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Iran Sacks Another Embassy: Elliott Abrams, Council on Foreign Relations, Jan. 3, 2016
Charlie Hebdo Special Edition Commemorates Anniversary of Attack: David Israel, Jewish Press, Jan. 4, 2016
Palestinian Leaders Promise a New Year of Violence and Death: Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, Jan. 4, 2016
Canada Can Do More to Fight Terrorism: Michael Nesbitt, National Post, Dec. 28, 2015
WEEKLY QUOTES
“Israel is in need of a country like Turkey in the region. We have to admit that we also need Israel.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This mutual need, he said, “is a fact of the region.” Erdogan’s comments are the latest in the saga regarding the possibility of Israeli-Turkish reconciliation following the breakdown of ties that came in the wake of the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, during which Israeli commandos killed nine Turks on the ship trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Turkish media on Friday also reported that Erdogan, who is pushing for executive powers, cited Hitler’s Germany as an example of an effective presidential system. Asked whether an executive presidential system was possible while maintaining the unitary structure of the state, Erdogan said: “There are already examples in the world. You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany.” (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 2, 2015)
“I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history.” — Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a leading Iranian cleric. Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed a prominent Shiite cleric, threatening to plunge the Middle East into a firestorm of new violence. Nimr al-Nimr, who advocated for peaceful protest against the Saudi government, which is led by rival Sunnis, was among 47 people killed Saturday. The victims were all either beheaded or shot to death, according to reports. In mostly Shiite Iran, protesters stormed into the Saudi embassy in Tehran, setting fires and smashing furniture. In Bahrain, which has previously experienced unrest by its Shiite majority, police used tear gas to disperse anti-Saudi protesters. (New York Post, Jan. 2, 2016)
“As long as the United States supports Israel we will expand our missile capabilities…We don’t have enough space to store our missiles. All our depots and underground facilities are full.” — Brigadier-General Hossein Salami, Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ second-in-command. Iranian officials vowed to expand Tehran’s missile capabilities, a challenge to the U.S., which is threatening to impose new sanctions even as the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a nuclear deal. Tehran test-fired a missile in October, which the U.S. says would be capable of carrying a nuclear payload and therefore violates a 2010 UN Security Council resolution that is still in place. Iran does not accept that the UN resolution bars it from testing missiles, as long as it has no nuclear weapons to place on them. (Globe & Mail, Jan. 1, 2016)
“I believe in the power of vigorous enforcement that pushes back on Iran’s bad behavior…If we don’t do that, we invite Iran to cheat.” — Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a supporter of the nuclear deal. Leading lawmakers, including supporters of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, rapped the White House for delaying fresh sanctions on Tehran over its missile program, warning that the move would embolden it to further destabilize the Middle East. The abrupt reversal by the administration came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani publicly ordered his military to dramatically scale up the country’s missile program if the sanctions went ahead. U.S. officials have told lawmakers the sanctions were delayed because of evolving diplomatic work between the White House and the Iranian government. (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 2, 2016)
“I fear that pressure from our ‘partners’—or threats from the Iranian government that it will walk away from the deal or threaten the U.S. in other ways—have caused the administration to rethink imposing sanctions for Iran’s violations of the testing ban.” — Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Critics of the White House accused Obama of backing down on his promises to take action in the face of Iranian provocations such as missile launches. They drew parallels to Obama’s failure to follow through on threats to launch military strikes on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2013 in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 2, 2016)
