WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS IN REVIEW” ROUND-UP

 We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication. Please address your response to:  Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, PO Box 175, Station  H, Montreal QC H3G 2K7 – Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284; E-mail: rob@isranet.wpsitie.com

 

Contents: | Weekly Quotes |  Short Takes   |  On Topic Links

 

 

On Topic Links

 

Israel May be in Trouble if Assad Wins, Former US Official Says: Ariel Ben Solomon, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 15, 2016

Israel and the Russian Challenge: Caroline Glick, Breaking Israel News, Jan. 24, 2016

Hey, Big Tech: Stop Giving Jihadis Internet Safe Havens: John McCain, New York Post, Feb. 6, 2016

ISIS Is Guilty of Anti-Christian Genocide: Demetrios of Mokissos, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11, 2016

 

“We are the protective wall of western civilization…In the midst of this terrific storm, in the midst of this global turbulence, there is one country in the Middle East that maintains not only an advanced society, a democratic society, an innovative society, but a society that maintains the very values that you here in Europe and you in Germany hold dear.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu and several of his cabinet ministers are in Berlin for the sixth Israel-Germany Government-to-Government meeting. During a joint press conference with Netanyahu, Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to signal that she was turning down the pressure on Israel to push for a diplomatic process with the Palestinians. “Now is not the time for a significant step forward [in the two-state solution],” Merkel said. (I24, Feb. 16, 2016)

 

For us everyone bearing arms against the state and the Syrian people is a terrorist, this matter is nonnegotiable…They say they want a cease-fire in one week…Fine, but who is capable of lining up all the conditions and prerequisites? Nobody.” — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Violence in northern Syria escalated Monday, casting doubt on a planned cease-fire as the U.S. accused the Assad regime and its ally Russia of bombing civilian hospitals. The U.S. said the airstrikes Monday in and around Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, targeted innocent civilians, including at two hospitals. At least 50 people were killed at medical facilities and schools in rebel-held areas in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Assad insists he will never accept a cease-fire with rebels until they surrendered their weapons, and won’t negotiate a political transition with those he called traitors. (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

“NATO’s policy with regard to Russia has remained unfriendly and opaque. One could go as far as to say that we have slid back to a new Cold War…Almost on an everyday basis we are called one of the most terrible threats either to NATO as a whole or to Europe, or to the United States.” — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Speaking Saturday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Medvedev said he sometimes found himself wondering whether this was 2016 or 1962. Tensions between the West and Russia have increased in recent years, in large part — at least in the view of the West — due to Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and its support for separatists elsewhere in eastern Ukraine. More recently, some in the West have questioned whether Russia’s intervention in Syria is helpful. Russia says it is attacking terrorists. But some observers contend that Moscow is intent primarily on propping of the Assad regime. (CNN, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

“Mr. Putin is not interested in being our partner…He wants to re-establish Russia as a major power in the Middle East. He wants to use Syria as a live-fire exercise for Russia’s modernizing military, he wants to turn Latakia province into a military outpost from which to harden and enforce a Russian sphere of influence — a new Kaliningrad, or Crimea — and he wants to exacerbate the refugee crisis and use it as a weapon to divide the trans-Atlantic alliance and undermine the European project.” — U.S. Sen. John McCain. (CNN, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

“President Obama has spent five years insisting that there is no military solution to the Syrian civil war. To judge by the “cessation of hostilities” announced Friday in Munich, Vladimir Putin is about to prove him wrong…In practice, however, this looks like another Russian victory. Russian planes have intensified their bombing of Aleppo, forcing thousands of civilians to flee to the Turkish border through the only corridor that remains beyond Mr. Assad’s control. Mr. Lavrov says the week delay is needed to sort out the “modalities” of the cease-fire, but the real reason is to give the regime time to complete Aleppo’s encirclement…This isn’t the Russian “quagmire” Mr. Obama predicted last year when Moscow stepped into Syria. Mr. Putin has consolidated his strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean with a tough but limited military intervention and minimal casualties. He has strengthened ties to Tehran. He has shown the Muslim world that he’s the power to be reckoned with, which is why Sunni states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have backed away from their opposition to Mr. Putin’s gambit.” — Editorial (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12, 2016)

