It’s very revealing that the newly elected head of the Syrian National Council (SNC), Abdulbaset Sieda, gave his first extended Western media interview since assuming the post on June 10 to Fikra Forum, a project of the AIPAC-created Washington Institute for Near East Policy. As I revealed in “Fikra: An Israeli Forum for Arab Democrats,” WINEP has long been working closely with the SNC in pushing for foreign intervention to topple Assad.
In February, WINEP senior fellow and Fikra director David Pollock wrote in an e-mail to the forum’s subscribers:
As the international community struggles to halt the Syrian regime’s brutal assault on its people, Fikra Forum would like to share our newest piece by Radwan Ziadeh, an official with the Syrian National Council and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies. Ziadeh calls for intervention, urging the international community to form a coalition that legitimizes the SNC as the unified representative of the Syrian opposition and acknowledges the council’s plan for the future of Syria.Meanwhile, Israel’s friends in the media provide cover for Israel’s support — via its American lobby — for the Syrian opposition. Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin recently reported on Israeli vice prime minister Shaul Mofaz’s speech at “the Washington Institute for Near East Peace” [sic]:
“My expectations are that the Western countries should give humanitarian support to the Syrian people,” he said. “We cannot be part of it, and it is clear why.”
Uprooted Palestinian 
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June 21, 2012