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Isranet Daily Briefing

Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication. Please address your response to:  Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, PO Box 175, Station  H, Montreal QC H3G 2K7 – Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284; E-mail: rob@isranet.wpsitie.com

 

 

Contents:  Weekly Quotes |  Short Takes On Topic Links

 

 

Download a pdf version of today’s Isranet Daily Briefing.pdf

On Topic Links 

 

Anne Bayefsky Speaks at the UN About UN Antisemitism (Video): Youtube, Sept. 8, 2014

President Sisi’s Gift: Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 8, 2014

As Iraqi Christians in U.S. Watch ISIS Advance, They See ‘Slow-Motion Genocide’: Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times, Sept. 6, 2014

Global Leadership is a Terrible Responsibility. But if Not America, Then Who?: Clifford D. May, National Post, Sept. 8, 2014

 

WEEKLY QUOTES

 

“What we are facing here is one of the most barbaric terrorist groups the world has ever known,” —Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. Baird told a joint House of Commons committee Tuesday that battling Islamic extremism represents the “greatest struggle of our generation,” as the government revealed some Canadian troops are already inside Iraq. “Their world view is a direct challenge to the values of Western civilization,” he added. Baird and Defence Minister Rob Nicholson appeared before a parliamentary committee to explain the government’s decision to send dozens of military advisers to Iraq. Canada and its allies cannot afford to ignore ISIS, the ministers added, which is why the government is providing humanitarian aid, helping transport military supplies and now deploying military advisers to help fight the militants. “I ask that as we consider whether or how to act, we also consider what happens if we don’t act,” Mr. Baird said, adding: “it might seem convenient to brush options off as leading to mission creep in the future. But the hard reality is that inaction is not an option.” (National Post, Sept. 9, 2014)

 

“We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities; we’re going to shrink the territory that they control; and, ultimately, we’re going to defeat them,” —U.S. President Barack Obama, in a preview to Wednesday’s nationwide address. Obama told leaders of Congress on Tuesday that he did not need for them to authorize his strategy to fight the Islamic State. In place of Saddam Hussein and the never-found weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Obama must recast the conflict as one against a new evil – the rising terror of the Islamic State – that is not just a vile and brutal group given to the ritual beheadings of innocent Americans but, he will argue, one that poses a threat to U.S. national security. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 9, 2014)

 

“The President told the leaders that he has the authority he needs to take action against ISIL in accordance with the mission he will lay out in his address [Wednesday] night,” —White House  statement. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 9, 2014)

 

“The fact is, this is the tip of an iceberg of literally tens of thousands of people who are being treated in this way,” —Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, referring to the assault on Christians, Yazidis, Shiite Muslims and others who do not subscribe to ISIS’s brand of ultraconservative Sunni Islam. “It obviously has the capacity of not just leading regional jihad, but becoming a massive terrorist training base for the globe and I don’t think we can sit still for this,” he added. (CBC, Sept. 3, 2014)

 

“We all know that if they come, they will slit our throats for no reason,” —Lebanese villager from the small Christian town of Qaa, located near the Syrian border. For months, Lebanese Christians have watched with dread as other Christians flee Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq, fearing their turn will come next. Now, for the first time since the Lebanese civil war ended in 1990, Lebanese Christians are rearming and setting up self-defence units to protect themselves, an indication of the growing anxiety over the expanding reach of radical Islamic groups. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 5, 2014) 

 

“There is no containment policy for ISIL,” —U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, at the start of last-week’s NATO meeting. “They’re an ambitious, avowed, genocidal, territorial-grabbing, caliphate-desiring quasi state with an irregular army, and leaving them in some capacity intact anywhere would leave a cancer in place that will ultimately come back to haunt us.” But he and other officials made clear that at the moment, any ground combat troops would come from either Iraqi security forces and Kurdish pesh merga fighters in Iraq, or the moderate Syrian rebels opposed to President Assad in Syria. “Obviously I think that’s a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground,” Kerry said. (New York Times, Sept. 5, 2014)

 

