Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

Media-ocrities of the Week

 

“When we think about what happened today in Toulouse, we remember what happened in Norway last year, we know what is happening in Syria, and we see what is happening in Gaza.…”—European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to Palestinian youth in Brussels, drawing a parallel between Monday’s premeditated murder of four French Jews in Toulouse and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes against Gaza-based terrorists. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed Ashton’s statement, saying “It is unthinkable to compare a massacre [as in Toulouse] and the Israeli army’s surgical, defensive actions against those who use children as human shields.… There is a fundamental difference between an intentional attack against children and the unintentional harming of civilians as part of legitimate warfare against terrorists.” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also weighed in, affirming, “The Israeli army is the most moral army in the world, whose soldiers desperately work to minimize civilian casualties…despite having to fight terrorists operating within populated areas.” Ashton claims her remarks were “grossly distorted.” (Jerusalem Post, March 19, 20 & 21 & Times of Israel, March 20.)

 

“There is another state in the region that is embroiled in a crisis of democratic becoming. This is the State of Israel.… When the [Israeli] government speaks daily about the existential threat from Iran, and urges an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, it ignores the existential threat that looms within.… [This] begins, of course, with the occupation of the Palestinian territories…that has lasted for forty-five years.… The explosion of settlements…has led to a large and established ethnocracy that thinks of itself as a permanent frontier.… Emboldened [Jewish] fundamentalists flaunt an increasingly aggressive medievalism.… [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and many of his supporters…consider the tenets of liberal democracy to be negotiable in a game of coalition politics. Such short-term expedience cannot but exact a long-term price: this dream—and the process of democratic becoming—may be painfully, even fatally, deferred.”—New Yorker editor David Remnick, claiming that despite the gross failure of the “Arab Spring,” which has seen nearly every Middle Eastern and North African country plunge into chaos, it is in fact stable and democratic Israel’s ongoing existence that is most threatened. (New Yorker, March 12.)

 

“The prime minister’s visit to the US was crowned with success because [Binyamin] Netanyahu managed to raise the Iranian matter on the agenda, but he also managed to remove the Palestinian issue and erased any and all hope from the citizens of the State of Israel.”—Israel’s Opposition Leader, Tzipi Livni, at a special Knesset session titled “The Political, Economic and Social failures of Netanyahu’s Government.” (Ynet News, March 14.)

 

Weekly Quotes

 

“I am sure the government of [French President] Nicolas Sarkozy will do everything possible to find the killer and we will help with that.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, calling this week’s deadly shooting at a Jewish school in France “a loathsome murder of Jews,” and vowing to assist French authorities in tracking down the terrorist. (Jerusalem Post, March 19.)

 

“Like all the citizens of France and all the citizens of Israel, I was shocked and outraged when I was informed this morning on the murder of four people, among them three children, at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse.”—French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in a letter written to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, expressing his “sincerest condolences” over the murder of four French Jews, including three children, in Toulouse. Sarkozy promised to arrest the “despicable” terrorist behind the attacks and use the fullest extent of the law to punish his “cruelty.” (Jerusalem Post, March 20.)

 

“This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very cold.… It is someone who is cruel enough to record it.”—France’s Interior Minister, Claude Gueant, confirming that the perpetrator of this week’s attack in Toulouse recorded his shooting spree with a small video camera attached to his neck. (Jerusalem Post, March 20.)

 

“I haven’t heard yet a condemnation from any of the UN bodies but I have heard that one such body, the UN Human Rights Council, invited on this very day a senior representative of Hamas.… This particular individual condemned the United States for disposing of the arch-murderer [Osama] Bin Laden, and he represents an organization that indiscriminately targets children, women and men. Innocents are their favorite target. They kill Jews anywhere—that’s their constitution.… So I have one thing to say to the UN Human Rights Council: What do you have to do with human rights? You should be ashamed of yourselves.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, strongly denouncing the United Nations for not condemning Monday’s attack in France, and highlighting that on the day of the tragedy the Human Rights Council was scheduled to meet with a high-ranking Hamas member. (Independent Media Review & Analysis, March 19.)

