Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

Media-ocrity of the week: “And so, in order to succeed, [former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] rejected her old mentors, Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell, and went along with the preposterous pre-emption plan of the old hawks who had far less respect for her: Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. She knew that W. — eager to show he was not a wimp, the word Newsweek had once hung around his father’s neck — was leaning toward kicking some Arabs around. So she ignored the red flags raised publicly by Scowcroft and privately by Powell and made her Faustian deal to sell a fake war. We’ll never know if she could have stopped W. from ruining his presidency and destroying so many lives when there was no national security stake. We only know that when you sell your soul, it’s not like a pawnshop. Condi thought she could reclaim it after she was secretary of state and bring W. back to the light of diplomacy and common sense. But, as Russell Baker once noted, she was trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, spinning her wheels in the second term trying to undo the disasters of the first.” — op-ed by Maureen Dowd (New York Times, May 17, 2014)

WEEKLY QUOTES

“Those who see the establishment of the state of Israel as a disaster, do not want peace,”—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said that the prevalence of antisemitism in the West Bank, as noted in the ADL’s global survey of the phenomenon released last week, is “the result of non-stop antisemitic incitement by the Palestinian Authority, which distorts the image of Israel and the Jewish people.” The ADL determined that the most antisemitic regions in the world were found to be the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian antisemitism is “pervasive throughout society,” with 93% of respondents affirming anti-Jewish stereotypes. (Jerusalem Post, May 18, 2014)

“The reluctance of police to investigate incidents as hate crimes, the refusal of the Attorney Generals to lay hate crime charges where appropriate, and the antisemitism on campus disguised as anti-Israel rhetoric, excused in the name of ‘academic freedom,’ have all taken their toll on Canadian tolerance”—Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, in a meeting with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. B’nai Brith called on the Canadian government to confront the growing scourge of antisemitism, as evidenced by a recent ADL survey of global antisemitism showing that up to four million Canadians harbour antisemitic views. Dimant added: “We call on the Government to work together with B’nai Brith Canada to combat the forces of racism, antisemitism and bigotry. As Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Minister Baird has seen first-hand the rising tide of antisemitism in Europe and that is why we look to him, as a senior member of this Government, to help counter this direct threat to the well-being of the Jewish community.” (B’nai Brith, May 20, 2014)

“As a trusted friend of Israel, we are in a position to offer both words of encouragement and words of advice,” —Foreign Affairs Minister Baird, to the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum last week. In his speech, Baird attacked a UN human rights advocate for criticizing Israel and he described the country as a “truly special nation.” Citing Prime Minister Harper’s address this year to the Knesset, he called Israel a “great example to the world” where the “response to suffering has been to move beyond resentment and build a most extraordinary society.” Baird criticized the Palestinian Authority for applying in April to join 15 international treaties in its attempt to assert statehood. “It was a deeply troubling event in the peace process, and ultimately utterly unhelpful to (U.S.) Secretary Kerry’s efforts to shape an enduring peace,” he said. Baird also said he was “deeply skeptical” over Iran’s intentions in  negotiations over its nuclear development. “A nuclear Iran is a threat to Canada, it is a threat to Israel and our allies, and it would unwind decades of work on preventing nuclear proliferation around the world,” he said. Baird claimed antisemitism is on the rise around the world and launched a particularly virulent attack against Richard Falk, who recently finished his six-year term as the former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights. Referring to Falk as a “threat” to Israel with his “barbed words and thinly disguised prejudices,” Baird added, “This is a man who used this one-sided role to consistently make openly antisemitic and misinformed comments about Israel.” (Canada.com, May 15, 2014)

