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Contents: Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
President Obama’s Syria Confusion: Rajan Menon, Real clear World, Sept. 11, 2013
Obama’s Syria Pause Only Delaying the Inevitable: Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg, Sept. 11, 2013
Assad is Adopting Hamas’ ‘Dead Baby’ Strategy: Alan M. Dershowitz, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2013
With Congress Balking, Obama Delays Strike Against Syria: Mark Landler And Jonathan Weisman, Globe and Mail, Sept. 10, 2013
Israeli Researcher Discovers Protein That May Help Eradicate Cancer: Sophie Imas, NoCamels · September 8, 2013
Latest Developments: Obama Agrees to Russian Proposal for Syrian WMD Hand Over
President Barack Obama, facing an almost certain defeat in obtaining Congressional support for a military strike against Syria, said he would give serious consideration to a proposal first raised by Sec. of State Kerry, and the seconded by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Foreign Minister, that international monitors take over and destroy Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons. Mr. Obama said he has asked Congressional leaders to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while he pursues what he described as “this diplomatic path,” even while making the moral case for punishing Syria for its deadly use of chemical weapons. ]“It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitment, but this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies. When dictators commit atrocities, they depend upon the world to look away until those horrifying pictures fade from memory. But these things happened. The facts cannot be denied. The question is now what is the United States and the international community prepared to do about it? Because what happened to those people, to those children, is not only a violation of international law but a threat to our security.” — President Barak Obama in a speech delivered at the White House, Tuesday [Sept. 10]. (Globe and Mail, Sept. 11, 2013)
TODAY I SAW EVIL
Yori Yanover
Jewish Press, September 11th, 2013
(September 11, 2001) I was working on my news report this morning, and there was a faint boom in my background. We live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, right off the FDR Drive that surrounds the island with a ribbon of five million cars each morning. Noise happens. Then my wife called and said there was a rumor somebody tried to blow up one of the Twin Towers, could I go look?
Our living-room windows feature a magnificent panorama picture, starting with the Empire State Building on the extreme right and ending with the East River and Brooklyn Heights on the extreme left. Smack at the center used to stand the two towers of American commercial resilience and might. They were still there as I was rushing to the living room, phone in hand, except there was a Dali-style gaping hole in the one on the north side, and sooty, black and brown smoke was billowing from it.
Then my wife was saying, on the phone, it was a plane that did it, crashed into the building. And as she’s speaking, I see another schmuck pilot coming way too close to the towers, about to repeat the mistake of the first guy. He was moving south, green and sparkling in the benign morning sun, and I was sure there was something terribly wrong with the air traffic control at La Guardia, or Newark, to have allowed two slips like that on the same day. But then it turned, corrected course and headed directly into the bright, reflecting side of the southern tower, and instantaneously an orange ball of fire erupted and grew ever bigger, and I knew it hadn’t been a mistake all along.
Helpless and shocked, I stood in my living room, the phone in my ear, and I was screaming and crying “Oh, my God” so many times, my voice mixing with tears until I wasn’t screaming any more, just staring in disbelief.
This is what a satanic act looks like: bright, metallic, swinging with ease across the sky, turning with complete mastery of the laws of physics, the laws of life and death, the laws of pain and fear. Evil makes a few calm course corrections, to insure full impact. Evil engulfs the innocent with a ball of fire and rises in a victorious after-dance. Evil removes thousands from among the living with one ideologically certain whoosh of flame.
I resolve today to point at evil and call it by its rightful name. I resolve today not to euphemize the truth, not be understanding of the plight that caused flesh and blood to degenerate into mass killers, not to presume a spark of the divine in people capable of this horror. I resolve today to contribute as best I can to the eradication of the Islamic system of terror and death, of the criminal mullahs and qaddis and ayatollahs who have raised a generation of dedicated murderers.
Today I wish to belong to a civilized society that turns on its enemies and pounds them to the ground until they raise the white flags of surrender. Until, like post-Nazi Germany, they take on the burden of proof that they belong once again to the human race.