“Any sensible person knew Iran was behind the bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, and knew that Argentina’s president and foreign minister also knew it, even as they engaged in negotiations with the Islamic Republic to conduct a joint investigation into the attack.” — Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at Council on Foreign Relations. Abrams was responding to a leak of secretly recorded phone conversations in which Argentina’s former foreign minister acknowledged Tehran’s responsibility for the 1994 bombing of AMIA, the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Society. The attack, the worst in Argentina’a history, left 85 people dead and hundreds wounded. It is believed to have been carried out by Hezbollah with Iran’s backing and blessing. (Algemeiner, Dec. 22, 2015)
“It’s desperate stuff from an organization that really does do the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts and people can see that again today…This is an organization that’s losing territory… increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy, and this again shows what an appalling organization we’re up against.” — British Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron described an I.S. video showing the execution of five British “spies” as “desperate stuff” designed to deflect from their recent military losses. The group threatened Britain in the video showing the killings of people it said worked with the international coalition fighting I.S. In the footage, an English-speaking I.S. fighter mocks Cameron for challenging the jihadists, and calls him an “imbecile”. (Arutz Sheva, Jan. 5, 2016)
“Terrorists with allegiances to multiple groups are expanding their collaboration in recruitment, financing, training and operations, both within Africa and trans-regionally.” — Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who heads the United States Africa Command. Rodriguez warned in a congressional statement in March of an “increasingly cohesive network of Al Qaeda affiliates and adherents” that “continues to exploit Africa’s undergoverned regions and porous borders to train and conduct attacks.” Many of the extremist groups in North Africa are affiliates of Al Qaeda, which has had roots in the region since the 1990s. With the recent introduction of I.S. franchises, the jihadist push has been marked by increasing, sometimes heated, competition. The Nov. 20 assault on the Radisson Blu hotel, which killed at least 19 people in Bamako, Mali’s capital, was just one of the more spectacular recent examples of the ability of these groups to sow deadly mayhem. (New York Times, Jan. 1, 2015)
“Based on its population and the size of its economy, Canada would have to accept about 670,000 refugees to match the compassion Sweden has shown over the past year. To be as welcoming as Germany, Canada would have to take in about 450,000 asylum seekers in a little over half a year. Even tiny Finland has put Canada to shame. With about one-seventh the population, Finland has accepted about 30,000 refugees since June. That would be like Canada taking in 210,000 refugees in seven months…Canada is also having great difficulty keeping the grand promises it has made. Only a fraction of the 25,000 refugees that were promised by year’s end during the election campaign have arrived. Bowing to the inevitable, the government earlier this month dramatically scaled back its commitment, declaring that only 10,000 refugees would arrive by this Thursday. However, even with some artful legerdemain, the government is also unlikely to meet this greatly reduced target.” — Matthew Fisher (National Post, Dec. 28, 2015)
“If the white men of Canada can’t overcome the fear of rebuke from the enforcers of fear, Canadians can’t ever have an honest debate about the state of equality, race, culture and the place and space for religion and other languages in Canada.” — Ujjal Dosanjh, a former B.C. premier and federal minister. Dosanjh wrote a column, entitled “The silencing of the white men of the West!”, that was republished by news sites across Canada. Dosanjh, of course, is not white. Born in the Indian state of Punjab, he was Canada’s first Indo-Canadian provincial leader when he was sworn in as B.C. premier in 2000. By explicitly referencing “white men,” Dosanjh said that he was referring to white men in positions of political power. The thrust of the column was that many politicians are too fearful of rebuke to take on touchy issues such as immigrant integration. “Under these circumstances when politicians do speak they utter non sequiturs, simply bromides,” he wrote. (National Post, Jan. 5, 2016)