“We are here to witness what we are talking about when we claim about the unshakable bond between the U.S., as the greatest democracy all over the world, and the state of Israel, the only democracy in our tough neighborhood,”—Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, to Israeli and U.S. soldiers in Tel Aviv for U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit to Israel. Referring to the threat of missiles and rockets from Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, Ya’alon added: “We’ve got a challenge, but we can cope with it.” In the first senior U.S. visit here since the collapse of American-brokered peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, there was an unspoken, but unmistakable, return to the status quo. There were only cursory mentions of the moribund peace talks, which fizzled late last month; the dominant theme was the enduring and growing U.S. commitment to shield Israel from an ever-expanding array of threats. “You have already made clear that the security of Israel is a top priority for you,” Ya’alon told Hagel, adding: “I’m particularly glad that this policy continues the tradition of close relations between our governments and ministries.” (Washington Post, May 16, 2014)

“The United States is the leader of the free world. You have to lead. If someone crosses a red line, he is to be prosecuted for this in all ways.” Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, acting Ukrainian prime minister. As for American military support against a Russian threat in Eastern Ukraine, he said, “I never ask in case I don’t get it,” adding that he would of course be “happy to have Patriot missiles on Ukrainian soil.” (New York Times, May 19, 2014)

 “When he saw people heckling him, he moved on them, which is the worst thing to do,” —Ozcan, a hotel worker in Soma, Turkey. Ozcan was referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s reaction facing angry demonstrators in the town where hundreds of miners died after an explosion. He added that “They are angry, they are frustrated, they are sad. If the prime minister is coming to town, he should bear in mind that if he even stepped out of his car, he would face some kind of protest.” Instead of accepting the criticism, Mr. Erdogan dared his hecklers to come closer. “It outraged people,” Ozcan said. (New York Times, May 16, 2014)

“He clearly did not think about how to talk about this in public,”— Ziya Meral, a Turkish researcher and lecturer at the Foreign Policy Center in London. Meral added, “Prime Minister Erdogan has clearly failed to communicate a personal and government message of condolence and national unity.” With the death toll expected to rise above 300, this industrial disaster, the worst in Turkey’s modern history, has quickly metastasized from a local tragedy into a new political crisis for the Islamist prime minister Erdogan. (New York Times, May 16, 2014)

“…John McCain has it exactly right…He told CNN that as soon as the U.S. learned that hundreds of children had been kidnapped and stolen away by a rabid band of terrorists in Nigeria, we should have used “every asset that we have—satellite, drones, any capabilities that we had to go after them.” He told the Daily Beast: “I certainly would send in U.S. troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country.” He added, as only Sen. McCain would: “I wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan. ” That’s Nigeria’s hapless president. Mr. McCain said that if he were president he would have moved already, and that is not to be doubted.”—Peggy Noonan, referring to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram last month. (Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2014)

“…The appropriate step for someone blessed with white privilege is to “check” it, as in “check your privilege.” That is, before doing anything or sharing an opinion, white persons are supposed to do something of a confessional inventory of all they owe to being white, and all the harm they or their ancestors have done to every other skin colour on the human spectrum. It has a very Maoist tang, this “check your privilege,” encouraging self-abasement and self-humiliation before the cadres of politically correct betters, and anti-racism squads… It is bitterly ironic that the anti-racist message has been reduced to this: You have all that you have only because you have white skin. It is the cheapest from of racism, no subtlety at all … and it finds fullest expression in those academic institutions most attuned to any whiff of prejudice. Only in the very best universities would you ever be able to find so stupid a thought being given such frantic attention. And Orwell’s famous taunt about some ideas being so stupid only an intellectual would support them is sadly truer now, by far, than when he wrote them.” —Rex Murphy, on the “anti-racism movement” of modern-day, North American university campus’. (National Post, May 17, 2014)

“It’s an honour to join in your memories, to recall and to reflect, but above all to reaffirm the true spirit of 9/11 — love, compassion, sacrifice — and to enshrine it forever in the heart of our nation,” —U.S. President Barack Obama, to an audience of victims’ relatives, survivors, and rescuers at the ground zero museum’s dedication ceremony. “Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us. Nothing can change who we are as Americans.” Obama praised the new Sept. 11 museum as “a sacred place of healing and of hope” that captures both the story and the spirit of heroism and helping others that followed the attacks. (CBC, May 15, 2014)