“Time’s a wasting, because we have now said that we’re going to go on the offensive. And it’s time for America to project power and strength,” —Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee. (National Post, Sept. 7, 2014)

 

“This is a message to you, oh Vladimir Putin, these are the jets that you have sent to Bashar, we will send them to you, God willing, remember that,” —ISIS fighter, in a video reportedly issuing a challenge against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. He added: “And we will liberate Chechnya and the entire Caucasus, God willing,” he said. “The Islamic State is and will be and it is expanding God willing…Your throne has already teetered; it is under threat and will fall when we come to you because Allah is truly on our side.” The fighters are said to have posed on top of Russian military equipment, including a fighter jet captured from the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, throughout the video. There are an estimated 200 Chechen fighters within the Islamic State ranks. (Daily Star, Sept .7, 2014)

 

“I consider Iran a bigger problem than ISIS,” —former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. In an interview with NPR that was released on Saturday, Kissinger explained that because Iran has a stronger footing in the Middle East, it has a greater opportunity to create an empire. “The borders of the settlement of 1919-’20 are essentially collapsing,” he said. “That gives Iran a very powerful level from a strategic point of view. I consider Iran a bigger problem than ISIS. ISIS is a group of adventurers with a very aggressive ideology. But they have to conquer more and more territory before they can became a strategic, permanent reality. I think a conflict with ISIS — important as it is — is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran,” Kissinger added. (Huffington Post, Sept. 6, 2014)  

 

“We will not accept having a partnership if their status in Gaza remains this way,” —Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, threatening to dissolve his alliance with Hamas if the Islamic terrorist group does not give up power in Gaza. “Unity has terms. This situation does not represent any kind of unity,” Abbas said. “If Hamas does not want one authority, one law, one weapon, we will not accept a partnership with it.” As long as Hamas remains in control of Gaza, he added, “the government of national unity can do nothing on the ground.” Abbas is looking to regain a foothold in Gaza, and expects to play a leading role in internationally backed reconstruction efforts. His comments appeared to be part of a brewing power struggle over who will control post-war Gaza. Abbas heaped fierce criticism of Hamas’ handling of the war, accusing it of making unrealistic demands for a full lifting of Israel’s blockade of Gaza and dragging out cease-fire talks. “With every passing day, more blood was shed,” Abbas said, criticizing the heavy death toll and damage. “Is this the victory they talk about? Regrettably, I can only say the results are tragic,” he added. (National Post, Sept. 7, 2014)

 

“We started the war by striking Haifa with rockets,” —Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, on live television. Haniyeh appeared to be contradicting the global media’s narrative, according to which Israel triggered the mini-war, ostensibly to gain some unspecified advantage. Haniyeh also boasted about his group’s “historic victory” in the war with Israel. (Asharq Al-Awsat, Sept. 5, 2014)

 

“Haniyeh cannot admit defeat because that would expose him to the charge of reckless adventurism, to say the least. He and his unnamed associates ignored the advice not only of Sun Tzu, but also Carl von Clausewitz, not to join a battle without having at least a 50 percent chance of winning it. To take one’s people into an unequal war is tantamount to leading them to the slaughter,” —Amir Taheri. (Asharq Al-Awsat, Sept. 5, 2014)

 

“Terror is a system that needs to be addressed religiously, militarily, nationally and financially. The world needs to join together to fight terror and Israel must be a part of that,” —Former Israeli President Shimon Peres, opening the 14th annual International Conference of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya on Monday. Peres said that “terrorism is tearing apart the Arab world. It has destroyed Yemen, Libya, Iraq and will only continue. Terrorism has to be fought with an all-out war and people cannot shy away because of the beheadings.” Peres also gave strong support to the use of tough economic sanctions against Qatar and Turkey to punish them for financing terror. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 8, 2014)

 