 

“How can I trust a cease-fire agreement and today, we have casualties from airstrikes on Anadan, Hayan, Hraytan, and Tal Rifaat? …The entire Syrian population doesn’t take these things seriously anymore.” — Syrian activist Yasin Abu Raed, listing towns in Aleppo province. By Friday evening, activists and residents in Aleppo province said there was no sign of any de-escalation in a pro-regime offensive there. Syrian opposition leaders and rebels across the country said they doubted a cease-fire would even begin, let alone hold. (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12, 2016)

 

“Brussels wants to let in … it wants to transport illegal migrants into the territory of the EU … and then distribute them in a mandatory way…This is Brussels’ crisis management plan of Brussels … the Hungarian government does not accept this plan.” — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban said that the EU’s policy on the migration crisis had failed and underlined that Hungary would not accept a distribution of refugees by national quota. Orban said the migration pressure would only increase in 2016 and that Europe was “defenseless and weak”. (Yahoo, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

“How is it possible that the government of France and the European Union all feel that incitement in Arabic on social media in Europe calling for physical attacks on Jews is permitted and that there is no requirement from industry to do something about it…If they know how to deliver a specific ad to your Facebook page, they know how to detect speech in Arabic calling to stab someone in the neck. It is outrageous [that technology] companies hide behind the First Amendment. Industry won’t correct itself without regulatory requirements by governments.” — Akiva Tor, the director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Jewish Communities. The Foreign Ministry called on governments around the world to regulate social media in order to combat antisemitism and violent incitement, reiterating the government’s support last year for Internet censorship during an anti-racism conference. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

If they are determined to persecute Israel, why can’t we persecute them? Why can’t we put them out of business? Why should we let them get away with it? … Once they know that this is a price they will have to pay for it, I guarantee you won’t hear any more about boycotting Israel.” —Jewish comedian Jackie Mason, in a radio interview. Mason believes that Jews in the US entertainment industry should use their influence to blacklist celebrities who support Israel boycotts. Furthermore, Mason told listeners, rather than boycott, celebrities should be praising Israel. “If they had any decency, they would want to go out of their way to help Jewish people and to save Jewish people because the State of Israel represents the people who made it possible for them to ever become a celebrity in the first place. If not for them, you would be starving to death today.” Mason also had harsh words for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate and delegitimize Israel. One common tactic is putting pressure on celebrities who visit, or plan to visit, the Jewish state. Artists who have succumbed to BDS pressure and canceled appearances in recent years have included Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello. (Times of Israel, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

“(BDS) is classic anti-Semitism in action. Boycott proponents see Israel as not simply wrong, but sinful, as well. And in their view, sins can only be redeemed by the destruction of the state in which they breed. It’s irrational and the opposite of democratic, yet campus administrations, so quick to empathize with other minority grievances, hesitate to acknowledge this true evil in their midst.” — Barbara Kay. (National Post, Feb. 16, 2016)

 

“What does that mean (Former U.S. President George W. Bush) kept the country safe after 9/11?…What about during 9/11? I was there. I lost a lot of friends that were killed in that building. That’s [like saying] the team scored 19 runs in the first inning, but after that we did well.” — Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, during a campaign stop in North Carolina. With more than a dozen television cameras pointed at him and 100 members of the media pressing him on the issue, Trump stopped short of saying that Bush was responsible for the 2001 terror attacks that killed more than 3,000 people, which he labeled the “greatest terror attack in the history of the United States… Excuse me, the World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush. Came down,” Trump told reporters. “We weren’t safe.” He also blasted Bush for the war in Iraq. “The whole thing starts with the war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, but the one thing about him: He killed terrorists.” (Politico, Feb. 15, 2016)  

 

Contents

 