 

“The United States continues to be deeply troubled by this Council’s biased and disproportionate focus on Israel, as exemplified by this standing agenda item.”—US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Eileen Chamberlain, condemning the HRC’s Agenda Item 7, which stipulates that Israel’s rights record in areas over the pre-1967 line be debated at every meeting. Israel is the only country to have a fixed agenda item. (Jerusalem Post, March 19.)

 

“Because the international community has applied so many sanctions, because we have employed so many of the options that are available to us to persuade Iran to take a different course, the window for solving this issue diplomatically is shrinking.”—US President Barack Obama, in a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, warning that time is running out to resolve the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program diplomatically, and that Tehran would face consequences if it did not take next month’s nuclear talks with world powers seriously. (Jerusalem Post, March 15.)

 

“We prefer to see Iran abandon its nuclear program in peaceful ways, but it is my duty to maintain Israel’s ability to protect itself in the face of any challenge.… In 1981 the same sense of duty guided [Menachem] Begin vis-à-vis the nuclear reactor in Iraq. He was well aware of the international scrutiny—including from the United States and President [Ronald] Reagan—but he nevertheless fulfilled his duty.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, reaffirming “Israel’s right to defend itself by itself” against Iran’s genocidal threats, a position “fully understood and supported by the United States administration.” (Ynet News, March 14.)

 

“There are many reasons to strike peace with the Palestinians…but to think that peace with the Palestinian Authority will stop Iran and its proxies is a dangerous illusion. Make no mistake, Gaza is Iran. The missiles are Iran, the money is Iran, the infrastructure is Iran and in many cases the instructions are from Iran. Gaza is a front post for Iran.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, describing Iran’s support for Gaza-based terrorists as an obstacle to peace, and promising to “take [Iran] out of Gaza.” (Ynet News, March 14.)

 

“This was a political blow to Iran to be expelled from what is the financial equivalent of the UN. This is a sign that the regime is increasingly politically isolated.…”—Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, hailing the “unprecedented” decision by SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which facilitates most international money transfers, to cut off access to its system to Iranian banks under EU sanctions. (Jerusalem Post, March 16.)

 

“The situation in Syria is unprecedented. Never before has a WMD-armed country fallen into civil war.”—Charles Blair of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), in a report for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, warning that Syria “has one of the largest and most sophisticated chemical weapons programs in the world,” and that “sectarian insurgents and Islamist terrorist groups may stand poised to seize chemical and perhaps even biological weapons.” (National Post, March 14.)

 

“I see the attempt to disrupt life in Jerusalem with the utmost gravity.”—Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, urging local residents “to be alert for any situation” after an Arab youth stabbed a female soldier on the Jerusalem light rail last week. MK Danny Danon (Likud) called on authorities “to stop Arab and Palestinian terror from raging in the streets of the capital before it is too late.” (Jerusalem Post, March 15.)

 

“It is not prayed to, not mentioned once in the Koran; there are no events in Muhammad’s life directly connected to it; it is not a capital and it is sometimes even seen as a place rejected by God.”—Director of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes, at a conference titled “Jerusalem: How Important is it to Muslims?”, explaining that Jerusalem is of incidental significance to Islam, its importance varying through history according to political circumstances. Conversely, Pipes outlined Jerusalem’s centrality to Judaism, highlighting that since the Second Temple’s destruction and subsequent exile of Jews from the Land, Jerusalem has remained the focus of Jewish spiritual longing. (Jerusalem Post, March 16.)

 

“The historic embedded antisemitic stereotypes combined with anti-Israel animus are a toxic mix in much of Europe. That it took an exposé by The Jerusalem Post and a protest by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to force the removal of this blatantly anti-Semitic ‘game’ is a reflection of a broader reality in 2012 Europe: Classic antisemitic stereotypes, shunned in polite society after the Shoah, are back in mainstream vogue.”—Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, commenting on the removal from Dutch public broadcaster VPRO’s website of a game called The Settlers of the West Bank, in which Israeli “settlers” use an “Anne Frank card” and “Jewish stinginess” to colonize the disputed territory. (Jerusalem Post, March 16.)