“To celebrate a birthday, even that of a prophet, is to accept the existence of Time, whereas Islamists fantasize about eternity. In their eyes, Time itself is a crime, because it is a departure from original Islam. Thus restoration is the Islamists’ second foundational myth. Their goal is to return to the beginning of Time, to T=0. To the moment of Revelation, when the prophet was still alive and God was so close to his ear. To the moment when Islam had not yet been soiled, to before it was contaminated by History and “Fitna,” the first Muslim civil wars, which followed the death of Muhammad. This quest for purity also explains Islamists’ relation to physical space. In addition to wanting to conquer territory, the Islamic State seeks to negate and destroy any evidence of the passing of time, such as monuments and ruins, in Palmyra and elsewhere. It tries to extend the desert’s domain: to replace walls with sand, to flatten out landscape, to return to a vacuum so as to start history all over again.” — Kamel Daoud (New York Times, Jan. 1, 2016)
“We are so used to Jews being killed because they are Jewish…This is an error, and not just on a human level. Because it’s the executioner who decides who is Jewish. Nov. 13 was the proof of that. On that day, the executioner showed us that he had decided we were all Jewish.” — Gerard Biard, chief editor at Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper. In a special edition marking the anniversary of the Jan. 7 attack on the paper’s staff accuses Islamic fundamentalists, organized religion, an irresolute government and intelligence failures for the 2015 violence in France by Muslim extremists. Seventeen people died at Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket two days later. Biard marveled that no one explained to the world why the attackers went after the supermarket. (Huffington Post, Jan. 4, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
ARAB BUSINESSMAN OFFERS $10K REWARD FOR TEL AVIV GUNMAN (Tel Aviv) — An Arab Israeli merchant is offering a $10,000 reward for information that helps in the capture of an Arab Israeli fugitive suspected of killing three people in two Tel Aviv shooting attacks Friday. Mazen Qaq, head of the merchants’ committee in Jerusalem, announced the reward for information leading to the arrest of Nashat Milhem. Milhem is believed to be the gunman who shot up a central Tel Aviv bar, killing two Jewish patrons, and later murdered an Israeli Arab cab driver. Milhem is believed to be hiding somewhere in northern Israel. However, Melhem’s father, who was arrested as a suspected accomplice, said he believes Milhem is hiding in the West Bank. (Times of Israel, Jan. 6, 2016)
2 SUSPECTED JEWISH EXTREMISTS INDICTED OVER DEADLY DUMA ARSON (Jerusalem) — Israel indicted two Jewish extremists suspected of planning and carrying out a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents. The indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in Judea and Samaria. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, as the main suspect in the attack. A 17-year-old minor was charged as an accessory. Ben-Uliel faces charges of three counts of murder, attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a hate crime. Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged over other incidents of violence against Palestinians. The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha, while his mother and father died shortly thereafter. (Israel Hayom, Jan. 3, 2016)
IAF ATTACKS HAMAS TARGETS IN THE GAZA STRIP (Gaza) — On Saturday, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) attacked two military compounds and two terror infrastructures belonging to Hamas in Gaza. The attack came in response to the barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards the area of Sha’ar HaNegev in Southern Israel. The IDF reported that they see Hamas as being solely responsible for what takes place in the Gaza Strip. The shooting came around two weeks after a Red Color alert was sounded in Sha’ar HaNegev. It was later discovered that a rocket had in fact been fired and landed in the Gaza Strip near the border fence. It was the second incident that week in which terrorist groups in Gaza fired rockets towards Israel. (Jerusalem Online, Jan. 2, 2016)
US TO PUNISH IRAN WITH NEW SANCTIONS OVER MISSILE TESTS (Washington) — The White House is currently working on new sanctions against people and companies contributing to Iran’s ballistic missile program. The Treasury department will issue new designations, following the two ballistic missile tests that Iran has conducted since signing the nuclear deal in July. The new sanctions will be imposed only weeks before the nuclear deal is due to be implemented. The Wall Street Journal reported that Treasury plans to target around a dozen individuals and companies in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong that have been involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program. The sanctions will freeze the US assets of these individuals and companies, bar Americans from doing business with them and exclude them from the US financial system. [See Weekly Quotes above—Ed.](Jewish Press, Dec. 31, 2015)
