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Contents: | Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
Brace Yourselves: Trump is Going to Win: Derek Burney & Fen Osler Hampson, Globe & Mail, May 16, 2016
The Hillary Myth: Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard, May, 2016
How New York Can Help Stop Europe’s Rampaging Israel Boycotters: Benjamin Weinthal & Asaf Romirowsky, New York Post, May 10, 2016
The Demise of Hezbollah’s Untraceable Ghost: Robin Wright, New Yorker, May 13, 2016
WEEKLY QUOTES
“It denies the Holocaust, it mocks the Holocaust and it is also preparing another Holocaust…I think that every country in the world must stand up and fully condemn this.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu lashed out at Iran Sunday for staging a Holocaust-themed cartoon contest that mocked the Nazi genocide of six million Jews during World War II and said the Islamic Republic was busy planning for another one. (Washington Post, May 15, 2016)
“There are many problems with the French initiative, one of them is the lack of recognition of a Jewish state…When French diplomats vote for a resolution at UNESCO that rejects the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem, it should not come as a surprise that Israel rejects the French initiative and the political horizon it aspires to ultimately expose.” — Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold. Gold reiterated Israel’s opposition to a French plan, which includes a meeting in Paris to set out parameters of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, and a follow up international conference later this year. France agreed to delay the May 30th launch of the Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative until sometime this summer to allow for the US to attend. It had intended to hold a ministerial meeting at the end of the month with representatives from 20 countries — not including the Israelis & Palestinians — to lay the groundwork for a larger international peace conference in the fall. (Jerusalem Post, May 12, 2016)
“There is currently an Arab initiative, a French initiative, there are American efforts and there is the Quartet that are all working toward a solution to this issue. In Egypt…we are prepared to exert all efforts that will contribute to finding a solution to this problem.” — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Sisi made an impromptu appeal to both Israelis and Palestinians to take steps for peace, just as his country had done in 1979. “If by our combined efforts and real desire, we can all achieve a solution to this problem and find hope for the Palestinians and security for the Israelis, history will write a new page that will be no less and might even be more of an achievement than the signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel forty years ago,” Sisi said. (Jerusalem Post, May 17, 2016)
“The last time I went to the cinema in Gaza was in 1976…We were in love with Bruce Lee…Gaza was beautiful and free…Now it is dark… (filled with) “new restrictions.” — Ahmad Gherbawi, 60, a professor at a university in Saudi Arabia. Gherbawi said he has been stuck in Gaza for two years because of border closings by Egypt. Thursday marked the beginning of the Karama-Gaza Human Rights film festival. Over 70 short and long narrative and documentary films were set to be screened at the event. A large screen was set up on the wall of a destroyed house in the Shujaya neighborhood, which was left battered after Operation Protective Edge in 2014. (New York Times, May 13, 2016)
“We say to the governments of Canada and the Philippines not to play games, for we are determined to slaughter all the captives if you do not comply with our demands…We are not scared of you or your soldiers or airplanes.” — Video posted by Abu Sayyaf, about three weeks after the Islamist group murdered Canadian John Ridsdel. Robert Hall, the lone surviving Canadian hostage in the southern Philippines, appears in the new video, announcing that his captors will decapitate him and a Norwegian man next month if they do not receive $16 million in ransom first. The new video ends with a statement by one of the masked terrorists, his voice rising steadily to an angry crescendo, before he thrusts a machete in the air amid a chorus of “Alahu Akhbar” — Arabic for God is great. (National Post, May 15, 2016)
“This is not a choice, it’s a duty…Canada must be a determined peace-builder. Canadians are risking their lives in the region for peace.” — Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion. Dion says there is no link between Canada’s invitation to join the International Syria Support Group and his government’s flip-flop on support for a new law to sanction Russian officials for human rights violations. Suspicious minds have suggested that Russia would have vetoed the ISSG invitation, had Dion followed through on a pre-election commitment to introduce the legislation. (National Post, May 17, 2016)
