Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

 On Topic Links

No More ‘Honest Broker’: L. Ian Macdonald, Montreal Gazette, Jan.21, 2014

Syria Uses ‘Strategy of War Crimes’: Human Rights Watch:  Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg, Jan. 21, 2014

 “When I’m in Israel I’m asked to single out Israel. When I’m in the Palestinian Authority I’m asked to single out Israel. And in half the other places around the world you ask me to single out Israel.” —Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said he doesn’t do that because he comes from a country — Canada — of different languages, religions and cultures. “And the one lesson I think we have learned is that when somebody is a minority – particularly a small minority in the world – one goes out of one’s way to embrace them. Not to single them out for criticism. That’s a fundamental Canadian ethic. And that is why I think many Canadians understand the approach I am taking” (Montreal Gazette, Jan. 21, 2014) 

“They are remembered always, in our hearts, in our prayers and most importantly in our resolve. Never again.” —Prime Minister Harper, who visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, wrote in the museum’s guest book. Mr. Harper had planned to visit the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on Tuesday, but it was canceled once Israeli security advised that their guards could not enter the building with him because they are Jews. (CBC, Jan. 21, 2014)  

“In a world that is often cynical and hypocritical, you have shown great moral leadership. When it comes to fighting terrorism, you know that there cannot be any politically correct double talk, but only unequivocal condemnation and united international action.” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, welcoming Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his first visit to Israel. Netanyahu added: “When it comes to anti-Semitism, you have stood up unabashedly at the side of Israel and the entire Jewish people, I think at the side of decency and fairness to everyone: Jews and non-Jews alike. And when it comes to Iran’s repeated calls for Israel’s annihilation and its unrelenting development of nuclear weapons – you and Canada have stood unflinchingly on the right side of history.” (Arutz Sheva, Jan. 19, 2014)

“I feel honoured that Israel has the privilege to have the Canadian Prime Minister here.”  —Abraham Davidovitz, a 34- year-old from Montreal who has been living in Israel for four years. “He is the only prime minister in the world today that loves Israel and the Jewish people. Officially, he is not shy to say it out loud.” (Canada.com, Jan. 21, 2014)

“[The former Canadian minister] was shocked over how Jewish police can do these things to Jews. He did not understand how one can talk about the reunification of Jerusalem while at the same time Jews are not allowed to open their mouths on the Temple Mount.” —Yosef Rabin, who regularly visits the Temple Mount compound, speaking about his encounter with Stockwell Day, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008. Rabin added that during this particular visit he encountered a new phenomenon whereby Jews were forbidden to speak with tourists who asked questions about the Temple Mount. Police forbade Israelis to speak with tourists about the compound, claiming it bothers the Waqf, he added. Former minister Day, said Rabin, could not believe his eyes when he saw the long lines of Jews waiting to get in, the Arab disturbances on the compound, the conduct of the Waqf and the endless shouting. “He could not understand how the Israeli government could do this to Jews.” (Arutz Sheva, Jan. 21, 2014)

“Millions of heroes, or millions of free men are marching on Jerusalem … We do not seek death but we welcome martyrdom if it happens.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Abbas told Palestinian activists at his West Bank headquarters that he could not negotiate away the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to Israel, that no peace agreement was acceptable without East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and that he refused to recognize Israel’s self-definition as the state of the Jewish people. (National Post, Jan. 20, 2014)

“As we have warned, and I say this with regret, the [Iran] sanctions regime has started to weaken and very quickly.” —Prime Minister Netanyahu said Sunday in Italy. He added that “if tangible steps are not taken soon, it is liable to collapse, and the efforts of years will vanish without anything in exchange.” A parade of investors, mainly European politicians and business representatives, have visited the Islamic republic since the interim Geneva agreement, which will ease some provisions of the American-led sanctions on Iran. With 70 million people and a sizable middle class, Iran is the world’s last major isolated market. In the first two weeks of the year, Iran welcomed more delegations from Europe than in all of 2013.           “The sanction regime imposed on us is falling apart.” Hossein Sheikholeslami, the international affairs adviser to the head of Iran’s Parliament, Ali Larijani. Mr. Sheikholeslami, who in 1979 was one of the students who held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage, touching off the crisis that ruptured the countries’ relations, added: “The Americans wanted to impose their will on the world and isolate Iran, but big companies are seeking the potential of Iran.” (New York Times, Jan. 17, 2014)

 “A really excellent time to divest ourselves of security assets.” —Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home party, concluded in a speech this month after describing the violence plaguing Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon.     

