Gelb - President Emeritus - who was a strong partisan of Israel and one of those who tried to deny the existence of an Israel Lobby in the United States. (35)

This equates some 66 percent of Honorary and Emeritus Directors being jewish or Zionists in 2016, which confirms the conclusion that we must draw from the foregoing analysis.

Now moving on to 2025; when we look at the CFR's Board of Directors of 36 members we find the following jewish individuals:

David Rubenstein (36)

Blair Effron (37)

Michael Froman (38)

Nicholas Beim (39)

Stephen Friedheim (40)

Margaret Hamburg (41)

Charles Kaye (42)

Ruth Porat (43)

L. Rafael Reif (44)

Mariko Silver (45)

Additionally James Gorman is claimed by some to be jewish (46) but is actually of Irish origin as best I can work out. (47) He is however pro-Israel and pro-Zionist but opposed to Israel annexing the Gaza strip. (48)

Further Amy Zegart may also be jewish but this is unclear. (49)

So therefore 10 out of the 36 members of the CFR’s 2025 Board of Directors are jewish which would mean that 27.8% of the Board of Directors are jewish. If we include Amy Zegart then this would mean 11 out of the 36 members of the CFR’s 2025 Board of Directors are jewish which would mean that 30.6% of the Board of Directors is jewish.

Again this is significant as jews are circa 2 percent of the population of the United States of America, (50) which means they are 13.9 times over-represented in the Board of Directors of the CFR than in the general population (and 15.3 times if you include Amy Zegart).

This is scary enough, but when we note other the views of other Board Members then it gets positively alarming.

Let's look at them shall we?

Stephen Hadley as we’ve already covered is a hard-line pro-Israel neo-conservative.

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss is Iranian in origin but married to a prominent jewish historian and Zionist in the form of Michael Beschloss. (51)

Sylvia Mathews Burwell is another hard-line supporter of Israel and of Zionism having signed favourable trade deals to Israel with the US in 2016 (52) and actively shut down anti-Israel protests in 2024 as ‘anti-Semitism’ at American University in Washington D.C. in her role as University President. (53)

Cesar Conde has openly censored MSNBC coverage critical of Israel at the behest of its parent company Comcast based on his pro-Zionist pro-Israel views. (54)

Likewise Jane Fraser is a long-time supporter of Israel and a political Zionist. (55)

While William Hurd, (56) Janet Napolitano (57) and Frances Fragos Townsend (58) are fanatically both pro-jewish and pro-Israel.

And finally Deven Parekh is deeply invested in Israel’s financial and technology sectors so his financial interests are closely aligned with Israel’s political and economic interests. (59)

That is an additional 9 documented supporters of Zionism on the Board of Directors of the CFR in 2025. This brings supporters of jewish interests and Zionism to 19 out of 36 members (or 52.8 percent). If we include Amy Zegart in that we go up to 20 out of 36 members (or 55.6 percent).

Further the only people who have been accused of ‘anti-Zionism’ are Jami Miscik, Michele Flournoy and Fareed Zakaria, but this has only been done by the hard-line pro-Israeli Likudnik right (60) and is not an accurate reflection of their views.

Since Miscik is a supporter of Israel and Zionism, (61) Flournoy is a pretty hard-line pro-Israel Zionist neo-conservative (62) who lobbied to invade both Syria and Iran with US troops to support Israel (63) while Zakaria is a broadly pro-Israel Muslim commentator not an ‘anti-Zionist’ as sometimes claimed. (64)

Indeed we really should add Miscik and Flournoy to the documented supporters of Zionism on the Board of Directors of the CFR in 2025, which would bring supporters of jewish interests and Zionism to 21 out of 36 members (or 58.3 percent). If we include Amy Zegart in that we go up to 22 out of 36 members (or 61.1 percent).

Pretty frightening: huh?

Moving on to the Officers of the CFR (who are employees of the Board of Directors) in 2025 we have: (65)

David Rubenstein (Chairman)

Blair Effron (Vice Chairman)

Jami Miscik (Vice Chairman)

Michael Froman (President)

Steven Bennet (Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer)

Shannon O’Neil (Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair)

Nancy Bodurtha (Vice President, Meetings and Membership)

Irina Faskianos (Vice President, National Program and Outreach)

Caroline Netchvolodoff (Vice President, Education)

Stephanie Solomon (Vice President; Chief Revenue Officer, Foreign Affairs)

Millie Tran (Vice President and Chief Digital Content Officer)

Jennifer Perez (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)

Christopher Tuttle (Senior Fellow, Managing Director; Secretary of the Corporation)

Of the officers of the CFR in 2025; three of the four senior officers (the Chairman, Vice Chairmen and President) are jewish (Rubenstein, Effron and Froman) while the remaining officer (Miscik) is pro-jewish and pro-Israel.

