spotlight » a na l ysis
Where Did Ploughshares
Get Funds To Sell Iran Deal?
Eric Cortellessa | Times of Israel
T
hree weeks after the New York
Times magazine published its
profile of deputy national security
adviser Ben Rhodes, in which
he describes creating an “echo
chamber” of nongovernmen-
tal organizations, nuclear
proliferation experts and jour-
nalists to sell the Iran nuclear
deal, it was revealed a group
he cited as disseminating the
administration’s narrative had
donated to news outlets to
report on the accord, as well
Ben Rhodes
as to other advocacy groups
supporting it.
The Ploughshares Fund, a grant-making
foundation dedicated to preventing the
spread of nuclear weapons, gave the lib-
eral Jewish lobbying organization J Street
$576,000 to push the agreement and
National Public Radio $100,000 to report
on President Barack Obama’s signature for-
eign policy initiative and related issues.
But from where did the 35-year-old
organization get its war chest to support a
major media organization’s coverage of the
negotiations and contribute so generously
to one of the most prominent campaigns
championing the deal?
Mostly through other large-scale grant-
making foundations and philanthropic
organizations, some of the largest in the
world, such as the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation, the Hewlett
Foundation, Open Society Foundations
and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, each
of which gave more than $100,000 to
Ploughshares in 2015, according to its latest
financial report.
The craigslist Charitable Fund, of
the classified advertisement website
company, chipped in with between
$25,000 and $99,000.
Those foundations, and others
that donated to Ploughshares, gen-
erally have stated goals to support
individuals and organizations work-
ing on behalf of advancing peaceful
solutions to world problems.
The MacArthur Foundation is
perhaps most noted for award-
ing its annual “genius grants”; the Hewlett
Foundation, which was started by Hewlett-
Packard co-founder William Redington
Hewlett, is known for bestowing grants
toward liberal causes; and the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund was created in 1940 by
members of the famed American dynasty of
oil tycoons.
Anti-nuclear group that paid J Street
and NPR receives its funding from
an assortment of larger foundations,
Hollywood connections
Times of Israel/Johana Garon/Flash 9
J Street also ran TV ads and built a web-
site to stump for the accord.
The group’s campaign ran in direct
contrast to the lobbying by Jerusalem and
other pro-Israel organizations, like AIPAC,
to convince Congress to thwart the deal.
Such support is what Ploughshares
has done since its inception. Jewish
nuclear disarmament activ-
HOLLYWOOD SUPPORT
ist Sally Lilienthal established
Ploughshares also received its
the group in 1981 as the Cold
share of support from members
War fomented a growing fear
of the Hollywood community,
over the rapid proliferation of
particularly Jewish ones. It
nuclear weaponry. The founda-
received a donation of between
tion was designed to provide
$10,000 and $24,999 from actor
financial support to individuals
Michael Douglas, and between
and organizations advocating
$5,000 and $9,999 from the
peaceful means of conflict reso-
Streisand Foundation, which
lution and the elimination of
Actor and producer
was established by the Jewish
nuclear and chemical weapons.
Michael Douglas
singer-actress Barbara
Those activities have taken
Streisand.
on a new connotation in the
Through the rest of its
wake of the controversial New York Times
donors, Ploughshares received
piece that featured Rhodes describing how
$6,980,384 last year, much of
the administration worked with inde-
which went toward pushing the
pendent experts and friendly reporters to
nuclear accord, which was struck build support for the accord.
between the P5+1 world pow-
“We created an echo chamber,” Rhodes
ers and Iran last July and then
was quoted as saying. “They [the indepen-
Ploughshares Fund logo
defeated congressional scrutiny.
dent experts and journalists] were saying
In September, a bill to reject the
things that validated what we had given
deal ultimately failed to receive
them to say.” He was also quoted as saying
the required backing to override that “outside groups like Ploughshares”
President Obama’s veto power.
helped carry out the administration’s mes-
In the lead-up to the vote in
sage effectively.
Congress, J Street undertook
RELITIGATING BY GOP?
a comprehensive campaign to
The piece revived Republicans’ criticism
support the landmark pact, and
of the Iran agreement, as they suggested
in July 2015 took out a full-page
it was evidence of a White House spin
advertisement in the New York
Times urging Congress to refrain machine set up to deceive the American
Portion of a full-page ad in the New York Times created from “sabotaging” the nuclear
people. The administration countered with
and paid for by J Street on July 23, 2015
the assertion that it had always believed in
agreement.
the deal and accused opponents of trying
to re-litigate it after having failed to defeat
it.
In its report, Ploughshares prided itself
on its role in securing the deal’s passage.
Acknowledging its success had been
“driven by the fearless leadership of the
Obama administration and supporters in
Congress,” board chairwoman Mary Lloyd
Estrie also noted that “less known is the
absolutely critical role that civil society
played in tipping the scales toward this
extraordinary policy victory.”
In the wake of the controversy that
erupted when the Associated Press broke
news of Ploughshares’ donations, the
group’s president, Joseph Cirincione, has
defended its role during the period when
the deal faced congressional overview.
“It is common practice for founda-
tions to fund media coverage of under-
reported stories and perspectives. For
some, this might be global health, poverty
or the impact of conflict on civilians. For
Ploughshares Fund, this means bringing
much-needed attention to the dangers
of nuclear weapons,” he wrote in the
Huffington Post. “Our support of indepen-
dent media such as NPR … does not influ-
ence the editorial content of their coverage
in any way, nor would we want it to.”
Cirincione went on to attack the Times’
Rhodes profile and its characterization
of White House cooperation with inde-
pendent groups as being misleading and
suggested it had given fuel to the deal’s
critics.
“It is logical for opponents of the nucle-
ar agreement with Iran to want to see their
failure as the result of evil spin masters,”
he said.
*
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
May 26 • 2016
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