Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

WEEKLY QUOTES

SHORT TAKES

US WON’T RELEASE POLLARD TO AID ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN TALKS (Washington) — Jonathan Pollard will not be released by the U.S. government in a move to extend the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. “There are currently no plans to release Jonathan Pollard,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the Jerusalem Post, adding that Pollard was convicted “of a very serious crime, was sentenced to life in prison, and is serving his sentence.” The statement came after Israel’s Army Radio, citing diplomatic sources, reported Wednesday that the U.S. had agreed to free Pollard in a deal to extend the April 30 deadline on negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986 to passing U.S. national defense information to the Israeli government, and is serving a life sentence. (Newsmax, Mar. 26, 2014)

MOLDOVA FEARS TERRITORY’S TILT TOWARD RUSSIA (Tirasopol) —  The Russian annexation of Crimea is threatening to reignite a conflict in an often forgotten corner of Europe. This week, lawmakers in Transnistria, a thin strip of land sandwiched between Ukraine and the former Soviet republic of Moldova, formally asked the Duma, Russia’s parliament, if it could follow Crimea and join the Russian Federation. Transnistria declared independence from Moldova in 1990, but no U.N. member recognized it. Some two decades after a brief war flared between Transnistrian separatists and Moldovan government forces, the territory has autonomous status inside Moldova, with its own government, flag, police, military and currency. Its 509,000 inhabitants are a mix of ethnic Russians, Moldovans, Ukrainians and Bulgarians. (Wall Street Journal, Mar. 21, 2014)

‘MOST ADVANCED’ GAZA-ISRAEL TUNNEL IS FOUND (Jerusalem) —  The Israeli military announced that it had uncovered a sophisticated tunnel that stretched hundreds of yards into its territory from the Gaza Strip and could have been used to attack or kidnap Israelis. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, told reporters that fresh footprints and tools found inside the tunnel from southern Gaza suggested it had been worked on even “in the last few days,” and that its design, with many offshoots, made it “the most advanced tunnel that we’ve exposed.” The IDF found three similar tunnels under the Gaza border fence last year, but Colonel Lerner described the recently discovered one as “the most substantial.” In 2006, Palestinian militants used a tunnel to enter Israel, kill two soldiers and kidnap a third, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years. (New York Times, Mar. 21, 2014)

EGYPT SENTENCES 529 MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS TO DEATH (Cairo) —  An Egyptian court sentenced 529 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death for murder and other offenses on Monday, in a sharp escalation of a crackdown on the Islamist movement. Family members stood outside the courthouse screaming after the verdict – the biggest mass death sentence handed out in Egypt’s modern history. Supporters set fire to a nearby school in protest, state television reported. Turmoil has deepened since the army overthrew Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in July. Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood members in the streets and arrested thousands. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 24, 2014)

PAN-ARAB UNITY NOT EVIDENT AT THIS WEEK’S SUMMIT (Kuwait City) — Pan-Arabists claim that Arabs belong to one nation, and Arab summits tend to play lip service to such lofty ideological rhetoric, though it mostly rings hollow. Presenting this line, Kuwait’s emir and the host of this week’s Arab League summit, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, said Tuesday, “The dangers around us are enormous and we will not move towards joint Arab action without our unity and without casting aside our differences.” However, on almost every issue, the Arab states are divided on how to proceed, whether it be on Syria, Iraq, Egypt or on how to deal with Iran. Because of the divisions among the Gulf states, the US canceled a meeting scheduled for later this week between President Barack Obama and Gulf leaders. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 26, 2014) 

CANADIANS AMONG NINE KILLED IN KABUL HOTEL ATTACK (Kabul) —  A Taliban assault on the restaurant of a luxury hotel, considered one of the safest places in Kabul and frequented by foreigners and Afghan officials, has swelled a tide of violence sweeping Afghanistan two weeks before a presidential election. Three children between two and five were found with bullets in their heads. Four of the nine dead were foreigners. The Interior Ministry gave conflicting accounts of their nationalities, but by late Friday said they included citizens of Canada and Paraguay.  The Islamist Taliban movement has ordered its fighters to use “full force” to disrupt the vote, and threatened to kill anyone who participates in what it calls a Western-backed sham. (Reuters, Mar. 20, 2014)

CSIS TRACKS 80 ‘FOREIGN FIGHTERS’ BACK IN CANADA (Ottawa)— Intelligence officials are aware of about 80 Canadians who have returned home after going overseas for “terrorist purposes,” according to speaking notes prepared for the director of the nation’s spy agency. The document does not offer explicit information about their activities, though it makes it clear that not all were involved in combat. While some individuals may have engaged in paramilitary activities, others are believed to have studied in extremist Islamic schools or provided logistical or fundraising support. Others never achieved their goals and simply returned home. The so-called “foreign fighter” phenomenon has become a growing concern for the intelligence community, stoking fears that individuals could return to Canada more radicalized than when they left. (National Post, Mar. 23, 2014)