“I am not impressed by the blessings uttered by a regime that just last week threatened to destroy the state of Israel.” — Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in response to a surprise holiday twitter blessing from Israel’s arch enemy Iran. “The international community should not be deceived by Iran’s Rosh Hashana greeting and should focus instead on Tehran’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.” (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 7, 2013)
“I think we share the view of our allies that when we see developments that we think in the long term are dangerous for the planet and therefore for us as well, we are simply not prepared to accept the idea that there is a Russian veto over all of our actions.” — Canada’s Prime Minister, Steven Harper at the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Sept. 6. (Globe and Mail, Sept. 7, 2013)
“We do not want a new world order established where dictators can use these weapons of mass destruction, a poor man’s nuclear weapon, act with impunity and to see this type of behaviour encouraged.” — Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. (National Post, Sept. 6, 2013)
“When with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act. That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional,” — U.S. President Barack Obama, in his speech to the American people advocating his use of a military strike in response to the Syrian gas attack. (Times Of Israel, Sept. 10, 2013)
“At this particular moment it’s the highest number of displaced people anywhere in the world. Syria has become the great tragedy of this century — a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history. What is appalling is that the first million fled Syria during two years. The second million fled Syria in (the past) six months. We have now almost one-third of the Syria population that has been displaced, and half in need of assistance. So there are no words to express the dimension of this tragedy. The only solace is the humanity shown by the neighbouring countries in welcoming and saving the lives of so many refugees.” — Antonio Guterres U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, to reporters in Geneva. If the conflict continues, 3.5 million Syrian refugees are expected by the end of the year. (National Post, Sept. 4, 2013)
“…[T]hey lie beautifully, of course. I saw debates in Congress. A congressman asks Mr Kerry: ‘Is al Qaeda there?’ He says: ‘No, I am telling you responsibly that it is not.’ Al Qaeda units are the main military echelon [in Syria], and they [the U.S] know this. It was unpleasant and surprising for me – we talk to them, we proceed from the assumption that they are decent people. But he is lying and knows he is lying. It’s sad.” — Russian President Vladimir Putin. (PJ Media, Sept. 4, 2013)
“With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs…the answer is profoundly yes. They have. That offer is on the table. In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost. That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about getting this done.” — Secretary of State John Kerry, at Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing into a possible military strike against Syria. (Washington Post, Sept. 5, 2013)
“Sgt. Obama himself has more or less admitted that any action he takes against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will be meaningless and feeble. ‘A shot across the bow,’ is how Obama put it, incorrectly thinking this made him sound more like an experienced military strategist than a naïf huddling over his first game of Battleship. Ruthless dictators who have been murdering their own citizens by the thousands aren’t likely to be scared by pre-announced two-day show of fireworks. Obama’s belief that we should send a message in a ‘clear and decisive but very limited way’ is another classic. It’s global geopolitics reconceived as a teatime faux pas on ‘Downtown Abbey.’ ‘Very limited.’ Oh dear! Dictators don’t do limited. They do ruthless. They do unlimited. That’s how they passed their final exams at dictator school.” — Kyle Smith, in an opinion piece in the New York Post. (New York Post, Sept. 8, 2013)
“The additional time [before striking] gives Assad the potential advantage of complicating United States targeting by surreptitiously moving people or even chemical munitions into them, aiming to create casualties or chemical release as a direct result of US attacks.” — retired American General David A. Deptula. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2013)
“There’s no direct threat.” — Steven Palazzo, a Republican from Mississippi who claimed 98 per cent of his voters oppose military action, to [Sec. of State John] Kerry. “There’s no upside. There’s’ no win. There’s no strategy. There’s no vision. There’s no trust. And the list goes on and on. I’m a ‘No’ as well and gentlemen, I wish you the best of luck. You do have a tough job, but America is just not buying what you are selling at this time.” (FreeNewsPos, Sept. 11, 2013)
“There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict, “Only a political solution can end the terrible bloodshed, grave violations of human rights and the far-reaching destruction of Syria. While respecting the recent calls for action, we underscore at the same time the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the UN process.” — European Council President Herman Van Rompuy to reporters ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 countries last week in St Petersburg. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 5, 2013)
“The alternative is to give a green light to outrages that will threaten our security and haunt our conscience—outrages that will eventually compel us to use force anyway down the line at far greater risk and cost to our own citizens.” — Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in a speech Friday [Sept. 6] at the Center for American Progress. (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 7-8, 2013)
