Netanyahu Encourages Iranians to Continue Uprising Against Ayatollah: Israel Today, June 28, 2018
The Bazaaris’ Revolt in Iran: Who is Behind It?: Amir Taheri, Gatestone Institute, July 1, 2018
Germany: Migration Deal Keeps Merkel in Power, For Now: Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute, July 4, 2018
The China-US Confrontation: A Russian View: Emil Avdaliani, BESA, July 4, 2018
WEEKLY QUOTES
“The Iranian regime is feeling very well the coming reimposition of the economic sanctions against it. The Iranian economy is at a low point. One needs to see the data in order to believe. Iran is investing billions of dollars in financing terrorism in the region and around the world, and in aggression in the region, instead of investing them in the Iranian people, and the Iranian people are protesting this, and rightly so.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A top Iranian official called for calm on Sunday after anti-regime protests in a southern city turned violent overnight with reports of police shooting at demonstrators who attacked banks and public buildings. “At a time when the US is economically striking at the Iranian regime, we are working to prevent Iranian forces and those of its proxies from establishing a military presence anywhere in Syria, and we will continue to do so,” Netanyahu added. (Algemeiner, July 1, 2018)
“The people of Iran are tired of the corruption, injustice, and incompetence from their leaders…We condemn the government’s same futile tactics of suppression, imprisonment of protestors, and the denial of Iranians’ frustrations.” — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo’s comments come as protestors take to the streets of Tehran, and workers go on strike amid the collapse of country’s currency. Most of the demonstrations have centered in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar. The U.S. is planning to reimpose economic penalties on Iran following Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. Those penalties are expected to reduce the country’s earnings from oil exports. (The Hill, June 27, 2018)
“There is in this campaign, endorsed in Ireland by notable gay and feminist activists, the refrain of hypocrisy…The boycott brigade, marching for human rights and social justice, sees Israel’s defence of itself as a primarily Jewish state as a war crime…We look forward to reporting its demands for an international boycott of, say, Saudi Arabia or Iran where, when we last looked, gay and feminist activists would not be tolerated. Can we look forward to calls to cut off all cultural, academic and economic ties with, say, China, with its more than somewhat appalling lack of interest in human rights? We suspect not.” — Irish Examiner editorial. The editorial board of a leading Irish newspaper slammed those calling for a boycott of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. Such a boycott, the editorial pointed out, “would have no impact one way or the other on the policies of Israel’s government which, lest it be conveniently overlooked, represents the region’s only democracy and whose highest priority is the protection of its citizens from those whose wish is to wipe the country off the map.” (Algemeiner, June 29, 2018)
“This is a worldwide premiere for a parent company to be indicted for complicity in crimes against humanity, marking a decisive step forward in the fight against the impunity of multinationals operating in armed conflict zones.” — Sandra Cossart, director of Sherpa, a Paris-based human rights group. A panel of magistrates in France has put cement giant LafargeHolcim under formal investigation over allegations of terrorist financing, violating international sanctions and committing crimes against humanity. The case centres around allegations that Lafarge paid I.S. and other terrorist groups in Syria more than US$15-million for supplies and assurances they wouldn’t attack the company’s new plant near Raqqa. The legal move came after a court hearing in Paris and it’s a key step toward criminal charges. It marks the first time a western company has faced possible sanctions for crimes against humanity. And it comes after eight former Lafarge executives, including two former CEOs, have been put under formal investigation over allegations of terrorist financing. (Globe & Mail, June 28, 2018)
“It seems as if today we will manage a shift in migration policy…That’s important because we have asked for a systemic change for years. For years we have demanded reductions in the number of people coming to Europe illegally. I think that is possible today.” — Sebastian Kurz, Austrian chancellor. The EU embraced a new hardline agenda to defend its borders against illegal migration last week as Angela Merkel warned that the fate of the bloc depended on addressing the three-year crisis over migration. Europe’s populist leaders claimed victory for their “Fortress Europe” agenda which saw the European Council summit in Brussels putting deterrence and the protection of EU borders at the forefront of its migration policy. Kurz said the shift to a harder line was a victory for those states who have argued that the EU’s soft approach is creating ‘pull factors’ for migration. Kurz added that being rescued in the Mediterranean “must not automatically become a ticket” to central Europe. (Telegraph, June 28, 2018)