           “From the Straits of Gibraltar to the Khyber Pass, it’s very hard to come by a safe and secure area.” —Prime Minister Netanyahu told reporters on Thursday. “Peace can be built on hope, but that hope has to be grounded in facts,” he said. “A peace that is not based on truth will crash against the realities of the Middle East.”                                                                                                               More broadly, the intensified fighting has convinced many Israelis that the region will be unstable or even anarchic for some time, upending decades of strategic positioning and military planning. “Historically, Israel has preferred to have strong leaders, even if they’re hostile to Israel.” —Jonathan Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, citing President Bashar al-Assad of Syria as an example. “It’s a problem without an address,” Mr. Spyer said of the Islamist groups often lumped together as “global jihad.” “Israel always likes to have an address. Assad we don’t like, but when something happens in Assad’s territory, we can bargain with him. These guys, there is no address. There is no one to bargain with.”                                              

            “The most important lesson from the last few weeks is that you cannot rely on a snapshot of reality at any given time in order to plan your strategic needs.” —Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, who recently rejoined Mr. Netanyahu’s team as a freelance foreign policy adviser. “The region is full of bad choices. What that requires you to do is take your security very seriously. And you shouldn’t be intimidated by people saying, ‘Well, that’s a worst-case analysis,’ because lately, the worst is coming through.”                                                                                           “If you look all around, compared to what it was like six months ago, Israel can take a deep breath.” —Efraim Halevy, a former director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. Halevy views Israel’s security concerns differently than Gold: “The way things are at the moment, if you want to photograph it, it looks as if some of the potential is there for an improvement in Israel’s strategic position and interests. It’s more than ever a see and wait, and be on your guard, and protect yourself if necessary.” (New York Times, Jan. 18, 2014)

STEPHEN HARPER OFFERS $66 MILLION IN NEW AID TO PALESTINIANS (Ramallah) —Prime Minister Stephen Harper met the president of the Palestinian Authority on Monday, offering $66 million in new aid to the Palestinians but sternly refusing to “single out the state of Israel for criticism.” Under heavy security in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Harper and Mahmoud Abbas met for about a half-hour at the presidential palace before appearing at a joint news conference. Relations between the two have been strained since the Conservative government attempted to block a bid by the Palestinians for observer-state status at the United Nations last year. (National Post, Jan. 20, 2014)

BODIES OF 2 CANADIANS KILLED IN KABUL SUICIDE ATTACK TO RETURN HOME (Kabul) —The bodies of two Canadian accountants who were killed in a Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan last week are on their way home. Their employer — Samson and Associates president Pierre Samson — says the remains of Martin Glazer, of Gatineau, Que., and Peter McSheffrey, of Ottawa, are to arrive at CFB Trenton on Wednesday night. Glazer and McSheffrey were among 21 people killed last Friday when a suicide bomber and two gunmen attacked a popular restaurant in the Afghan capital, Kabul. (Maclean’s, Jan. 21, 2014) 

SYRIA DEFECTOR’S PHOTOS DEPICT ‘SYSTEMATIC TORTURE AND KILLING’ (London) —Syrian officials could face war crimes charges after a military police photographer defected and provided evidence showing the systematic killing of 11,000 detainees, citing three lawyers who had examined the files. The photographs will ratchet up the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, who the U.S. and its Western allies say has committed war crimes against his own people. Mr. al-Assad denies war crimes and says he is fighting ‘terrorists’. But the defector’s evidence, which records deaths of those in custody from March 2011 until August 2013, shows emaciated, bloodstained corpses that bore signs of torture. (Globe & Mail, Jan. 21, 2014)

