WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS IN REVIEW” ROUND-UP

 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

 

Contents: | Weekly Quotes |  Short Takes   |  On Topic Links

 

On Topic Links

 

Rationalizing Putin’s Syrian Victory: Noah Rothman, Commentary, Mar. 14, 2016

Turkey: Normalizing Hate: Uzay Bulut, Gatestone Institute, Mar. 13, 2016

The North Korean Connection: Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 12, 2016

Frightening Figures: The Number of Terrorists and Weapons in Gaza: Elder of Ziyon, Algemeiner, Mar. 14, 2016

 

 

“The Arab world softening its views toward us will help us when the time comes to reach a real and lasting agreement with our Palestinian neighbors…If someone thought earlier that a breakthrough with the Palestinians would lead to improved relations with the Arab world for us, the opposite is happening and will continue to happen.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a French envoy visited Jerusalem to solicit support for an international conference on the conflict. Netanyahu praised past peace deals, such as the one Begin made with Egypt, but said it was time for the international community to realize that the paradigm for peacemaking had changed. Israel’s relations with Arab countries have improved due to threats from Iran and I.S., he said. “More and more Arab countries are realizing that Israel is not the enemy of the Arab world, but rather their partner in a joint struggle against Islamic extremists…We are both fighting the Shiite Islamic extremists led by Iran and the Sunni extremists led by ISIS.” (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 14, 2016)

 

“Iran continues to disregard its obligations to UN resolutions…This latest provocation makes it clear that the ‘smile campaign’ of the current regime is nothing more than a smokescreen to disguise the real intentions of the ayatollah regime.” — Israel Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon. Danon sent an urgent letter to members of the UN Security Council calling for condemnation of Tehran’s test launch of ballistic missiles. A series of Iranian military weapons tests last week ended with Tehran crowing that it could now reach Israel with a missile capable of destroying the Jewish State. Iran even inscribed the missiles with a message in Hebrew “Must destroy Israel.” Danon added that the tests were “a gross violation” of Security Council resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear agreement and which restricts Iran from launching missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. (Jewish Press, Mar. 13, 2016)

 

“Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the international community must demonstrate that Iran’s threats toward Israel will not be tolerated.” — U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. Clinton, a former secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said she was “deeply concerned” by the Iranian missile launches. Her call for sanctions reflected a tougher line against Iran’s recent missile activity than that taken so far by the White House. The Iranian move came despite warning from the U.S. State Department that Washington continues to “aggressively apply our unilateral tools to counter threats from Iran’s missile program,” according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest, a possible reference to additional U.S. sanctions. (CBC, Mar. 9, 2016)

 

“To my regret there are some in the West who are misled by the honeyed words of part of the Iranian leadership while the other part continues to procure equipment and weaponry, to arm terrorist groups.”  — Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon. Ya’alon said the missile tests showed Iran’s hostility had not changed since implementing a nuclear deal in January, despite Rouhani’s overtures to the West. Iran’s IRGC said the missiles tested last Wednesday were designed with Israel in mind. The nearest point in Iran is around 1,000 kilometres from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. (CBC, Mar. 9, 2016)

 

“Notwithstanding images of troops packing up their kit and fighter jets flying back to their bases in southern Russia, the early evidence suggests what Putin said was mostly flim-flam of a kind seen and heard before about Syria, Crimea and eastern Ukraine… More crucially, Moscow is not giving up Tartus, its small but strategically vital old naval base on the Mediterranean Sea, or Latakia, its perhaps even more strategically important new airbase… The reality is the Russian withdrawal is at least partially a trick — it is clear Putin is not abandoning Assad.” — Matthew Fisher. (National Post, Mar. 15, 2016)

 