 

Short Takes

 

TOULOUSE SHOOTING VICTIMS LAID TO REST IN JERUSALEM—(Jerusalem) The four victims of Monday’s tragedy in Toulouse—Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, 30, his two children Aryeh, 6, and Gavriel, 3, and eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego—have been laid to rest in Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin eulogized the deceased, affirming to those gathered that “The entire nation of Israel mourns the murder and hatred that harmed innocent souls.” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who also attended the funeral, described the attack on the Jewish school as equivalent to an attack on all of France’s 65 million citizens. In Toulouse, a minute of silence was observed to pay tribute to the victims. (Jerusalem Post, March 21.)

 

FRENCH AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY TERROR SUSPECT—(Jerusalem) French authorities reportedly have identified Mohamed Merah as the suspected gunman in the Toulouse shootings. According to France 24 television, in a still-unfolding drama, for the past 19 hours Merah has been barricaded inside a residential building in a Toulouse suburb, under siege by approximately 300 police officers. French Interior Minister Claude Gueant confirmed that Merah, a French citizen of Muslim origin, told police negotiators he had carried out the attack in the name of al-Qaida to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and because of the French army’s involvement in Afghanistan. Gueant also confirmed that Merah has ties to an ideological Islamic group and that his brother, a radical Islamist, has been arrested as well. Merah was detained in 2007 in Kandahar, Afghanistan on charges of bomb making but escaped months later in a Taliban prison break. (Jerusalem Post, March 21.)

 

INDIA NAMES 3 IRANIANS IN EMBASSY ATTACK—(Jerusalem) Indian police and intelligence agencies have identified three Iranians responsible for plotting and carrying out last month’s attack on an Israeli diplomat’s car in New Delhi. According to The Times of India, the three men, Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr and Mohammad Reza Abolghasemi, all hold Iranian passports and traveled to New Delhi 15 days before the bombing on tourist visas. After the attack, which injured a diplomat’s wife and her driver, the three fled to an unnamed country in the Middle East. An anonymous source told the Times the trio was connected to an Iranian spy agency. (Jerusalem Post, March 15.)

 

FATAH: IRAN PAID HAMAS TO BLOCK UNITY DEAL—(Gaza City) According to Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf, Iran has bribed Hamas to forgo formalizing a unity deal with Fatah that would have ended a five-year rift between the two main Palestinian factions. “We have information that Iran paid tens of millions of dollars to Zahar and Haniyeh [during] their visits to Iran,” Assaf claimed, referring to Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar who visited Tehran last week and Ismail Haniyeh who was there in February. Iran’s financial aid to Hamas was suspended six months ago over the terror group’s refusal to back Syrian President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on protests. However, according to Assaf, funding has since resumed as Iran is equally concerned with challenging Israel by solidifying its Gaza Strip stronghold. (Reuters, March 20.)

 

U.S. NUCLEAR EXPERT IDENTIFIES IRAN EXPLOSIVE SITE AT PARCHIN—(Jerusalem) A U.S. non-proliferation expert has identified a building at Iran’s Parchin military site suspected of containing a high-explosive test chamber. David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, said he studied commercial satellite imagery and found a building located on a relatively small and isolated compound at Parchin that fit a description in the November 2011 International Atomic Energy Agency report. Iran refused access to the Parchin facility during two recent rounds of talks with IAEA inspectors; Western diplomats believe Iran is sanitizing the facility of any incriminating evidence of explosive tests that would indicate efforts to design nuclear weapons. (Haaretz, March 14.)

 

IRAN CLAIMS TO HAVE DOMESTICALLY PRODUCED DRONE—(Jerusalem) Less than four months after confiscating a US drone that went down in its territory, Iran has reportedly produced a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Shaparak (Butterfly). According to the semi-official Iranian news agency Press TV, citing Reza Danandeh Hakamabad, the aeronautics engineer in charge of the project, the domestically-produced drone has an operational radius of 50 kilometers, a flight ceiling of 4,572 meters, can fly non-stop for three-and-half hours, and can carry an 8 kilogram payload. In December, Iran displayed the captured US drone on television and vowed to “reverse-engineer” the UAV to build its own. (Jerusalem Post, March 17.)

