President-Elect Trump — Where He Stands on Radical Islam: Clarion Project, Nov. 9, 2016
Moving Forward on Iran: Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky, Foreign Affairs, Nov. 7, 2016
What the Next President Must Do About the World: Michael J. Totten, The Tower, Nov. 2016
Kristallnacht and Germany Will Always Haunt My Memories: Henry Rosenthal, Sun Sentinel, Nov. 8, 2016
WEEKLY QUOTES
"This is painful, and it will be for a long time…And I want you to remember this: our campaign was about building an America that is hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted." — Defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Clinton said today Americans owe Donald Trump "an open mind and the chance to lead." Trump's triumph over Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Obama. Trump has pledged to act quickly to repeal Obama's landmark health-care law, revoke the nuclear agreement with Iran and rewrite important trade deals with other countries, particularly Mexico and Canada. (CBC, Nov. 9, 2016)
"The political class is reviled across much of the West…2016 is, by the looks of it, going to be the year of two great political revolutions. I thought Brexit was big but boy this looks like it is going to be even bigger." — Nigel Farage, acting leader of the UK Independent Party. Farage, who positioned himself as Trump's political soulmate and successfully campaigned for the "Brexit" vote for the U.K. to leave the European Union, said the election result did not surprise him. (NBC, Nov. 9, 2016)
“After Brexit and this election, everything is now possible. A world is collapsing before our eyes. Dizziness.” — Gerard Araud. In a now-deleted tweet, before Trump's victory was confirmed, the current French ambassador to the United States wrote that the 'world is collapsing before our eyes' in an astonishing attack on the newly-elected President. (Daily Mail, Nov. 9, 2016)
“This American election opens a period of uncertainty.” — French President Francois Hollande. Francois Hollande gave a lukewarm response to the election result, saying “I congratulate him as is natural between two democratic heads of state.” He said France would be vigilant and frank in talks with the new White House administration. (Daily Mail, Nov. 9, 2016)
"Donald Trump pulled off an amazing political feat, and he deserves tremendous credit for that. It helped us keep our majorities, but it also showed the country that people don't like the direction we were going. We need to change direction. And what I'm excited about is, we in Congress, along with our nominee who is now the president-elect, offered a very specific and clear and coherent agenda on which direction we should take the country, and that is now the direction we are going to go.” — House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Ryan stopped supporting Trump publicly last month following Trump's vulgar comments about women, caught on an open mic in an old "Access Hollywood" videotape. But on Wednesday, Ryan said he has spoken several times with Trump in the past 18 hours. "He just earned a mandate," Ryan said. (CNS, Nov. 9, 2016)
“The Republican establishment couldn’t stand Trump. The Democratic establishment mocked him. The Republican nominee didn’t even really seem to have much of a campaign. He spent more on “Make America Great” hats than on polling. When I visited his campaign headquarters this summer, there were more pictures, paintings and cardboard cutouts of Trump around than Trump advisers. If you don’t count Newt Gingrich — and I don’t — only one major political historian, Allan Lichtman, had predicted that Trump would win. But then the impossible happened…Hillary’s closing line in the campaign was that she was the only thing standing between her and the abyss. But to my conservative family, Hillary was the abyss while Donald was the baseball bat to smash Washington.” — Maureen Dowd (New York Times, Nov. 9, 2016)
“The news media by and large missed what was happening all around it, and it was the story of a lifetime. The numbers weren’t just a poor guide for election night — they were an off-ramp away from what was actually happening…Journalists didn’t question the polling data when it confirmed their gut feeling that Mr. Trump could never in a million years pull it off. They portrayed Trump supporters who still believed he had a shot as being out of touch with reality. In the end, it was the other way around. It was just a few months ago that so much of the European media failed to foresee the vote in Britain to leave the European Union…the problem that surfaced on Tuesday night was much bigger than polling. It was clear that something was fundamentally broken in journalism, which has been unable to keep up with the anti-establishment mood that is turning the world upside down.” — Jim Rutenberg (New York Times, Nov. 9, 2016)
“You have some forecasts that show Clinton with a 98 or 99 percent chance of winning. That doesn't pass a commonsense test, which is we've seen lots of elections where there's about a three-point polling error. In 2012, in fact, Obama beat his polls in many states by about three points. If Clinton were to beat her polls by three points and you see something we call a borderline landslide, but if it goes the other way, and all of a sudden Trump could very easily win the electoral college.” — FiveThirtyEight.com founder Nate Silver. (Realclearpolitics, Nov. 6, 2016)
“Trump’s support is a testament to the democratic power of discontented voters…Obama has too often governed as if their needs and preferences are illegitimate, and this contempt was bound to generate a political challenge. The lesson the political class should have learned…is to be more respectful of voter sentiment and the refusal of the American public to accept economic decline without a fight…Voters decided (Trump) was an agent of change and rejected the progressive agenda and the third Obama term that Mrs. Clinton represented. Above all, Mr. Trump is a walking rebuke to the general liberal indifference to economic stagnation, as if the status quo is the best this country can do.” — Editorial (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 9, 2016)
