Thursday, September 24, 2015

Netanyahu to Receive Prestigious AEI Award


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be visiting the United States in November, and besides meeting with President Barack Obama, he will also be making a stop in think tank land to pick up a reward from a conservative think tanks.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has just announced that Mr. Netanyahu will receive the 2015 Irving Kristol Award on November 9 in Washington, DC.  The annual award is considered the think tank's highest honor, and is given to individuals who have "made exceptional practical and intellectual contributions to improve government policy, social welfare, or political understanding."

The winner, selected by AEI's Council of Academic Advisors, was established in 2002 in honor of AEI Senior Fellow Irving Kristol.  It replaced the think tank's Francis Boyer Award, which had been awarded annually for the previous 25 years.

The think tank's Council of Academic Advisors is chaired by Yale Law School Professor George Priest.  The other 15 people on the Council are: Alan Auerbach, Eliot Cohen, Eugene Fama, Martin Feldstein, Aaron Friedberg, Robert George, Eric Hanushek, Glenn Hubbard, Walter Russell Mead, John Palmer, Mark Pauly, Sam Peltzman, Jeremy Rabkin, Harvey Rosen, and Richard Zeckhauser.

Previous recipients of the award include Arthur Burns, Dick Cheney, Gerald Ford, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Paul Ryan, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.

The award ceremony will be held at the National Building Museum.