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Contents: | Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
A Native American Helps Reclaim the Israel Narrative: Moshe Herman, Jewish Press, Feb. 4, 2016
West Ponders Another Libya Intervention: Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2016
Europe is Planning to Deport Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims: Lawrence Solomon, National Post, Feb. 8, 2016
Israeli Innovation is Out of this World During Space Week: Bradley Martin, JNS, Feb. 8, 2016
WEEKLY QUOTES
“Last night a synagogue in Givat Sorek, in Gush Etzion, was set on fire by Palestinians…I expect the international community to condemn the desecration of a synagogue, an act that is the result of incessant Palestinian incitement.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu vowed that Israel will hunt down and prosecute the arsonists who set fire to Torah scrolls and holy books on Saturday in a Judean synagogue next to the Jewish community of Karmei Tzur. The flames badly damaged the sacred texts. They had been piled up outside the prayer tent before the arsonists set them afire. (Jewish Press, Feb. 7, 2016)
“The two-state vision did not die, but it will not happen tomorrow…What can be achieved today is security for the citizens of Israel and separation between us and the Palestinians, with actions, not mere words.” — Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog. Hundreds of Labor Party activists voted Sunday to endorse Herzog’s plan to separate from the Palestinians. Herzog’s plan calls for completing the security fence around settlement blocs. Settlers from isolated communities to be evacuated would be absorbed into the settlement blocs. Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem would be outside the fence. He told the crowd that his plan would “end the third Intifada” and lead to a regional summit on security. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 8, 2016)
“By tagging the Zionist project as ‘colonialist’ in nature (i.e., transient and perishable), those who do so help consign the Palestinian people, whom they purport to help, to an ideological, political and diplomatic cul-de-sac…( Palestinian spokesman) Saeb Erekat’s record of lies and dissimulations is legion, and he seems to be getting worse as he ages…He has been a central factor in the Palestinian Authority’s abandonment of peace talks with Israel and its move to confrontation with Israel in international forums. His propaganda warps the truth and undermines peace efforts. History will yet record his abysmal diplomatic role in the many mistakes of the Palestinian national movement.” — Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, deputy for foreign policy and international affairs at Israel’s National Security Council. (Israel Hayom, Feb. 5, 2016)
“One of the aims of the latest attacks is to conduct ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing in Syria and Aleppo aimed at only leaving regime supporters behind is being conducted by the Syrian regime and Russia in a very deliberate way…Every refugee that we accept helps their ethnic cleansing policy, but we will continue to accept (refugees).” — Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Davutoglu said 60,000 migrants had fled the violence to the Turkish border and that, while Turkey would not close its doors, the priority was providing aid to them inside Syria. Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes and Iranian and Hezbollah fighters, have launched a major offensive in the countryside around Aleppo. The United Nations warned on Tuesday hundreds of thousands of civilians could be cut off from food if rebel-held parts of the city are encircled. Both the U.N. and the European Union have urged Turkey to open its border. Davutoglu said it was hypocritical of those who had failed to stop Russian air strikes in Syria to now ask Turkey to keep its border open, pointing out that it had taken in more than 2.6 million refugees during the five-year war. (Globe & Mail, Feb. 10, 2016)
“We’re not only shocked, but also outraged, at what’s happened in terms of human suffering in the past few days for tens of thousands of people through bomb attacks, including attacks above all from Russia…We need results swiftly… We can’t on one hand expect from Turkey that they stop everything, while on the other hand say that we’ll talk about allotments in half a year — you can’t do that; it has to go hand-in-hand.” — German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel expressed outrage over Russian-backed attacks in Syria as a government offensive drives thousands of civilians to the Turkish border, exacerbating the already critical refugee crisis Merkel is struggling to resolve. The broadside against Russian President Vladimir Putin comes as forces and allies of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad seek to recapture war-ravaged Aleppo in northern Syria, presenting the regime with an upper hand in the five-year-old civil war. The military offensive, supported by Russian air strikes, is triggering a fresh wave of refugees as Merkel visited Turkey in a bid to stem the influx of migrants into the European Union. (Bloomberg, Feb. 8, 2016)