“North Korea is a major player in the proliferation game…It sells missiles, technology, and technical know-how to Syria, Pakistan, and of course to Iran, whose missile program is based on the knowledge and technology they acquired from Pyongyang…what you see today in Pyongyang, you will see tomorrow in Tehran.” — Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center, Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies. Inbar, who was Keynote Speaker at CIJR’s 28th Anniversary Gala held in Montreal and Toronto in April, says North Korea’s ballistic missile capabilities should not be underestimated. The dictatorship has tested nuclear weapons four times since it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, and is working to develop long-range ballistic missiles that could threaten the U.S. Based on his intimate knowledge of Israel’s multilayered missile defense systems, however, Inbar is confident that Israel is well set to counter any future ballistic missile challenges that Iran may throw its way. (Mishpacha, May 11, 2016)
“The West’s behavior, led by the (U.S.), in the face of the mass murders taking place in the Middle East, must turn on not only a red light but a powerful projector in order to open the eyes of Israel and its friends all over the world. The most important conclusion that Jews and Israelis must reach is to never rely on any commitment, on any agreement, oral or signed, when it comes to our own security, because when the moment of truth arrives our friends are liable to behave exactly as they did seventy years ago…Politicians, academics, artists and many public figures in the West lose no opportunity to attack Israel for what that country is forced to do to fight terror, but are struck dumb when the subject is crimes against humanity perpetrated anywhere else in the Middle East.” — Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Arutz Sheva, May 5, 2016)
“The tyrant fell and the Americans handed the reins of power to the Arab Shiite leaders, and my books and political activity helped in convincing them to do so, and this is why I feel guilty today.” — Kanan Makiya. To document the crimes of Saddam Hussein, Makiya studied thousands of documents smuggled out of Iraq, and years later his findings helped the U.S. make the case for war. As a Middle East scholar at Brandeis University, Makiya is a man of facts and history. Ultimately, though, he decided the best way to express what he felt became of Iraq was to write fiction. Only with a novel, he says, could he access “the larger meanings and deeper truths about what went wrong post-2003.” Still, he says, “Iraqi mistakes are orders of magnitude more important to what has gone wrong in Iraq than American mistakes.” (New York Times, May 13, 2016)
“The Middle East is unraveling and the Kurds can play a positive role in rebuilding a peaceful Middle East. The Kurds share the same values as the West (democracy, freedom, inclusion of minorities, secular government, etc.). Furthermore, the Kurds are fighting against ISIS, radical Islam and oppression…The Kurds are the last truly moderate force in the Syrian war. The Syrian opposition has been hijacked by the Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria), Daesh (ISIS) runs rampant, and the Baathist regime will commit mass murder if they win. If the Baathists win, there will be no “Truth and Reconciliation” process. They will go through and kill everyone who opposed them.” — Sherkoh Abbas, president of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria. (Clarion Project, May 12, 2016)
“If this election season has proven anything, it is that traditional sources of authority don’t carry much weight anymore. Americans don’t trust any of their major institutions, with the possible exception of the armed forces. Mr. Trump’s supporters don’t care that the pundits think that he is unpresidential, just as Mr. Sanders’s supporters don’t care that the “experts” consider his proposals unrealistic. Polls suggest that Americans, more than ever before, feel oppressed by forces beyond their control. Much of the appeal of outsider candidates like Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders stems from the widespread belief that neither political party is interested in ordinary people and that the American dream is no longer in reach for those who work hard and play by the rules. “Establishment” has become shorthand for a corrupt power structure and a rigged system…The problem with present-day politics isn’t the invisible domination of an oppressive establishment—those days are long gone—but rather the absence of any authority that Americans still trust and respect.” — Geoffrey Kabaservice (Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2016)
