Haley’s Resignation a Loss, But Administration Still Pro-Israel: Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, Oct. 9, 2018
Look Who’s Back! In His New Book, a Vigilant Stephen Harper Offers Advice for the Age of Trump: John Ivison, National Post, Oct. 9, 2018
How Iran Plans to Take Gaza: Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, Oct. 9, 2018
Corbyn’s Minor Apologies for Major Malice: Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Arutz Sheva, Oct. 10, 2018
WEEKLY QUOTES
“Thank you Ambassador Nikki Haley for standing up for the truth and exposing hypocrisy at the UN. You’ve shown that with enough strength and determination, real change is possible…Just as the people of Israel are grateful for the rock solid support President Trump has provided Israel in the Oval Office, we are grateful for the rock solid support you have provided Israel at the UN.” — Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu praised U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley after news broke that she would leave her post at the end of the year. Haley was a vocal supporter of Trump’s decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite warnings that doing so could inflame tensions in the region. Haley scolded U.N. members who voted on a resolution to condemn the embassy move, threatening that the U.S. “will remember this day…when we are called upon to, once again, make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations.” (The Hill, Oct. 9, 2018)
“I have been saying for years that UNRWA has become part of the problem and not part of the solution…For 70 years, UNRWA has been managing the affairs of the Palestinian refugees and has not managed to reduce the problem or resolve the refugee problem within seventy years. I am interested in continuing to manage the issue of the Palestinian refugees…I support Trump’s decision to stop UNRWA funds…65 percent of UNRWA funds go to salaries and the renting of buildings and offices, salaries of $25,000 a month and luxury vehicles. I want to close this organization so that its employees will be unemployed and become refugees themselves.” — Bassam Eid, a human rights activist. As for the solution needed on the day after the US budget cuts from UNRWA’s budget, Eid said that this will indeed be the next American president’s mission to lead a comprehensive process in which Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the countries where most of the Palestinian Arab refugees are located, “will have to recognize them as citizens, grant them IDs and passports, and to allow normal life to be managed, and to destroy the refugee camps in these countries.” (Arutz Sheva, Oct. 8, 2018)
“It’s not a state now. It does not meet the customary international law test of statehood…It doesn’t control defined boundaries. It doesn’t fulfill the normal functions of government. There are a whole host of reasons why it’s not a state…It could become a state, as the president said, but that requires diplomatic negotiations with Israel and others…So calling it the ‘so-called state of Palestine’ defines exactly what it has been. [That’s] the position that the United States government has pursued uniformly since 1988, when the Palestinian Authority declared itself to be the State of Palestine.” — US National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton might have been referring to the fact that 137 countries have recognized the PA as a state since 1988. He reiterated the US rejection of this position on a bipartisan level. “We don’t recognize it as a state… We have consistently, across Democratic and Republican administrations, opposed the admission of ‘Palestine’ to the UN as a state because it’s not a state.” Although the PA is only a “non-member observer state” at the UN, it was allowed to formally join the International Criminal Court in 2015. Since the court’s decisions are binding, the US, by leaving the protocol, blocked the Palestinian case. (World Israel News, Oct. 4, 2018)
“(UK Labour Party Chairman Jeremy Corbyn is an) anti-Semite who wants to return Britain to darker periods in its history…In his actions and statements, Corbyn gives oxygen to incidents of racism by embracing his terrorist friends and encouraging the activities of BDS (the global anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement). Israel stands by the Jewish community in England.” — UN Ambassador Danny Danon. Danon was hosted Tuesday by the British Parliament, where the Israeli diplomat was invited to address the legislative body. (Jewish Press, Oct. 2, 2018)
“Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party is a toxic cocktail of unrepentant Marxism-Leninism and unacceptable anti-Semitism. They are giving all the errors of the 20th Century another chance to wreck our society…When our Jewish friends and neighbors live in fear for their futures, let us stand with them against prejudice, against intimidation, against bigotry and against hate. Let a message come loud and clear from this hall, a message of unshakeable solidarity with the Jewish community.” — UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove. (Jewish Press, Oct. 2, 2018)