“Turkey has reached the end of its capacity to absorb (refugees)…But in the end, these people have nowhere else to go. Either they will die beneath the bombings and Turkey will…watch the massacre like the rest of the world, or we will open our borders.” — Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu, as his country faced mounting pressure to open its borders to tens of thousands of Syrians who have fled a government onslaught. (Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2016)
“Delisting Iran would be tantamount to a Canadian declaration that Iran is no longer a state sponsor of terror. This would only confer legitimacy on a murderous theocracy which pours billions of dollars into terrorist activity.” — Joint letter written by seven Canadians who lost family members in the 9/11 and Air India terrorist attacks. The Trudeau government got off to a bad start with terror victims when the mother of a Quebec woman killed January 15 by an al-Qaida affiliate in Burkina Faso accused the prime minister of “spouting his empty theories” but not adequately supporting Canada’s allies in the fight against terrorists. Victims’ advocates are now watching to see how the Liberals will handle Iran. On the second day of arguments in Toronto, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion announced the government intended to resume diplomatic ties with Tehran. Though the Liberals this week lifted some economic sanctions on Iran, the Islamic republic currently remains on Canada’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. If that changes, Iran’s immunity would be restored. (National Post, Feb. 5, 2016)
“We certainly have an obligation to help the people of Libya…The way to do is something we need to consider with our allies, not alone, and the first step is to have a government that will be our interlocutor…There is a national government that we are recognizing, but there are two other governments claiming to be governments…If you have three governments, you cannot really deal with the country.” — Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion. Canada has an obligation to help Libya, which is under threat by I.S., but will not play a role until a single government recognized by the West is in place, Dion said. The Americans have been putting pressure on the coalition fighting I.S. to prevent the terrorist group from forming a caliphate in oil-rich Libya, whose Mediterranean border is only an hour-long flight or less from the southern frontier of the European Union. IS has already threatened to set “Rome on fire” and was behind the terrorist attacks in Paris in November that killed 130. (Globe & Mail, Feb. 2, 2016)
“The people terrorized by ISIL every day don’t need our vengeance, they need our help …. Canada continues in the fight against ISIL in the work we do as an important part of the coalition.” — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Trudeau government said Monday it will withdraw from a combat role in the fight against I.S. The Liberals promised back in the fall of 2014 that, if elected, they would unilaterally withdraw Canada’s six CF-18 fighters. It was a political decision premised on the belief the war in Iraq would go badly and turn out to be unpopular. The CF-18s will be withdrawn within two weeks. (National Post, Feb. 8, 2016)
“There is no appetite to withdraw politically out of the fight” (against I.S.)… It is pretty clear that continuing the fighter-jet mission is comparatively the more popular option at this point in time…Only a very small minority of Canadians of less than one out of every 10 believe that we should get out of there and do nothing.” — Pollster Nik Nanos, who surveyed Canadians on the series of options under consideration by the Liberal cabinet. The survey of 1,000 Canadians, conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 by Nanos Research Group, found that 29 per cent of Canadians believe Ottawa should provide fighter jets to the air war, and 20 per cent favoured military training of local Kurdish forces. Only 14 per cent supported ground training outside Iraq. (Globe & Mail, Feb. 5, 2016)
“Not only is the decision to withdraw the CF-18s wrong, the logical failings of the policy, and its explanation, are worrying signs that our foreign policy is in rather unsteady hands…It is clear that the only reason the jets are coming home is that Trudeau promised to end the mission when campaigning for the job he now holds. The promise, obviously intended to differentiate the Liberals from their Tory predecessors, has never been explained…The six jets Canada sent to bomb ISIL were, in the grand scheme of things, symbolic…Pulling those jets out is equally symbolic, and sends the opposite message. It is a major decision, one far greater than what to do with a mere six airplanes. That the new government of Canada needed months to arrive at a conclusion as muddled and incoherent as this is deeply troubling.” — Matt Gurney (National Post, Feb. 8, 2016)