“This is an ideologically and electoral revolution of the kind we haven't seen since Reagan. What this means ideologically is that the Republican party has become the populist party and the country is going to be without a classically conservative party. What Trump has done is not just awaken the white working class but to win it back. These were the Reagan Democrats. They drifted away, he brings them back. Now, what's interesting is he brings them back on issues he says the cause of their misery is immigration and trade, which you don't see getting a lot of support. I think the reason he got him back is he simply said, I'm your voice. I hear what you're saying.” — Charles Krauthammer (Realclearpolitics, Nov. 9, 2016)
“The ultimate slapdown for Obama. More than being a victory for Donald Trump, the U.S. presidential election results were a searing defeat for Barack Obama. In a torrent of impassioned campaign stops over the past six weeks, the outgoing president made it clear that this election was a referendum on his policies. He explicitly warned that unless Hillary Clinton was elected, everything he stood for and had worked for would be washed down the drain. He literally said the "fate of the nation" hangs in the balance. We now know there will not be a Hillary Clinton presidency, and not just because of her own flaws. It's because more than 50% of Americans rejected the notion that Obama has "done a good job," and they are not interested in "sustaining" his policies…It was time to take Obama down, resoundingly. And so they did, those middle-of-the-road Americans…It's clear to me that the real headline today is: "Trump thrashes Obama." — David M. Weinberg (Israel Hayom, Nov. 9, 2016)
“The ironclad bond between the United States and Israel is rooted in shared values, buttressed by shared interests and driven by a shared destiny…I am confident that president-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the unique alliance between our two countries and bring it to ever greater heights.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Daily Mail, Nov. 9, 2016)
“You have been a dedicated friend of Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel and the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and for that I thank you. In your term as President, I am confident that you will continue to empower our city by reaffirming its sovereignty and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.” — Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, in a congratulatory letter to Trump reminding the president elect of his promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something every president before him as failed to do. (JTA, Nov. 9, 2016)
"Trump's victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause. This is the position of the President-elect, as written in his platform, and it should be our policy, plain and simple." — Bayit Yehudi chairman and Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett. (Frontpage, Nov. 9, 2016)
“We do not see any difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to dealing with the Palestinian issue…both parties [back] Israel and its policies against the Palestinians.” — Yihya Musa, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Parliament. (Algemeiner, Nov. 8, 2016)
“While no public opinion polls [have been conducted] in the Arab world regarding the US presidential election, the responses of Arabs to the race give the initial impression that a large portion of them prefer a Trump victory. However, this is not due to their love of [Trump] or hatred of his opponent…Rather, it is because they have no sympathy for the US and would like to see Obama replaced by a president who will lead it to collapse and disintegration…The Jewish lobby staunchly backs Clinton, throws its full financial and political weight behind her, and utilizes its media outlets to support her out of the belief that she supports its interests, namely Israel’s military and political superiority.” — Editorial in an Arab world digital news website. According to the Washington, DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the Arab press holds a cynical view of the candidates in particular and the United States in general. (Algemeiner, Nov. 8, 2016)
"Every US president has to understand the realities of today's world. The most important thing is that the future US president stick to agreements, to engagements undertaken.” — Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Zarif called on Trump to stick to international agreements following his threats during the election campaign to tear up a nuclear deal with Tehran. Trump has vowed to rip up last year's deal with world powers which lifted international sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, but supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said he would happily "burn" the agreement if Trump decides to tear it up. (Al-Monitor, Nov. 9, 2016)
“America is no longer number one and the first power of the world…America’s political will can no longer manage political and military development in…the world of Islam. America’s political power has strongly declined.” — Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Thousands of Iranians commemorated the takeover of the American embassy in 1979 by marching through the streets of Tehran. Speaking to the crowd outside the former American embassy, Salami reiterated that Iran’s enmity towards the United States would not diminish with time. “Our fight with the Americans will continue,” he said, adding that “pursuing our ideals in the world of Islam and in Iran, we will recognize no stopping point or red line.” He also told the United States not to criticize Iran’s ballistic missile program, calling the program “the real center of our power [that] must be strengthened.” On November 3, 1979, students supporting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the embassy, holding staffers there hostage for 444 days. (The Tower, Nov. 3, 2016)
