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Contents: | Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
What We Have Done: The Dipole, 2014
The Nation of Israel Lives: Benjamin Glatt, Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2016
A Shocking Mockery of Holocaust Remembrance: Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom, May 5, 2016
Ben Rhodes's Fiction Behind the "Iran Deal": A.J. Caschetta, Gatestone Institute, May 10, 2016
WEEKLY QUOTES
“Many things have been said recently about the State of Israel. There is no country that does not have displays of intolerance and violence, but Israeli democracy is strong. It condemns these displays and it deals with them according to the law and by other means. The comparison that was made in…Maj. Gen. Yair Golan's remarks about processes that characterized Nazi Germany 80 years ago is infuriating…The remarks are fundamentally incorrect. They should not have been made at any time, much less now. They do an injustice to Israeli society and belittle the Holocaust.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Sunday, Netanyahu went on the offensive against IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Yair Golan. Netanyahu focused his criticism on Golan’s controversial speech that linked Israeli activity to actions that took place during WWII. (Ynet, May 8, 2016)
“The way in which most Americans have heard the story of the Iran deal presented — that the Obama administration began seriously engaging with Iranian officials in 2013 in order to take advantage of a new political reality in Iran, which came about because of elections that brought moderates to power in that country — was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal. Even where the particulars of that story are true, the implications that readers and viewers are encouraged to take away from those particulars are often misleading or false.” — U.S. President Obama’s foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes. (Algemeiner, May 6, 2016)
“I can’t say I’m shocked…This was so obvious that we were being manipulated. It became all about the Obama legacy, and they pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. What mattered was just getting a deal at any cost. It’s insulting….Never mind that Netanyahu, who is a right-winger, all the parties to the left and all Israelis were against [the deal]. What chutzpah!” — Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind. New York politicians expressed outrage Friday over revelations that the Obama administration lied about its handling of the Iran nuke deal. Top Obama foreign-policy aide Ben Rhodes boasted that he spread a false story to the media that US negotiators were dealing with Iranian moderates, not the hard-liners who despise America. Hikind also slammed Obama for having the audacity to tell the US and Israeli public that the Iran deal was good for Israel. (New York Post, May 6, 2016)
“While Turkey is under attack from terrorist organizations from all sides, the European Union is telling us to change the anti-terror law in exchange for the visa deal. You, the EU, will let PKK terrorists build tents near the EU parliament in Brussels, provide them opportunities in the name of democracy, and then tell us you will lift visas if we change our anti-terror laws. Sorry. We’ll go our own way, you go yours.” — Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, alluding to a tent set up by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in front of the European Council building, just two days after a major terrorist attack on Ankara on March 13. Erdogan rejected a requirement of the EU— that Turkey bring its anti-terror laws in line with EU standards, which is required for the lifting of EU visa restrictions for Turkish citizens. (Breitbart, May 7, 2016)
“Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world…We need to repudiate forceful efforts to malign and undermine Israel and the Jewish people. Anti-Semitism has no place in any civilized society—not in America, not in Europe, not anywhere. We must never tire in defending Israel’s legitimacy, expanding security and economic ties, and taking our alliance to the next level…the BDS campaign is counterproductive to the pursuit of peace and harmful to Israelis and Palestinians alike.” — Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, ahead of the United Methodists’ convention. United Methodists are set to convene in Oregon to consider over 1000 proposals, including “divestment from companies supporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Four resolutions ask the church to divest from companies that are alleged to profit from Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian lands.” In response to a request from leaders of the Israel Action Network (IAN) and the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Clinton, arguably the church’s most prominent member, underlined the need to make countering BDS a priority. (Jewish Journal, May 9, 2016)
