Columbia University's IDA-Elbit Systems Gaza War Connection In 2024 Revisited

According to the American Friends Service Committee website:


“Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems is one of the primary suppliers of weapons and surveillance systems to the Israeli military, including Skylark and Hermes military UAV drones, which form the majority of Israel’s fleet of large drones and have been used extensively in Gaza.


“Elbit-made MPR 500 multi-purpose bombs are being used by Israel in its attacks on the Gaza Strip. Designed for use in `densely populated urban warfare,’ these bombs contain 26,000 controlled fragments for `high kill probability.’ Elbit says that these 500-pound bombs are as powerful as U.S.-made 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs. They can be converted into guided bombs using kits such as the Boeing...Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM).


“Elbit Systems’ killer Hermes 450 and 900 drones have been used extensively in attacks on and surveillance missions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon…Elbit's Head-Mounted Display helmet technology is integrated into the Israeli Air Force's fighter jets and helicopters as well as the military's Merkava 5 (Barak) battle tank. The company is also a subcontractor of Lockheed Martin; it integrates its helmet technology into F-35 fighter jets worldwide.


“It also supplies the Israeli military with 155mm artillery shells and many other weapons systems and technologies…The company, headquartered in Israel, has a large U.S. presence, with facilities in Alabama (Talladega), Florida (Boca Raton and De Leon Springs), Massachusetts ([in] Cambridge [prior to 2025]), New Hampshire (Merrimack), Pennsylvania (Birdsboro), South Carolina (Ladson), Virginia (Reston and Roanoke), and Texas (Fort Worth and San Antonio)…”


Yet, according to the website of the Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analyses [IDA] weapons research think-tank (that now-Tel Aviv University-affiliated Columbia University was an institutional member of between 1960 and the late 1960s), Columbia University Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar Eric T. Olson sat on the IDA board of trustees; between former Elbit Systems of America CEO, former Elbit Systems of America Board Member and then-IDA Trustee Raanan I. Horowitz and then-IDA Board of Trustees Chair and Elbit Systems of America Board Member Richard h. Ledgett Jr. in 2024.


Columbia University Professor and then- IDA Trustee Olson is a retired U.S. Navy Admiral who is a former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command; and then-IDA Board of Trustees Chair and Elbit Systems of America Board Member Ledgett Jr. is a former Deputy Director of the U.S. government’s National Security Agency [NSA].


Besides including a Columbia professor and a current and former board member of the Israeli weapons manufacturing Elbit Systems firm’s U.S. subsidiary on its board of trustees in 2024, the Institute for Defense Analyses [IDA] weapons research think-tank’s board of trustees also then included the following former U.S. military or Pentagon officials and current or former U.S. university professors as IDA trustees in 2024:


Retired U.S. Air Force General Douglas Fraser, who was also a Northup Grumman Electronic Systems Advisory Board Member;


Former U.S. Secretary of the Army Preston M. Geren III, who was also the president of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation;


Retired U.S. Army General and former Director of Strategic Plans and Policy for the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., who was also a Senior Vice-Chair of Tillman and Co. and Capital Peak Asset Management;


Retired U.S. Air Force General, former U.S. Air Force Space Command Commander and former U.S. Strategic Air Command Commander C. Robert Kebler;


Retired U.S. Marine Corps General and former Commanding General of the Marine Corps Force Command John Paxton;


NYU Center for Urban Science and Program Director Steven E. Koonin;


Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Mary Lynn Reed;


Stanford University Professor William James Dally;


Caltech Professor Richard M. Murray;


UCLA Professor Ann R. Karagozian;


Georgia Institute of Technology Professor and North Carolina State University Professor Ana I. Anton; and


University of Maryland Professor Emeritus and former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA] Official Ellen D. Williams


And, in addition, in 2024 the Columbia University and Elbit Systems-connected IDA weapons research think-tank also then included on its board of trustees then-New Jersey Ballet Vice-Chair/New Jersey Ballet Board Member and then-IDA Trustee Lynn McMahon.