US neocons funded think tank researchers who now carve Israeli policy

Haaretz, here 

".......And Shalem distinguished fellow Moshe Ya'alon, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff who wrote a recent Azure article whose Hebrew title was "The diplomatic process can wait," is now the minister for strategic affairs. Natan Sharansky, another distinguished fellow and the chairman of the Shalem Center's Institute for Strategic Studies, is awaiting his appointment as chairman of the Jewish Agency. His 2004 book "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror," which was published through the center, hit the headlines when George W. Bush publicly recommended it. .... 

"..... When the Shalem Center was established in 1994 with the aim of bringing neoconservative thinking into the Israeli political and cultural discourse, along the lines of American think tanks it was thought to be on the margins of Israeli intellectual life. Yoram Hazony, the center's provost and one of its founders - who is also one of Netanyahu's friends and former advisers - said when the center was established that Israel was in the midst of an "ideological degeneration" that had to be stopped. The institute was founded with the aid of American Jewish donors, including the Bernstein family, Sheldon Adelson, George Rohr and Ron Lauder. 

.....There is no think tank today with as much influence on the Israeli government as the Shalem Center, which has extensive resources, despite being a small institute....."People like Omer Moav and Michael Oren are our success stories," said Haivry. "We give these researchers the tools that free them to do research studies dealing with policy, and to make the politicians aware that they exist." 

........"The order of magnitude of the funding they received is one of the highest in the country," she said. "There is no other institute of this kind that can compete with them from the budget perspective." The funding discrepancy has a significant effect on the think tanks' ability to influence policy, said Ben Simhon. 

......"Many of our graduates now have junior positions in the treasury, the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry," he said. "When they hold discussions, I hope they take with them a little more understanding and deeper principles." 

........though the Shalem Center may have been modeled on American neoconservative think tanks, its rise is corresponding with their decline. 

"This is happening at a time when in the United States itself, [President Barack] Obama is trying to make up for the neoconservative experience, which tried to do away with the welfare state," said Calderon, "and the idea that the Islamic world is one big axis of evil on which the values of the democratic capitalistic world must be imposed."