“We need to speak out against this prejudice. We need to remind people that what began with a campaign against Jewish goods in the past ended with a campaign against Jewish lives. We need to spell out that this sort of prejudice starts with the Jews but never ends with the Jews. We need to stand united against hate. Now more than ever,” —Michael Gove, U.K. Member of Parliament, in a speech on Tuesday. Gove was responding to findings that there had been a fivefold increase in antisemitic incidents in the U.K. in the wake of Israel’s latest conflict with Hamas. Warning of a “resurgent, mutating, lethal virus of antisemitism”, the Conservative chief whip also claimed those who compare Israel’s actions to Nazi war crimes are engaging in a form of Holocaust denial. “And even as this relativisation, trivialisation and perversion of the Holocaust goes on so prejudice towards the Jewish people grows,” Gove said. Arguing that the UK and Israel have a common cause, Gove said: “We know that the jihadist terrorists responsible for horrific violence across the Middle East are targeting not just Jews and Israelis but all of us in the west.” (Telegraph, Sept. 9, 2014)

 

Contents

 

SHORT TAKES

 

SISI PROPOSES THAT PALESTINIANS ESTABLISH STATE IN AN EXPANDED GAZA (Cairo) —According to Army Radio, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi proposed that the Palestinians establish their state in an expanded Gaza Strip and accept limited autonomy over parts of Judea and Samaria. In exchange for this state, the Palestinians would give up their demand that Israel shrink into the indefensible 1949 armistice lines. Sisi argued that the land Egypt is offering in Sinai, some 1,600 kilometers adjacent to Gaza, would more than compensate for the territory that PA President Mahmoud Abbas would concede. On August 31, Abbas reportedly told an audience of Fatah members that that he rejected the Egyptian offer. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 8, 2014)

 

ABBAS SETS OUT DEADLINES FOR ISRAELI PEACE TALKS (Cairo) — PA President Abbas arrived in Cairo on Saturday to seek backing from Arab countries for his new political initiative to create a Palestinian state, and hold talks with Egyptian President Sisi on the latest developments in the region, including the peace initiative and the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. Abbas’s plan calls for holding peace talks with Israel over a period of nine months, during which there would be a full freeze of settlement construction and a release of Palestinian prisoners. The plan envisages the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital in no more than three years. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 7, 2014)

 

ARAB LEAGUE TO JOIN WAR AGAINST ISIS (Cairo) —Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo have agreed to pool their resources and join the fight against ISIS. The resolution passed at the end of the meeting hinted at some kind of League military action and tacitly supported US and Iraqi efforts to combat ISIS. The Arab League also endorsed in the closing statement of its meeting in Cairo a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month calling on member states to “act to suppress the flow of foreign fighters, financing and other support to Islamist extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.” The final text did not directly endorse either the Iraqi or U.S. campaign against ISIS, but diplomatic sources said the wording clearly offered Arab cooperation to U.S. and Iraqi efforts and could be read as a tacit agreement to back Washington’s campaign against the group. (American Thinker, Sept. 8, 2014)

 

BOMBING KILLS HEAD OF SYRIAN REBEL GROUP (Damascus) —The head of one of Syria’s largest rebel groups was killed in a suicide bombing alongside many of his leading fighters, an attack likely to further weaken the country’s already shaky armed opposition. Hassan Aboud of Ahrar al-Sham, an ultraconservative Syrian rebel group, was killed in the town of Ram Hamdan in the Syrian province of Idlib. Other leading group members were killed after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt in a meeting of Ahrar al-Sham’s leaders. The group previously fought against ISIS, and had blamed the ISIS for the killing of one of their leaders in February. (Washington Times, Sept. 9, 2014)

 

BRITISH FEMALE JIHADIS RUNNING AN ULTRA-RELIGIOUS POLICE FORCE (London) —British female jihadis are running an ultra-religious police force that punishes women for un-Islamic behaviour in territory controlled by Islamist terrorists. New evidence shows a number of British female recruits to the al-Khanssaa brigade, an all-women militia set up by ISIS. A key figure in the al-Khanssaa brigade, according to researchers at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), is Aqsa Mahmood, a 20-year-old woman from Glasgow who fled to Syria in November last year. It is thought that British women are being given key roles in the brigade because they are considered by commanders to be the most committed of the foreign female jihadis to the cause. Al-Khanssaa patrols walk the streets of Raqqa seeking out inappropriate mixing of the sexes and anyone engaging in Western culture. (Telegraph, Sept. 7, 2014)