If we add in the Vice Presidents then we get 13 officers of which 5 are jewish (Rubenstein, Effron, Froman plus Irina Faskianos (66) and Stephanie Solomon (67)) which means that 38.5 percent of all of the officers of the CFR in 2025 are jewish, while 75 percent of the senior officers - who are all also CFR Board Members - are jewish which is respectively 19.3 and 37.5 times the jewish representation in the US population! (68)

This then reveals the simple and horrifying truth that the Council on Foreign Relations is an organization where more than half of its Board of Directors are either jewish (who are only circa two percent of the American population) or non-jewish Zionists, which is clearly disproportionate and potentially dangerous in terms of influence United States foreign policy in the interests of Israel not America.

References

(1) For example Robert McMahon, 1985, 'A Question of Influence: The Council on Foreign Relations and American Foreign Policy', Reviews in American History, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 445-447

(2) Cf. Robert Schulzinger, 1984, 'The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs: The History of the Council on Foreign Relations', 1st Edition, Columbia University Press: New York

(3) http://www.cfr.org/about/people/board_of_directors.html

(4) David Dalin, 2001, 'At The Summit', p. 45 in Louis Sandy Maisel, Ira Forman, Donald Altschiller, (Eds), 2001, 'Jews in American Politics', 1st Edition, Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham

(5) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/arts/01donor.html?_r=0

(6) Richard Haass, 1997, 'The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War', 1st Edition, Council of Foreign Relations Press: New York, p. 142

(7) David Dalin, 2008, 'Jews and the American Presidency', p. 149 in Gaston Espinosa (Ed.), 2008, 'Religion, Race, and the American Presidency', 1st Edition, Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham

(8) Stephen Harlan Norwood (Ed.), 2008, 'Encyclopedia of American Jewish History', Vol. 1, 1st Edition, ABC-Clio: Santa Barbara, p. 721

(9) http://jewishnews.com/2015/08/06/one-of-the-biggest-dealmakers-on-wall-street-is-sounding-the-alarm-on-ma/

(10) https://forward.com/the-assimilator/131013/jews-dominate-vanity-fair-100-most-influential-mog/

(11) http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-jewish-legacy-behind-game-of-thrones/

(12) http://www.hebrewsurnames.com/GLOCER

(13) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paulson#Early_life_and_education

(14) http://www.jta.org/2015/03/24/news-opinion/united-states/new-google-cfo-porat-is-daughter-of-holocaust-survivor-sabra

(15) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_%28surname%29

(16) As claimed by: https://thezog.wordpress.com/who-controls-the-council-on-foreign-relations-part-1

(17) As claimed by: https://thezog.wordpress.com/who-controls-television/

(18) http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2009/06/tim-geithner-not-a-jew/18248/

(19) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html

(20) http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=7oJILSPwFfJSG&b=8479733&ct=12487873#sthash.bjAv1bbR.dpuf

(21) http://www.kintera.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=871779&ct=1124967

(22) http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/10/12/at-harvard-tzipi-livni-offers-%E2%80%98no-comment%E2%80%99-on-candidacy/

(23) https://next.ft.com/content/5fc80e04-972f-11e4-845a-00144feabdc0

(24) http://2013.presidentconf.org.il/en/speaker/mr-richard-plepler-usa/

(25) http://www.jinsa.org/events/annual-awards-dinners/henry-m-scoop-jackson-distinguished-service-award-dinners/jinsa-present

(26) http://articles.latimes.com/1992-07-20/local/me-3935_1_u-s-loan-guarantees

(27) http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/cooperating-not-condoning-toward-a-more-constructive-u.s.-egypt-policy1

(28) http://www.merip.org/mer/mer243/israel-lobby-perspective

(29) http://www.nj.com/reporter/index.ssf/2009/03/christine_todd_whitman_former.html

(30) http://www.mitchellbard.com/articles/mattbrooks.html

(31) http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/semi-monthly/2008/12/30/pbss-margaret-warner-israel-gaza-apparently-rocket-science

(32) http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_gist/1997/02/did_she_know.html