“Socialism is having a moment. I’m not just referring to Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly strong showing in the Democratic primaries. Various polls show that millennials have a more favorable view of socialism than of capitalism. And millennials generally are the only age group that views socialism more favorably than unfavorably. Some conservatives aren’t surprised. Schools have been force-feeding left-wing propaganda to kids like it was feed for geese at a foie gras factory. On the other hand, what are we to make of the fact that only a fraction of the young people who say they like socialism can explain what it is?… many of these young people think socialism is federally mandated niceness.” — Jonah Goldberg (New York Post, May 14, 2016)
“The BDS movement does not really care if they have quantifiable success. They are playing the long game of relentless indoctrination, convincing the leaders of tomorrow that there is something inherently illegitimate about Israel’s existence. It is working, and thanks in large part to the Naomi Kleins of our people. I despise them and so do their Palestinian friends in the BDS movement. They are to the Palestinians what the “Useful Idiots” of the intelligentsia were to the Communists (I call our Jewish version “Useful Jewdiots”). With the added feature that to militant Muslims, Jews who turn on their brothers are people without honour. It’s the one point in this discussion on which Hamas and I would agree.” — Barbara Kay (Canadian Jewish News, Apr. 8, 2016)
“At the same time that American universities have engaged in a serious commitment to diversity, they have become thought-prisons. We are not talking about diversity in any real way. The university has become so stultified. You can’t say this, you can’t do that.” — American writer and well-known critic of affirmative action, Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, was born in 1944 in San Francisco. He did a BA at Stanford, an MA at Columbia and a year in London as a Fulbright scholar. When Yale offered him a job, he decided they “had some peculiar idea about what my skin colour or ethnicity signified.” He thought there was something wrong with that. “I still do. I think race-based affirmative action is crude and absolutely mistaken.” (National Post, May 13, 2016)
"To be more vigilant with what is going on with the world and to not overlook it, not to keep quiet about it, to speak up, to tell the world what they know." — Isaac Gotfried. When Gotfried was 15 he was taken from the Polish factory where he worked and placed in a slave labour camp by the Nazis. He spent almost four years being shipped to concentration camps throughout Germany, surrounded by death and starvation as a Jewish teen during the Holocaust. Gotfried, 90, told his story to students at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. His purpose was to teach them to speak out when they see people being mistreated. Gotfried has spoken to more than 20,000 people in the past 23 years, and said he is frequently asked how many friends of his survived the Holocaust. "I’ll tell you how many, zero. None of my friends that I went to school with survived the war. None of those boys that I associated with or played with, my neighbours. Zero," Gotfried said. (Winnipeg Free Press, May 10, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
HEZBOLLAH SAYS COMMANDER KILLED BY SYRIAN INSURGENT SHELLING (Damascus) — The Lebanese group Hezbollah said Saturday that the explosion in Damascus that killed its top commander was caused by insurgent shelling and vowed to continue fighting alongside the Syrian government until the rebels are defeated. Mustafa Badreddine was the highest-ranking Hezbollah fighter to be killed since the group joined Syria's civil war. Hezbollah said the blast was caused by artillery shelling from "takfiri" groups, a term Hezbollah uses to refer to Sunni extremists. The 55-year-old Badreddine had directed Hezbollah's operations in Syria since its fighters joined Assad's forces in 2012, the group's biggest-ever military intervention outside of Lebanon. (New York Times, May 14, 2016)
NETANYAHU AND HERZOG REPORTEDLY CLOSE TO COALITION DEAL (Jerusalem) — Benjamin Netanyahu is close to agreeing to a unity government with the main opposition leader, in a move that could help revive peace talks with the Palestinians. The head of Likud has reportedly been engaged in negotiations with Labor Party’s Isaac Herzog in recent weeks in a bid to form a unity government. Herzog, whose party forms the Zionist Union along with the centrist Hatnuah, could present a possible coalition agreement to his party in the coming days. (Middle East Eye, May 18, 2016)
ISRAELI FORCES ARREST 16 TERROR FUGITIVES (Jerusalem) — Israeli Border Guard police and IDF security forces captured 16 wanted fugitives overnight in various locations across Judea and Samaria. Of those, 14 Palestinian Authority Arabs were accused of terrorist activities and other violence against civilians and security forces. Two of the detainees were senior Hamas officials, including one who served as the former Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisoner Affairs. (Jewish Press, May 18, 2016)