TALIBAN ATTACK KABUL RESTAURANT, SETTING OFF SHOOTOUT (Kabul) — The Taliban launched their first attack of the new year by setting off a bomb on Friday at a French restaurant in Kabul once popular with foreigners. A 12-year-old boy was killed and 15 people were wounded. The attack targeted Le Jardin, a restaurant that specializes in French cuisine. It is one of the few restaurants formerly frequented by foreigners that is still open in Kabul. Most of the victims were believed to be civilians living near the restaurant. Le Jardin is in the Taimani neighborhood, where many foreigners live. The area was the scene last year of the kidnappings of at least two Westerners. (New York Times, Jan. 1, 2015)
LIBERALS ON TRACK TO MISS REFUGEE TARGET BY NEARLY 4,000 PEOPLE (Ottawa) — New numbers from the federal immigration department show the Liberal government will break its promise to have 10,000 Syrian refugees arrive in Canada by the end of 2015. The figures show that fewer than 6,300 Syrian refugees had touched down by New Year’s Eve. The Liberals promised during the election campaign to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by Dec. 31. Once in power, however, they conceded that they would need until the end of February to accomplish that lofty goal. Instead, they pledged to bring in 10,000 Syrians by Dec. 31 and the remainder by Feb. 29. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s website, 3,701 of the promised 10,000 Syrian refugees had arrived in Canada as of Dec. 28. Another 2,538 Syrians were due to touch down in Montreal and Toronto on nine chartered flights from Dec. 29-31. (National Post, Dec. 31, 2015)
OTTAWA GOING AHEAD WITH SAUDI ARMS DEAL DESPITE EXECUTIONS (Ottawa) — The Canadian government is proceeding with a controversial $15-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia even as it publicly condemns Riyadh for a mass execution of 47 people, including a dissident Shia Muslim cleric. Foreign Affairs Minster Stéphane Dion released a statement this week decrying the capital punishment meted out Jan. 2 and calling on the Saudis to respect peaceful dissent and respect human rights. Sheik Nimr al-Nimr, the Shia cleric, was executed along with 46 others convicted on terrorism charges. But the biggest Saudi mass execution in decades is not moving Ottawa to reconsider a massive deal to supply the Mideast country with armoured fighting vehicles. The transaction will support about 3,000 jobs in Canada for 14 years. (Globe & Mail, Jan. 4, 2016)
STRING OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS OUTRAGES COLOGNE (Berlin) — Police in the German city of Cologne responded to outrage over a string of sexual crimes over New Year’s Eve. According to police, the series of assaults in one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares represented a “completely new dimension of crime.” Some 90 criminal complaints, including one allegation of rape, have been brought to the Cologne police department after women said they were molested by a crowd of men who had gathered in the city’s square between its central train station and Gothic cathedral. The police chief said the crowd was composed of up to 1,000 heavily intoxicated men who gave the appearance of being “Arab or North African” in background. (Deutsche Welle, Jan. 4, 2015)
SWEDEN AND DENMARK ADD BORDER CHECKS TO STEM FLOW OF MIGRANTS (Copenhagen) — The continued flow of people along Europe’s migration trail faced new impediments as two northern destinations further tightened border controls in response to political, economic and logistical pressures. Sweden introduced new identity checks for travelers arriving from Denmark. Fearful that migrants who otherwise would pass through on their way to Sweden would now be unable to leave, Denmark moved to impose new controls on people traveling via its border with Germany. The arrival of migrants — roughly one million reached Germany last year alone, though a significant minority were from other parts of Europe rather than from Syria, Iraq and other conflict-ridden nations — has gradually led European countries to seek to stem the tide. (New York Times, Jan. 4, 2015)
HITLER’S MEIN KAMPF TO BE RE-RELEASED IN GERMANY (Munich) — A heavily annotated edition of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf will be released in Germany now that the 70-year copyright on the original, best-selling book has expired. The re-publication, which is set for Jan. 8, ends a German ban that was implemented shortly after the end of the Second World War on the antisemitic text. The copyright ended Dec. 31, 2015. The upcoming version, which will be published by the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich, includes more than three thousand annotations by scholars to point out flaws and add context throughout the pages. The state of Bavaria held the rights to the largely autobiographical book from 1945 through 2015 in an effort to minimize its dissemination. It was still sold in other countries and could easily be found online. (CBC, Jan. 2, 2015)