 

ASSAD EMAILS SHOW HE TOOK IRAN’S ADVICE—(Jerusalem) One year into the Syrian uprising, a candid cache of President Bashar Assad’s emails has been leaked to the public. The revealing emails, published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, allegedly were sent and received by Assad between June 2011 and February 2012. Some of the communications show Assad joking about his promises of reform as well as taking advice from Iran on how to counter the uprising. One email in particular shows that the media and political adviser for Iran’s ambassador to Syria advised Assad to focus his speeches on “hostility to Israel, the first enemy of the Muslims.” The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since last March, while some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced from their homes. (Jerusalem Post, March 15.)

 

EGYPTIAN MP PROPOSES SHARIA PUNISHMENTS FOR CRIMES—(Jerusalem) The Egyptian Parliament’s Proposals and Complaints Committee has started debating the adoption of a bill that would apply Islamic law for certain crimes. Drafted by MP Adel Azzazy from the Salafi Nour Party, the law calls for the application of “Heraba,” Sharia penalties for criminal actions. Azzazy’s bill stipulates that robbery be punished by cutting off one arm and one leg from opposite sides of the culprit’s body, and that the intimidation of citizens garner an indefinite prison sentence that ends when the felon repents. “This is God’s law and is not optional,” Azzazy said. “The current penalties are not deterrent enough.” (Independent Media Review and Analysis, March 14.)

 

U.S. AFFIRMS AFGHAN WAR SHIFT—(Washington) President Barack Obama has for the first time affirmed U.S. plans to shift the military to a support role next year and let Afghan forces take the lead in combat operations. Calling the war a “hard slog,” Obama nevertheless brushed aside growing calls to accelerate a military drawdown scheduled to be completed in 2014, saying that “In terms of pace, I don’t anticipate at this stage that we’re going to be making any sudden, additional changes to the plan that we currently have.” The president is facing mounting concern over the merits of maintaining U.S. troops in the decade-long war, following a series of setbacks, the latest involving the shooting deaths of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by a U.S. Army staff sergeant. The U.S. has approximately 90,000 troops currently serving in Afghanistan. (Wall Street Journal, March 14.)

 

ISRAEL: FIRE UN OFFICIAL OVER FALSE GAZA PHOTO—(Jerusalem) Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, has called for the dismissal of a UN official who last week tweeted a picture of a Palestinian child covered in blood and falsely claimed she was killed by an IDF strike. Kuhlood Badawi, an information and media coordinator for UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, posted a link to the picture along with the tweet: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by #Israel.…” The photo, it emerged, was published in 2006 by Reuters and was of a Palestinian girl who died in an accident unrelated to Israel. Accordingly, Prosor expressed “outrage” at Badawi’s conduct, saying that even though her tweet was blatantly false, it became the top tweet that day for anything related to Gaza. Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced the incident as a “piece of furious fabrication” and said “it is intolerable that UN money pays for this.” (Jerusalem Post, March 16.)

 

CONVICTED NAZI CRIMINAL JOHN DEMJANJUK DEAD—(Berlin) John Demjanjuk, convicted last year for his role in killing 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp during WWII, has died at the age of 91. A Munich court convicted Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk in May 2011 of helping to kill nearly 30,000 Jews at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison but freed, pending appeal, mainly because of his age. The court verdict said guards had played a key role at extermination camps like Sobibor, where at least 250,000 Jews are thought to have been killed despite only 20 German SS officers being there. Demjanjuk previously topped the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of most wanted Nazi criminals. (Reuters, March 17.)

 

SURVIVORS MARK ARGENTINA EMBASSY ATTACK 20 YEARS ON—(Jerusalem) Argentina’s Jewish community has marked the 20th anniversary (March 17) of the Israeli Embassy bombing in Buenos Aires, in which an Iranian-sponsored suicide bomber killed 29 people and wounded 242 others. The attack was followed by a similar one on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires two years later that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. A series of events were held in commemoration, including one at the current Embassy that was attended by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Israeli Ambassador Daniel Gazit. Argentinean Vice President Amado Boudou and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri also attended. An exhibit featuring photos of the survivors was displayed at Buenos Aires’ Jose Hernandez subway station, one of the busiest in the city. (Jerusalem Post, March 16.)