Iran at the crossroads – will Obama prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb?
Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, Berlin, 7.00 p.m.: Panel discussion with James Kirchick, Journalist and Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Saba Farzan, Journalist and Head of Iran Research, MFFB.
James Kirchick and Saba Farzan will discuss Obama's Middle East policy, the American strategy towards the Iranian nuclear program, and US-Israeli relations.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a profound update with Dr. Moshe Elad
February 7, 2012: Debate with Dr. Col. (Res.) Moshe Elad about the latest developments regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Panel discussion "Iran, the upheaval in the Middle East, Israel's security and European policy"
October 23, 2011: Panel discussion with Yossi Melman (Haaretz), Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post), Emanuele Ottolenghi (Foundation for Defense of Democracies) and Michael Spaney (Moderation, MFFB) at the 2. German Israel Congress.
"Gaza, the coming flottilla and international law"
May 26,2011: Panel discussion with Prof. Heintschel von Heinegg, Dr. jur. Tilman Tarach, Jonathan Weckerle (MFFB) and Sebastian Mohr (moderation, MFFB).
“Strategic Overview of the Security Situation in the Middle East and the latest Developments”
April 11, 2011: Discussion with Emmanuel Nahshon, First Envoy of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin;; Colonel Michael Levinrad, Defense Attaché of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.
Regional meetings of pro-Israel groups
The MFFB was one of the organizers of the regional network meetings for pro-Israel groups and activists in Hamburg, Berlin and Stuttgart in January and February 2011.
read more
Moderation: Development in Gaza and West Bank
Jörg Rensmann (MFFB) moderated the event "Weapons or prosperity: About the political and enonomic development in Gaza and the West Bank" with Alex Feuerherdt, which took place on Nov. 25, 2010 in Berlin.
Read more
German Israel Congress 2010
Network meeting, strategy discussion and moderation at the 1st German Israel congress in Frankfurt on Oct. 31, 2010. The MFFB organized a network meeting and a strategy discussion for German pro-Israel groups on the evening before the congress. The panelIsrael, Iran, Hamas and Hizbollah & The Middle East in international contextat the congress was moderated by Jörg Rensmann (MFFB).
"Islam, Islamism and the West"
Berlin Middle East Talk (BEMET) with Daniel Pipes and Jörg Lau on Oct. 27, 2010
On October 27, 2010, Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum (USA), and Jörg Lau, foreign affairs corrospondent of Die ZEIT, discussed among other topics the relation between Islam and Islamism, Western foreign policy towards Iran and other states as well as issues with Muslims living in Western states.
Video and more information
The Islamic Republic of Iran: A global threat - and the solution
Lecture and discussion with Dr. Fariborz Saremi
On July 18, 1994 85 people were murdered in an attack on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The Quds brigades of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were responsible for the attack. Today, the Revolutionary Guards have taken hold of most of the power in the Islamic Republic. Ahmad Vahedi, an Interpol wanted terrorist suspect, has even become defense minister. The anniversary of the terror attack is a sad occasion, but also an opportunity to adress the network of terror of the Islamic Republic, which has been extended, especially in Latin America. In Germany, the Iranian backed Hezbollah can operate undisturbed and poses a threat for the Iranian exile opposition, among many others. It has to be remembered that terror and expansion of the Islamic revolution is a danger that reaches far beyond the region and with nuclear weapons in the hand of the regime, this threat has the potential to magnify in severity.
read more
Seven years after Saddam Hussein: Women's rights, Freedom, Politics and Religion in Iraq
Lecture and discussion with Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, Berlin March 2010
A few days after the parliamentary elections on March 7, 2010 and seven years after the military fall of the Saddam regime, Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, director of the relief organisation WADI, which operates in Northern Iraq, will give an informative talk about the situation in Iraq. The media in Germany reports mostly about catastrophies.The elections on the March 7 will reveal the true status of freedom and democracy in Iraq. Is there any democratic development outside of family- and clan loyalty, and what are the ethnic and religious divisions? Which secular forces are present in Iraq, and how big is the influence of the Iranian regime? How is the history of the Ba'ath dictatorship being processed? And what are the realistic expectations for the continuation of a functioning democracy once most of the US troops will have left after 2011?
read more, watch video
Panel discussion: „Antisemitism and Persecution of the Bahá'í in the Islamic Republic of Iran“
Lecture and discussion with Prof. Dr. Ingo Hofmann, Javad Asadian, Jörg Rensmann, 29. October 2009 in Berlin
The Bahá'í community in particular has been massively persecuted and threatened by discrimination, show trials, cemetery desecrations, and assaults. Similarly with Iran’s ancient Jewish community. Though some assure us that the community is safe, on closer examination its situation within a regime that makes frequent threats to “wipe Israel off the map” is in fact a great deal more precarious than depicted. The major significance and danger of the regime’s intolerant ideology came vividly to light in the current crisis, not only in the ways the Iranian media and militia whipped up a pogrom-like atmosphere, but also in the ways the Iranian liberation movement is denounced as “Zionist” or “controlled by the Bahá'í.”
read more, audio (German)
Public discussion: How dangerous is the Iranian nuclear program?
Panel discussion with Dr. Matthias Küntzel, Dr. Frederek Musall, Prof. Dr. Ralf Elger and Jonathan Weckerle
Halle, Unicampus, Melanchthonianum, July 14 2009
„The timebomb ist ticking. Will the international community still be able to prevent Iran's reach for the bomb? Berlin is especially in the front line of this conflict: Germany has together with the five veto powers of the Security Council been entrusted to lead the negotiations with Iran and has a special responsibility to confront a regime that denies the Holocaust. At the same time Germany is still the by far most important trade partner and the prefered partner for dialogue of the Mullahs in the West."
read more
Anti-Semitism in Germany - A Central Challenge for State and Society
Panel discussion on May 24 2009, Berlin.
Speakers are MP Kristina Köhler (CDU), Secretary of State (ret.) Klaus Faber (Coordination Council of German NGO’s against anti-Semitism) and Jörg Rensmann (Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin).
read more
"30 Years Islamic Republic Iran - The results of the Islamic revolution and the Western policy"
Lecture and discussion with Amir Taheri (journalist and author, London), March 4, 2009, Berlin.
30 years of Islamic Republic of Iran stand not only for dictatorship and terror, but also for 3 decades of failed Iran policy of the West. While the tyranny in Iran – the persecution of the opposition, women, independent labor unions, religious and ethnic minorities – continues, the enforced nuclear program makes the regime an daily growing international threat.
read more, watch video