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not accept any interference in its jurisdiction or internal affairs by any party… The kingdom of Saudi Arabia believes that call[s] for universality of human rights does not mean imposition of principles and values that go against our Islamic values and religion.” — Statement by the Saudi embassy in Ottawa. Saudi Arabia is speaking out for the first time about the controversy surrounding a $15-billion arms deal with Canada. The Saudi embassy in Ottawa decried what it called “sensationalized and politicized” coverage of the deal brokered by the Canadian government. Ottawa is the prime contractor on a deal to supply the Saudi Arabian National Guard, which is responsible for combatting internal threats, with London, Ont.-produced fighting machines that will be equipped with machine guns or anti-tank cannons. Two former Liberal cabinet ministers, Irwin Cotler and Lloyd Axworthy, have called on the government to reconsider the deal, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it would hurt Canada’s reputation if it annulled the contract. (Globe & Mail, Mar. 11, 2016)

 

“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union…If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan…all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes.” — Report by North Korean state-run media. North Korea claimed that it could wipe out New York City by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile. The report cites a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il. North Korea’s newly developed hydrogen bomb “surpasses our imagination,” Cho is quoted as saying. Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily boasts and warnings from North Korea underlines its anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions. Kim in January ordered North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb, not a simple atomic one. But most experts are skeptical of the claim, saying the seismic waves caused by the blast were similar to those produced by the North’s three previous tests. (National Post, Mar. 13, 2016)

 

“Sadly, even after multiple student surveys reporting alarming levels … of campus antisemitism, university leaders remain in denial. That will be much harder now. For the first time ever we have objective confirmation of student reports, and we know what is responsible for the frightening escalation in campus antisemitism — anti-Zionism, mainly BDS. [U]niversity leaders must now begin to acknowledge the distinction between scholarly debate and criticism of Israel’s policies — which has every place on a university campus — and anti-Zionism, which is blatant antisemitism, and is the driving force behind the frightening rise in campus antisemitism.” — AMCHA Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin. AMCHA released its “Report on Antisemitic Activity in 2015 at US Colleges and Universities With the Largest Jewish Undergraduate Populations.” The report is the “first empirical study of its kind,” showing that “the primary agents of antisemitic activity are anti-Zionist students and faculty boycotters.” (Algemeiner, Mar. 14, 2016)

 

“[BDS] calls for the shunning of Jewish academics, the boycott of Jewish goods, the de-legitimization of Jewish commerce…We have seen these all before. And we know where it takes us…We have made clear that local authorities and public bodies cannot adopt BDS policies aimed at Israel; they cannot use public resources to discriminate against Jewish people, Jewish goods and a Jewish state.” — British Secretary of Justice Michael Gove, at a conference on antisemitism in Berlin. Gove underlined that the government in London has restricted the adaptation of the movement by public bodies in the UK, where BDS efforts have become popular with various student and academia groups. Gove also parlayed a message from British Prime Minister David Cameron, vowing to fight antisemitism. “Together, we will make sure Britain remains a country that Jewish people are proud to call home – today, tomorrow and for every generation to come,” Gove said quoting Cameron. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 15, 2016)

 

“France is on its way to disintegration…Until recently, France was successful in integrating its immigrants — that was even its pride…Today, it is disintegrating in front of our eyes. [The French model of integration] doesn’t work anymore…Where one could have hoped for a certain harmony, it is hatred that prevails.” — Alain Finkielkraut, a former philosophy professor at France’s elite École Polytechnique, and arguably the most visible of France’s public intellectuals. “Today, when some, like me, speak of the problem of Islam, we are denounced as the successors of Maurras and Barrès,” said Finkielkraut, naming two far-right thinkers of pre-World War II France. “There is a refusal to think about this era on its own terms.” For Finkielkraut, the problem is with Muslims, not with France. “We’ve got to fix very clear rules…Secularism has got to prevail. And we can’t compromise on the status of women…Everything plays out there…People are telling us that problem comes from all sorts of oppression by the West. No. The problem comes from the oppression by Islam of women. We’ve got to help the Muslims resolve this question.”  (New York Times, Mar. 11, 2016)

 