“The world will continue to move away from the center and toward the extremes on both the right and the left. In many parts of Europe — from Poland to Hungary to Greece — neo-fascist parties are strengthening their influence in their governments…The hard left is also increasing its influence in some part of Europe and on many university campuses…In many universities, the absurd concept of "intersectionality," which has become a code word for anti-Semitism, is dominating discussions and actions by the hard left. The center is weakening. The empowerment of extremes poses great dangers to the world. The hard right and the hard left have more in common than either has to centrist liberals and conservatives. They both hate America, distrust government, demonize Israel and promote anti-Semitic tropes. Following the election President Obama may try to tie the hands of his successor, regardless of who it may be. During the lame-duck period, when Presidents can act without political accountability, he may foolishly send the Israel-Palestine conflict to the United Nations. This would mean the end of the peace process, because the Palestinian would be dis-incentivized from entering into the kinds of direct negotiations without preconditions that the Israeli government continues to offer, and that is the only realistic road to peace.” — Alan M. Dershowitz (Gatestone Institute, Nov. 8, 2016)
“Throughout history, when people have sought to justify anti-Semitism, they have done so by recourse to the highest source of authority available within the culture. In the Middle Ages, it was religion. So we had religious anti-Judaism. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science. So we had the twin foundations of Nazi ideology, Social Darwinism and the so-called Scientific Study of Race. Today the highest source of authority worldwide is human rights. That is why Israel—the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East with a free press and independent judiciary—is regularly accused of the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide…Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else…In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state…Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.” — Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, at the European Parliament in September. (Pressure Points, Nov. 7, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
TRUMP INVITES NETANYAHU TO MEET HIM (New York) — President-elect Donald Trump invited Netanyahu to meet with him in the U.S. at the earliest opportunity. Netanyahu had called Trump to congratulate him on his electoral victory earlier in the day, and according to the Prime Minister’s Office, the invitation came during that phone call. The conversation between them was warm, as if the two men had known each other for many years, the PMO’s office said. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 9, 2016)
PUTIN EXPRESSES HOPE FOR TRUMP PRESIDENCY (Moscow) — In a brief statement Wednesday, the Kremlin said Putin has sent Trump a telegram to congratulate him on winning. Putin expressed “his hope to work together for removing Russian-American relations from their crisis state.” Putin also says he has confidence that building a constructive dialogue between Moscow and Washington – one based on principles of equality, mutual respect and a real accounting each other’s positions – is in the interest of both nations and the world. (Maclean’s, Nov. 9, 2016)
REPORT DETAILS ANTISEMITIC HARASSMENT OF JOURNALISTS (New York) — The ADL released a report detailing a year-long rise in antisemitic hate targeting journalists on Twitter, with data showing that the harassment has been driven by the 2016 US election. The report presents findings based on keywords to capture antisemitic language. A total of 2.6 million tweets containing antisemitic language were posted across Twitter between Aug. 2015 and July 2016. The report also shows that the aggressors are disproportionately likely to self-identify as Trump supporters, conservatives, or part of the “alt-right," a loosely connected group of extremists. This does not imply that the Trump campaign endorsed antisemitic tweets, only that certain self-styled supporters sent these ugly messages. (ADL, Oct. 19, 2016)
REPORT: CLINTON NIXED PLAN TO TOUT IRAN DEAL SUPPORT (New York) — Hillary Clinton originally intended to tout her support of the Iran nuclear agreement as part of her campaign to reach the White House, but later nixed the plan after it became clear the deal was a losing issue with voters, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday. The report was based on a Clinton campaign strategy document published by Wikileaks and sources. Citing campaign strategists, the Free Beacon report said Clinton changed course after realizing the negative impact the Iran deal was having on Democrats. A DC-based pollster said last week that the Iran deal was weighing down Democratic candidates in congressional races around the country. (Algemeiner, Nov. 8, 2016)
EXIT POLL: TRUMP WON CATHOLIC, EVANGELICAL VOTE (New York) — Unlike 2008 and 2012, when GOP candidates McCain and Romney lost to Obama among Catholic voters, Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016, according to an exit poll. Twenty-three percent of voters in this year’s presidential election, according to the poll, were Catholic. Trump took 52 percent of this vote, while Clinton took 45 percent. Another 3 percent of Catholic voters said they voted for another candidate or gave no answer. According to Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, “exit polling reported that (Trump) captured 81 percent of the evangelical vote — exceeding the evangelical support for Bush, McCain and Romney. In the third debate, Trump took on the partial-birth abortion issue, and I believe that's the moment he closed the deal with evangelicals and solidified their support.” (CNS, Nov. 9, 2016)