"I think that the threat to Israel right now is greater than it has ever been because of what happened with Iran and the Iran deal made by President Obama. I think it is a horrible, horrible situation that our president has placed Israel in and I think that Obama has been very, very bad for the people of Israel…We are going to protect Israel. Don't forget, Israel is our great bastion of hope in that region so Israel is very important." — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Israel Hayom, May 11, 2016)
“Yes, I’m a Republican, he’s a Republican…He’s our nominee. Whoever the nominee would turn out to be, any one of the 17 — he was one of the 17. He won fair and square.” — Jewish casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson. Adelson said that he would support Donald J. Trump now that he has become the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee. Adelson said that he had spoken to Trump recently, but did not elaborate about the timing or nature of their communication. He told another journalist that he thinks that Trump “will be good for Israel.” (New York Times, May 5, 2016)
“And just to blow pepper into the sad eyes of those dispossessed and thrown on the road, there was the predictable troupe of gloaters and sadists — a bleak and wretched lot, though, thank God, small — gloating about karma, and “whadyja expect” and “Nature’s revenge” on the oilsands. Miserable bastards, whose brains are missing and whose hearts are dead. And, by the way, karma is a philosophy for those who couldn’t handle the course work on T-shirt slogans. Fortunately there are better spirits and larger hearts, and they are far more numerous. Every decent heart feels for the people caught in this calamity, and if the good wishes and genuine regard of almost all the country can work any magic — and I think they can — both Fort McMurray and Alberta will yet see a better day.” — Rex Murphy (National Post, May 6, 2016)
“Universities are unlike other institutions in that they absolutely require that people challenge each other so that the truth can emerge from limited, biased, flawed individuals…If they lose intellectual diversity, or if they develop norms of ‘safety’ that trump challenge, they die. And this is what has been happening since the 1990s.” — Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at New York University. Haidt cites data suggesting that the share of conservatives in academia has plunged, and he has started a website, Heterodox Academy, to champion ideological diversity on campuses. (New York Times, May 7, 2016)
"This is our way to salute our sons and daughters who set out on their mission, acted on the values of commitment, friendship and love of country, and gave their lives for the same purpose – protecting the country and its people." — IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Eisenkot on Sunday saluted the 23,447 fallen soldiers who were killed throughout Israel's history as the graves in the military plot on Mount Herzl were adored with Israeli flags ahead of Memorial Day. (Ynet, May 8, 2016)
“My eight siblings and I were born and raised in the Jewish tradition in the city of Raydah in Yemen. My father was dedicated to his family and his community and taught us to treat others with kindness and to love the Torah. One bright day, he went out to shop for Shabbat and never returned…A stranger accosted my father and demanded that he convert to Islam and abandon his Jewish faith. My father refused and responded in his characteristically gentle way, ‘I will remain a Jew and you will remain a Muslim.’ The man pulled out a gun and shot my father several times. Our family as I knew it no longer existed. Our lives were shattered and full of fear. The murderer’s family threatened us, and hatred of Jews increased. In 2009, three of my siblings and I fled to Israel…and in 2012 we were reunited with our mother and smallest siblings, who also made Aliyah.” — Moshe Ya’ish Nahari’s s sixteen-year-old daughter. In the spirit of Israel's Remembrance Day, a ceremony was held in Jerusalem in honor of Jews who paid the ultimate price for refusing to abandon their faith and identity. Nahari shared the story of her father's murder in Yemen in 2008, when she was nine years old. (Jerusalem Post, May 11, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
LEST WE FORGET — On May 8, 1945, eight days after Adolph Hitler killed himself in his Berlin Bunker, six days after Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Red Army forces, and six years after its invasion of Poland triggered World War II, Germany finally and formally surrendered. World War II in Europe was over, although it would continue in the Pacific Theater until August 14, 1945, when Japan, Hitler's (and Mussolini's) Axis partner, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, surrendered (with the formal capitulation, General Douglas MacArthur presiding, occurring on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2nd).