MULTIPLE BAGHDAD CAR BOMBINGS KILL AT LEAST 93 (Baghdad) —Three separate car bombings in the Iraqi capital last Wednesday killed at least 93 people and wounded at least 165. I.S. later claimed responsibility for all three bombings. In the largest attack of the day, a car bomb ripped through a commercial area in the predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, killing at least 63 people and wounding at least 85. Later in the afternoon, two more car bombs killed at least 30 and wounded 80, police officials said. One bomber targeted a police station in Baghdad's northwest Kadhimiyah neighbourhood, killing 18, five of whom were policemen, and wounding 34. (CBC, May 11, 2016)
SUICIDE BOMBING KILLS 25 IN SOUTHERN YEMEN (Sanaa) — A suicide bomber on Sunday detonated his explosives among policemen standing in line outside a police base in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla, killing 25. At least 17 more people were injured in the attack. The Yemeni affiliate of I.S. claimed responsibility for the attack. Sunday's victims were policemen returning to work for the first time since last month's recapture of Mukalla by forces of the internationally recognized government. The port city had been held for more than a year by Yemen's local al-Qaida affiliate. (Fox News, May 15, 2016)
SENATE DEFIES SAUDIS BY PASSING BILL TO LET 9/11 VICTIMS SUE (Washington) — The Senate passed legislation allowing Sept. 11 victims and their families to sue other countries for their role in the attacks, defying White House objections and reported threats by Saudi Arabia to sell its U.S. debt holdings. The move comes one day after the U.S. Treasury Department disclosed the size of Saudi Arabia’s stake for the first time in 41 years — putting its debt holdings at $116.8 billion. The House would need to pass the measure to send it to Obama, who is opposed to the bill. (Bloomberg, May 17, 2016)
SUSPECT IN 1980 PARIS SYNAGOGUE BOMBING RELEASED TO HOUSE ARREST (Paris) — A Lebanon-born university lecturer in Canada who was extradited to France to stand trial for killing four people in a 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris was released to house arrest. In his ruling last week, a high court magistrate cited “doubt on the fundamental question” of whether Hassan Diab was in France when a bomb went off on Oct. 3, 1980 outside the ULIF synagogue. CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, protested the decision. CRIF President Roger Cukierman said “this release…is an insult to the victims and their families and will be interpreted as frailty in the face of terrorism, which hit France hard only recently.” (CJN, May 17, 2016)
METHODIST CHURCH VOTES DOWN BDS RESOLUTIONS (Portland) — The United Methodist Church has rejected several resolutions calling for the 12-million-member Protestant church to divest from companies engaging in business with Israel. Church committees over the weekend voted down four Israel BDS resolutions brought to a vote at the church’s United Methodist Church General Conference in Portland, Oregon. The resolutions would have seen UMC divestment from three companies that pro-Palestinian activists have accused of working with Israeli security forces: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola. The defeat comes on the heels of Hillary Clinton’s letter to Jewish leaders reasserting her position that BDS campaigns are counterproductive to Mideast peace. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, was raised and remains a practicing Methodist. (Times of Israel, May 17, 2016)
ADELSON PLEDGES $100M FOR TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (Washington) — Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson has reportedly pledged $100 million, and possibly more, to help finance GOP candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The billionaire has financed Republican causes over the years to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars – but this year he plans to scale back contributions to Congressional campaigns to focus on helping Trump. However, there is a limit on how much money a single individual can give to political campaigns in the U.S. In order to give really “big” money, one requires a “super PAC” — super political action committee. Up to this week Trump had not yet decided whether he will allow PACs to help finance his campaign. (Jewish Press, May 15, 2016)
HILLARY CLINTON HOLDS $100,000-A-HEAD FUNDRAISERS (Washington) — Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is ramping up her fundraising schedule, attending a number of fundraisers this week that cost donors six-figures to attend. The former secretary of state attended a pair of small, intimate gatherings in New York City on Thursday evening that cost donors a minimum of $100,000 to attend. It’s not the campaign’s first foray into high-dollar fundraising. In April, the campaign held an event at the home of actor George Clooney. The event cost $33,400 to attend, though donors who contributed $353,400 could sit at the head table with Clooney. (Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2016)
