Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

Weekly Quotes

 

“Thomas L. Friedman’s ‘Israel Can’t Afford To Do Nothing’ (National Post, Dec.5, 2011) is a tissue of half-truths and misrepresentations.

Despite agreeing that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was right, in disagreeing with President Obama last spring that the Cairo events were ushering in ‘a new era of liberalism and progress’, Friedman nevertheless winds up blaming Israel for the long and sordid history of Arab dictatorship. ‘Arab dictators were convenient for Israel and the Islamists—but deadly for Arab development’—as if Israel had much choice in the matter (Friedman should read the UN’s 2009 Arab Human Development Report, written by Arab scholars, if he needs to find out who was responsible for the Arab addiction to dictatorships).

But there is worse. While Friedman again seems to view Netanyahu as correct in arguing recently that the ‘Arab awakening’ was ‘moving the Arab world backward,’ turning it into an ‘Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave’, such that ‘ceding territory to the Palestinians’ at this time was ‘unwise’, he again winds up blaming Israel for ‘doing nothing’ and, worse, for not ‘rewarding’ the ‘most radical Arab leader of all’, PA Prime Minister Fayyad, who eschews rhetoric in order to ‘improve Palestinians’ lives’, by building up Palestinian institutions and the PA’s security force.

This is of course the same Fayyad who supports Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal to negotiate with Israel or to recognize it as a Jewish state, pursuing instead unilateral independence at the UN (where Abbas denied Israel’s legitimate historical-religious claims in the region). And it is the same Fayyad who also supports reunion with the terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza. Despite such facts, Friedman perseveres, contradictorily stating that precisely now is the time for Israeli ‘risk-taking’ and a ‘two-state solution!’

The final cherry on this whipped-up confection is Friedman’s formulaic peroration, to the effect that acting otherwise means ‘the Jewish state [will have] sacrificed its own democratic character.’ But if Netanyahu is right that the Arab spring is devolving everywhere (including Syria) into dangerous Muslim Brothers-Salafist extremism, and if Abbas-Fayyad refuse to negotiate with a Jewish Israel (and if Iran soon gets a nuclear weapon), and, further, if the large majority of Israelis are clearly reluctant to risk another, larger Gaza debacle, what Israeli democratic leader in his right mind would, under such circumstances, follow Friedman’s nostrums, and lay his—and his people’s—head quietly on the chopping-block?”—Professor Frederick Krantz, Director of CIJR, commenting on Thomas L. Freidman’s December 5 National Post article.

 

“I think that we’ve invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community.… For a variety of political reasons we [the West] have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it’s tragic.”—Former speaker of the US House of Representatives and leading Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, in an interview with the Jewish Channel, describing the Palestinians as an “invented” people who want to destroy Israel. Despite drawing widespread criticism, Gingrich has since stood by his comments, saying “Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists. It’s fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough lying about the Middle East.’” (Ynet News, December 10 & 11.)

 

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.”—PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, in 1977, confirming that Palestinian nationalism was concocted as a political weapon against the Jewish state. (American Thinker, December 12.)

 

“The military council is now weaker than the Brotherhood.”—Mohamed Abul Ghar, president of the Egyptian Democratic Party, claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood, “already act[ing] as if it is in power,” has become more influential than Egypt’s military council. (Independent Media Review and Analysis, December 11.)

 

“A long time has passed since the Camp David accord was signed, and like the other agreements it needs to be reviewed.”—Mahmoud Hussein, secretary-general of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, announcing his party’s intent to re-evaluate the country’s peace treaty with Israel. Another senior member of the Brotherhood, Kamal al-Halbawi, also emphasized that the “the issue of revising the Camp David Accord will be in the list of the [Brotherhood’s] top priorities.” (Haaretz, December 9 & Independent Media Review and Analysis, December 13.)

 

“Today I have reported that the figure exceeds 5,000.”—United Nations human rights chief, Navi Pillay, announcing that the death toll in Syrian president Bashar Assad’s ongoing crackdown on anti-regime protesters has surpassed 5,000 people. (Jerusalem Post, December 12.)

 

“We will lead intifada after intifada until the job is done.”—Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at a rally in Gaza City marking the terrorist organization’s 24th anniversary, reaffirming his commitment to armed resistance against the Jewish state. (Jerusalem Post, December 14.)

