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
The Rising Migrant Tide: Christopher Caldwell, Weekly Standard, Oct. 26. 2015
Someone Tell the President We Can’t Fight Radical Islam by Being Politically Correct: Steven Emerson & Pete Hoekstra, Forbes, Nov. 16, 2015
What ISIS Really Wants: Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, March, 2015
Europe Mislabels Israel: Eugene Kontorovich, New York Times, Nov. 13, 2015
WEEKLY QUOTES
“An attack on any one of us should be seen as an attack on all of us…Terrorism must always be condemned. It must always be fought. Innocent people in Paris, like those in London, Madrid, Mumbai, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem, are the victims of militant Islamic terrorism, not its cause. As I’ve said for many years, militant Islamic terrorism attacks our societies because it wants to destroy our civilization and our values. All terrorism must be condemned and fought equally with unwavering determination. It’s only with this moral clarity that the forces of civilization will defeat the savagery of terrorism.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has asked France for increased security around Jewish institutions, Netanyahu said, as he urged French Jews to follow instructions issued by French security forces. “Every Jew, whether he chooses to or not, knows that he has a home in Israel,” Netanyahu said. In a statement, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the terrorist attack that took at least 129 lives in Paris on Friday, and expressed solidarity with the people of France. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 14, 2015)
“We have committed to bringing back the CF-18s…But in the broader context we remain absolutely committed to the coalition…We believe we do need to be part of the fight to degrade and destroy ISIL. We only question the way that we should best do that.” — Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau, at a G20 summit in Turkey, referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to return to Canada the fighter jets conducting anti-I.S. combat missions abroad. (CBC, Nov. 15, 2015)
“…It is our fight, and after Paris, Justin Trudeau is going to be tested. His new Liberal government will not back down on its commitment to resettle 25,000 refugees in Canada as soon as possible. Our half-dozen CF-18s are going to be taken out of the U.S.-led anti-ISIL coalition – that was Trudeau’s campaign promise and he’s sticking to it…Unfortunately for the 250,000 Syrian dead, and for the hundreds of millions of “apostate” Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shia Muslims and all the other civilians ISIL caliph Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi has declared war upon, none of those innocents are NATO allies. France is a leading NATO ally, however. An invocation of Article 5 of the NATO charter, the “all for one” clause, would mean Canada is at war, formally and officially.” — Terry Glavin (National Post, Nov. 15, 2015)
“They wanted to show they are the new al-Qaida … that this is going to be the new organization that everyone has to be part of. The old organization is dying.” — Hassan Hassan, an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs and co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. The deadly attacks in the heart of Paris seemed to signal a profound departure in I.S.’s strategy, terrorism experts said. No longer is I.S. just focused on establishing a caliphate in the Sunni heartland in Iraq and Syria, it is turning its lens outward with the aim of inflicting mass civilian casualties abroad. Hassan said I.S. is still interested in building within its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, but it is also keen to establish itself as a “global leader of jihad.” (National Post, Nov. 15, 2015)
“In view of the tragic events in Paris, we do not see the political possibility of executing this policy. Poland must retain full control over its borders.” — Konrad Szymanski, Poland’s new minister for relations with other European nations. Europe never knew how to deal with the migrants. Greece pushed them to Macedonia. Hungary put up a fence. Austria and Germany welcomed them, for a time. But there was no coordinated strategy for the 28 members of the European Union. The only agreement, after summit meetings and other talks, was a plan to distribute 160,000 refugees among all the member states. It was a fraction of the total migrant population, and the agreement was achieved only under intense pressure from Germany. Now, Poland is moving toward undoing that deal. “After Paris, we lost security guarantees…The tragic events in Paris showed weakness in Europe,” said Szymanski. (New York Times, Nov. 14, 2015)