“A large proportion of Americans, including many American conservatives, voted for Trump because they are really not doing very well. In short, the world of globalization is not working for many of our own people. We can pretend that this is a false perception, but it is not. We now have a choice. We can keep trying to convince people that they misunderstand their own lives, or we can try to understand what they are saying. Then we can decide what to do about it…Some dismiss President Trump’s clarion call to “Make America Great Again” as sheer jingoism, but to minimize the visceral embrace of his anti-globalist message is to miss its larger significance. It resonated with the core of the party that supported Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and their robust internationalism. His message also had resonance with a considerable body of traditionally Democratic voters, many of whom crossed over to give him the presidency. To my mind, this is perhaps the most easily understood part of the Trump phenomenon. America has been through a decade and a half of foreign-policy experiences that laid the groundwork for an America First approach.” — Former Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper, in an excerpt from his new book Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption. (National Post, Oct. 5, 2018)
“With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR the Bolshevik spectre that had haunted the 20th century was history. A panicked Left responded by dropping class conflict from the socialist agenda and in league with political Islam sought to recover lost status and credibility by turning on the state of Israel, characterized as a white man’s imperialism in the brown Middle East. An informal post-Cold War alliance uniting the depleted left and political Islam and targeting the Jewish state has been fuelled by the Jew hatred that had briefly gone into hiding post-WW2 and now occupies the centre of millennial consciousness. The antisemitism of the extreme Right, rising in prominence within a rapidly emerging populist context, tends to be more direct, eschewing attacks on the State of Israel, maintaining traditional focus on pure Jew hatred and Holocaust denial.” — David Levy, in an excerpt from his new book Out of the Shadows of the War on Terror, the War Against the Jews. (2018)
SHORT TAKES
2 ISRAELIS MURDERED IN SHOOTING (Jerusalem) — A terrorist went on a shooting rampage at a factory near Ariel on Sunday, killing two people and seriously injuring a third. The suspect – a Palestinian man from Shawika – fled the scene. The IDF said the shooting was a terrorist attack. Hamas and Islamic Jihad were quick to applaud him. “We welcome the ‘Barkan attack,’ which was a response to the crimes of the Gaza occupation and the [planned demolition of the Bedouin settlement] Khan al-Ahmar, as well as the settlements in the West Bank,” Hamas said. Hamas’ website declared: “The intifada continues…This is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation.” (Israel Hayom, Oct. 7, 2018)
UN COURT SIDES WITH IRAN AND RULES US MUST ROLL BACK SOME SANCTIONS (Washington) — The UN’s highest court handed Iran a legal victory over the US when it ordered the White House to roll back some of Trump’s sanctions on Tehran. Judges at the International Court of Justice ruled unanimously that parts of the sanctions the US imposed on Iran were illegal and must be removed. The court ruled that the US must roll back sanctions that would hamper Iran’s ability to important medicine, food, and spare parts necessary for civilian airlines. The sanctions have already badly weakened Iran’s economy and sent the riyal spiraling to new lows against the dollar. (Telegraph, Oct. 3, 2018)
TURKEY TO SEARCH SAUDI CONSULATE FOR MISSING JOURNALIST (Istanbul) — Turkey said Tuesday it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance a week ago of a Saudi contributor to the Washington Post. The announcement came as a surveillance image surfaced of Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before he disappeared. Khashoggi, 59, went missing while on a visit to the consulate for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancée. He had been living since last year in the United States, in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman. Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed on the premises of the consulate. (CBC, Oct. 9, 2018)
TAMIMI FEATURED IN VOGUE (New York) —Ahed Tamimi, the teenage Palestinian activist and recently released prisoner was featured in the October issue of Vogue Arabia. Tamimi, who served eight months in prison after she was filmed hitting Israeli soldiers, was released earlier this year. She is celebrated as a hero by many Palestinians and has become known as the face of resistance. But many Israelis say the teenager, who has called for violent attacks against Jews, should not be honored. Tamimi has been a known face in the region for years for participating in often violent protests since a young age. A right-wing blog in Israel nicknamed her “Shirley Temper.” Some of her family members – including a cousin, Ahlam Tamimi – have been involved in deadly terrorist attacks. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 7, 2018)