 

UN ENVOY: UP TO 700 CHILDREN IN IRAQ KILLED, HURT (Baghdad) —Up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, some of them used as suicide bombers by ISIS, a U.N. envoy said Monday. Some children have been killed in “summary executions” according to Leila Zerrougui, the secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict. She said the Islamic State group has ordered boys as young as 13 years old to carry weapons, guard strategic locations or arrest civilians, and has used other children as suicide bombers. Zerrougui said that there has been progress around the world in protecting children in armed conflict, but those gains are being overshadowed by violence against children in new crises, pointing to the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and the conflicts in Gaza, Libya, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Mali and South Sudan. (Washington Post, Sept. 8, 2014)

 

IRAN FAILS TO ADDRESS ALL NUCLEAR CONCERNS, U.N. SAYS (Vienna) —Prospects for an international agreement over Iran’s disputed nuclear program appeared to suffer a setback Friday when a United Nations monitoring agency said the Iranians had yet to meet two of five confidence-building measures to ensure that their activities are purely peaceful. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had so far not explained unresolved issues over its research into detonators that could be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, and had likewise not explained studies that could be relevant to calculating the explosive yield of a nuclear weapon. Iran has repeatedly asserted its nuclear work is peaceful. But negotiators are believed to remain far apart on some of the most contentious issues, including Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity. (New York Times, Sept. 5, 2014)

 

TWO CONVICTED IN EGYPT OVER ABDUCTION, TORTURE OF POLICE OFFICERS (Cairo) —An Egyptian criminal court sentenced a top Muslim Brotherhood member and a prominent Islamist preacher to 20 years in prison Tuesday after finding them guilty of abducting and torturing two police officers last summer and leading a terrorist organization, the country’s official news agency reported. Mohamed el-Beltagy, a leading member of the Brotherhood and secretary-general of its political party, the Freedom and Justice Party, was convicted alongside ultraconservative cleric Safwat Higazy on charges of kidnapping, detaining and torturing police. The two were also convicted of leading a terrorist organization founded to “attack the freedoms of civilians and harm national unity and society’s well-being,” the state news agency said. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 9, 2014)

 

BOKO HARAM ADOPTS NEW STRATEGY WHILE SEIZING MORE BORDER TOWNS (Yola, Nigeria) —Nigeria’s Islamic extremists of Boko Haram have seized more towns along Nigeria’s northeastern border with Cameroon and are adopting a new strategy of encouraging civilians to stay, witnesses said Sunday, as the militants pursue their new aim to carve out an “Islamic caliphate” under their black and white flag. Boko Haram now holds a string of towns in all three of the northeastern states that have been under a military emergency since May 2014 — Adamawa, Yobe and hardest-hit Borno. The seizures come as the United States announced that it is about to launch a major border security program for Nigeria and its neighbours to fight Boko Haram. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 7, 2014)

 

ISRAEL REJECTS NEW ZEALAND AMBASSADOR (Jerusalem) —Israel has rejected New Zealand’s new ambassador because he is also an envoy to the Palestinian Authority. New Zealand officials said that since 2008, its ambassadors in Turkey have been responsible for covering a large swath of territory. But Israel has refused to accept their latest appointment to the post, Jonathan Curr. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said the decision reflected the ministry’s practice of not accrediting foreign diplomats who are also accredited to the Palestinian Authority. Prime Minister John Key said his government was likely viewed as being pro-Israel before 2012, when it became one of 138 countries that voted in favour of giving Palestine non-member observer status at the U.N. (CTV, Sept. 8, 2014)