“The president of the republic announced a state of emergency and temporary border controls, and that’s all well and good…But what about the European Union? It is essential that France takes back control of its national borders.” — The leader of the French National Front party, Marine Le Pen. After the attacks on Friday Le Pen criticized the measures French President Hollande has taken so far as insufficient and called for a far more drastic stand against the presence of extremist Muslims on French soil. “France has been made vulnerable. She must rearm,” said Le Pen, who also called for radical Islam to be “destroyed…France must forbid Islamic organizations, close radical mosques, exile foreigners who preach hate on our land,” she said. (New York Times, Nov. 14, 2015)
“I don’t think we’re at war with Islam…I don’t think we’re at war with all Muslims. I think we’re at war with jihadists…We are at war with people who use their religion for purposes of power and oppression…And, yes, we are at war with those people…But I don’t want us to be painting with too broad a brush.” — Hillary Clinton, Democratic front-runner for Presidential candidate. Clinton’s refusal to say that the U.S. was at war with “radical Islam” led to a lengthy exchange of semantics among the three Democratic candidates during their third debate in Iowa. The CBS News moderator asked the former secretary of state whether she agreed with Republican candidate Marco Rubio’s assertion that U.S. was at war with “radical Islam.” (Newsmax, Nov. 14, 2015)
“These attacks cannot remain unpunished…We are going to launch the biggest operation ever against you. Expect many cyber-attacks. War has been declared. Get ready…We don’t forgive and we don’t forget.” — Video posted to YouTube by Anonymous, a loose-knit international network of activist hackers. The group is preparing to unleash waves of cyber-attacks on I.S. following the attacks in Paris. A man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask appeared on the YouTube video and said the I.S. terrorists who claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks were “vermin” and Anonymous would hunt them down. The group says it has identified more than 39,000 suspected I.S. profiles and reported them to Twitter. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 16, 2015)
“This evil needs to be destroyed. We are talking about 30,000 people, and the only thing they have in common is cruelty and a lust for murder…We need to put aside all of the arguments about law and morality and all of the talk about civil liberties and privacy rights…That means that from a practical standpoint, what needs to be done is what was done during the Second World War to Dresden…Dresden was erased from the map…That’s what needs to be done in all of the territorial pockets controlled by ISIS.” — Shabtai Shavit, former head of the Mossad. Shavit said that the scale of the destruction wrought by I.S. has not been seen “since the days when the Huns invaded central Asia and Europe” in the 5th century. He said that the US and Europe needs to form an international coalition “that will start doing and stop talking.” British and US bombers killed up to 25,000 people when they raided Dresden in 1945, between February 13 and 15, in a bid to crush German morale in the final months of World War II. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 16, 2015)
“This is war. And it is just the beginning…We will kill the innocent!..Do you hear their cries, their suffering?…“It’s to make you feel the fear that the people in Syria feel every day.” —Unidentified terrorist, during the attack at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. The full terrifying details of the battle for the Bataclan hall emerged on Tuesday as French police responded to questions about whether they could have ended the siege sooner, and perhaps saved more lives. (Telegraph, Nov. 18, 2015)
“When my people died, no country bothered to light up its landmarks in the colors of their flag…When my people died, they did not send the world into mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world.” — Elie Fares, a Lebanese doctor. A day before the French attacks, two suicide bombers killed 43 people and wounded 239 more in Beirut in an I.S.-propagated murder. The explosions detonated within 150 meters and five minutes of each other in the Bourj al-Barajneh district in southern Beirut on Thursday. Some people in Beirut felt anguish over the fact that just one of the stricken cities — Paris — received a global outpouring of sympathy.The bombings were the worst terrorist attacks in Beirut since the end of the Lebanese civil war. (New York Times, Nov. 15, 2015)