ANKARA EXPLOSION KILLS 28, WOUNDS DOZENS (Ankara) — Twenty-eight people were killed and dozens wounded in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Wednesday when a car laden with explosives detonated next to military uses near the armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and other government buildings. The Turkish military condemned what it described as a terrorist attack. A government spokesman said 28 people including soldiers and civilians had been killed and 61 wounded in the blast, which took place near a busy intersection less than 500 metres from parliament. The bombing comes after an attack in Ankara in October blamed on I.S., when two suicide bombers struck a rally of pro-Kurdish activists outside the capital’s main train station, killing more than 100 people. A suicide bombing in Istanbul in January, also blamed on I.S., killed 10 German tourists. (CBC, Feb. 17, 2016)

 

ASSAILANT ATTACKS FOUR AT CHRISTIAN ISRAELI-OWNED OHIO RESTAURANT (Columbus) — A man wielding a machete entered a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday evening and began attacking diners, managing to injure four before he was shot and killed by police. The restaurant, called Nazareth, is owned by an Israeli Christian Arab. The attacker was identified as Mohamed Barry, a Columbus resident. One of the victims, a 54-year-old man, was reported to be in critical but stable condition. A man and a woman were in stable condition, and the fourth victim was treated and released from the hospital. Barry was a Somali native with criminal history. (Breaking Israel News, Feb. 14, 2016)

 

OLMERT BECOMES FIRST ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER TO GO TO PRISON (Jerusalem) — Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert started serving a 19-month prison sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice on Monday, becoming the first Israeli premier to be imprisoned and capping a years-long legal saga that forced him to resign in 2009. Olmert, 70, was convicted in March 2014 in a wide-ranging case that accused him of accepting bribes to promote a controversial real-estate project in Jerusalem. The charges pertained to a period when he was mayor of Jerusalem and trade minister, years before he became prime minister in 2006. He was initially sentenced to six years in the case, but Israel’s Supreme Court later upheld a lesser charge, reducing the sentence to 18 months. (Fox, Feb. 15, 2016)  

 

NATO WILL SEND SHIPS TO AEGEAN SEA TO DETER HUMAN TRAFFICKING (Brussels) — With more than a million migrants having reached Europe in the last year, NATO stepped into the crisis for the first time on Thursday, saying it would deploy ships to the Aegean Sea in an attempt to stop smugglers. It was not clear that it would have much practical effect on the flow of refugees fleeing Syria’s five-year civil war: The alliance said it would not seek to block the often rickety and overcrowded migrant vessels or turn them back. Officials said three NATO vessels, from Canada, Germany and Turkey, were being deployed to the Aegean Sea. NATO will also enhance its surveillance of the Turkey-Syria border, monitoring the movement of migrants and the activities of smugglers. (New York Times, Feb. 11, 2016)

 

IRAN IS BUYING RUSSIA’S LETHAL SU-30 (Tehran) — Iran looks set to sign a deal to purchase Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 Flanker fighters as it upgrades its military forces following the nuclear deal, which cleared the way for sanctions to be lifted on Tehran. Iranian defense minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan visited Moscow this week to discuss the potential fighter buy, as well as to discuss deliveries of the Almaz-Antey S-300 air and missile defense system. Iranian state news had quoted Dehghan, saying that Tehran needs to focus on modernizing its air force. The most advanced aircraft Iran currently has are a handful of American-built Grumman F-14A Tomcats and MiG-29s acquired either from the Soviet Union or aircraft that defected from Iraq. (National Interest, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

VALENTINE’S DAY IS NOW A CRIME IN IRAN (Tehran) — Iran says it is cracking down on Valentine’s Day celebrations and shops engaging in them will be guilty of a crime. Iranian news outlets reported the police directive Friday warning retailers against promoting “decadent Western culture through Valentine’s Day rituals.” Police informed Tehran’s coffee and ice cream shops trade union to avoid any gatherings in which boys and girls exchange Valentine’s Day gifts. The annual Feb. 14 homage to romance has become popular in recent years in Iran and other Middle East countries. The backlash in Iran is part of a drive against the spread of Western culture. Saudi Arabia has also sought to stamp out Valentine’s Day but it’s celebrated widely in nearby places like Dubai. (New York Post, Feb. 13, 2015)