“To all of you at the opening of the new Holocaust Cellar in my home in my little town of Sighet in the Carpathian Mountains: I so wish that I could be there with you today,” —Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel. Wiesel was speaking, via a live video feed, at the opening of the first public Holocaust education center in Romania, which opened Sunday in his pre-war childhood home in Sighet. “The house I was raised in is now a museum but to me it will always be uniquely special, eliciting the warmest of memories until the darkness of the kingdom of night befell us,” Weisel added. 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. Among the events in Sighet this past weekend was a concert memorializing Holocaust victims on Saturday night, after Shabbat. (Arutz Sheva, May 20, 2014)  

SHORT TAKES

GERMANY IDENTIFIES 20 FORMER MAJDANEK GUARDS (Berlin) —Around 20 former guards at the Majdanek death camp could face charges in Germany, following a widespread probe of the Nazi SS men and women who served there during World War II, war crimes investigators said Tuesday. Lead investigator Thomas Will told The Associated Press that about 30 suspects were identified and located, but around ten had already died. The remaining 20 men and women all live in Germany. Some 220 others are still being investigated for possible charges but have not been located. (New York Times, May 20, 2014)

AUSTRIA FACES CRITICISM OVER HOLOCAUST APOLOGIST ESSAY INCLUDED IN HIGH SCHOOL TEST (Vienna) —Two senior Austrian educators will step down over a scandal in which a test administered to students featured an essay by a Nazi apologist. The German test included a 1947 text by German author Manfred Hausmann, who had worked for Nazi propaganda magazine Das Reich. Students were asked to reflect on how “The Snail” – in which a gardener decides the pest has to die to protect his plants – dealt with questions about nature and life. The test omitted to mention the broader context of the author’s Nazi past. The case has caused embarrassment and anger in Austria, which was annexed by Nazi Germany into the Third Reich in 1938 and has been struggling for decades to escape a reputation for brushing its history under the carpet. (Huffington Post, May 15, 2014) 

CAR BOMBS RAISE FEARS OF BOKO HARAM EXPANSION (Abuja) —At least 118 people have been killed and dozens wounded in two bomb blasts that caused buildings to collapse in a crowded market area of the Nigerian city of Jos. The massive car bombs on Tuesday, just a few minutes apart, were the latest in a deadly wave of bombings across Nigeria over the past few weeks, raising fears that the Islamist group Boko Haram has become powerful enough to expand its terrorist operations far outside its traditional strongholds and into new regions of the country. Boko Haram normally operates in northeastern Nigeria, where it abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok last month. But the latest bombings are hundreds of kilometres to the south and west, suggesting that Boko Haram is now ranging widely across the country. (Globe & Mail, May 20, 2014)

LIBYA DEPLOYS ISLAMIST MILITIAS AGAINST ROGUE GENERAL (Tripoli) — Libya’s army chief ordered the deployment of Islamist-led militias to the capital Tripoli on Monday in response to the storming of parliament by forces loyal to a renegade general, paving the way for a possible showdown between rival militia fighters. The revolt by Gen. Khalifa Hifter threatens to detonate the long volatile divisions among the multiple militias that dominate Libya amid the weakness of the central government and military. Hifter says he aims to crush Islamists he accuses of seizing control of the country and he appears to have the support of some militias from the eastern half of the country and the western Zintan region. In the other camp, parliament chief Nouri Abu Sahmein–an Islamist-leaning politician–ordered a powerful umbrella group of mainly Islamist militias known as “Libya’s Central Shield” to mobilize on Monday to defend against Hifter’s forces. (Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014)