“We have escaped war for the four-and-a-half years, but I’m not sure we can continue escaping it…The Sunnis and the Shia are at war, just not yet in Lebanon.” — Sarkis Naoum, a columnist at the respected an-Nahar newspaper, in an interview conducted just as the blasts were going off in south Beirut. Because of the target of the Beirut suicide bombers – a largely Shia neighbourhood where many residents are supporters of the Hezbollah militia – it was quickly seen as spillover from the brutal war next door in Syria, where Hezbollah has sent fighters to support President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. In the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s attack, Hezbollah issued a statement declaring itself enmeshed in a “long war” against the so-called Islamic State. (Globe & Mail, Nov. 13, 2015)
“Lebanon is caught in the nexus of the Sunni and Shia conflict, between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and it’s in the middle of the Syrian refugee crisis…They’re playing chicken, all of the parties, thinking the other guy is going to blink first.” — Nadim Houry, director of the Beirut office of Human Rights Watch. That Lebanon has thus far remained largely at peace is something of a miracle, one many attribute to memories Lebanese have of their country’s own 1975 to 1990 civil war, which claimed 120,000 lives. (Globe & Mail, Nov. 13, 2015)
SHORT TAKES
TWO DEAD, SEVEN ARRESTED IN PARIS RAID TARGETING ATTACK MASTERMIND (Paris) — Shooting broke out in northern Paris during a Wednesday raid by police investigating the Paris attacks, as police hunted those behind the attacks that claimed 129 lives in the French capital on Friday. Two suspects were killed during the exchange, including a woman who detonated an explosives belt. Authorities arrested seven people and five police officers suffered minor injuries in the operation. After the raid, forensic experts swarmed the building as police tried to verify if Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of Friday’s attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, had been in the apartment. Abaaoud is an I.S. fighter who was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year. (Times of Israel, Nov. 18, 2015)
PARIS ATTACKERS LINKED TO BELGIAN SUBURB (Brussels) — Two of the Paris attackers – and at least three other people involved – are linked to a heavily-Muslim suburb of Brussels where the authorities admit they have “lost control.” The neighbourhood of Molenbeek, which has been involved in many previous terror attacks, was last night emerging as a key centre of the plot. Belgian prosecutors said that one of the seven killers who died in Paris had been identified as a Frenchman living in Molenbeek, which is described by one expert as “the capital of political Islam in continental Europe.” A second attacker lived in or close to the district. (Telegraph, Nov. 15, 2015)
CANADIAN MAY HAVE VOICED I.S. RECORDING ON PARIS ATTACKS: EXPERTS (Toronto) — An English-language audio recording allegedly produced by I.S. taking responsibility for and celebrating the Paris attacks sounds like it’s voiced by a Canadian, some experts say. The recording, released in the wake of Friday’s deadly coordinated attacks, was issued in Arabic, French and English. The English version, which runs almost six minutes, features a man’s voice and sounds slickly produced — typical of the I.S. propaganda machine. The reader’s pronunciation of several words including “out,” “houses,” “vice,” “sniper” and “fighters” “all sound very Canadian,” Charles Boberg, associate professor in McGill University’s linguistics department, wrote in an email. (Global, Nov. 16, 2015)
FRANCE DEMANDS EU SUPPORT AGAINST ISIS (Paris) — France invoked a never-before-used European Union “mutual- defence clause” to demand that its partners provide support for its operations against I.S. in Syria and Iraq and other security missions in the wake of the Paris attacks. The French Defence Minister said all 27 of France’s EU partners responded positively. Article 42.7 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty states that if a member country “is the victim of armed aggression on its territory,” other members have “an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.” The clause is similar to, but less far-reaching than, NATO’s Article 5, which designates an attack on one ally as an attack on them all, and was invoked by the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. (National Post, Nov. 18, 2015)
FRANCE READIES NERVE GAS ANTIDOTE IN WAKE OF TERROR ATTACKS (Paris) — The French government has authorized the distribution of an antidote to counter the potentially deadly effects of nerve gas as it rushes to expand security measures after the Paris terrorist attacks that killed 129 people. The government evidently fears that the Paris climate-change conference, known as COP21, is a possible terrorist target. Some 40,000 delegates and dozens of heads of state are expected to attend the conference, which runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 at enormous pavilions at Le Bourget airport in suburban Paris. The COP21 event is mentioned high up in the decree. (Globe & Mail, Nov. 17, 2015)