“[T]hey are arguing: that we should stand by and do nothing while tens of thousands of civilians are slaughtered; that we should do nothing, even when the means of slaughter escalates to chemical weapons. There isn’t any way to put a fig leaf on this….At best, it is a policy of the rueful wringing of hands. Intervention has potential risks of its own, some of them terrible. But to take the “do nothing” position in response depends upon two further assumptions. One: that in the absence of intervention, things stay essentially as they are — that there are not equal or worse consequences that flow from non-intervention…And two: that we are morally implicated by the consequences of our actions, but are absolved of the consequences of inaction — that there are only sins of commission and not of omission. I’m afraid that’s not the world we live in, or should want to.” — Andrew Coyne, columnist, in an op-ed article in the National Post.( National Post, Sept. 7, 2013)
“The Jewish people in the Middle East are a people under siege. Aside from the perpetual violence leveled at the Jewish minority in the region, the Jewish people are also subject to the theft of our history. This is a theft that cannot be measured in financial terms. This is a theft that goes to the core of our humanity and our dignity as a people. It seeks, in fact, to eliminate us as a people. For reasons which I find unfathomable, we are failing to place the Arab-Jewish conflict within the history of the Jews in the Middle East under thirteen centuries of Arab-Muslim persecution. The conflict between the vast Arab-Muslim majority and the tiny Jewish minority needs to be understood in just those terms. The Jews of the Middle East were a subjugated people since Muhammed’s armies marched out of the Saudi peninsula in the 7th century. From that day to this the Jews were considered dhimmis, second and third class citizens under the boot of Arab-Muslim imperialism.” — Michael Lumish, in Taking Back Our History. (JewsDownUnder, Sept. 6, 2013)
“The Egyptians are strangling the Gaza Strip. They are punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip by denying them medicine, food and fuel.”— Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. (Jewish Press, Sept. 8, 2013)
“For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: ‘We desire death like you desire life.’” — Fathi Hammad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2013)
RUSSIA’S PUTIN SHIPPING ASSAD MORE WEAPONS — (Moscow) Russia is stepping up weapons supplies to Syria as part of the arrangement with the Assad regime to have its chemical weapons stockpiles placed under international supervision, Israeli Channel 2 TV reported Tuesday. Negotiations between Russia and Syria have been ongoing for two weeks and have also involved Iran, the report said. Russian President Putin essentially ordered Assad to submit to international oversight of his chemical weapons stocks. In return, Putin promised bolstered conventional weapons shipments, “some of which are already on their way” to Syria. (Times of Israel,Sept. 10, 2013 )
PA OFFICIAL: KERRY ‘GUARANTEED IN WRITING’ RETURN TO 1967 BORDERS— (Jerusalem) A senior Palestinian official said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “guaranteed in writing” that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would start with the 1967 lines. American officials, however, denied the existence of such a document. Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian commissioner for international relations, told The New York Times that the Palestinians agreed to restart the peace talks as a direct result of the guarantee. State Department spokesman Marie Harf told the Times in an emailed statement, “We have always said that if you don’t hear news about the talks from senior U.S. officials, you can’t count on it being reliable. This is a good example.” (Jewish Press, Sept. 11, 2013)
DOZENS OF FORMER ALLEGED AUSCHWITZ GUARDS FACE NEW ACCESSORY TO MURDER CHARGES — (Ludwigsburg, Germany) The German special prosecutors’ office that investigates Nazi war crimes said Tuesday it is recommending charges against dozens of alleged former Auschwitz guards, opening the possibility of a new wave of trials almost 70 years after the end of World War II. Federal prosecutor Kurt Schrimm, the head of the office in Ludwigsburg, said an investigation of 49 suspects turned up enough evidence to recommend that state prosecutors pursue charges of accessory to murder against 30 people in Germany who were stationed at the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. (National Post, Sept. 4, 2013)
ISRAELI RESEARCHER DISCOVERS CELL-DESTROYING PROTEIN THAT MAY HELP ERADICATE CANCER— (Haifa) “Killing these cancer stem cells is the holy grail of cancer treatments and therefore holds promise for complete eradication of cancer,” says Dr. Sarit Larisch of the University of Haifa. These are not words said lightly; instead, they follow more than a decade of research that could give hope to cancer patients worldwide. Along with her colleagues, Larisch has established the basis for developing a new, more effective treatment for cancer using a protein called ARTS. “ARTS-based cancer drugs could potentially change the treatment method of cancer worldwide,” Larisch tells NoCamels. “We have found that ARTS is particularly important for the death of defective stem cells. We therefore believe that ARTS-based drugs will specifically eliminate cancer stem cells (the cells that drive the growth of a tumor and are often resistant to chemotherapy or radiotherapy).” (NoCamels, Sept. 8, 2013)
SECRET LIFE OF THE AUSCHWITZ COMMANDANT’S DAUGHTER— (Washington)
Brigitte Höss lives quietly on a leafy side street in Northern Virginia. She is retired now, having worked in a Washington fashion salon for more than 30 years. She recently was diagnosed with cancer and spends much of her days dealing with the medical consequences. Brigitte also has a secret that not even her grandchildren know. Her father was Rudolf Höss, the Kommandant of Auschwitz. It was Rudolf Höss who designed and built Auschwitz from an old army barracks in Poland to a killing machine capable of murdering 2000 people an hour. By the end of the war, 1.1 million Jews had been killed in the camp, along with 20,000 gypsies and tens of thousands of Polish and Russian political prisoners. As such, Brigitte’s father was one of the biggest mass murderers in history. (Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 12, 2013)