“If we want to see American global leadership, America’s Western allies need to do more to demonstrate they can be useful partners…Otherwise, Trump’s ‘America First’ approach will be the norm in the future.” — Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper implored the allies of the United States to heed Trump’s call for more burden-sharing. In so doing, he said, they will give the United States more reason to continue its role as the champion of democracy worldwide despite Trump’s attitude. (New York Post, June 30, 2018)
“This frustration is not confined to our executive branch. The United States Congress has taken note and is concerned as well…The United States is increasingly unwilling to ignore this alliance’s failure to meet shared security challenges.” —President Trump. Prime Minister Trudeau and other world leaders are gearing up for a debate on defence spending at the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels. On Tuesday, Trudeau is meeting with the 28 other NATO leaders to discuss ways to reinforce peace and security among nations. In a letter to Trudeau, Trump said there is “growing frustration” in the U.S. with NATO allies that have not increased defence spending as promised. Canada’s continued defence spending of less than two per cent “provides validation for other allies that also are not meeting their defence spending commitments…I understand domestic political pressures, as I myself have expended considerable political capital to increase America’s defence spending,” he said. “It will, however, become increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries continue to fail to meet our shared collective security agreements.” (National Post, July 3, 2018)
“The Canadian government obviously sees itself being on the wrong side of this discussion … because it refuses to engage in a direct conversation about the issue…Instead, it continues to play bait-and-switch, trying to divert attention towards the entirely different subject of the politics around the commitment of forces to NATO operations. This is an intellectually dishonest response to valid criticism.” — Charles Davies, a fellow at the Conference of Defence Associations. Davies says Canada is dodging, rather than answering, justified criticism by changing the subject to deployments from funding levels. Davies said that even with new budgetary commitments made in recent years, Canada is still not on track to hit the 2 per cent defence-spending target. (Globe & Mail, July 4, 2018)
“These childish efforts to shun me because I refused to change my position on civil liberties that I have kept for half a century discourages vibrant debate and may dissuade other civil libertarians from applying their neutral principles to a president of whom they disapprove…But one good thing is that being shunned by some ‘old friends’ on Martha’s Vineyard has taught me who my real friends are and who my fairweather friends were.” — Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz says he has been shunned — first by old political allies who have stopped inviting him to dinners, and now by liberal elites who are trying to exclude him from their social circles on Martha’s Vineyard. The reason, he says, is his unrelenting defense of President Trump’s civil liberties — a position that he says he would have also taken for Hillary Clinton had she won the presidency and was similarly under investigation amid calls for impeachment. Dershowitz likened his alleged shunning to McCarthyism in the 1950s, when lawyers who represented suspected Communists were ostracized. (National Post, July 4, 2018)
“Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an articulate, tough, poised woman, is (Trump’s) press secretary, who with seven of her friends went far out of Washington to have supper at a restaurant, The Red Hen. Two minutes after placing the order, the zealous owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, asked/told Sanders to leave. (No free-range chickens for you!) The obliging, polite, still esurient Sanders did, without demur or protest. The locust swarm of anti-Trumpers soon hit the high clouds of Twitter to cheer Wilkinson’s “resistance.” She was the Bonhoeffer of Today’s Specials. Those who spoke a word or two in Sarah Sanders’ favour were mauled mercilessly. An enlightened mind which sparkles under our very own Canadian skies, an academic no less, if political science can be said to partake in that category, enlarged the Twitter mindscape with this aperçu: “It’s 1934 and pundits are complaining that a restaurant refused to serve Goebbels.” (He neglected to send out a warning to Poland though.) Sarah Huckabee Sanders — Goebbels?! Back to the Euclid formula that introduced this aria. It is a chief glory of being “anti-Trump” that having adopted that position as a surrogate for thought, one is, by equally demented analogy, free to write and say the first ripe idiocy that springs to mind, however crude and misplaced.” — Rex Murphy. (National Post, June 29, 2018)
SHORT TAKES