I.S. VIDEO THREATENS ATTACKS INSIDE RUSSIA ‘VERY SOON’ (Damascus) — I.S. has released a video threatening attacks in Russia “very soon.” Al-Hayat Media Center, I.S.’s foreign language media division, released a Russian language video with chants of “Soon, very soon, the blood will spill like an ocean.” I.S. has previously called for attacks on Russia and the United States in revenge for airstrikes on its fighters in Syria. Western intelligence officials suspect the ultra-hardline Sunni group of planting a bomb in a Russian passenger airplane which crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula two weeks ago. Russia is likely to increase its military involvement in Syria due to the widely assumed terrorist bombing of the plane that crashed in Sinai on October 31. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 12, 2015)
PUTIN VOWS RETRIBUTION AGAINST PLANE BOMBERS (Moscow) — Terrorists bombed a St. Petersburg-bound airliner – killing all 224 on board including more than a dozen children – President Vladimir Putin confirmed Tuesday and ordered a major escalation in Moscow’s air attacks against militant rebel groups in Syria. Two months ago, the Russian leader sent warplanes to attack rebel groups seeking to topple Moscow’s embattled ally, Syrian President Assad. I.S. said it destroyed the charter jet packed with vacationers in retaliation. The downing of the Metrojet Airbus A321, which had its tail blown off by a bomb barely 23 minutes after a dawn takeoff from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, marked the first of a recent series of strikes by Islamist jihadis that has bloodied large numbers of foreigners in Ankara, Beirut and Paris in the last month. (Globe & Mail, Nov. 17, 2015)
U.S. ‘REASONABLY CERTAIN’ THAT ‘JIHADI JOHN’ IS DEAD AFTER AIRSTRIKE (Washington) — The U.S. military is “reasonably certain” its drone strike in Syria killed the masked I.S. militant known as “Jihadi John,” who appeared in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages. The U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad told reporters Friday that officials had been following Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British citizen, for some time. Another U.S. official said that three drones targeted the vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling in Raqqa, I.S.’s self-proclaimed capital in northern Syria. (CBC, Nov. 13, 2015)
PA COMPARES ISRAEL TO I.S., PUBLISHES ARTICLE BLAMING MOSSAD FOR PARIS ATTACKS (Jerusalem) — The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas responded to Friday’s terror attacks in Paris by drawing a false comparison between Israel and I.S., and publishing an article blaming the Jewish state for the mass slaughter. On Sunday, the official PA daily al-Hayat al-Jadida published an op-ed blaming Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, and its “octopus arms,” for the six coordinated attacks in Paris. The article alleged that it’s no coincidence that “human blood was exploded in Paris” at the same time that “certain European sanctions are being implemented.” The author was referring to the European Union’s recent decision to approve guidelines that require member states to stop carrying the “Made in Israel” label for products made in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. (Algemeiner, Nov. 15, 2015)
E.U. MOVE TO LABEL ISRAELI SETTLEMENT GOODS STRAINS TIES (Brussels) — In a stinging rebuke to Israel, the European Union insisted on Wednesday that some goods produced on land seized in the 1967 war must be labeled “made in settlements,” a mandate that added to Israel’s deep unease over a growing international boycott. The move exacerbated already simmering tensions between Israel and Europe as Israeli politicians condemned it as an echo of the Holocaust-era branding of European Jews with yellow stars. The EU is Israel’s top trading partner, though products from the disputed territories that will now require special labels amount to less than 1 percent of Israel’s $13 billion in annual exports to the bloc’s 28 countries. (New York Times, Nov. 11, 2015)
DISGUISED ISRAELI FORCES LAUNCH HOSPITAL RAID (Hebron) — Palestinians were outraged after footage emerged Thursday showing Israeli forces disguised in traditional Arab outfits, including one impersonating a pregnant woman and others appearing to have fake beards, bursting into a West Bank hospital overnight and killing a Palestinian man during a daring arrest raid caught on video. The raiders shot dead a Palestinian man during an operation to detain another man, Azzam Shalaldeh, suspected of carrying out a stabbing attack in October. The raid late Wednesday took place in Hebron, a volatile city in the southern West Bank that has been a frequent flashpoint of violence during weeks of Israel-Palestinian unrest. (Telegraph, Nov. 12, 2015)