BDS RESOLUTION DEFEATED AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (Ann Arbor) — A resolution to begin a process to divest from companies that invest or operate in Israel was defeated by the U of M student government Wednesday morning. After a six-hour session, which included speeches by dozens of students, two Jewish professors and the anti-Israel journalist and author Max Blumenthal, who used the forum to repeatedly pitch his new book, the Central Student Government voted down the resolution, 25 to nine, with five abstentions. The vote was taken by secret ballot, as some members of the CSG had said they were intimidated by proponents of the resolution at its previous meeting. The Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday that at least one pro-Israel student “received death threats and that others have allegedly been called ‘kikes’ and ‘dirty Jews’” by proponents of the resolution. (Algemeiner, Mar. 26, 2014)

ASSAILANTS BREAK JEWISH TEACHER’S NOSE IN PARIS, DRAW SWASTIKA ON CHEST (Paris) —A Jewish teacher from Paris told police that three men had assaulted and cursed him in Arabic before drawing a swastika on his chest, according to a report by the Drancy-based Bureau for National Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA). “They pressed him to the wall and hit his face, around the eyes and on his chest,” the report said. “One of the perpetrators opened the victim’s shirt and with a black marker drew a swastika on the man’s bare chest,” BNVCA president Sammy Ghozlan wrote in the report. The victim, who was wearing a kippah at the time of the attack, told police that the three men who attacked him appeared to be of North African descent and were in their twenties. The shouted “death to the Jews” and called him “dirty Jew” in French and also shouted insults in Arabic. BNVCA has recorded a spate of antisemitic incidents in France in recent weeks. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 23, 2014)

NORWEGIAN MUSEUM TO RETURN LOOTED MATISSE (Oslo) —  A Norwegian museum says it has agreed to return a Henri Matisse artwork once looted by Nazi leader Hermann Goering to the family of Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg. The 1937 painting, Woman in Blue in Front of a Fireplace, has been the centerpiece of the Henie Onstad Art Center near Oslo since the museum was established in 1968. The museum said in a statement Thursday that although it acquired the painting in good faith, it has “chosen to adhere to international conventions and return the painting to Rosenberg’s heirs.” Norway is a signatory of the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, which requires museums to review their collections for potentially looted works and when such a work is found, to try to locate rightful owners. (CBC, Mar. 21, 2014)

MOSSAD BRINGS AN END TO THE MYSTERY OF MISSING IRANIAN JEWS (Tel Aviv)— Mossad has brought an end to the mystery surrounding the disappearance of eight Iranian Jews in the 1990s, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Thursday, saying they had been murdered. The families of eight out of 11 Iranian Jews who went missing two decades ago received notifications that their relatives had been slain while trying to immigrate to Israel. In a statement, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said that Mossad had investigated and “received from a reliable source, privy to the details, information that these Jews were captured and murdered while escaping [Iran].” The statement did not elaborate on who might have carried out the killings. The investigation into the fate of the remaining three Iranian Jews, who disappeared in 1997, remains ongoing. (Jerusalem Post, Mar. 20, 2014)  

EUROPEAN RABBIS COMMEMORATE THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF EXTERMINATION OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY (Budapest) — More then 200 rabbis on Monday commemorated the 70th anniversary of the extermination of Hungarian Jewry by the Nazis, during a memorial in Budapest. The commemoration was organized in the framework of the two-day annual conference of the Rabbinical Center of Europe, an organization dedicated to assist rabbis across the continent. The conference brought more then 200 rabbis from across Europe and Israel in the Hungarian capital in order to discuss issues relating to assimilation and communal attrition. Singing “Ani Maamin,” a Hebrew song affirming belief in the coming of the Messiah, the Chief Rabbis, heading a long train of black clad ultra-orthodox Jews marched several blocks along the banks of the Danube River to the Shoes on the Danube Promenade, a Holocaust memorial site. (European Jewish Press, Mar. 26, 2014)

On Topic Links

Before Peace Now: Palestinian Democracy First: Gil Troy, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 25, 2014 — President Barack Obama’s disproportionate pressure on Israel in the peace talks is both one-sided and shortsighted.

It’s Always ‘Groundhog Day’ With the Israeli-Palestinian ‘Peace Process’: Nicole Brackman & Asaf Romirowsky, Washington Examiner, Mar. 19, 2014 —The 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the character played by Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again, is an apt description of official Palestinian attitudes toward Israel and the peace process.

Obama Loses Complete Touch with Reality: Peter Wehner, Commentary, Mar. 26, 2014 — Last week I wrote that President Obama, having been bested by Vladimir Putin at virtually every turn, has retreated into a world of his own making.

Russia Threatens More Than Neighbors: Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary, Mar. 25, 2014 — Today while speaking at The Hague during a meeting of the newly contracted G-7 Nations, President Obama threatened Russia with expanded sanctions.