AL QAEDA VIOLENCE KILLS 75 IN IRAQ (Baghdad) — Bomb attacks and shootings killed at least 75 people in Iraq on Wednesday, police and hospital sources said, making it one of the bloodiest days in months. In the deadliest incident, a bomb blew up in a funeral tent where mourners were marking the death two days ago of a Sunni Muslim pro-government militiaman, police said. It killed 18 people and wounded 16 in Shatub, a village south of Baquba. In northwestern Iraq, assailants detonated roadside bombs near a bridge in Ain al-Jahash, 60 km (37 miles) south of Mosul as an army patrol was crossing it. Six soldiers were killed and eight people were wounded, six of them civilians, police said. At least eight bombs struck the capital, mostly in Shi’ite districts, killing 40 people and wounding 88, police and medics said. Al Qaeda loyalists are pursuing a relentless campaign of attacks, mostly aimed at security forces, Shi’ite civilians and Sunnis seen as loyal to the Shi’ite-led government. (Reuters, Jan. 15, 2014)

AL QAEDA-LINKED CAR BOMB KILLS 26 IN SYRIAN REBEL STRONGHOLD (Damascus) —The Al Qaeda-linked ISIL terrorist organization attacked a rebel-held city in northern Syria on Wednesday and killed at least 26 people in a car bomb explosion. Fighting between the rebels and ISIL has developed into a second civil war with the broader civil war between Syrian President Bassar al-Assad and opposition forces. ISIL denied claims by rebel spokesman that its commander was killed in a clash with rebels. The commander is from Belgium, and the Belgian foreign ministry confirmed that it hard of reports that he was dead. (Jewish Press, Jan. 16, 2014)

LEBANON CAR BOMB KILLS FOUR IN HEZBOLLAH STRONGHOLD NEAR SYRIA (Beirut) —A suicide car bomber killed himself and three other people, and wounded 26 in a Hezbollah stronghold on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria on Thursday, residents and state media said. The car bomb went off near a local government building in the center of Hermel, a town at the northern end of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim area, shattering windows and damaging nearby buildings. Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon have been targeted by a series of bombings and rocket attacks claimed by hard-line Sunni militants. Four car bombs have exploded in Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut since July. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 16, 2014)  

SENATE REPORT ON BENGHAZI BLAMES STATE DEPARTMENT (Washington) —The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday released a report on the deadly 2012 assault on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, blaming the State Department, the intelligence community and even the late Ambassador Chris Stevens for failing to communicate and heed warnings of terrorist activity in the area. The highly critical report says the U.S. military was not positioned to help the Americans in need, though the head of Africa Command had offered military security teams that Mr. Stevens – who was killed in the compound – had rejected weeks before the attack. Republicans have criticized the Obama administration over the Benghazi assault, in part because then-UN ambassador Susan Rice initially blamed the violence on mob protests over an anti-Islamic film. Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups later were blamed. Islamist militants overran the temporary U.S. mission on Sept. 11, 2012, and later that night, when militants fired mortars at the nearby CIA annex where the Americans had taken shelter. (Globe & Mail, Jan. 15, 2014)

EGYPT’S GENERAL SISI CALLS FOR RISE OF ‘MODERN’ ISLAM (Cairo) —According to Egyptian media, during his recent speech at the Department of Moral Affairs for the Armed Forces, General Abdul Fateh al-Sisi declared that “Religious discourse is the greatest battle and challenge facing the Egyptian people,” and pointed to the need for a new vision and a modern, comprehensive understanding of the religion of Islam—rather than relying on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years.” Sisi further “called on all who follow the true Islam to improve the image of this religion in front of the world, after  Islam has been for decades convicted of violence and destruction around the world, due to the crimes falsely committed in the name of Islam.” (Algemeiner, Jan .20 ,2014)

BID TO OUTLAW THE WORD ‘NAZI’ SPARKS FREE SPEECH DEBATE IN ISRAEL (Jerusalem) —An Israeli draft law that would criminalize the use of the word Nazi in most cases has sparked a debate on freedom of speech in a state that was founded out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Seven decades later, memories of the extermination of millions of Jews during the Second World War permeate virtually every aspect of life in Israel. Public figures and interest groups frequently invoke the Holocaust to score political points, and the word and Nazi symbols have slipped into Israeli discourse over the years. The bill would impose a fine of 100,000 shekels (nearly $29,000) and six months in jail for anybody using the word or symbols from Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich in a “wrong or inappropriate way.” Educational settings would be exempt, as would certain artistic performances, said Shimon Ohayon, the bill’s sponsor. (CTV, Jan. 17, 2014)