KENYA POLICE HUNT BOMBERS AS NAIROBI BLASTS LEAVE 12 DEAD (Nairobi) —Kenyan police hunted for suspects a day after twin explosions at an open-air market in the capital, Nairobi, left at least 12 people dead and injured 99 more. The blasts at the Gikomba market, about 2 kilometers (1.4 miles) east of the city center, were the second series of bombings in the city in two weeks. Kenya has faced a growing number of attacks since sending troops to fight Islamist militants in neighboring Somalia in October 2011. In September, an assault on Nairobi’s Westgate mall killed at least 67 people. Al-Shabaab, a Somali militia affiliated with al-Qaeda, took responsibility for the raid, saying it was in revenge for Kenya’s troop deployment. (Bloomberg, May 17, 2014)

EGYPT COURT CONVICTS MUBARAK OF EMBEZZLEMENT (Cairo) —A Cairo court on Wednesday convicted ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of embezzlement, sentencing him to three years in prison. The graft case against the 86-year-old Mubarak, who is kept in custody at a military hospital, is one of two against the former president who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2011 after nearly three decades in power. He is being retried over the killings of hundreds of protesters during the uprising. Mubarak’s two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa, were also convicted Wednesday of graft and sentenced to four years in prison each in the same case. The three Mubaraks were convicted of charges that they embezzled millions of dollars’ worth of state funds over a decade toward the end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. (Fox News, May 21, 2014)

NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN FAIL TO YIELD PACT, OFFICIALS SAY (Vienna) —The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers ended on Friday in Vienna, with Iranian and American officials saying that progress was slow and difficult, with serious gaps between the two sides on basic issues like the size of any nuclear enrichment capability Iran would be permitted to retain. Iranian officials have spoken of their desire to expand their enrichment capacity to 50,000 centrifuges of the most modern type, compared with the 19,000 currently installed, some of them outmoded, of which 10,000 are operating. Washington has said that an enrichment capacity “greater than a few thousand first-generation centrifuges would give Iran an unacceptably rapid breakout capability,” according to Robert Einhorn, a former United States negotiator. Iran’s desire for 50,000 modern centrifuges, he wrote, “is a showstopper, and Iran must know that.” Breakout capability means the ability to quickly and quietly produce a bomb. (New York Times, May 16, 2014)

IRANIANS ARRESTED FOR DANCING IN ‘HAPPY’ PHARRELL VIDEO (Tehran) —Six young men and women were arrested and detained in Tehran for making a video in which they danced to Pharrell Williams’ hit song Happy, which they posted on the Internet. The video showed the three men and three unveiled women singing and dancing to the song in the streets and rooftops of Tehran. It was viewed more than 165,000 times on YouTube before it attracted the attention of the police who swiftly arrested the dancers. Iran has strict laws about what can be broadcast online and on TV, with dancing among a number of banned activities. The young people were paraded on state TV on May 20 and where forced to express remorse for their behaviour. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the young people were released Wednesday, but the director of the video remains in custody. (Telegraph, May 21, 2014)

IRAQI PREMIER LEADS VOTE, FACES STALEMATE (Baghdad) —A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won the most seats in the country’s first parliamentary elections since U.S. troops left in 2011, setting the stage for a lengthy period of political wrangling amid the worst violence since the civil war. Mr. Maliki’s State of Law coalition won 92 out of 328 parliamentary seats in the elections held in late April, three more seats than it won in 2010, the Iraqi High Election Commission said Monday, putting the Iraqi leader in a strong position to secure a third term. The result left many Iraqis wondering whether another four years under Mr. Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, would deepen the sectarian rancor and extend a political stalemate that has left the government adrift. Western diplomats and analysts say that further instability would also add to the region’s political maelstrom. (Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014)

TEEN KILLS MAN ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY IN PAKISTAN POLICE STATION (Lahore) —A teenager walked into a police station and shot dead a 65-year-old man from a minority sect accused of blasphemy, the second murder involving Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws in as many weeks. Rights activists said the attack, and a spike in the number of blasphemy cases, was evidence of rising intolerance in the mainly Sunni Muslim South Asian state of 180 million people. Victim Khalil Ahmad was a member of the minority Ahmadi community, a sect who say they are Muslim but whose religion is rejected by the Pakistani state.  Ahmadis have been arrested in Pakistan for reading the Koran, holding religious celebrations and having Koranic verses on rings or wedding cards. Some mullahs promise that killing Ahmadis earns a place in heaven and give out leaflets listing their home addresses. The Ahmadis consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet who came after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims, which makes them particularly vulnerable to the country’s blasphemy law. (Reuters, May 16, 2014)