INDIA EARTHQUAKE STRIKES BNEI MENASHE COMMUNITY IN MANIPUR (Delhi) — A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck northeastern India Monday killing at least nine people and injuring more than 90. The Bnei Menashe – who claim they are descendants of the lost tribe of Menashe, reported extensive damage to their community in Manipur. The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago. They claim their ancestors wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries, before settling in what is now northeastern India. They observe Shabbat and kashrut; celebrate the festivals and follow the laws of family purity. In recent years, some 3,000 Bnei Menashe have made Aliyah, and there are still 7,000 of the group living in India, 700 of whom were affected by the earthquake. The entire group is awaiting final permission to make Aliyah in 2016. (Jewish Press, Jan. 4, 2015)
NEW EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR IN ISRAEL AFTER THREE YEAR ABSENCE (Tel Aviv) — Egypt has sent a new ambassador to Israel, Hazem Khairat, after three years without a representative in Tel Aviv. Israel and Egypt have maintained peaceful relations since 1979, but in 2012, under Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt withdrew its ambassador in protest of Israel’s response to rockets being shot at its civilians from the Gaza Strip. Since Morsi’s forcible removal in 2013, relations between the two countries have improved significantly. In September, Israel reopened its embassy in Cairo, four years after it was torched by a crowd of protesters. (Jewish Press, Jan. 3, 2015)
5TH INTERNATIONAL NANOTECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE IN ISRAEL (Tel Aviv) — More than 1,200 participants from around the world will arrive at Tel-Aviv to take part in the NanoIsrael 2016 – The 5th bi-annual international Nanotechnology Conference & Exhibition, in February. Israel is renowned for its achievements in innovative products and solutions, providing new and exciting opportunities and solutions in the Nano arena— materials, medicine, mobile, aviation, and semiconductors. The conference will offer lectures by leading figures in the Nano-science world, and business people will be learning about the most influential innovations and get a chance to invest in Israel’s most promising Start-Ups. (Jewish Press, Jan. 3, 2016)
ISRAEL RANKED AS 18TH BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO LIVE (Tel Aviv) — According to the UN’s 2015 Human Development Index (HDI) Israel ranks as the 18th best country in the world to live in. The HDI is a composite statistic measuring the indicators for life expectancy, education, and income per capita in 185 UN member states, plus Hong Kong and the Palestinian territories, making for a total of 188 countries on the list. Number one on the list, for the twelfth year in a row, is Norway. The US, which has moved down three spots from last year’s ranking, comes in at number eight, followed by Canada. The highest-ranked Arab country, Qatar, came in at 32, followed by Saudi Arabia at 39 and the UAE at 41. Palestine ranked at 113, down three spots from last year’s ranking but still beating 75 other countries in quality of life, including South Africa, Morocco, and India. Coming in last as the worst country to live was the African nation of Niger. (Breaking Israel News, Dec. 17, 2015)
Iran Sacks Another Embassy: Elliott Abrams, Council on Foreign Relations, Jan. 3, 2016— Today the Isamic Republic of Iran decided to sack another embassy building in Tehran, that of Saudi Arabia.
Charlie Hebdo Special Edition Commemorates Anniversary of Attack: David Israel, Jewish Press, Jan. 4, 2016—“1 year after, the killer still at large,” says the special Charlie Hebdo edition, which is due to hit the newsstands on the anniversary of the bloody attack on the offices of the satirical weekly magazine, and began one of the bloodiest “peace time” years in recent history.
Palestinian Leaders Promise a New Year of Violence and Death: Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, Jan. 4, 2016—After failing to offer their people any hope for the future, Fatah and Hamas are now telling Palestinians that they should expect more violence and bloodshed during in 2016.
Canada Can Do More to Fight Terrorism: Michael Nesbitt, National Post, Dec. 28, 2015—The United Nations Security Council recently passed a resolution aimed at disrupting the channels through which the Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant (ISIL) finances its terror campaigns.