 

“Refugee camps in Israel gave birth to thriving towns and cities. Refugee camps in Arab countries gave birth to more Palestinian refugees. We unlocked our new immigrants’ vast potential. The Arab world knowingly and intentionally kept their Palestinian populations in the second class status of permanent refugees.”—Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, on the occasion of the UN Partition Plan’s 64th anniversary, slamming the Arab world’s unwillingness to naturalize displaced Palestinians in 1948, and asserting that “the difference between the two distinct populations was—and still is—that Israel absorbed the refugees into our society. Our neighbors did not.” Prosor added that the basic question underlying the Arab-Israeli conflict has not changed for 64 years: “Has the Arab World—and particularly the Palestinians—internalized that Israel is here to stay and will remain the nation-state of the Jewish People?…” (Ynet News, November 30.)

 

“Regarding Pakistan, the name Haqqani is usually associated with the terrorist network based in the frontier province of Waziristan and supported by Islamabad’s intelligence service. Then there is Husain Haqqani, until this week Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington. He represents something entirely different. Mr. Haqqani was forced from his post amid allegations that he had sought help from [former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Admiral Mike Mullen to avert a possible military coup in Pakistan following the May 2 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad. Mr. Haqqani supposedly helped draft a memo…calling on Adm. Mullen to dissuade Pakistani army chief Afshaq Kayani from doing anything rash while also promising to reform Islamabad’s national security establishment and end its support for jihadist groups. Mr. Haqqani denies the allegation…but it says something about Pakistani politics that its most capable diplomat has been cashiered for attempting to uphold civilian and constitutional rule against a military that has repeatedly subverted it.…”—Wall Street Journal editorial board, in “A Diplomat of Distinction,” describing the dismissal of Pakistani Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani for allegedly notifying US officials of a possible military coup in Pakistan following the killing of Osama Bin Laden. (Wall Street Journal, November 28.)

 

“The fury…that [US President] Barack Obama expresses towards Binyamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel is a raging fury.… If Barack Obama is [re]-elected, I am ready to predict now that…there will immediately be a very strong attack on Israel.… Because right now Netanyahu has succeeded in restricting Obama. Obama is now like a lion in a cage.”—Haaretz contributor, Ari Shavit, warning that if Barack Obama wins the 2012 US presidential election, Israel “will find itself in a very sharp crisis.” (Independent Media Review and Analysis, December 10.)

 

“Eichmann’s capture and bringing to trial were a turning point at which the State of Israel and the Jewish people began to exact justice on their persecutors.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, on the 50th anniversary of Adolf Eichmann’s capture for trial in Israel, unveiling a Knesset display of memorabilia from the 1961 secret mission in Argentina. The exhibit includes the syringe with which Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust, was drugged by his captors, never-before-seen photographs from the mission and forged papers used by the agents. (JTA, December 12.)

 

“I know without a doubt that your ongoing determined struggle for my release, each one according to his or her abilities, along with the support for my family throughout the long journey, was one of the deciding factors in the decision to bring me home.… I will be grateful for the rest of my life.”—Ransomed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, thanking those who spearheaded the campaign for his release. (Ynet News, December 10.)

 

Short Takes

 

EGYPT’S MILITARY SEEKS CONTROL OVER CONSTITUTION DRAFT—(Cairo) Egypt’s interim military government is vying to strengthen its authority over the process of drafting a new constitution, in what appears to be a bid to limit the power of Islamists who won a total of more than 60% of the vote in the first round of parliamentary elections. Maj. Gen. Mukhtar Mulla, the deputy minister of defense, said the incoming Parliament does not represent the full spectrum of Egyptian society, and that a military-appointed council of advisers and the existing military-approved cabinet of ministers, will need to agree on the appointment of the 100-member constituent assembly which will write the constitution. According to a constitutional declaration announced by the military last March, the incoming People’s Assembly Parliament alone is supposed to have the authority to appoint the members of the assembly, who will then have six months to draft the document. (Wall Street Journal, December 8.)

 

MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION KILLS 7, INJURES 16 IN IRAN—(Jerusalem) Another mysterious explosion has rocked Iran, killing seven people and injuring 16 others at a steel factory in the central province of Yazd. The blast comes a few weeks after a separate unexplained incident in the Iranian city of Isfahan, which hosts a nuclear facility involved in processing uranium. Two weeks before that, on November 12, an explosion hit an Iranian military base near the town of Bid Kaneh, killing 17 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Maj.-Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, chief architect of the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program. Israel’s Mossad has been accused of orchestrating that blast. (Jerusalem Post, December 12.)