“As First Couple, Ron and Nancy Reagan represented America with great distinction…They had a magnificent sense of occasion. They had style, they had grace and they had class.” — Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Mulroney paid a touching tribute to former U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan at her funeral by reading a letter her husband, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, wrote to her during their first Christmas in the White House. Mulroney, who had a close relationship with the Reagans, read the letter dated Dec. 25, 1981, in which the president described all the different women he felt his wife embodied – “mommy,” First Lady, “fun you,” and “sentimental you.” Reagan finished off the letter by saying, in part, “There could be no life for me, without you.” Mulroney said the relationship between Ronald and Nancy Reagan was “a love story for the ages.” (CTV, Mar. 11, 2016)

 

Contents

TURKEY CARRIES OUT AIRSTRIKES IN IRAQ AFTER DEADLY ANKARA BOMBING (Ankara) — Turkish warplanes struck against Kurdish militant camps in northern Iraq on Monday, a day after 37 people were killed in an Ankara car bombing that security officials said involved two fighters – one female – from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Sunday’s attack was the second such strike at the administrative heart of the Turkish capital in under a month. No one has claimed responsibility for the latest attack. However, security officials said a female member of the outlawed PKK was one of suspected perpetrators. Violence has spiralled in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast since a 2½-year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July. (CBC, Mar. 14, 2016)  

 

SYRIAN KURDS SAY THEY’LL DECLARE FEDERAL REGION IN SYRIA (Damascus) — A Syrian Kurdish political party is planning to declare a federal region in northern Syria, a model it hopes can be applied to the entire country. Nawaf Khalil of the Democratic Union Party told AP that his party is not lobbying for an only-Kurdish region but an all-inclusive area that would include representation for Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds in northern Syria.  It comes as the Damascus government and Saudi-backed rebels are holding peace talks with a UN envoy in Geneva on ways to resolve the country’s devastating civil war, which this week entered its sixth year. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up more than 10 percent of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. (Ynet, Mar. 16, 2016)

 

ARAB LEAGUE DECLARES HEZBOLLAH A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION (Cairo) — The Arab League on Friday declared Lebanon-based Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Nearly all members of the pan-Arab body supported the decision, expect for Lebanon and Iraq, which expressed “reservations,” the 22-member bloc said in a statement. The Revolutionary Guards created Hezbollah (Party of God) in the 1980s. Funded by Iran, it is the only side not to have put down weapons after Lebanon’s civil war from 1975 to 1990. The U.S., and Canada have listed Hezbollah as a “terrorist” group. The European Union has also blacklisted its military wing. The League’s declaration comes a little over a week after the predominantly Sunni Gulf states took a similar stance. (Times of Israel, Mar. 11, 2016)

 

GERMAN AFD PARTY SURGES TO SHOCK ELECTION VICTORY (Berlin) — Germany’s new anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged into three state assemblies with scores that would have been unthinkable only a year ago. Formed three years ago in opposition to euro zone bailouts, the AfD has morphed into an anti-immigration party, seizing on an influx of migrants to steal disaffected members of Merkel’s conservatives. On Sunday they won 24 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, to become the second-biggest party in the state parliament. While populist, anti-immigrant parties have thrived for years in other European countries, Germany has been an exception. The refugee crisis has changed all that. More than a million migrants entered Germany last year, unsettling many Germans and turning the AfD into a force on the national stage almost overnight. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 14, 2016)

 

MAN LINKED TO PARIS ATTACK KILLED IN RAID (Brussels) — Police found a man dead when they stormed a house in Brussels at the end of a major anti-terror operation Tuesday, several hours after they were shot at during a raid linked to last year’s attacks in Paris, a prosecutor said. It was not clear whether the dead man was one of the suspects sought in the raid earlier Tuesday in the Forest neighborhood of Brussels, the Belgian capital where several of the Paris attackers lived. Four months on, Belgian police and magistrates are still piecing together the role Belgian nationals and others living here played in aiding the Paris attackers. The suspected ringleader of the attacks was a Brussels resident, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Another attacker, Bilal Hadfi, was said to have lived for a time in the Forest neighborhood. (Times of Israel, Mar. 15, 2016)