EGYPTIAN COURT SLAPS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS WITH LIFE SENTENCES — (Cairo)An Egyptian court sentenced 11 more members of the Muslim Brotherhood to life in prison for violence against the army on Tueday, September 3. The verdict was entered in response to the widespread protests on August 14 by pro-Morsi forces in the city of Suez, following the crackdown on protests in Cairo. A life sentence in Egypt carries a maximum of 25 years in prison, according to the Daily News of Egypt. Nearly 50 other Muslim Brotherhood defendants were found guilty of lesser charges and received five-year sentences, while several were acquitted of all charges. Charges against the defendants included murder and attempted murder of security forces and of civilians, destruction of public property including churches and military vehicles, and spreading chaos. Nearly 30 people were killed in the violence. (Jewish Press, Sept. 3, 2013)
EU SEEKS TO SOOTHE ISRAELI SETTLEMENT FUNDS TENSION — (Brussels) A team of EU diplomats will head to Israel on Tuesday for talks aimed at soothing tensions over a decision to block EU money from reaching Jewish settlements. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, announced the move after a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry in Vilnius on Saturday. U.S. officials said Kerry would push the EU to avoid any moves that could complicate Middle East peace talks. For the first time since tensions flared in July, Israeli diplomatic officials sounded optimistic about a resolution that wouldn’t threaten joint research and development programs. An Israeli foreign ministry official said the EU delegation is expected to give clarifications that will “ease our minds” on how the policy will be carried out without blocking EU collaboration with major Israeli research universities. (Wall Street Journal, Sept)
SYRIAN OPPOSITIONIST QUIETLY AIMS FOR NORMALIZATION WITH ISRAEL— (Paris) A Europe-based Syrian opposition political activist who took part in the early stages of the uprising against the Syrian government told The Jerusalem Post he would like the Syrian and Israeli people to become partners, develop business connections and visit each other’s countries. The activist, who goes by the pseudonym Amin Muhammad, is working on forming a liberal Syrian party that would be pro-West and seek the normalization of relations with Israel. Muhammad is in contact with Israeli politicians. The only one he agreed to name was Labor MK Isaac Herzog, who had helped arrange this interview. Asked why he does not use his real name, he responded that it could be dangerous for him, but that he wanted “a voice to get through from Syria to Israel.” (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 11, 2013)
ISRAEL JUMPS TO 11TH IN LIST OF HAPPIEST COUNTRIES— (Tel Aviv) There are only ten countries in the world with people happier than Israel, according to the United Nations commissioned World Happiness Report released Monday by Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Israel jumped from 14th in last year’s poll to 11th, ahead of the United States (17), United Kingdom (22), and France (25). The happiest counties among the 156 in the study are Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada. The study measured positive and negative emotions and evaluations of life as a whole. It concluded that mental health is the single most important determinant of individual happiness. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 10, 2013)
President Obama’s Syria Confusion: Rajan Menon, Real clear World, Sept. 11, 2013—President Barack Obama’s Tuesday evening speech explaining his plans for a military strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, though deftly delivered, will not put to rest the doubts that a large majority of Americans have about what the president aims to achieve with what he insisted would be a limited, targeted operation.
Obama’s Syria Pause Only Delaying the Inevitable: Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg, Sept. 11, 2013—process of securing several hundred tons of chemical weapons, and thousands of warheads and rockets, would take years, even if Syria were at peace. The U.S. has been destroying its chemical weapons stocks for roughly 15 years, and it still isn’t finished.
Assad is Adopting Hamas’ ‘Dead Baby’ Strategy: Alan M. Dershowitz, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2013—The Assad regime is adopting what I have called the “dead baby” strategy, perfected by Hamas in its battles with Israel. This approach is as simple as it is brutal: Force the United States, as Hamas forced Israel, to kill as many civilians as possible by deliberately moving legitimate military targets into civilian areas, or by moving civilians into military areas.
With Congress Balking, Obama Delays Strike Against Syria: Mark Landler And Jonathan Weisman, Globe and Mail, Sept. 10, 2013—President Barack Obama, facing an almost certain defeat in obtaining Congressional support for a military strike against Syria, made the case for that strike to the nation Tuesday night, but said he would give serious consideration to a proposal by Russia that international monitors take over and destroy Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons.
Israeli Researcher Discovers Cell-Destroying Protein That May Help Eradicate Cancer: Sophie Imas, NoCamels · September 8, 2013—“Killing these cancer stem cells is the holy grail of cancer treatments and therefore holds promise for complete eradication of cancer,” says Dr. Sarit Larisch of the University of Haifa.
Ber Lazarus , Publications Editor Canadian Institute for Jewish Research /L’institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 Fax: (514) 486-82843
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