ISRAEL REINFORCES TROOPS, STEPS UP HUMANITARIAN AID TO SYRIA (Jerusalem) — Israel said it would be reinforcing troops along the frontier with Syria and stepping up its humanitarian efforts in the area amid a fierce Syrian offensive that has displaced thousands of people. The UN has warned of a catastrophe in southern Syria, where government forces are on the offensive against insurgents in fighting that has forced thousands of people to flee toward the Golan Heights. The IDF said it took in six Syrians over the weekend for medical treatment. It has supplied 300 tents and about 60 tons of food, clothing, humanitarian aid and medicine to internally displaced Syrians. (National Post, July 1, 2018)
PRINCE WILLIAM STONED BY PALESTINIAN ARABS IN RAMALLAH (London) — Arab media sources are reporting that on his drive north of Ramallah, Palestinian Arab kids threw stones at Prince William’s car. As Prince William’s convoy was driving through the Jelazun refugee camp north of Ramallah, Arab children threw rocks at his car. This was a very embarrassing event for Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. The official excuse for the stoning of Prince William was that they didn’t “prepare” the residents of the refugee camp for the Prince’s arrival. (Israel Unwired, June 27, 2018)
ISRAEL, AUSTRALIA TACKLE TERROR FUNDING (Sydney) — Israel has passed a new law to hit the PA in the pocket as long as it insists on paying terrorists. For every shekel that the PA spends on its monthly stipends to terrorists, Israel will freeze a shekel-and-a-half that would otherwise be headed to Ramallah. The Knesset law passed just hours after Australia terminated its funding to the PA. The Australian and Israeli moves have the same aim, but they work differently. Australia is dealing with donations to Ramallah while Israel is dealing with money that belongs to the PA. Israel holds PA funds because, in line with treaties, it collects certain taxes on Ramallah’s behalf, and then passes the money along. According to the new law, Israel will deduct one-and-a-half times the PA’s spend on stipends to terrorists when it makes a transfers to Ramallah. The government will then decide if and when to release the funds. (Australian Jewish News, July 5, 2018)
US COURT: TEEN MURDERED BY HAMAS TO BLAME BECAUSE HE TRAVELED IN JUDEA (Washington) — A US judge told the parents of Naftali Frankel, who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists together with another two Israeli teens in 2014, that they were partially to blame for his death because they chose to send him to a school in an area prone to terror attacks. Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frankel were kidnapped and murdered in 2014 in the Gush Etzion area. Racheli Frankel, Naftali’s mother and a US citizen, filed a lawsuit in a federal U.S. court. Judge Rosemary Mayers Collyer accepted the claims but chose to award a small amount in compensation, arguing that the family had endangered itself when it chose to live in Judea and Samaria. (World Israel News, July 3, 2018)
ISRAELI FAMILY RESCUED FROM MOB ATTACK AT WORLD CUP (Moscow) — Belgian soccer fans rescued an Israeli family from a near lynch at a World Cup game in Moscow. The Tunisian fans who instigated the attack screamed “Palestine” at the Israeli family when they saw the Israeli flag. The Israeli father explained that “I have no concessions to make as to my two passions, Israel and soccer, this is my flag, this is my country and I will wear my flag proudly”….. “I simply carried my flag and wanted to enjoy the game with my family and they attacked me like animals” Thankfully the Belgian fans forcefully pushed away the Tunisian mob and rescued the Israelis. (Israel Unwired, July 1, 2018)
MAN ARRESTED IN CLEVELAND TERROR PLOT (Cleveland) — An Ohio man who had expressed support for Al Qaeda and a desire to kill U.S. soldiers and told an undercover agent that he wanted to attack a Fourth of July parade in Cleveland was arrested. F.B.I. agents began investigating the man, Demetrius N. Pitts, more than a year ago, after they discovered messages on Facebook espousing anti-American views and a belief that Muslims “should always be prepared to fight.” Pitts told the agent, who was posing as an Al Qaeda sympathizer, he wanted to set off bombs and launch attacks in multiple cities, starting with Cleveland on Independence Day, the authorities said. (New York Times, July 2, 2018)
U.S. PRESSES TO END IRAN OIL IMPORTS (Washington) — The U.S. expects all countries to cut oil imports from Iran to “zero” by Nov. 4 or risk sanctions, a State Department official said, expressing a toughening of the Trump administration’s Iran policy as Washington tries to isolate Tehran. Buyers of Iranian crude had expected the U.S. would allow them time to reduce their oil imports over a much longer period, by issuing sanctions waivers for nations that made significant efforts to cut their purchases. A State Department official said the administration doesn’t plan to issue any waivers, and would instead be asking other Middle Eastern crude exporters to ensure oil supply to global markets. (Marketwatch, June 27, 2018)