 

PAKISTANI ARMY FOILS PLOT TO SPRING FREE KILLERS OF DANIEL PEARL (Islamabad) — Pakistan’s military said it had foiled a prison break bid aimed at freeing a British-born terrorist awaiting execution for the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Three terror groups — al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — were working together on the plot to spring death-row inmate Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. Pearl, a 38-year-old American-Jewish journalist, was the South Asia bureau chief for The WSJ when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002, while writing a story about Islamists. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 12, 2016)

 

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP DEMANDS ANSWERS ON KIDNAPPED COPTS (Cairo) — A year has passed since I.S. released a video showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya, and now Egyptian activists want answers. In a public call, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms demanded that Libyan authorities investigate the whereabouts of eight Christians who remain missing and chided the Egyptian government for remaining quiet. I.S. have managed to gain a foothold in Libya, which has been ravaged by civil war since an uprising, backed by Western countries, ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Since then, a power struggle has erupted between two main factions, allowing extremist groups to gain a grip on lawless parts of the country. (IBT, Feb. 16, 2016)

 

OBAMA RELUCTANTLY SIGNS BILL RECOGNIZING TERRITORIES AS PART OF ISRAEL (Washington) — A trade bill which passed a senate vote is set to be signed into law by Obama, despite his objections to its pro-Israel portions. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act came before Congress last summer as part of a package designed to strengthen rule enforcement. The bill, however, contains a provision which would extend agreements with Israel into “Israeli-controlled territories”, a move lauded by pro-Israel lobby AIPAC but criticized by the White House. The bill includes a clause intended to curb politically-motivated trade moves, such as limiting economic relations with Israel. The clause, which discourages corporate or state-affiliated entities from participating in the BDS movement, received particular accolades from AIPAC. (Breaking Israel News, Feb. 15, 2016)

 

UK ANTI-BDS BILL SEEKS TO BLOCK BOYCOTT OF JUDEA AND SAMARIA (London) — New British government directives are aiming to prevent public bodies, universities, and student unions from boycotting Israeli products. According to The Sunday Times, the move “follows mounting concern among Jewish leaders about antisemitism.” U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock said such boycotts are divisive, potentially damaging to the U.K.’s relationship with Israel, and risk fueling antisemitism. The new bill seeks to prevent any public body from imposing a boycott on a World Trade Organization member, which Israel has been since 1995. The regulation will essentially outlaw boycotting Israeli products and allow the British government to take legal action against organizations that impose such boycotts. (Breaking Israel News, Feb. 16, 2016)

 

MAIN GERMAN BANK CLOSES TOP BDS-LINKED ACCOUNT (Berlin) — The Munich-based DAB Bank is slated to discontinue the account of one of the top BDS campaign websites in Germany. The BDS-Kampagne [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Campaign] group’s website lists DAB Bank Munich as the financial institution for electronic money transfers. DAB Munich is the German branch of its French mother company bank, BNP Paribas. French law outlaws BDS activity targeting the Jewish state. It is unclear if action by BNP Paribas against the BDS-Kampagne account is connected to possible violations of French anti-BDS or anti-terrorism laws. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Union officially oppose BDS. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 16, 2016)

 

LITHUANIAN NATIONALISTS MARCH IN MEMORY OF NAZI COLLABORATORS (Vilnius) — Approximately 250 Lithuanians attended a march commemorating nationalists who are accused of complicity in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust. The march Tuesday in Kaunas, a city 65 miles east of Vilnius, was organized on Lithuania’s Independence Day by the Union of Nationalist Youth of Lithuania under the banner “We Know Our Nation’s Heroes.” The so-called heroes celebrated at the march were all involved in the Holocaust or in fighting alongside Nazi Germany, according to Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who monitored the march. The nationalist march in Kaunas is one of several such events planned in the coming weeks in the three Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — where many regard Nazi collaborators as patriots because they fought against Russian occupation. (JTA, Feb. 16, 2016)