ISRAELI SOLDIERS RAID WEST BANK REFUGEE CAMP (Jerusalem) — Armed clashes broke out during an Israeli military raid at the Qalandiya refugee camp in the West Bank on Monday, leaving two Palestinian men dead and several others wounded. Residents said that up to 1,000 soldiers had entered the camp with the intention of demolishing the upper story of an apartment building that was home to the family of Muhammad Abu Shaheen. Abu Shaheen has been charged with shooting and killing Danny Gonen, an Israeli civilian, after Gonen visited a spring in the West Bank in June. The military said that hundreds of Palestinians had clashed with the soldiers and thrown firebombs, improvised explosive devices and rocks at them. (New York Times, Nov. 16, 2015)
MASS GRAVES ‘OF YAZIDI WOMEN’ FOUND NEAR SINJAR (Mosul) — Two mass graves believed to contain the remains of members of the Yazidi community have been discovered near Sinjar, in north-west Iraq. One grave was found to contain the remains of more than 70 elderly female Yazidis, while 60 bodies of women and children were identified in a second grave east of Sinjar. The graves were found just days after the retaking of Sinjar from I.S. by Kurdish forces, backed by British and U.S. air strikes. Hundreds of Yazidis were killed in August 2014 following an I.S. onslaught in Sinjar, while thousands remain displaced and some 2,000 women are still in captivity. (Telegraph, Nov. 16, 2015)
BOKO HARAM IS SUSPECTED AFTER EXPLOSION IN NIGERIA KILLS 32 (Yola) — A blast in the northeastern Nigerian city of Yola on Tuesday night tore through a marketplace, killing 32 people and wounding 80 others. No one claimed responsibility, but officials suspected the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has unleashed years of violence in the region. Nigeria has increased its fight against Boko Haram as part of a pledge from the new president, Muhammadu Buhari, to finish it off by the end of the year. Earlier on Tuesday, Buhari ordered the arrest of the former president’s national security adviser, accusing him of stealing more than $2 billion that Buhari said should have gone to pay for weapons to fight Boko Haram. (New York Times, Nov. 17, 2015)
ITALY INCREASES SECURITY AROUND JEWISH SITES AFTER STABBING (Milan) — Italy has bumped up security at Jewish sites in Milan after an Orthodox man was stabbed multiple times near a kosher restaurant in the city. Milan’s security committee decided after the attack to raise security to its highest levels around Jewish sites that could become targets. The victim was identified as a Israeli man named Nathan Graff. An assailant stabbed him near a kosher Pizza place. The Wiesenthal Center meanwhile said the attack had signaled the arrival of the recent spate of stabbing attacks, across Israel and the West Bank, on the European continent. (Algemeiner, Nov. 13, 2015)
POLLARD OFFERS TO GIVE UP U.S. CITIZENSHIP TO EASE MOVE TO ISRAEL (Washington) — Two lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to let Jonathan Pollard renounce his U.S. citizenship so he can join his wife in Israel. Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Eliot Engel, both Democrats, have written to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking that Pollard, who is due to be released Friday after serving 30 years in prison, be allowed to move to Israel. The Bureau of Prisons is freeing him after a parole commission determination earlier this year he should be released early from his life sentence. Under the terms of his parole, which could last five years or longer, Pollard must get prior approval for any travel outside the district where he lives. (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17, 2015)
The Rising Migrant Tide: Christopher Caldwell, Weekly Standard, Oct. 26. 2015 —The Austrian Freedom party (FPÖ) has a bit of international notoriety, thanks to the rhetorical provocations that its late leader Jörg Haider used to issue about his country’s Nazi past.
Someone Tell the President We Can’t Fight Radical Islam by Being Politically Correct: Steven Emerson & Pete Hoekstra, Forbes, Nov. 16, 2015 —”This is an attack not just on Paris, it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share,” – President Obama hours after the terrorist attacks in Paris began unfolding.
What ISIS Really Wants: Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, March, 2015 —What is the Islamic State? Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers.
Europe Mislabels Israel: Eugene Kontorovich, New York Times, Nov. 13, 2015 —THIS week the European Commission announced guidelines suggesting that Israeli products from areas that came under its control in 1967 be labeled “Israeli Settlement” products and not “Made in Israel” as they have been until now.