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s revamped military mission in Iraq…is neither cowardly appeasement, as the Conservatives allege, or a perilous escalation, as New Democrats would have you believe. But of the two themes, the second is closer to the mark…The wrinkle and the great risk in this, for Trudeau and his government, is precisely that it is so symbolic. For all the Harper government’s vaunted bellicosity, six CF-18s formed a relatively small hammer, in the context of the broader war, and their pilots were not routinely at risk of being shot at or blown up. This changes now. The risk of casualties has at least tripled. Aid requires transport and protection, all of it vulnerable to attack. That is the news here, not the CF-18s. In a modest but deliberate way, Canada is stepping back to war.” — Michael Den Tandt (National Post, Feb. 9, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
SAUDIS READY TO SEND GROUND FORCES INTO SYRIA ‘TO FIGHT ISIS’ (Riyadh) — A day after a U.N.-hosted Syria peace initiative stalled, Saudi Arabia signaled that it is ready to contribute to a ground offensive against I.S., if the U.S.-led coalition agrees to such an operation. Although Riyadh says the focus is on fighting I.S., the deployment of more countries’ ground troops in Syria would likely draw opposition from the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies, given the Saudis’ strong support for anti-Assad rebel factions. Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are also willing to deploy ground troops to Syria to combat I.S., as part of the U.S.-led coalition. (CNS, Feb. 4, 2016 & Breitbart, Feb. 8, 2016)
TWITTER TARGETS ACCOUNTS PROMOTING TERRORISM (New York) — Twitter is now using spam-fighting technology to seek out accounts that might be promoting terrorist activity and is examining other accounts related to those flagged for possible removal. Twitter will automatically identify tweets supporting terrorism, reflecting increased pressure placed by the U.S. for social media companies to respond to abuse more proactively. Twitter also said it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, mainly related to I.S., in the last eight months. Social media has increasingly become a tool for recruitment and radicalization that’s used by I.S. and its supporters, who by some reports have sent tens of thousands of tweets per day. (CBC, Feb. 5, 2016)
REPUBLICANS ASK TO VISIT IRAN TO OBSERVE ‘IRANIAN DEMOCRACY IN ACTION’ (New York) — Three Republican lawmakers have asked Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to facilitate their visa applications to visit Iran, where they want to observe “Iranian democracy in action,” meet with imprisoned Americans, and visit nuclear facilities. Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) say they also want to use the visit to get an update on Iran’s ballistic missile developments, and to discuss with the IRGC its detention last month of ten U.S. Navy sailors. No U.S. lawmaker has visited Iran since ties were severed after the 1979 Islamic revolution and hostage crisis. (CNS, Feb. 5, 2016)
SAUDI-LED AIRSTRIKE KILLS YEMENI TV DIRECTOR, FAMILY (Sanaa) — Yemeni security officials say an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition killed a TV director, his wife, and three children in their home in Sanaa. The officials said the Wednesday airstrike levelled Mounir al-Hakimi’s two-story house and sparked a fire fueled by chemicals being stored in the building. Shiite Houthi rebels captured Sanaa in September 2014 and control much of the country’s north. Yemen has been mired in a conflict pitting the Houthis against the internationally-backed government. A Saudi-led coalition allied with the government began launching airstrikes against the Houthis in March, 2015. More than 5,800 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN. (Washington Post, Feb. 10, 2016)
TRUMP, SANDERS VICTORIOUS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARIES (Manchester, NH) — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders swept to victory in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries, adding credibility to their upstart candidacies. While the state is known for its political surprises, Trump and Sanders led there for months. Still, both needed to deliver on expectations after second place finishes in last week’s Iowa caucuses, where Ted Cruz topped the Republican field and Hillary Clinton narrowly edged Sanders in the Democratic race. Both Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Trump, a real estate mogul who has never held political office, have tapped into the public’s frustration with the current political system. (Times of Israel, Feb. 10, 2016)