Estimates of total casualties, military and civilian, in the War run to over 60 million deaths (over 27 million for the Soviet Union alone), including over 6 million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborationist enablers. The figures are unimaginable: as Andrew Roberts calculates, in his The Storm of War. A New History of the Second World War (2011), the UK lost 379,762 military killed, and ca.65,000 civilian deaths; the Americans lost 292,100 military, with the Japanese losing 6, the Germans 11, and the Russians 92 for each American who died; for every Briton killed, four Japanese, seven Germans, and sixty Russians lost their lives. And of every five German soldiers killed in combat, four died on the Eastern front.
America, which entered the war directly two years after it had begun, following the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, fought on two fronts while pursuing a "Europe First" policy. The U.S.'s prodigious feats of industrial might and military production, described in the link below, along with the rivers of blood spilled by the Russians, played a key role in defeating first the Germans, and then the Japanese.
1.1 million Canadians served valiantly in uniform (out of a prewar population of 11 million). And, of all the national, ethnic and religious elements fighting Hitler, Jewish soldiers, from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, then-Palestine and other countries, provided the single largest number of combatants in percentile terms of any group. See first on topic link.
Zakhor! Remember! Never again! F.K.
IRAN CARRIES OUT NEW BALLISTIC MISSILE TEST (Tehran) — Iran successfully test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of striking U.S. forces in the region as well as Israel, the third such test since January. The rogue nation conducted the test in defiance of a UN resolution that calls on Iran to cease work on its ballistic missile program. In March, Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles — one emblazoned with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" in Hebrew — that set off an international outcry. Since December, Iran has shipped out its low-enriched uranium, disabled its heavy water reactor in Arak, and weeks ago sold more than $8 million worth of heavy water to the U.S. However, Iran has ignored separate U.N. resolutions barring the Islamic republic from ballistic missile tests. (Fox News, May 9, 2016)
IAF HITS HAMAS TARGETS ON SATURDAY FOLLOWING HAMAS ROCKET ATTACKS (Cairo) — The border between Israel and Gaza is heating up as the IAF hit two Hamas targets on Saturday in response to a rocket attack. Sirens went off just after midnight as two rockets were fired into Israel. No injuries or damage were reported. The Israeli response was the fifth IAF airstrike since Wednesday when IDF troops began operating along the border in an effort to uncover tunnels. A tunnel was uncovered on Thursday extending into Israel, the second this month. Last week, Hamas fired at least 16 mortars into Israel. These four days of cross-border violence mark the most hostility between Israel and Gaza since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. (Breaking Israel News, May 7, 2016)
'ISRAEL ONLY COUNTRY ALLOWED BY US TO MODIFY NEW STEALTH FIGHTER JETS' (Tel Aviv) — Israel is unique in that it is the only country on earth that enjoys special dispensation to install modifications on US-made military hardware. WIRED recently reported that not only will Israel be the first US ally to receive the stealth F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter jet, but it will be alone among the Pentagon’s customers that will be permitted to outfit the warplane with its own technological enhancements. The first Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet, due to be delivered to Israel in December, has entered an advanced production stage. Israel has purchased 33 F-35A fighters jets at an average cost of $110 million per aircraft. (Jerusalem Post, May 11, 2016)
LIKUD SUPREME COURT ORDERS REVIEW OF YA’ALON’S FAILURE (Jerusalem) — The Likud supreme court ordered the Likud Central Committee, Political Bureau, Directorate, Secretariat and Knesset faction to conduct reviews of the failures of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon regarding the eviction of Jewish residents from Beit Rachel and Leah in Hebron. The Jewish residents moved into the building, which had been lawfully purchased from its Arab owner, on January 21, and were forcibly removed by Police and Border Guard officers on January 22. The discussions in each Likud institution will include a vote on a call to Prime Minister Netanyahu to remove Ya’alon from his post, as well as a call on Likud elected officials to act at once to annul the eviction action (Jewish Press, May 8, 2016)
