Media-ocrity of the week: “This idea of Jewish people as a “nation” or “race” in need of a territory is a new conceptualization popularized in 19th-century Europe, one that neglects the diverse experiences, practices and identities of people who have practised Judaism around the world for hundreds of years — particularly Arabic-speaking Jews…That people who practise Judaism have lived in the region for hundreds of years, or have maintained a spiritual link with the region, does not justify the establishment of an ethnocratic state, built on Palestinian land and on the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Jewish historical-religious links to the region and the grievous history of European anti-Semitism do not compel us to support Israel’s violence.” —op-ed by Sam Bick, published one day after Yom Ha’atzmaut, in response to Joël Lion’s Montreal Gazette column “Jewish nationalism is a lot older than the Zionist movement.” (Montreal Gazette, May 7, 2014)

WEEKLY QUOTES

“We see attacks on Jews in the streets of major Western cities, public places marred by swastikas,” —U.S. President Barack Obama, to supporters of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation. Obama called for “confronting a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world…from some foreign governments we hear the worst kind of anti-Semitic scapegoating.” At the same time, “it’s up to us to speak out against rhetoric that threatens the existence of the Jewish homeland and to sustain America’s unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” Obama declared. (Jerusalem Post, May 8, 2014)

“The only one Abbas has reached an agreement with is with Hamas,” — Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, denying that President Shimon Peres ever reached a final status deal with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Peres had told Israel’s Channel 2 TV that three years ago he reached a deal in principle after four meetings abroad with Abbas. However, he said it was revoked by Netanyahu, just prior to what was to be a fifth meeting in Amman. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office denied that Abbas agreed to anything at the time, and that – as is the case now – “all he wanted was to take from Israel without giving anything in return.” (Jerusalem Post, May 6, 2014)

“The parties, although both showing flexibility in the negotiations, do not feel the pressing need to make the gut-wrenching compromises necessary to achieve peace,” — Martin Indyk, U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli–Palestinian Negotiations, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel, addressing the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington. “It is easier for the Palestinians to sign conventions and appeal to international bodies in their supposed pursuit of ‘justice’ and their ‘rights,’ a process which by definition requires no compromise. It is easier for Israeli politicians to avoid tension in the governing coalition and for the Israeli people to maintain the current comfortable status quo,” he added. Indyk also said that Israel would only remain the Jewish state if its leadership showed bravery with the Palestinians. Should Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu cave to the politics of the day— to the settler movement, as Indyk described— than Israel faces a future as a “de facto bi-national state…Rampant settlement activity– especially in the midst of negotiations— doesn’t just undermine Palestinian trust in the purpose of the negotiations,” Indyk said. “It can undermine Israel’s Jewish future…If this continues,” he added, “it could mortally wound the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. And that would be a tragedy of historic proportions.” (Jerusalem Post, May 9, 2014)

“While our strong preference is for a diplomatic solution, the United States will remain postured and prepared to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon,” — U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, to defense ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council, a grouping of six Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. Hagel added that “these negotiations will under no circumstance trade away regional security for concessions on Iran’s nuclear program.” Hagel’s visit to Saudi Arabia was meant to send a signal as diplomats from the P5+1 nations engage with their Iranian counterparts in Vienna this week on the outlines of a deal under which Tehran would curtail its uranium-enrichment activities, which U.S. officials fear could lead to development of nuclear weapons. (Washington Post, May 14, 2014)

“The world must do more to prevent dangers resulting from transferring weapons of mass destruction into the hands of terrorists, especially in the Middle East.”—Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, addressing the Security Council during a special debate on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Prosor discussed the IDF interception of the Klos-C, which was carrying Iranian and Syrian-made weapons to Gaza: “This isn’t the first time that Iran – the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism – has been caught red-handed.” Amb. Prosor further said: “As we speak, smugglers are transporting cargoes loaded with rockets, missiles, and explosives across the Middle East. One of those rockets could spark the next major conflict. One of those missiles could trigger the next terror attack. One of those shipments could carry a dirty bomb.” (Jewish Press, May 8, 2014)

“We have won in Syria,”—Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. “The regime will stay. The Americans have lost it,” he claimed. In a series of interviews conducted by the Guardian, top Iranian figures claimed that US attempts to bolster opposition forces in Syria have prompted radicals and increased chaos plaguing the country. Iran and Russia have been Assad’s strongest supporters during the crisis and world powers have called from them to exert pressure on the Syrian government for humanitarian deals. Shi’ite Iran has already spent billions of dollars propping up Assad in what has turned into a sectarian proxy war with Sunni Arab states. (Jerusalem Post, May 12, 2014)

“Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between al-Qaeda and Muslims may come away (from the movie) with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site,” — Sheikh Mustafa Elazabawy, an imam at  Masjib Manhattan, a mosque located about a mile from the site where Muslim terrorists murdered nearly 3000 people on 9-11. Radical Islamist groups in the U.S. have asked curators at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, set to open on May 21, to censor derogatory references about al-Qaeda in order not to offend Muslims. Islamist groups and at least one imam from a mosque in lower Manhattan say a six-minute film entitled The Rise of al-Qaeda would “greatly offend” Muslim visitors to the museum because it refers to Jihad and the fact that the hijackers were Muslim. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Elazabawy has not shown the acceptance of Jews that he now demands on behalf of Muslims. His past statements include an accusation that Jews “killed the Prophets and Messengers” and are a “cancer … in every generation as they get in power.” (Jewish Press, May 8, 2014)

“How can our elites ignore the immeasurable suffering inflicted on Muslims in the name of Islam? Al Qaeda and its franchises have slaughtered far more Muslims than they have Westerners. Don’t those victims count?… An entire civilization is failing before our eyes. Cultures whose values just don’t work in the 21st century are damning themselves to stagnation by oppressing the female half of their populations (and repressing the males, too). From Morocco to Pakistan, no state other than Israel is competitive in any significant field of human endeavor…I’m sorry for those kidnapped schoolgirls. But I’m sorrier for the hundreds of millions of women in the Middle East who are invisible to us. Our silence puts us in the same class as the Germans and others who carefully closed their shutters as the local Jews were herded off to the rail-yards…”—Ralph Peters (New York Post, May 10, 2014)  

“Nakba? I refuse to consider the victory of an indigenous people in reclaiming their ancestral land to be a tragedy.”— statement by Ryan Bellerose, a pro-Israel Métis-Canadian activist, on his Twitter account ahead of Nakba Day, May 15. Nakba, meaning “Day of the Catastrophe,” is an annual day of commemoration of Palestinian “refugees,” displaced by the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. (May 12, 2014) 

“I want to anchor provisions into this basic law to ensure that the State of Israel was created and exists on a foundation of the Torah and of Jewish tradition,” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking with Yaakov Vider, a haredi member of the Likud party presidium. (Jewish Press, May 8, 2014)

SHORT TAKES

FORMER ISRAELI PM OLMERT SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS FOR CORRUPTION (Tel Aviv) —Israel’s ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced to six years in jail on Tuesday for taking bribes in a real estate deal. The first criminal conviction of a former Israeli head of government all but ended speculation that Olmert might return to political life. He had denied any wrongdoing in the property deal, approved when he served as Jerusalem’s mayor, that led to the construction of the hilltop Holyland apartment towers. “A public servant who takes bribes is akin to a traitor,” said Judge David Rozen in the Tel Aviv District Court, as he handed down a six-year prison term sought by prosecutors and fined Olmert 1 million shekels ($289,500). (Reuters, May 13, 2014)

ONE QUARTER OF ADULTS WORLDWIDE ‘DEEPLY INFECTED’ WITH ANTISEMITISM (New York) —Negative attitudes toward Jews are “persistent and pervasive around the world,” the Anti-Defamation League announced on Tuesday. After surveying over 50,000 people in 102 countries in what it termed the “most comprehensive assessment ever of antisemitic attitudes globally,” the ADL came to a number of surprising conclusions. The First International Resources poll determined that 26 percent of respondents are “deeply infected” with antisemitic attitudes while only a little more than half of those polled have heard of the Holocaust. The most antisemitic regions were found to be the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian antisemitism is “pervasive throughout society,” the ADL found, with 93% of respondents affirming anti-Jewish stereotypes. (Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2014)

ISRAELIS ASSISTING IN THE SEARCH FOR NIGERIA’S MISSING SCHOOLGIRLS (Abuja) —Israeli security forces are already on the ground in Nigeria, gathering intelligence and assisting in the search for hundreds of schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the Islamist group Boko Haram. “There are ongoing security ties and cooperation between Israel and Nigeria. In the wake of this crisis, Israel increased its assistance and we have been providing support in any manner possible,” said one Israeli military official. Israel maintains defense ties with Nigeria, dating back to when the two countries restored relations in 1993, following the severing of relations during the 1967 war. Nigeria’s military uses Israeli-made drones for surveillance and Israeli intelligence shares data with Nigeria’s government. (Buzzfeed, May 12, 2014)