PA DEMANDS “RETURN” OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (Jerusalem) — Following their success in erasing the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount at UNESCO, the Palestinian Authority is now demanding the “return” of the “stolen” Dead Sea Scrolls. A PA representative said the Dead Sea Scrolls are from the PA territories and are part of the Palestinian heritage. Scroll dates range from the third century BCE (mid–Second Temple period) to the first century of the Common Era, before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. While Hebrew is the most frequently used language in the Scrolls, about 15% were written in Aramaic and several in Greek. (Jewish Press, Nov. 6, 2016)
IVANKA TRUMP VISITS THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE’S GRAVE AHEAD OF ELECTION (New York) — Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, visited the grave of the last Lubavitcher rebbe, Menaḥem Mendel Schneerson. The couple visited the Queens, New York, gravesite, known as the Ohel, in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. They may have been praying for victory for Ivanka’s father, Donald Trump. Visitors come to the gravesite seeking the blessings the rebbe gave to visitors. Schneerson died in 1994. Ivanka Trump, who converted to Orthodox Judaism eight years ago before her marriage to her Jewish husband, maintains a modern Orthodox lifestyle. (JTA, Nov. 6, 2016)
KOSHER DELI FOUNDED BY JEWISH SURVIVOR OF TITANIC GOES UNDER (Manchester) — Titanics, a historic kosher deli in Manchester, England, has met the same fate as its namesake: It’s gone under. Originally from Russia, the deli’s founder, Joseph Hyman, left for the US to escape pogroms. Hyman saved up money to get a ticket on the RMS Titanic. When disaster struck and the ship sunk on its maiden voyage in 1912, Hyman was fortunate enough to get a spot in a lifeboat. Though Hyman arrived in New York as planned, he ended up moving to Manchester. In 1913, inspired by New York delis, he opened his own food establishment, which became known as “Titanics,” due to his unique tale of survival. Hyman died in 1956, but his relatives continued to manage the deli. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 6, 2016)
ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP HOLDS KRISTALLNACHT EVENT IN SYNAGOGUE (Amsterdam) — Dutch Jews warned against political abuse of the Holocaust’s memory following an Amsterdam synagogue’s decision to host a commemoration that is organized by an anti-Israel group. The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel issued a statement condemning this perceived abuse on Wednesday, the 78th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938 against Austrian and German Jews, which many historians view as the opening shot in the Nazi-led campaign of violence against the Jews. The event at the Uilenburger Shul is organized by Platform Stop Racism and Exclusion, a far-left group that is shunned by local Jews for its animosity toward Israel and sympathy for Hamas. (JTA, Nov. 9, 2016)
78 YEARS AFTER KRISTALLNACHT, JEWISH LITURGY IS BACK IN GERMANY (Berlin) — Seventy-eight years after Kristallnacht, Berlin is bringing back the sounds of Jewish liturgy to Europe’s most important and prestigious concert hall. On November 2, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall hosted “Jewish New Years Concert”. Kristallnacht was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on Nov. 9 and 10 in 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians, The name Kristallnacht, meaning night of broken glass, comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues had their windows smashed. An estimated 1,400 synagogues were burned down during Kristallnacht. More than 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Four-hundred people were murdered during Kristallnacht. (Jewish Voice, Nov. 9, 2016)
President-Elect Trump — Where He Stands on Radical Islam: Clarion Project, Nov. 9, 2016—Donald Trump, president elect of the United States, spoke out on the campaign trail against radical Islam. Trump opposed the Obama administration's pressure on former Egyptian president and U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak to resign. That resignation paved the way for the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East. Expect President Trump to support anti-Islamist regimes in the Arab world and those individuals in America.
Moving Forward on Iran: Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky, Foreign Affairs, Nov. 7, 2016 —The latest idea de jour on how the next U.S. administration should deal with Iran, trumpeted especially by the Hillary Clinton camp, is the need to be tougher and more aggressive in confronting Tehran. Only a stiff spine in standing up to the mullahcracy, as the argument goes, will block its expansionist desires and prevent a rising Iran from dominating the region.
What the Next President Must Do About the World: Michael J. Totten, The Tower, Nov. 2016—Dear President-Elect,
Congratulations on winning the election for the 45th president of the United States, but are you sure you really want this? The world is a mess, as it usually is, and taking on this awesome responsibility right now is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube that a devious trickster messed with by moving some of the stickers around.
Kristallnacht and Germany Will Always Haunt My Memories: Henry Rosenthal, Sun Sentinel, Nov. 8, 2016 — I was born in a small, coal mining town in Germany in 1926. My mother's family had lived in Germany since 1612, and my father's family also had lived in Germany for many years. My mother owned a store before she got married to my father, who was a decorated soldier in the German army in World War I. My mother operated the store and my father did the merchandising. Father was an extrovert and his hobby was playing cards with his many friends. He also was involved in politics.