DEFENSE MINISTER REDUCES GAZA FISHING ZONE AFTER BORDER VIOLENCE (Gaza) — Defense Minister Liberman has ordered the reduction of the Gaza fishing zone from nine nautical miles to six, in response to the escalating violence at the border with Israel. “The defense minister’s decision was made following the violent rioting over the weekend near the [security] fence and attempts to harm IDF forces and launch confrontational flotillas at the maritime border,” said the Defense Ministry. At least 20,000 Gazans stormed the security fence on Friday and attacked Israeli soldiers stationed at the border, hurling hand grenades and other explosives at the troops. (Jewish Press, Oct. 6, 2018)
SWEDISH JEWISH POLITICIAN’S HOUSE BURNED IN SUSPECTED HATE CRIME (Stockholm) — The house of a Swedish politician who has been the target of antisemitic harassment was set on fire in what his community is calling a hate crime. The incident occurred in the southern city of Lund. The victim was described only as a lay politician with Jewish roots. The alleged victim was able to extinguish the flames before they spread to other homes. No one was hurt, but the blaze resulted in extensive damage to the property. Police have no suspects in custody. (Ha’aretz, Oct. 10, 2018)
TORONTO JEWISH DAY SCHOOL VANDALIZED WITH PALESTINIAN TERROR SLOGANS (Toronto) — A Jewish day school in Toronto was vandalized with pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas slogans over the long weekend, B’nai Brith Canada reported. On Tuesday, staff arrived at the Leo Baeck Day School, South Campus to find that various signs were defaced with statements reading, “Free Palestine,” “Long Live Palestine,” and “Long Life [sic] to the Hamas.” Hamas is a designated terrorist organization under Canadian law. The vandalism was discovered just days after two Israeli civilians were gunned down in a terror attack at a West Bank factory. (B’nai Brith, Oct. 9, 2018)
EU CIVIL SERVANT CONVICTED OF ANTISEMITIC ASSAULT BY BELGIAN COURT (Brussels) —Stefan Grech, a 49-year-old EU civil servant, was convicted of incitement to hate or violence toward people of Jewish faith, violation of anti-racism laws, and assault aggravated by racial hatred following a violent altercation in a Brussels cafe in 2015 — during which he attacked an Italian colleague, called her a “dirty Jewess,” and shouted that “the Jews are doing to the Palestinians what Hitler did to the Jews.” Grech was given a three-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay his victim 500 euros in compensation. Grech will reportedly appeal the sentence, accusing the Brussels-based Belgian League Against Antisemitism (LBCA) of launching a “witch-hunt” against him. (Algemeiner, Oct. 8, 2018)
PETITION DENOUNCING ANTI-ZIONIST CONFERENCE AT UCLA PASSES 2,000 SIGNATURES (Los Angeles) — A petition urging the University of California, Los Angeles to reconsider hosting an upcoming anti-Zionist conference surpassed 2,000 signatories. The online petition says the eighth annual National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) “is designed to instill hatred towards and intolerance while proliferating lies about Israel.” The event marks the largest annual gathering of NSJP activists, who help promote BDS on university campuses — a campaign denounced by major Jewish organizations, and opposed by both UCLA and UC regents. (Algemeiner, Oct. 5, 2018)
STUDENTS SAY COLUMBIA U. FAILS TO PROTECT ZIONISTS FROM HARASSMENT (New York) — A student group at Columbia University protested against what it described as the administration’s tolerance of harassment directed at Zionists. Some 50 members of Students Supporting Israel, Columbia alumni, and community members gathered before the university’s main gates in the afternoon, holding Israeli flags and signs that read, “all students deserve protection,” and “don’t dismiss, act on this.” SSI said that anti-Zionist clubs have fostered “an unacceptably hostile environment,” and “systematically maligned, harassed and silenced” Zionist voices. The administration did not take any action based on this or several other subsequent complaints, SSI said. (Algemeiner, Oct. 5, 2018)
US STUDENT DETAINED IN ISRAEL FOR ALLEGED BOYCOTT SUPPORT (Tel Aviv) — In a first-of-its-kind case, Israel has held an American graduate student at Ben Gurion Airport for a whole week, accusing her of supporting BDS. Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport with a valid student visa. But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports BDS. The court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals. The weeklong detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case, and it was not immediately clear when a decision would be made. Last year, the Knesset passed a law barring entry to supporters of the boycott movement. (Ynet, Oct. 10, 2018)
BEAUTY QUEEN FLEES AFTER THREAT, STRING OF DEATHS (Baghdad) — A former Miss Iraq has fled the country following killings of high-profile women. Shimaa Qasim Abdulrahman said she left for Jordan after receiving death threats from a man purporting to be an Islamic State member who told her, “You’re next”. Her fleeing the country came just a week after fellow Iraqi beauty queen and social media star Tara Fares was shot dead in Baghdad. The 22-year-old was driving her Porsche when an assassin approached the car and shot her three times. In the weeks before that, Suad al-Ali, a women’s rights activist in Basra, was also gunned down as she walked to her car. (National Post, Oct. 9, 2018)