(33) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Feldstein

(34) http://www.jewage.org/wiki/en/Article:Maurice_R._Greenberg_-_Biography

(35) http://www.ufppc.org/book-notes-mainmenu-36/6692-book-review-leslie-gelb-reviews-mearsheimer-a-walt-in-ny-times.html

(36) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/arts/01donor.html?_r=0

(37) http://jewishnews.com/2015/08/06/one-of-the-biggest-dealmakers-on-wall-street-is-sounding-the-alarm-on-ma/

(38) https://www.algemeiner.com/2013/05/01/obama-cites-us-israel-bond-in-jewish-american-heritage-month-declaration/

(39) https://discover.23andme.com/last-name/Beim and https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/BEIM

(40) https://mondoweiss.net/2008/11/lets-dont-be-naive-about-obama-and-the-jewish-establishment/

(41) https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/changing-the-face-of-medicine/physicians/biography_margaret_hamburg.html

(42) https://discover.23andme.com/last-name/Kaye and https://www.igenea.com/en/surnames/k/kaye

(43) http://www.jta.org/2015/03/24/news-opinion/united-states/new-google-cfo-porat-is-daughter-of-holocaust-survivor-sabra

(44) https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/25/1060373/the-engineer-who-opened-doors/

(45) https://discover.23andme.com/last-name/Silver and https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/movies/05silver.html

(46) As claimed by: https://thezog.wordpress.com/who-controls-wall-street-part-1/

(47) https://web.archive.org/web/20090914081852/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26060900-36418,00.html

(48) For example: https://twitter.com/Gorman_JG/status/1870053090075811853

(49) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zegart

(50) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html

(51) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Beschloss#Personal_life

(52) https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/health-and-science/israel-signs-health-innovation-deal-with-us-439633

(53) https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2024/04/breaking-president-burwell-condemns-undergraduate-senate-resolution-calling-for-university-divestment-from-israel

(54) https://www.aol.com/comcast-told-msnbc-hosts-curb-164432798.html

(55) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/citigroup-jane-fraser-found-balance-162243402.html

(56) See: https://www.legistorm.com/stormfeed/view_rss/664680/member/3048/title/hurd-responds-to-vandalism-in-jewish-community.html https://x.com/WillHurd/status/1706333852581646652; https://www.legistorm.com/stormfeed/view_rss/967935/member/3048/title/hurd-stands-with-israel.html

(57) See: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2015/08/03/thank-you-for-telling-janet-napolitano-criticism-of-israel-is-not-anti-semitic/; https://brandeiscenter.com/napolitano-supports-state-department-definition-of-anti-semitism/; https://www.dailynews.com/2015/11/09/anti-semitism-issue-becomes-test-for-uc-president-janet-napolitano-thomas-elias/; https://forward.com/news/157280/jews-face-special-risks-napolitano-says/

(58) For example: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wikileak-israel-wants-international-effort-to-detach-syria-from-iran-july-2007

(59) https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3798037,00.html

(60) https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/05/02/foreign-affairs-article-urges-sanctions-threat-against-apartheid-israel/ and https://jewishinsider.com/2024/11/michele-flournoy-netanyahu-biden-israel-gaza-war/

(61) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-24/goldman-sachs-lazard-hsbc-hire-cia-gchq-and-mi6-spies

(62) https://jewishinsider.com/2024/11/michele-flournoy-netanyahu-biden-israel-gaza-war/; https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2020-11-20/ty-article/.highlight/biden-top-defense-secretary-michele-flournoy-israel-and-iran/0000017f-f046-dc28-a17f-fc776d060000

(63) https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/bidens-likely-secretary-of-defense-mich%C3%A8le-flournoy-and-israel-analysis-648443

(64) For example see: https://x.com/FareedZakaria/status/1868375832726536355 and https://www.facebook.com/fareedzakaria/videos/fareeds-take-a-danger-for-israel-is-the-same-as-for-the-united-states-in-recent-/1225786591966149/

(65) https://www.cfr.org/board-directors#officers

(66) See: https://www.cfr.org/conference-calls/resurgence-anti-semitism-europe and https://www.cfr.org/event/religion-and-foreign-policy-webinar-jewish-american-perspectives-us-foreign-policy

(67) https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=solomon&srsltid=AfmBOooPYgBFVNbLQUXndEWgzdu917NbbDJDyKS5nAK1RzlHg_zHtjZf and https://discover.23andme.com/last-name/Solomon

(68) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html