SAUDI ARABIA SUSPENDS CULTURAL FESTIVAL IN OTTAWA (Ottawa) — Saudi Arabia says it’s postponing a celebration of Saudi culture planned for Ottawa, a move that comes as controversy persists over Ottawa’s $15-billion sale of combat vehicles to Riyadh and whether the deal might help the Mideast country perpetrate human-rights violations. The May 18-21 festival appeared to be a Saudi charm offensive aimed at federal policy makers as the Trudeau government fields questions about its decision to grant export permits for the armoured vehicles to a country that U.S. watchdog Freedom House regularly ranks among “the worst of the worst” on human rights. The Saudi embassy blamed “logistical reasons” for its last-minute change of plans.(Globe & Mail, May 16, 2016)
FACEBOOK TO PROBE ALLEGATIONS OF ANTI-CONSERVATIVE BIAS (San Francisco) — Facebook Inc, the social networking powerhouse, is conducting a full investigation into allegations of political bias, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. The company has come under fire after an unnamed former Facebook employee told a technology website that workers often omitted conservative political stories from the company's "trending" list of topics that it says spiked in popularity. The accusation sparked an outcry on social media and prompted a US Senate inquiry into Facebook's practices. Facebook claims it had over 1 billion daily users, on average, in March. (Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2016)
DIVERS DISCOVER CARGO OF ANCIENT SHIPWRECK IN CAESARIA HARBOR (Tel Aviv) — A fortuitous discovery by two divers in the ancient port of Caesarea has led to the revelation of a large and spectacular ancient marine cargo of a merchant ship that sank there during the Late Roman period, about 1,600 years ago. Many of the artifacts are made of bronze and are in an extraordinary state of preservation, including a bronze lamp depicting the image of the sun-god Sol, a figurine of the moon goddess Luna and a lamp in the image of the head of an African slave. One of the biggest surprises was the discovery of two metallic lumps composed of thousands of coins. This discovery comes a year after the exposure by divers of a treasure of gold Fatimid coins. (Breaking Israel News, May 17, 2016)
EX-SPY WHO INFILTRATED NAZI GERMANY HONOURED IN MONTREAL (Montreal) — A 96-year-old former spy who risked her life by infiltrating Nazi Germany to uncover the inner workings of Hitler’s army was honoured in Montreal. Marthe Cohn used her perfect German accent and blond hair to pretend to be a German nurse. The young Jewish woman would approach Nazis in the German countryside and befriend them to learn their travel plans before relaying the plans back to French Allies. Cohn has already received many accolades for her bravery, including France’s Medaille Militaire. She spoke in Montreal Tuesday night to mark an annual Holocaust memorial event. Cohn joined the French military at the age of 24. After Germany invaded France in 1940, her sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz while the rest of her family fled to the south of France. (CTV, May 17, 2016)
Brace Yourselves: Trump is Going to Win: Derek Burney & Fen Osler Hampson, Globe & Mail, May 16, 2016—Canadians and our media have watched U.S. primary season with a mixture of incredulity, disbelief, horror and smugness. The conventional wisdom here, as well as among most American pundits, is that Donald Trump doesn’t stand a chance of winning the presidency and that the Democrats will retake the White House under Hillary Clinton.
The Hillary Myth: Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard, May, 2016—Hillary Clinton sounds like Paul Ryan on the economy. She says she’s for "strong growth, fair growth, and long-term growth." She would abandon the slow-growth economics of President Obama and return us to those wonderful days in the 1990s when husband Bill was in charge.
How New York Can Help Stop Europe’s Rampaging Israel Boycotters: Benjamin Weinthal & Asaf Romirowsky, New York Post, May 10, 2016—In America, the odious boycott, divestment and sanctions movement targeting Israel remains largely confined to university humanities departments, leaving Europe as the main battleground in the economic war on Israel. And now a bill in the New York Legislature may be the key to blunting financial and political damage to Israel in Europe.
The Demise of Hezbollah’s Untraceable Ghost: Robin Wright, New Yorker, May 13, 2016—Mustafa Badreddine, a cocky Lebanese bomb maker and one of the architects of Islamic terrorism, was buried Friday. He was Hezbollah’s top military commander, and, along with his brother-in-law Imad Mughniyah, who died in 2008, masterminded one of the longest-running sprees of violence—bombings, hostage-takings, assassinations, and airplane hijackings—in the Middle East.