UKRAINIAN JEWS FORM DEFENSE FORCE TO COMBAT ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS (Kiev) — Ukrainian Jews with combat skills formed a rapid intervention force to stop antisemitic attacks. The force, which was set up in recent weeks, is currently made up of eight men who served in the Ukrainian or Israeli armies or have martial arts skills. The defenders are armed with baseball bats that an American donor whose family hails from Kiev sent the team. “We are trying to raise funds for bullet-proof vests which would greatly increase safety if the situation escalates,” said Tzvi Arieli, the team’s founder. Arieli said he set up the task force at the request of Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, a chief rabbi of Ukraine, following a series of antisemitic attacks that occurred in Kiev and beyond in the wake of a bloody revolution that erupted in November over former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s alleged corruption and perceived allegiance to Russia. (Jerusalem Post, May 8, 2014)

IRAN CLAIMS TO HAVE REPLICATED DOWNED ADVANCED AMERICAN DRONE (Tehran) — Thanks to sophisticated reverse engineering, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force experts succeeded in replicating an advanced, U.S. radar-evading, unmanned aerial vehicle (the RQ170 stealth drone) – so announced IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari on May 11, 2014. Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, who attended the ceremony, commented on the drone’s “great importance for reconnaissance missions,” while Iranian military sources noted that the drone will soon conduct test flights. In December, 2011, Iran claimed that IRGC forces managed to seize on-line control of the advanced American stealth drone, claiming that it was on a spying mission against Iran and other regional states, and programmed a forced landing on Iranian soil. (JCPA, May 13, 2014)

U.S. AND CANADA BLAST UN APPOINTMENT OF RICHARD FALK’S WIFE (Geneva) — UN Watch condemned the UN’s decision to hand a top human rights post to the controversial wife and academic partner of discredited official Richard Falk, on the same day that he ended his own 6-year term as UN investigator of Israeli violations. Hilal Elver was named UN special rapporteur on the right to food, a position initiated by Cuba and first held by Jean Ziegler, founder and recipient of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize. Falk is an open admirer of 9/11 conspiracy theorists and an apologist for terror groups. Now that his term is finally up, the UN has installed his closest professional collaborator — his wife. Strong objections were expressed by the U.S. and Canada, which followed a month-long protest campaign by UN Watch, the Geneva human rights group. (UN Watch, May 8, 2014)   

UN WATCH TO HONOR MINISTER JASON KENNEY AT MAY 22ND GENEVA GALA (Geneva) — UN Watch will be holding its annual Gala on May 22, 2014 in Geneva, honoring Canadian Minister of Employment and Social Development, and Minister for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney with the Moral Courage Award. Over many years, Kenney has actively fought antisemitism, anti-Israel bigotry, and defended human rights. (UN Watch, May 8, 2014)

QUALCOMM IN TALKS TO BUY ISRAELI CHIPMAKER WILOCITY (Tel Aviv) —Qualcomm Inc. is in advanced talks to buy Israeli chipmaker Wilocity. Qualcomm has proposed to acquire Wilocity for around $300 million, but the two sides have yet to agree to terms of all the provisions of the sale. U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm is already an investor in Wilocity, which develops 60 GHz, 7 gigabit wireless chipsets that allow for faster Internet speeds. The chips would enable users to download video and other heavy data content more quickly. (Reuters, May 11, 2014)

CHASING DEATH CAMP GUARDS WITH NEW TOOLS (Stuttgart) — German prosecutors have opened dozens of fresh investigations of men and women suspected of having served as Nazi death camp guards. The surge of cases is being driven by a new generation of prosecutors — the “grandchildren generation,” as they are known — who bring a less conflicted view of culpability to crimes committed during the war and who were given a legal opening with the 2011 conviction of John Demjanjuk, a former guard at the Sobibor death camp who spent years as an Ohio autoworker. The prosecutors are now applying modern advances to historical crimes, like three-dimensional virtual models of camps to demonstrate what guards would have been able to see from their posts, as well as spreadsheets and databases to glean critical evidence from reams of Nazi archival material. (New York Times, May 5, 2014)