BRASH FORMER MAYOR POISED TO BECOME NEXT PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT (Manila) — A flamboyant mayor who revels in cursing and has vowed to “butcher… drug pushers, hold-up men and do nothings” is poised to become the next president of the Philippines. With two-thirds of the ballots counted late Monday, 71-year-old Rodrigo Duterte has built up an unassailable lead over his nearest rivals. All the candidates including president-elect Duterte expressed horror at the murder of Canadian John Ridsdel. The 68-year-old Canadian was snatched from a resort only a few kilometres from Davao, which, as mayor, Duterte has always boasted is the safest city in the Philippines. (National Post, May 9, 2016)
I.S. EXECUTIONER KILLED BY US AIRSTRIKE (Kabul) — One of I.S's most feared executioners and propagandists has been killed in a coalition airstrike in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Abu Waheeb, who starred in a series of chilling execution videos, was almost unique among I.S. terrorists for his willingness to appear in propaganda films without wearing a mask to disguise his identity. He featured in dozens of I.S. publicity releases, grinning for the cameras as he went about his work, and until the arrival of "Jihadi John" in late 2014, was one of the terror group's most notorious figures. (Telegraph, May 9, 2016)
US-AFGHAN RAID RESCUES ABDUCTED SON OF FORMER PAKISTAN PM (Kabul) — U.S. and Afghan forces conducting a raid Tuesday against Islamists unexpectedly found and rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister who had been abducted three years ago, officials said. Ali Haider Gilani, believed to be about 30, was discovered in good health during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan. The operation killed four of the extremists. Gilani is the son of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who celebrated the rescue with his family. His secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party's led several major offensives against Islamic extremists. (ABC, May 11, 2016)
DIEUDONNÉ'S MONTREAL PERFORMANCES CANCELLED (Montreal) — The owner of a Montreal gallery where a controversial French comedian was set to appear says the shows have been cancelled. Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, who goes by the stage name Dieudonné, was scheduled to perform 10 shows in Montreal. Dieudonné, who has made headlines for publicly denying the Holocaust and making jokes about gas chambers, was reportedly barred from entering Canada at Montreal's Trudeau airport Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Dieudonné was found guilty of violating hate speech laws in France and handed a €10,000 ($14,734) fine and a two-month suspended jail sentence. (CBC, May 11, 2016)
FORT MCMURRAY FIRE VICTIMS AIDED BY JEWISH GROUPS (Edmonton) — Jewish groups in Canada are helping evacuate as many as 90,000 people from the Fort McMurray fire area in Alberta, Canada, where the large blaze has ravaged an area of about 400,000 acres—half the size of Rhode Island—and destroyed at least 1,600 homes and buildings, according to the latest reports. The Calgary Jewish Federation is donating $25,000 from its emergency relief fund to help those who have been evacuated from their homes, while the Jewish Federation of Edmonton has set up a PayPal account to collect donations to help those who are displaced. (Breaking Israel News, May 10, 2016)
POLL: NETANYAHU AMONG 10 MOST-ADMIRED PEOPLE IN US (New York) — Benjamin Netanyahu is the 10th-most-admired person in the U.S., according to the “World’s Most Admired 2016” poll that gauged the popularity of famous people in 30 different countries. President Obama topped the chart, Pope Francis came in second, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders was sixth, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ranked eighth. Netanyahu ranked higher than former president George W. Bush, actor Johnny Depp, and former president Bill Clinton, who came in 11th, 12th, and 13th, respectively. (Algemeiner, May 10, 2016)
LONDON'S NEW MAYOR PAYS RESPECT TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS (London) — London's newly elected Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, on Sunday paid respect to the millions of Jews slain in the Holocaust as his first public engagement in office. Khan received a hero's welcome from London's Jewish community at the end of the Yom Hashoah ceremony, which brought together thousands from London's Jewish community. Khan, who has in the past blasted his own Labour party for the antisemitism within its ranks, has spurned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn since last week’s election, refusing photo ops with the party chief and even leveling thinly-veiled criticisms against him. (Arutz Sheva, May 9, 2016)
HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED IN KURDISTAN FOR THE FIRST TIME (Erbil) — In a historic ceremony in the Kurdistan capital Erbil, Kurds with Jewish roots together with Kurdish officials and foreign dignitaries remembered for the first time in the Kurdistan Region the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. The first Jewish Remembrance Day for Victims of the Holocaust in Kurdistan was organised by the Jewish representative in the Kurdistan Ministry of Religion. The event ended with the lighting of six candles, one for every million Jews killed by the Nazi regime in the 30s and 40s of the last century. The total number of Jewish descendants living in the Kurdistan Region, who are locally called Benjews, is not known, but runs in the thousands. (Rudaw, May 7, 2016)
ISRAEL REMEMBERS 23,447 FALLEN (Jerusalem) — The Ministry of Defense has published the data of the number of Israel's fallen soldiers and terror victims in advance of Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), May 10. The number of fallen soldiers since 1860 stands at 23,447. Since Memorial Day in 2015, 68 people have joined the list while an additional 59 wounded war veterans who succumbed to their wounds were counted and recognized as fallen soldiers. Memorial Day will get underway following a one-minute siren, which will be sounded throughout the state on Tuesday at 20:00. On Wednesday at 11:00, a two-minute siren will be sounded after which official memorial ceremonies will be held throughout the state. (Ynet, May 6, 2016)
ISRAEL TURNS 68 WITH 8.5 MILLION PEOPLE, 10 TIMES MORE THAN IN 1948 (Jerusalem) — On the eve of Israel’s 68th birthday, the country’s population stands at 8,522,000, according to figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics. There are 6,377,000 Jewish Israelis, 74.8% of the total population, and 1,771,000 Arab Israelis, 20.8% of the population, the bureau said. Christians, non-Arabs, and other minority groups account for 374,000 people, or 4.4% of the population. By comparison, the nascent State of Israel had a population of just 806,000 in 1948. Israel’s Independence Day begins with celebrations on Wednesday night, as the country transitions from Memorial Day — 24 hours of mourning for its fallen soldiers and terror victims. (Times of Israel, May 9, 2016)
THE IMPROBABLE HAPPINESS OF ISRAELIS (Jerusalem) — The World Happiness Report 2016 Update ranks Israel (Jews and Arabs) 11th of 158 countries evaluated for the United Nations. Israel also shines as No. 5 of the 36 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries on the OECD’s Life Satisfaction Index—ahead of the U.S., the U.K. and France. Israel ranks 24th in GDP per capita, and comes in at No. 30 of the 36 OECD countries on security and personal safety. Israel has the 17th-highest per capita income in the world. Israel was the fifth-most innovative country in the 2015 Bloomberg Innovation Index, and a 2014 OECD study ranked it fourth in the percentage of adults with a higher education. (Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2016)
What We Have Done: The Dipole, 2014—Having only recently experienced another somber set of remembrances during Veterans Day 2014, it is fitting to review some of the facts during World War II.
The Nation of Israel Lives: Benjamin Glatt, Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2016—In Israel, May is a month of remembering great – and terrible – events. While the Hebrew calendar causes their dates to vary from year to year, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), Remembrance Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism (Yom Hazikaron) and Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut) all fall in May this year.
A Shocking Mockery of Holocaust Remembrance: Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom, May 5, 2016—The deputy chief of the Israeli army seems to be trying to compete with his boss in the arena of supplying Israel's enemies with political ammunition. On Wednesday evening, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan went beyond the call of duty, so to speak, and outdid IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot in the battlefield of ideas on the world stage.
Ben Rhodes's Fiction Behind the "Iran Deal": A.J. Caschetta, Gatestone Institute, May 10, 2016— That the Obama administration's Iran deal is a work of fiction has been known all along, but now Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, is taking credit as its author. In a long interview with New York Times reporter David Samuels on Sunday, the world learned that Rhodes is "the master shaper and retailer of Obama's foreign policy narratives" who "strategized and ran the successful Iran-deal messaging campaign." Samuels lauds Rhodes as "a storyteller who uses a writer's tools to advance an agenda packaged as politics."