 

ATTACKER AT MILITARY RECRUITING CENTRE SAID HIGHER POWER DROVE HIM (Toronto) — In the midst of a frenzied attack on soldiers at the Canadian Forces recruiting centre in north Toronto on Monday, the attacker declared he was driven to violence by a higher power. “Allah told me to do this. Allah told me to come here and kill people,” the attacker yelled after injuring two people. Those words now have authorities exploring potential terrorism charges. In a Toronto courtroom on Tuesday, police charged Ayanle Hassan Ali, a Canadian Muslim of Somali heritage, with a litany of offences, including three counts of attempted murder. The soldiers who were attacked –Ryan Kong, Jesus Castillo and Tracy Ann Gerhardt – have been released from hospital. (National Post, Mar. 15, 2016)

 

CANADIAN TO COMMAND COALITION TEAM WORKING WITH IRAQI SECURITY (Ottawa) — Canadian Brigadier-General David Anderson is to command a coalition team — including as many as 12 other Canadians — that is to work with Iraq’s security ministries in Baghdad as they prepare battle plans for the long-anticipated offensive to drive I..S. out of Mosul and northwestern Iraq. Anderson served with the infantry in Afghanistan before commanding an army brigade in western Canada. Although the Trudeau government withdrew the RCAF’s Kuwait-based CF-18s from combat operations over Iraq and Syria last month, the number of Canadians helping Iraq fight I.S. is to grow to 830 from about 600. (National Post, Mar. 14, 2016)

 

STABBING VICTIM PULLS KNIFE OUT OF OWN NECK, STABS ATTACKER TO DEATH (Petah Tivkah) — A 40-year-old Israeli stabbing victim turned the tables on his Palestinian attacker last Tuesday, pulling the terrorist’s knife out of his own neck and using it to stab the assailant to death. The attack, which took place in the city of Petah Tivkah, occurred when the Palestinian attacker followed his victim, Yonatan Azarihab, into a wine shop. Azarihab managed to pull the terrorist’s knife out of his neck and flee the store, at which point the shop’s proprietor tried to subdue the terrorist. Azarihab then returned to the store, took up the knife which the terrorist had used on him, and stabbed the attacker. The terrorist died within minutes. (Breaking Israel News, Mar. 9, 2016)

 

STABBER OF BORDER POLICEMAN SENTENCED TO 17 YEARS IN DEAL (Jerusalem) — Palestinian Yasser Tarua was sentenced on Wednesday by the Jerusalem District Court to 17 years in prison for stabbing Border Policeman Raz Bibi in the neck and the chest next to Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on June 21. Bibi was badly injured and required serious medical attention for around two weeks, but survived. Tarua set out from a village near Hebron with two knives and illegally crossed into Israel with the goal of attacking a policeman or a soldier. Bibi was walking on Sultan Solomon Street on his way to his base where he served near the Damascus Gate when Tarua jumped him from behind and started stabbing him, while yelling “God is great.” (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 16, 2016)

 

IDF RAIDS PALESTINIAN TV STATION OVER INCITEMENT (Ramallah) — An Islamic Jihad-affiliated television station urging Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks has been taken off the air, Israel’s Shin Bet said Friday. The order to shut down Ramallah-based Falastin al-Yom, which maintains a television station as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts, followed an Israeli cabinet decision to enforce counter terrorism measures against Palestinian media outlets that incite violence. The TV station’s offices were raided by the IDF and the Shin Bet on Friday. The troops confiscated its equipment, and its manager, Faruk Aliat, 34, was arrested and taken in for questioning. Aliat is a known member of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad terror group. (Breaking Israel News, Mar. 13, 2016)

 