FBI CONFIRMS CLINTON EMAIL INVESTIGATION (Washington) — The FBI has confirmed it is investigating Hillary Clinton’s private emails, giving fuel to a controversy that the Democratic presidential candidate has been unable to put behind her. FBI General Counsel James Baker said the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state is “ongoing.” Clinton has repeatedly denied doing anything wrong. Clinton acknowledged in March that she exclusively used a private email account and private server while secretary of state, opting against a government account despite official recommendations. In January, the State Department said 22 of the documents found on Clinton’s private server contained “top secret” material. (Yahoo, Feb. 9, 2016)
SANDERS CITES J STREET, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE AS MIDEAST ADVISERS (Washington) — Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cited the liberal Jewish lobby group J Street and the Arab American Institute as Middle East foreign policy advisers. “We’ve talked to people like Jim Zogby, talked to the people on J Street to get a broad perspective of the Middle East,” Sanders said on NBC. J Street and the Arab American Institute, which is headed by James Zogby, have frequently criticized Israel and pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for their stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While J Street says it is “pro-Israel, pro-peace”, it has been accused of collaborating with anti-Israel groups. Sanders has come under fire from Hillary Clinton for his lack of foreign policy experience. (Breaking Israel News, Feb. 9, 2016)
HEZBOLLAH IN BUSINESS WITH COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTELS, DEA SAYS (Washington) — The Lebanon-based extremist group Hezbollah has business connections with South American drug cartels, and has been using them to enter the narcotics trafficking business, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced. The DEA said the terrorist group has established business relationships with drug cartels, such as Colombia’s La Oficina de Envigado, to bring large quantities of cocaine from Latin America to Europe. The group is also allegedly responsible for laundering drug proceeds as part of a money laundering scheme called the Black Market Peso Exchange. The DEA operation is meant to disrupt and dismantle Hezbollah’s global network that supplies drugs to the U.S. and Europe as well as cut into the terror group’s ability to fund its activities through drug trafficking. (Fox News, Feb. 3, 2016)
STATE-BACKED COMPANIES WIN FROM LIFTED SANCTIONS (Tehran) — Only weeks into a post-sanctions Iran, limits to the country’s opening are beginning to emerge. Behind the headlines announcing contracts with European companies it is becoming increasingly clear that the only deals being struck have been with the state-backed conglomerates. As a result, little or nothing is trickling down to the lower levels of Iran’s enormous private sector. All the major international deals signed have involved state or semistate-backed industries. The national carrier, Iran Air, signed a deal to buy more than 100 planes from Airbus. The Iranian Mines…Organization, one of the largest state entities, started a $2 billion joint venture with an Italian steel producer, Danieli. (New York Times, Feb. 5, 2016)
NETANYAHU: ‘WE WILL ENCIRCLE ALL OF ISRAEL WITH A SECURITY FENCE’ (Jerusalem) — Prime Minister Netanyahu toured the route of the fence being built along Israel’s eastern border with Jordan. So far five kilometers of the border fence have been erected. “The advantage of building here as well as along the border with Egypt is that there are no structures every kilometer or two next to the fence, which can be served as shafts and tunnels,” Netanyahu said. The Prime Minister expressed his opinion that all of Israel should be surrounded by some sort of border fence. “At the end, in the State of Israel, as I see it, there will be a fence that spans it all. I’ll be told, ‘this is what you want, to protect the villa?’ The answer is yes. (Arutz Sheva, Feb. 9, 2016)
IDF SAYS TOP MISSION IS COUNTERING GAZA TUNNELS (Jerusalem) — Israel’s top general said that the military’s number one mission for the coming year is to counter the renewed threat posed by attack tunnels from Gaza. Lt. Gen. Eisenkot said Hamas has been rebuilding their network of tunnels that Israel targeted during the 2014 war. The border area has since remained largely quiet, but Hamas has publicly boasted that it has rebuilt its tunnel network. Hamas says at least 13 of its men have died over the past month in accidents while working on the tunnels. Hamas announced the latest death on Tuesday, saying a Khan Younis resident died when a tunnel collapsed on him. Israelis living near the border have also reported hearing tunneling sounds under their homes. (Washington Post, Feb. 9, 2016)