 

IRAN TO REVERSE-ENGINEER, MASS PRODUCE US DRONE—(Jerusalem) According to Iran’s Press TV, the Islamic Republic will reverse-engineer the advanced RQ-170 Sentinel US drone it captured on December 4. Parviz Sorouri, member of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, said that Iran will “mass produce” the drones, and claimed the decryption of the drone was in its final stages and that soon Iran would be in possession of confidential US information. The drone was reportedly flying a mission over western Afghanistan when it entered Iranian airspace and was intercepted. The RQ-170 Sentinel, built by Lockheed Martin, was used this year by US intelligence to monitor al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan ahead of the raid that killed him. (Jerusalem Post, December 12.)

 

REPORT: SYRIA ARMS MISSILES WITH CHEMICAL WARHEADS—(Jerusalem) According to the Sabah daily, Syria has armed 600 one-ton chemical warheads to use in the event of a foreign military intervention, and has ordered the deployment of 21 missile launchers, with a range of up to 1,300 kilometers, along its border with Turkey. International defense sources believe Syria launched clandestine efforts to develop chemical warheads with ballistic missile delivery systems following heavy defeats against Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. According to reports, Russia, a staunch ally of the Assad regime, recently transferred 3 million gas masks to the troubled country. (Independent Media Review and Analysis, December 12.)

 

SYRIANS STRIKE TO PRESSURE ASSAD GOVERNMENT—(Beirut) Syrians are conducting a general strike, closing their businesses and keeping children home from school, in a powerful show of civil disobedience to pressure President Bashar Assad to end his nearly nine-month-old crackdown on a popular uprising. The open-ended strike, coupled with intensifying international sanctions, is designed to erode Assad’s main base of support—the merchant class—as the Syrian economy continues to collapse .The opposition has threatened to continue the strike until the regime pulls the army out of cities and releases thousands of detainees. Despite their defiance, activists have confirmed a new round of clashes between Syrian troops and army defectors has commenced, as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. (Washington Post, December 12.)

 

KNESSET DELEGATION WARNS NATO OF ARAB SPRING—(Jerusalem) Israel’s Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has warned of the dangers of a nuclear Iran and Islamist governments rising following the “Arab Spring,” during a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. The bipartisan delegation met with NATO officials, as well as the US, Italian, Portuguese and Canadian ambassadors to the defense organization. MK Avi Dichter (Kadima) said it would be a mistake to call the ongoing upheavals in the Middle East an “Arab Spring,” as they have thus far led to radical elements being strengthened, a sentiment echoed by Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), who coined the events an “Arab Winter.” With respect to Iran, Hotovely called the Islamic Republic’s nuclear drive “a global problem for the entire free world and not just Israel. The world can’t expect Israel to solve its problem.” (Jerusalem Post, December 13.)

 

CANADA BANS FACE VEILS FOR CITIZENSHIP OATHS—(Toronto) According to Canada’s Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, the Harper government has, effective immediately, placed a ban on face coverings—such as niqabs and burkas—for people swearing their oath of citizenship. It is a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” Kenney said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were previously allowed to wear face veils while swearing their oaths. Kenney does not accept that it is a religious obligation to wear the veil, explaining that when Muslim women perform the hajj, the yearly Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, they are not required to cover their faces. “It’s a cultural tradition, which I think reflects a certain view about women that we don’t accept in Canada. We want women to be full and equal members of Canadian society and certainly when they’re taking the citizenship oath, that’s the right place to start,” Kenney said in a CBC News interview. Women who choose not to remove their face coverings during the oath can remain permanent Canadian residents. (CBC News, December 12.)

 

U OF T GRAD STUDENTS REJECT DIVESTMENT MOTION—(Toronto) The University of Toronto’s Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) has defeated a motion calling on the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel. During the Nov. 21 GSU council meeting, members voted 37-25 against a motion that was endorsed by the group Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), and presented by the GSU’s social justice committee. Andrew Gross, a member of the GSU, said SAIA’s new strategy was to not “mention Israel in the motion itself, so that the motion would not raise any red flags.” Despite SAIA’s tactical decision to refrain from mentioning Israel directly, a week before the vote the social justice committee held a panel discussion for graduate students to decide whether the GSU should support SAIA’s call to divest from companies “that support Israel’s war and occupation of the Palestinian territories.” “I am relieved that the motion failed,” Gross said. “We showed very clearly that the motion was inherently duplicitous and false…and a harmful act of propaganda.” (Canadian Jewish News, December 8.)