JERUSALEM POST TO AWARD 2016 INNOVATION PRIZE TO MOBILEYE (Tel Aviv) — The Jerusalem Post announced that it will award Israeli driver assistant technology company Mobileye with its 2016 innovation prize. Mobileye was founded in 1999, and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. It became the largest ever public offering by an Israeli company in the US. The company develops visualization systems based on artificial intelligence and data analysis, and is developing tools for autonomous driving. Its technology improves driver safety, reducing the number of accidents and saving lives through the use of a “third eye,” which not only detects traffic conditions but can also read traffic lights and signs. The company is working with major car manufacturers and its technology has been integrated into 10 million vehicles worldwide. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 10, 2016)

 

TEL AVIV U’S CYBORG CARDIAC PATCH COULD REPLACE TRANSPLANTS (Tel Aviv) — Electronics melded with living tissues have been used by Tel Aviv University researchers to create a self-regulating “cyborg cardiac patch” to save lives of people with diseased hearts. The new patch, invented by Prof. Tal Dvir and doctoral student Ron Feiner of TAU’s Biotechnology Department, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and its Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology may singlehandedly change the field of cardiac research, they said. The capabilities of the bionic heart patch even surpass those of human tissue alone, they said, as it contracts and expands like human heart tissue but regulates itself like a machine. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 15, 2016)

 

CANADIAN SYNAGOGUE HELPS RESCUE TWO YAZIDI FAMILIES (Winnipeg) — The Shaarey Zedek Synagogue in Winnipeg, MB, has reached out to sponsor two Yazidi refugee families. The synagogue is participating in Operation Ezra, a project involving arranging sponsorships for Yazidi refugees and raising awareness about their plight. The two families that are to be sponsored by Shaarey Zedek are living – separately – at present in such a camp in Turkey. When all the paperwork is completed for their sponsorship, they will be brought to Canada. The synagogue members meanwhile are busy collecting money, furniture, clothing and school supplies for the children. (Jewish Press, Mar. 13, 2016)

 

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR FROM ISRAEL IS WORLD’S OLDEST MAN (Haifa) — The oldest man in the world is Israeli Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, age 112. Kristal, a resident of Haifa who survived Auschwitz, was handed a certificate by the Guinness World Records, according him the status as the oldest known man on the planet. Kristal was born on September 15, 1903, to a religious family in the town of Zarnov in the Lodz province of Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1950, he made aliya with his wife and their infant son, Haim, and settled in Haifa, where he has remained ever since. He has remained religious throughout his life, putting on tefillin and praying every day, reciting the prayers by heart since his eyesight is poor. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 11, 2016)

 

 

Contents

On Topic Links

 

Rationalizing Putin’s Syrian Victory: Noah Rothman, Commentary, Mar. 14, 2016—For advocates of the diplomatic process, which is for many an end in itself, unambiguous victories are few and far between. As such, some of these process advocates are embracing a surprise announcement from the Kremlin on Monday that the bulk of the Russian forces deployed to Syria would soon be recalled back to Russia as an unqualified triumph.

Turkey: Normalizing Hate: Uzay Bulut, Gatestone Institute, Mar. 13, 2016—According to the 2015 statistics of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), 28 lawsuits were opened by applicants against member states regarding their violations of freedom of expression. Ten of those applications (complaints) were made against Turkey’s violations of freedom of expression. Turkey ranked first in that category.

The North Korean Connection: Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 12, 2016—Hamas’s attack tunnels in Gaza, Hezbollah’s Scud D missile stockpiles in southern Lebanon, and the Fordow Iranian nuclear facility, dug into a mountain, all have one thing in common. None of them would exist in their current form without North Korea’s assistance and worldwide weapons proliferation network

Frightening Figures: The Number of Terrorists and Weapons in Gaza: Elder of Ziyon, Algemeiner, Mar. 14, 2016 —Palestine Press Agency has an article listing the size of the major militias in Gaza. According to the article, there are more than a million weapons in Gaza, and more than a million land mines. That means there is more than one weapon for every man, woman and child in Gaza. But these are spread out among some 50 militias, causing fears of a massive bloodbath should a civil war break out.