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JINSA: The Jewish Institute for National Security of America

JINSA is a Washington institute that promotes military cooperation between the United States and Israel. It runs trips to Israel for retired American generals and admirals and publishes strategy papers on Iran. In the Iran war it played three roles: it wrote the plan for U.S. support of an Israeli strike before the June 2025 war, it rallied retired American officers behind the 2026 war, and during the fighting it served as a scorekeeper of Iranian missiles and launchers quoted across the internet.

April 2025: "Last Best Chance"​

On April 9, 2025, JINSA published Last Best Chance: U.S. Policy for an Israeli Strike on Iran. Its authors included JINSA president Michael Makovsky, former Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman, retired Air Force General Chuck Wald, John Hannah, and Jonathan Ruhe. The report urged the United States to back an Israeli attack with aerial refueling, search-and-rescue, intelligence, air defense, and "transferring critical capabilities to Israel," and to collaborate on Iran's "deeply-buried Fordow facility." It told Washington to warn Iran that retaliation would "put at direct risk the regime itself," and to treat the operation as "a long-term campaign, and not a one-off strike" (JINSA, April 9, 2025).

Compare what happened. Israel attacked on June 13. Only the United States has the GBU-57 bunker-buster and the B-2 bomber that can reach Fordow (Axios, June 19, 2025). Israeli officials asked Washington to join for that very reason (see how America joined). On June 22, American B-2s struck Fordow. The "long-term campaign" JINSA called for arrived eight months later.

August 2025: snapback​

Between the wars, JINSA pressed for the next step. Its "Snapshot 8.17" video, with Makovsky and Hannah, argued that "JCPOA sanctions relief allowed Iran to sell Russia the missiles & drones fueling it's war on Ukraine," and that Europe "must trigger snapback NOW," before Russia took the UN Security Council presidency in October 2025 (JINSA on X, August 18, 2025). The European powers triggered "snapback," restoring the pre-2015 UN sanctions, on September 27, 2025, according to a captured timeline.

March 2026: 72 generals and admirals​

On March 3, 2026, days into the second war, JINSA released a letter signed by 72 retired U.S. generals and admirals backing the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes (JINSA on X, March 3, 2026). AIPAC reposted it. A 2026 column on Washington think tanks noted that JINSA "has scores of former American military officers in its stable, including Ret. Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a former Centcom deputy commander," who was "lauding Israeli assassinations and regime change operations." Harward, as quoted: "Only allow a regime that we support, and the people support, to come to power. Anyone else remains a target. So I think that's a very sound strategy." (captured search scrape).

JINSA as scorekeeper​

During the war JINSA's numbers appeared everywhere. On March 2, 2026: Iran had launched "Thousands of drones" and "680+ short- and medium-range ballistic missiles," exceeding "the 574 MRBMs fired during the June 2025 12-Day War" (JINSA on X, March 2, 2026). Analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera, in a post seen 2.8 million times, reported that "JINSA assessed that 75 percent of those launchers have been destroyed through March 5" (Perera on X, March 6, 2026). JINSA's "projectile tracker" was cited for "at least 216 attacks on US forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan from October 2023 to June 2025" (Grok summary, April 11, 2026). Two months later, U.S. intelligence found about two-thirds of Iran's missile launchers had survived (see the DIA leak and the obliterated claim). An institute that argued for the war was also a leading source of the numbers used to say it was going well.

The Iraq connection​

A forum summary of witness accounts on Mossad in the Pentagon says Colin Powell wrote in his autobiography that the Iraq war was a result of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's involvement with JINSA (Kotaku In Action 2 forum). That is the forum's summary; the book passage was not captured. JINSA's board has long included Iraq-war architects (see Iraq-war veterans).

Status: Michael Makovsky, Eric Edelman, Chuck Wald, John Hannah, Jonathan Ruhe, and Robert Harward are alive. Their advocacy is legal.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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