HOLOCAUST CENTER TO OPEN AT WIESEL’S CHILDHOOD HOME (Sighet) — The “Holocaust Cellar,” the first Shoah education center in Romania, will be launched on Sunday in the city of Sighet, where Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel was born in 1928. The Cellar will be a new feature of the Holocaust museum in Wiesel’s former home, in the courtyard of the old Jewish Ghetto and will serve as a place of study dedicated to the 13,000 local Holocaust victims. This is the first in a series of events that will mark 70 years since the expulsion of the last Jews of northern Transylvania to Auschwitz. Between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews died during the Holocaust in Romania and the territories under its control. An additional 135,000 Romanian Jews living under Hungarian control in northern Transylvania also perished in the Holocaust, as did some 5,000 Romanian Jews in other countries. (Jerusalem Post, May 14, 2014)

JEWISH WWII VETERANS MARK VICTORY DAY IN ISRAEL (Jerusalem) —Hundreds of Jewish World War II veterans of the Allied armies, the majority from the Former Soviet Union, attended the official Yad Vashem ceremony marking the 69th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, May 8. The ceremony took place at Yad Vashem’s Monument to the Jewish Soldiers and Partisans. Also present were wounded soldiers from the war, underground fighters, Jewish partisans, volunteers from the Yishuv who fought in the British forces and veterans of the Jewish Brigade, as well as diplomatic representatives and military officials from the Allied countries. Approximately 1.5 million Jews fought against Nazi Germany in the regular Allied armies including the U.S., British, and Polish armed forces. An estimated 500,000 Jews served in the Red Army during World War II and 200,000 were killed in combat or as prisoners of war. (Jewish Press, May 9, 2014)

COMMEMORATE SOVIET VICTORY ON THE HEBREW CALENDAR, SAYS RUSSIAN JEWISH LEADER (Moscow) — Jews worldwide should mark the Hebrew date 26 Iyar as an annual day of celebration for the liberation and rescue of European Jewry, said German Zacharyev, vice president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Zacharyev, a Russian businessman and philanthropist, said in a letter that he is “determined to mark the victory of liberation and the rescue of European Jews from the clutches of Nazis according to the Hebrew calendar.” The proposed date was the Hebrew date on May 9, 1945, the day that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Red Army. Despite operating according the Jewish calendar for many public holidays, Israel celebrates Victory Day on May 9, in sync with much of the former Soviet Union. It is important to honor the “quarter million Jews who risked their lives during the war as part [of the] Allied armies and partisan units,” Zacharyev said in his letter. (Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2014)

SOLDIERS, FAMILIES, POLITICIANS MARK DAY OF HONOUR ON PARLIAMENT HILL (Ottawa) —Soldiers, their families and dignitaries gathered in Ottawa Friday for Canada’s first National Day of Honour, commemorating the 12-year mission in Afghanistan and those injured or killed in service. During the Senate memorial, 12 carnations were placed in a white wreath to honour the mission and those who served in it. “Through this National Day, Canadians will have the opportunity to reflect on the courage and sacrifices made by our soldiers,” Mr. Harper said in a statement. The Canadian mission in Afghanistan claimed the lives of 158 Canadian soldiers, one diplomat, one journalist and two contractors. Roughly 2,000 soldiers were injured. (Globe & Mail, May 9, 2014)

OWNER OF FAMOUS PARIS JEWISH RESTAURANT DIES (Paris) — Jo Goldenberg, the owner of a Jewish restaurant in Paris that was the site of a terrorist attack 32 years ago, died last week at the age of 91. On August 9, 1982, terrorists threw a grenade into the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant and fired machine guns, killing six people and wounding 22. The attackers have since not been found, but the local Jewish community holds Palestinian terrorists responsible for the killings. Even before the Second World War the restaurant was a well-known establishment that served Ashkenazi food in the heart of the old Jewish Quarter in Le Marais. (Jerusalem Post, May 12, 2014)

On Topic Links

Inventing Health: Israeli Innovations in Life Sciences (Video): Youtube, Oct. 23, 2013

Boko Haram and the Liberal Elites: Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary, May11, 2014 —Some on the right are mocking the Twitter offensive being conducted by the administration and the liberal and Hollywood elite against the Boko Haram terrorists who abducted 300 Nigerian girls from a school and then boasted this week that they would sell them into slavery.  

Iran Doesn’t Want a Deal: Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2014 —John Kerry began the year trying to bring representatives of the Assad regime together with rebel leaders in Geneva to end the civil war in Syria.

A List of Canada’s Fallen in Afghanistan: Globe & Mail, May 8, 2014