 

HOLLAND TO RECONSIDER UNRWA FUNDING—(The Hague) According to Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, Holland will “thoroughly review” its policy on the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), calling UNRWA’s mandate “worrisome.” UNRWA was set up in 1949 by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as an independent body entrusted solely with caring for Palestinian refugees who fled their homes in the years 1946-1949. Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA extends the definition of refugee to descendants, thereby creating generations-worth of refugees, rather than resettling them. Furthermore, UNWRA refugees maintain their status even if granted foreign citizenship. UNRWA’s 2011 budget was 1.23 billion dollars, half of it provided by the U.S and the European Commission. Last year, Canada stopped its core funding of roughly 10 million dollars annually for UNRWA. Holland is UNRWA’s 6th largest donor, with an annual contribution of roughly 30 million dollars. (European Jewish Press, December 11.)

 

ADL AND AJC SUFFER BIG DROP IN DONATIONS; AIPAC GROWING—(Washington) Two of the US’s oldest and largest Jewish organizations have suffered massive slides in public contributions. The Anti-Defamation League has lost more than $20 million in annual contributions over the past five years, going from approximately $73 million in 2006 down to $51 million in 2010, according to its latest tax filings. Similarly, the American Jewish Committee, which brought in $62 million in donations in 2005, raised only $38 million in 2010. The most notable Jewish organization that is steadily rising is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose donations have grown by 30% over the past five years. (Forward, December 9.)

 

BOOK FROM HITLER’S LIBRARY PULLED FROM AUCTION—(New York) Manhattan auction house Kestenbaum and Company has withdrawn a book from Hitler’s personal library the day it was set to be auctioned. Printed in 1944, the 137-page “Statistics, Media, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada” includes detailed data on the US’ Jewish population at the time of its publication, including several hundred Jewish organizations along with names of key individuals and their addresses. In light of the Holocaust, the book underscores with stark statistical data how assiduous the Nazis were, even as late as 1944, in pursuing their designs for extending the geographic compass of the “final solution.” An Op-Ed piece in The New York Times that appeared a day before the auction drew attention to the item, and possibly influenced the auction house’s decision to pull it from the roster. (JTA, December 9.)

 

SAUDI BEHEADED FOR “SORCERY”—(Dubai) A Saudi Arabian woman, Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser, has been executed after being tried and convicted for practicing sorcery. “The citizen…practiced acts of witchcraft and sorcery,” Saudi newspaper al-Watan cited the interior ministry as saying. Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, has no written criminal code, which is instead based on an uncodified form of Islamic sharia law as interpreted by the country’s judges. The execution was the second of its kind in recent months—a Sudanese national was beheaded in Medina in September after being convicted on sorcery charges. Amnesty International puts at 79 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia so far this year, nearly triple the figure in 2010. (Reuters, December 13.)

 

CHIEF RABBI METZGER OFFERED BRITAIN’S TOP RABBINICAL POST—(Jerusalem) Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Yona Metzger, has been offered to replace Lord Jonathan Sacks as the United Kingdom’s chief rabbi. However, Metzger has another year and half before he concludes his tenure in Israel and “does not at all deal with what will come after that,” his spokesman said. The London-born Sacks, who has served as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since 1991, recently announced that he would step down in the fall of 2013. (Haaretz, December 13.)

 

WIESENTHAL CENTER NAMES TOP 10 ANTI-SEMITIC SLURS—(New York) The Simon Wiesenthal Center has released its “Top 10 Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2011,” with a comment by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas topping the list. Abbas made the remark at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23, where he whitewashed the Jewish people’s historical presence in Israel: “I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the birthplace of Jesus Christ peace be upon him, to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people,” he said, omitting any reference to Jews. Other remarks that made the Top 10 list include Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s accusation that “hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were killed” by Israel; Christian Dior fashion designer John Galliano’s rant about his love of Hitler; and director Lars Von Trier, who said he sympathizes with Hitler and that “Israel is a pain in the ass.” The Center said it did not consider statements by terrorist organizations, the Iranian government or “the lunatic fringe.” (JTA, December 13.)