BRUSSELS SHOOTER PLANNED MASSIVE ATTACK IN PARIS (Brussels) —Mehdi Nemmouche, the man who allegedly shot up the Brussels Jewish Museum earlier this year, killing four, reportedly plotted a large attack during Paris’s Bastille Day celebrations. Based on the testimony of four French reporters who were kidnapped by ISIS and held captive by Nemmouche, the French daily Liberation reported Monday that the returned IS fighter planned “at least one attack in France, in the heart of Paris, which would be at least five times bigger than the attacks in Toulouse.” The attack would allegedly have taken place on Paris’s iconic Champs Elysees boulevard on July 14, the French national holiday marking the beginning of the revolution. The March 2012 Toulouse attacks targeting Jews and soldiers in the southern French city left seven dead and five injured. (Times of Israel, Sept. 8, 2014)  

 

ONTARIO STUDENT GROUP BACKS BDS (Toronto) —The Ontario branch of the Canadian Federation of Students, representing more than 300,000 university students, has passed a motion to boycott Israel. The motion, put forth by the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) at CFS Ontario’s annual general meeting earlier this month, called on the federation to join the BDS movement against Israel. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies’ president and CEO Avi Benlolo released a statement that accused BDS supporters of trying to intimidate Jewish students and faculty. “The level of ignorance and anti-Semitism this move displays should be a wakeup call to university administrations and elected officials across Ontario and Canada,” he said. (Canadian Jewish News, Aug. 28, 2014)

 

YALE CHAPLAIN WHO WROTE CONTROVERSIAL NYT LETTER RESIGNS (New York) — Rev. Bruce Shipman, the Episcopal chaplain at Yale, has resigned in the wake of controversy over a New York Times letter he wrote suggesting Jews were collectively culpable for Israel’s actions and for subsequent rises in global anti-Semitism. In his letter to the Times, written in response to Deborah Lipstadt’s op-ed about rising European anti-Semitism, Shipman claimed that “the best antidote to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the Palestinian question.” Many readers expressed outrage at what they deemed Shipman’s exercise in victim-blaming, and an attempt to hold all Jews across the globe responsible for the actions of the Israeli state. (Tablet, Sept. 8, 2014)

 

A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SAY OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY IS A ‘FAILURE’ (Washington) —A majority of Americans, and even many Democrats, consider President Obama’s tenure to be a “failure,” according to a new poll. The poll shows Americans say 52-42 that Obama has been more of a failure than a success. Among registered voters, the gap is even bigger — at 55-39 — with four in 10 (41 percent) saying they “strongly” believe Obama has been a failure. Those saying Obama has been a failure include one in four Democrats (25 percent), nearly three in 10 liberals (29 percent) and the vast, vast majority of conservative Republicans (92 percent). As U.S. support for military action in Iraq and Syria has risen, public assessments of Obama on foreign policy have declined. Just 38 percent approve of his handling of international affairs, and 56 percent disapprove, with 43 percent strongly disapproving. Through most of the spring and summer, his foreign policy approval rating has hovered in the mid-40s. (Washington Post & Washington Post Sept. 9, 2014)

 

Contents

 

On Topic Links 

 

Anne Bayefsky Speaks at the UN About UN Antisemitism (Video): Youtube, Sept. 8, 2014

President Sisi’s Gift: Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 8, 2014 —Something extraordinary has happened. On August 31, PLO chief and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told an audience of Fatah members that Egypt had offered to give the PA some 1,600 kilometers of land in Sinai adjacent to Gaza, thus quintupling the size of the Gaza Strip.

As Iraqi Christians in U.S. Watch ISIS Advance, They See ‘Slow-Motion Genocide’: Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times, Sept. 6, 2014 —Early on Wednesday morning, the sonorous sound of Aramaic rose from the pews of Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church here.

Global Leadership is a Terrible Responsibility. But if Not America, Then Who?: Clifford D. May, National Post, Sept. 8, 2014 —U.S. President Barack Obama has been taking a lot of heat for acknowledging he doesn’t “have a strategy yet” for dealing with the jihadis butchering Iraqis, Syrians, Christians, Kurds and Yazidis…

 

 

 

Rob Coles, Publications Editor, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research/L’institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme,   www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284. mailto:ber@isranet.wpsitie.com

 

 

 

 

 

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