 

TRIAL OF REINHOLD HANNING, EX-AUSCHWITZ GUARD, OPENS IN GERMANY (Berlin) — Reinhold Hanning, a 94-year-old former Nazi charged with being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people, refused to make any statements as his trial opened in Germany. Hanning, a former SS sergeant at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, sat attentive as the charges against him were read in court in the northern city of Detmold. Prosecutors say that Hanning served as a member of the SS at the camp in 1943 and 1944. The Nazis carried out mass-scale killings of Jews brought from Hungary directly to the camp, and the prosecutors have said that he must have been aware of the gas chambers in his capacity as a guard. More than three-quarters of the prisoners were marched directly from the railway cars to the gas chambers at the camp, the prosecution said. (New York Times, Feb. 11, 2016)

 

YOM KIPPUR WAR HERO AVIGDOR BEN-GAL LAID TO REST (Tel Aviv) — Maj.-Gen (res.) Avigdor “Yanush” Ben- Gal, a hero of the Yom Kippur war, who died on Saturday at the age of 79, was buried in Tel Aviv. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon described him as one of the commanders who shaped the IDF in a way that “influenced the next generations of fighters, to this day, and will continue to do so in the future.” Ya’alon recalled how Ben-Gal, born in Lodz, Poland, in 1939, fled the Nazis with his family, and how, after his parents died in Europe, he wandered the streets of the pre-state Yishuv searching for a home. He later found his purpose in the IDF, rising in the ranks to head the Seventh Armored Brigade during one of “the most difficult and heroic battles of the Yom Kippur War. Ben-Gal leaves behind a wife and seven children. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 14, 2016) 

 

VICTOR GOLDBLOOM, JEWISH COMMUNITY LEADER, DIES AT 92 (Montreal) — Dr. Victor Goldbloom, the first Jewish Quebec cabinet minister, public servant, interfaith dialogue pioneer and eloquent Jewish community leader, died of a heart attack on Feb. 15 at age 92. A physician by profession, Goldbloom was active and in good health until his sudden passing, his family said. Born in Montreal on July 31, 1923, Goldbloom was the son of Dr. Alton Goldbloom and Annie Ballon and grew up in the downtown Golden Square Mile. Goldbloom said he learned from his father that the best way to combat antisemitism was to be fully engaged in society. After practicing medicine for some years, he entered provincial politics in 1966 as the MNA for the newly created riding of D’Arcy McGee in West End Montreal. He was re-elected three times. (CJN, Feb. 16, 2016)

Contents

 

On Topic Links

 

Israel May be in Trouble if Assad Wins, Former US Official Says: Ariel Ben Solomon, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 15, 2016 —If the Syrian regime wins the civil war and Iran ends up on the Golan, Israel could have difficulty defending itself, said a former White House official on Monday.

Israel and the Russian Challenge: Caroline Glick, Breaking Israel News, Jan. 24, 2016—Israeli Air Force commanders are reportedly deeply worried about Russia’s military presence in Syria. When Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed his forces to Syria last year, he claimed that the deployment would be brief. Russian forces were placed in Syria, Putin said, to protect Assad and would leave once he was able to defend himself.

Hey, Big Tech: Stop Giving Jihadis Internet Safe Havens: John McCain, New York Post, Feb. 6, 2016—Islamic State and other terrorist groups espouse a primitive ideology and rely on medieval tactics, but they use distinctly modern tools: social media and communications platforms designed to evade our most advanced efforts to fight terrorism.

ISIS Is Guilty of Anti-Christian Genocide: Demetrios of Mokissos, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11, 2016—Christians throughout the world will mark Monday, Feb. 15, as a day to remember the courage and religious fortitude of 21 Coptic Christians who were executed one year ago by Islamic State terrorists in Libya.