THREE ORTHODOX RABBIS ORDAINED IN BERLIN AFTER 80-YEAR INTERRUPTION (Berlin) — The Nazis shut down Berlin’s Jewish seminary in 1938, and since then not a single Orthodox rabbi has been ordained in the German capital – until today, when three graduates of the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary: Alexander Kahanovsky, Shraga Yaakov Ponomarov and Shlomo Sajatz, were ordained in a historic ceremony. 71 years after the closure of the Hildesheimer rabbinical seminary, the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin was finally established in 2009 as its successor. For the first time since 1938, the training of Orthodox rabbis was brought back to Germany. (Jewish Press, Oct. 9, 2018)
AMERICAN-ISRAELI APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF BANK OF ISRAEL (Jerusalem) — An Israeli-American professor will be appointed the new governor of the Bank of Israel, replacing outgoing Karnit Flug as she completes her 5-year term next month. Professor Amir Yaron was born in Tel Aviv in 1964. He has a B.A. and an M.A. from Tel Aviv University, and another M.A. as well as a Ph.D are from the University of Chicago. Yaron is a Robert Morris Professor of Banking and Professor of Finance in The Wharton School in University of Pennsylvania. His interests include asset pricing, macro-finance, and applied time series econometrics. He’s lived in the US for more than 20 years. Yaron was a captain in the IDF, and served as the financial advisor to the Chief of Staff. (Jewish Press, Oct. 9, 2018)
15-YEAR-OLD ISRAELI SWIMMER WINS GOLD (Jerusalem) — At just 15 years old, Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko has claimed Gold at the Youth Olympic Games in the women’s 200 IM. Anastasia took first place in the preliminaries with a time of 2: 14.74. She then took Gold in the finals with a 2:12.88. She split the race quickly all the way through, going 29.31, 34.12, 38.06, and 31.39 respectively. The only split of hers that was slower in finals than it was in prelims was breast, where she split 37.98 in prelims. The Israeli Record stood at 2:13.29, which was set by Amit Ivry in the 2012 London Olympics. Ivry still holds Israeli Records in the 100 fly, 50 back, 50 breast, and 100 breast. (Jerusalem Online, Oct. 9, 2018)
UNESCO: RACHEL’S TOMB AND CAVE OF PATRIARCHS PART OF ‘OCCUPIED PALESTINE’ (Jerusalem) — The PX Commission of the Executive Board of UNESCO adopted resolutions 28 and 29, titled “Occupied Palestine,” which state that the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem are “an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian territory” and condemning the construction of the security fence and “other measures aimed at altering the character, status and demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian territory.” Both resolutions were sponsored by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, and were approved within minutes at the commission’s meeting, which includes the 59 members of UNESCO’s Executive Committee. Israel is not a member of the Executive Committee. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 10, 2018)
EARLIEST KNOWN STONE CARVING OF HEBREW WORD ‘JERUSALEM’ FOUND NEAR CITY ENTRANCE (Jerusalem) — The earliest stone inscription bearing the full spelling of the modern Hebrew word for Jerusalem was unveiled on Tuesday at the Israel Museum, in the capital. While any inscription dating from the Second Temple period is of note, the 2,000-year-old three-line inscription on a waist-high column — reading “Hananiah son of Dodalos of Jerusalem” — is exceptional, as it is the first known stone carving of the word “Yerushalayim,” which is how the Israeli capital’s name is pronounced in Hebrew today. The stone column was discovered earlier this year at a salvage excavation of a massive Hasmonean Period Jewish artisans’ village near the Jerusalem International Convention Center, at what is now the entrance to the modern city. (Times of Israel, Oct. 10, 2018)
Haley’s Resignation a Loss, But Administration Still Pro-Israel: Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, Oct. 9, 2018—For Israel’s supporters in America, Nikki Haley was a superstar. She won them over with a memorable speech at the AIPAC convention in 2017, right after US President Donald Trump was elected and she became ambassador to the UN.
Look Who’s Back! In His New Book, a Vigilant Stephen Harper Offers Advice for the Age of Trump: John Ivison, National Post, Oct. 9, 2018—At one point in Right Here, Right Now, Stephen Harper writes that he does not want his new book to focus on Donald Trump. Nor does he want it to focus on himself. Inevitably, it does both.
How Iran Plans to Take Gaza: Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, Oct. 9, 2018—If anyone was hoping that removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip would improve the situation there and boost the chances of peace between Palestinians and Israel, they are in for a big disappointment.
Corbyn’s Minor Apologies for Major Malice: Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Arutz Sheva, Oct. 10, 2018—Jeremy Corbyn is probably Israel’s leading enemy in Western Europe’s political mainstream. Therefore, we should try to analyze his behavior as much as we can. One aspect of this is Corbyn’s occasional apologies for past statements and acts.