TEL AVIV UNVEILS MEMORIAL TO GAY HOLOCAUST VICTIMS (Tel Aviv) —A new memorial to gay Holocaust victims was unveiled last week is the country’s first monument to Jewish and non-Jewish victims alike. Inscribed in English, Hebrew and German, the stone monument reads “In memory of those persecuted by the Nazi regime for their sexual orientation and gender identity.” By certain historical estimates, the Gestapo kept files on over 100,000 gay people during the Second World War, 15,000 of whom were later sent to Nazi concentration camps. Appropriately, Tel Aviv’s new memorial stone features a pink triangle, modelled after the pink triangle the Nazis made gay prisoners wear in the camps. The monument should be celebrated as further progress for Israel, which remains the only country in the Middle East where protection of gay rights is enshrined in law. (National Post, Jan. 17, 2014)

US HOUSE SPENDING BILL INCLUDES FULL $3.1 BILLION FOR ISRAEL (Washington) —The US House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus bill on Wednesday that included $3.1 billion in security assistance for Israel. The figures marked a restoration of funds back to levels not seen since the sequester on military spending in 2013, when all funding was automatically cut. A 2007 memorandum committing the US to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge over its neighbors set US security support to the Jewish state at roughly $3b. Also in the bill is $268.7 million in funding for US-Israel cooperative anti-missile programs that is not considered assistance because Israel contributes to the programs, including Arrow, Arrow 2 and David’s Sling, Israel’s long- and medium-range missile defense systems. (Jerusalem Report, Jan. 16, 2014)

‘ECONOMIST’ MAGAZINE CARTOON SPARKS ANTISEMITISM ROW (London) —Following widespread condemnation on Monday, The Economist has removed a cartoon deemed as antisemitic. However the offending illustration, of US President Barack Obama reaching out to Iran shackled to a congress emblem embossed with Stars of David, is still on a different area of the site. The cartoon first appeared in the magazine’s January 18 print edition under the headlines Negotiating with Iran, A big gap to close. Critics blasted the cartoon for suggesting that the US is controlled by Jews and Israel. The Economist replaced the cartoon, showing Obama and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, with juxtaposed photographs of the two leaders. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 22, 2014)

UNESCO PULLS JEWISH EXHIBIT AFTER PROTEST FROM ARAB LEAGUE (Paris) —The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization has pulled a Jewish exhibit two years in the making, entitled “People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel,” after a zero hour protest from the Arab League. The exhibit, which was created by Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) together with UNESCO, was scheduled to open on January 20th, 2014, at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters. The display was co-sponsored by Israel, Canada and Montenegro. Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean of the SWC, told The Algemeiner that the move was an “absolute outrage.” “The Arabs,” he said, “don’t want the world to know that the Jews have a 3,500-year relationship to the Land of Israel.” (Algemeiner, Jan. 16, 2014)

344 YEARS AFTER HIS EXECUTION, FRENCH JEW CLEARED OF BLOOD LIBEL (Paris) —Nearly 350 years after his wrongful execution, a French Jew who had been convicted of a blood libel was exonerated and declared a martyr. The village of Glatigny in the eastern district of Moselle set the record straight Sunday on the wrongful conviction of Raphael Levy in 1670 for murder. Levy, a merchant, was found guilty and burned at the stake for the alleged killing of 3-year-old Didier Lemoine for ritual purposes, Le Figaro reported Sunday. City officials affixed a plaque in Levy’s memory to a public building in the village of Glatigny, near where he was killed. The text refers to him as a “Jewish martyr from Boulay,” (Ha’aretz, Jan. 21, 2014) 

On Topic Links

No More ‘Honest Broker’: L. Ian Macdonald, Montreal Gazette, Jan.21, 2014 Stephen Harper’s speech to the Israeli parliament was everything Benjamin Netanyahu could have hoped for, and then some, when he welcomed his guest as a voice of “moral leadership” in the world.

Syria Uses ‘Strategy of War Crimes’: Human Rights Watch: Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg, Jan. 21, 2014  The Syrian regime has been using a “strategy of war crimes” that’s killing 5,000 people a month to crush the armed opposition and peace negotiators must focus more attention on the deaths, Human Rights Watch said.

Rob Coles, Publications Editor, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research/L’institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme,   www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284. mailto:ber@isranet.wpsitie.com