IRANIAN GENERAL: ISRAEL STEALING IRAN’S CLOUDS (Tehran) — An Iranian general accused Israel of manipulating weather to prevent rain over Iran, alleging his country was facing cloud “theft”, before being contradicted by the nation’s weather chief. “The changing climate in Iran is suspect,” Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali said, semi-official ISNA news reported. “Foreign interference is suspected to have played a role in climate change,” Jalali was quoted as saying. “Israel and another country in the region have joint teams which work to ensure clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain…On top of that, we are facing the issue of cloud and snow theft”, Jalali added, citing a survey showing that above 2,200 meters all mountainous areas between Afghanistan and the Mediterranean are covered in snow, except Iran. (Arutz Sheva, July 2, 2018)
GERMAN SPY AGENCY ACKNOWLEDGES EMPLOYING HIMMLER’S DAUGHTER (Berlin) — Germany’s intelligence service said it had employed the daughter of top Nazi Heinrich Himmler in the 1960s, although she never renounced her father or Nazism, and remained active in far-right extremism. The revelation that Himmler’s daughter, Gudrun Burwitz, had worked for the BND spy agency could add to public soul-searching over the tolerance of some Nazis after the Second World War. Himmler, who as commander of the SS was one of the most powerful Nazis and a principal architect of the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust, killed himself in British custody in 1945. His daughter died last month in Munich at 88. (Globe & Mail, June 29, 2018)
KASHRUT AUTHORITY REVOKES LICENSE FOR REINSTATING ETHIOPIAN WORKERS (Jerusalem) — A leading Israeli winery at the center of a racism scandal has lost its stamp of approval from a kashrut authority, which required it to ban its Ethiopian employees from coming in contact with its wine due to doubt over their Jewishness. Barkan Wineries, which first banned and then reinstated the workers, said it no longer had certification from the Eda Haredit, an ultra-Orthodox group. Even though the Chief Rabbinate of Israel recognizes the Ethiopian community as Jewish, some ultra-Orthodox communities do not recognize all of them according to religious law. (Times of Israel, June 29, 2018)
LEFTIST ISRAELI JURIST ELECTED CHAIR OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE (Geneva) — Prof. Yuval Shany, the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law and former Dean of the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was elected as chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva. This is the first time an Israeli has been appointed to this senior position. Prof. Shany has been a member of the UNHRC since 2013. His term will expire in 2020. He has also been a member of anti-Zionist NGO B’Tselem, and is generally identified with the most extremist line in the Israeli Supreme Court. He has been an opponent of Netanyahu’s agenda. (Jewish Press, July 3, 2018)
IRWIN COTLER HELPING FAMILY OF CANADIAN-IRANIAN WIDOW STUCK IN IRAN (Ottawa) — Irwin Cotler, renowned international human-rights lawyer and former justice minister, is representing the family of a Canadian-Iranian widow who has been barred from leaving Iran since her husband’s suspicious death inside a Tehran prison earlier this year. Cotler began acting as international legal counsel for Maryam Mombeini’s family about month ago. The news of Cotler’s involvement in the high-profile consular case comes days after Mombeini’s home in the Iranian capital of Tehran was raided by a powerful branch of the country’s military that arrested her husband prior to his death in the notorious Evin prison in February. (Globe & Mail, June 27, 2018)
ELIE WIESEL MEMORIAL PLAQUE UNVEILED AT JERUSALEM HOLOCAUST MUSEUM (Jerusalem) — A memorial plaque dedicated to Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel was unveiled at Jerusalem’s Chamber of the Holocaust museum on Mount Zion. The plaque in memory of Wiesel, who died aged 87 on July 2, 2016, was unveiled next to a 70-year-old “Tree of Life” dedicated to Wiesel at Israel’s first Holocaust museum, established in 1948. Born in Romania, Wiesel authored 57 books discussing his experiences during the Holocaust. His memoir Night has been translated into 30 languages and sold approximately 10 million copies in the US alone. (Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2018)
Netanyahu Encourages Iranians to Continue Uprising Against Ayatollah (Video): Israel Today, June 28, 2018
The Bazaaris’ Revolt in Iran: Who is Behind It?: Amir Taheri, Gatestone Institute, July 1, 2018 —Last week, Tehran’s Grand Bazaar was shut, with its example imitated in the capital’s other business districts such as Maqsud-Shah, Qaysarieh, Khayyam, Sayyed Vali and Pachenar, among others. At the same time, bazaars in several other cities, notably Isfahan, Mash’had, Bandar Abbas, Kerman and Tabriz also organized token strikes in sympathy with Tehrani merchants.
Germany: Migration Deal Keeps Merkel in Power, For Now: Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute, July 4, 2018 —In an extraordinary last-minute reversal, Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing the imminent collapse of her coalition government, agreed late on July 2 to reinstate border controls with Austria.
The China-US Confrontation: A Russian View: Emil Avdaliani, BESA, July 4, 2018 —China, which is poised to become a powerful player in international politics thanks to its economic rise and concurrent military development, has strategic imperatives that clash with those of the US. Beijing needs to secure its procurement of oil and gas resources, which are currently most available through the Malakka Strait.