NYU. APOLOGIZES TO ANY WORKERS MISTREATED ON ITS ABU DHABI CAMPUS (New York) —New York University issued an apology to any workers on its newly completed Abu Dhabi campus who were “not treated in line with the standards we set,” after The New York Times reported widespread abuses among a labor force that numbered about 6,000 at its peak. The article described workers being arrested, beaten and deported to their home countries after striking over pay. Recruitment fees, of approximately a year’s wages, were all but required. Not one of the dozens of workers interviewed had his own passport. Some were living in filthy, crowded apartments. In a statement to the N.Y.U. community, its president, John Sexton, called the workers’ treatment, “…troubling and unacceptable.” (New York Times, May 19, 2014)

IN TAKING CRIMEA, PUTIN GAINS A SEA OF FUEL RESERVES (Sevastopol) —When Russia seized Crimea in March, it acquired a maritime zone more than three times its size with the rights to underwater resources potentially worth trillions of dollars. Russia portrayed the takeover as reclamation of its rightful territory, drawing no attention to the oil and gas rush that had recently been heating up in the Black Sea. But the move also extended Russia’s maritime boundaries, quietly giving Russia dominion over vast oil and gas reserves while dealing a crippling blow to Ukraine’s hopes for energy independence. The global hunt for fossil fuels has increasingly gone offshore, to places like the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and the South China Sea. Hundreds of oil rigs dot the Caspian, a few hundred miles east of the Black Sea. (New York Times, May 17, 2014)

CRASH-AVOIDANCE CAR FIRM MOBILEYE REPORTEDLY EYES $1B IPO (Jerusalem) —The Israeli automobile collision-avoidance technology firm Mobileye is planning on raising as much as $1 billion on the Nasdaq exchange in an initial public offering of shares. It is expected that the IPO will go forward in the last quarter of 2014, based on a valuation of $3.5 billion to $5 billion for the company as a whole. If it comes to fruition, such an IPO would be among the largest ever floated by an Israeli high-tech company on Nasdaq. The company’s technology is built around a single camera that is installed between the vehicle’s rear-view mirror and the windshield. The device contains a processor that is capable of identifying other vehicles as well as pedestrians and cyclists, and it provides drivers with a warning when it detects the risk of collision. (Ha’aretz, May 17, 2014)

ISRAEL, CHINA TO OPEN $300 MILLION RESEARCH CENTER (Tel Aviv) —Tel Aviv University announced on Monday a partnership with Beijing’s Tsinghua University to invest $300 million to establish the XIN Research Center, intended to research early-stage and mature technologies in biotech, solar energy, water and environmental technologies. TAU officials say they hope the center will cement ties between the two countries and create opportunities for tech advancement in both countries. The talks are part of what some in the tech industry have been calling “China Week” in Israel. No fewer than 400 Chinese government and business officials landed in Israel Sunday, preparing to participate in a series of business forums and seminars. (Times of Israel, May 19, 2014)

On Topic Links

Canadians More Likely to be Anti-Semitic Than Americans, Poll Finds: Katrina Clarke, National Post, May. 13, 2013—A new global poll reveals Canadians are more likely to be anti-Semitic than Americans.

Boko Haram and the Future of Nigeria: Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, JCPA, May 15, 2014—Events in Nigeria have captured the attention of the Western democracies.

To the Class of 2014: Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014—Dear Class of 2014: Allow me to be the first to offend you, baldly and unapologetically.

Grading Obama’s Foreign Policy: Ross Douthat, New York Times, May 17, 2014—Second terms are often a time when presidents, balked by domestic opposition, turn to the world stage to secure their legacy — opening doors to China, closing out the Cold War, chasing Middle Eastern peace.