AMID ISRAEL PROTEST, CBS AMENDS ‘BIASED AND DISHONEST’ HEADLINE (New York) — Israel’s government moved swiftly last week to change what it termed a “horrible headline” the CBS news outlet put on its story about the terrorist attack at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. At about 4 p.m. last Wednesday the network’s website put the following headline on a story about the attack: “3 Palestinians killed as daily violence grinds on.” About 90 minutes later it was changed to this: “Israeli police kill 3 alleged Palestinian attackers.” The headline was later changed a third time, reading: “Palestinians kill Israeli officer, wound another before being killed.” (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 3, 2016)
S&P KEEPS ISRAEL’S CREDIT RATING AT A+ (Tel Aviv) — Standard & Poor’s Financial Services’ credit rating for Israel continues to stand at A+. S&P says it expects the Israeli economy to remain stable, based on its assessment that the Israeli government will maintain its current fiscal policy. It noted positively the government’s efforts to increase housing stocks. In general, a credit rating is used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the credit worthiness of Israel thus having a big impact on the country’s borrowing costs. (Jewish Press, Feb. 6, 2016)
UNESCO RECOGNIZES ALEPPO CODEX IN REGISTRY OF WORLD TREASURES (Jerusalem) — The Aleppo Codex — believed to be the world’s oldest surviving copy of the Hebrew Bible — has been officially recognized as a treasured item by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. The Codex is on permanent display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. An award-winning 2013 book— The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred and Mysterious Books — chronicles its history. 7,200 pages of Isaac Newton’s papers, which are stored in Israel’s National Library, was also added to the UNESCO registry this week. (JTA, Feb. 9, 2016)
ARMY SET TO START JOINT ‘JUPITER COBRA 16’ DRILL (Tel Aviv) — The IDF and the US military will hold a joint missile defense drill this month, simulating responses to a range of projectile attacks. The Juniper Cobra 16 exercise will involve the U.S. European Command and the IDF, and focus on the threat of ballistic missiles. The last such drill, Juniper Cobra 14, a computer-simulated bilateral air defense exercise, was held in Israel in 2014. Israel has since significantly beefed up its multi-layered air defense systems; it carried out a successful interception of a target in space using its Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile defense system in December. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 6, 2016)
ISRAELI AND UN SPACE AGENCIES SIGN JOINT ACCORD (Tel Aviv) — Israel’s Space Agency (ISA) signed an agreement of cooperation with the UN’s Office on Space Affairs (UNOOSA), which provides Israel with membership to the various committees and enables Israeli scientists to participate in projects that have global impact. The signature of the accord was done as part of Israel’s marking of its Space Week. One of the fields Israelis will be focusing on, is the use of satellites to contend with catastrophes in real-time while helping rescue teams, and in space regulation policy. For instance, the Spider Initiative will have Israel providing information from its satellites in the event of a disaster and will provide real-time data to forces on the ground. (United With Israel, Feb. 3, 2016)
A Native American Helps Reclaim the Israel Narrative: Moshe Herman, Jewish Press, Feb. 4, 2016—Get ready for the Day of Atonement with Rabbi Mike Feuer and Yishai speaks with Ryan Bellerose a Native American of the Métis people and his friends, Cara and Michele, all three of whom are narrative warriors for Israel. Are Jews the native people of the land of Israel, or not?
West Ponders Another Libya Intervention: Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2016— With Islamic State gaining ground in Libya, another Western intervention there looks increasingly likely.
Europe is Planning to Deport Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims: Lawrence Solomon, National Post, Feb. 8, 2016 —In a recent reversal, Sweden now says it will deport half of its 160,000 migrants, Finland plans to deport two-thirds of its 32,000 migrants and Germany intends to deport all migrants who arrived under false pretenses – a number that could total many hundreds of thousands – as well as all migrants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, which Germany now deems “safe” countries because they are not at war.
Israeli Innovation is Out of this World During Space Week: Bradley Martin, JNS, Feb. 8, 2016—While Israel already has a reputation for being the “start-up nation” and a major hub for technological innovation, this year’s Space Week in the Jewish state showed that Israeli ingenuity is—quite literally—out of this world.