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Iraq Falls apart as Iran-Backed Forces Keep Islamic State at Bay: Jonathan Spyer, The Australian, July 4, 2015
WFB Video: 12 Times Obama Admin Caved to Iran: Truth Revolt, July 7, 2015
Still Unhidden Connections: Israel, Iran and ‘Palestine’: Louis René Beres, Jerusalem Post, June 28, 2015
The President Against the Historian: Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2015
WEEKLY QUOTES
“An operation was launched last year and for some, the battle carries on today; a post-war battle, a battle with no cease-fire…Israel will not continue to be a hostage in enemy hands…an enemy who does not respect human rights or civilian lives… The next conflict could be a lot harder than the last one.” —Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, at a ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem to mark the first year anniversary of the 51-day counter terror war against Hamas, Operation Protective Edge, in Gaza. (Jewish Press, July 6, 2015)
“Hundreds of terrorists were killed, and the Hamas infrastructure was destroyed. Our soldiers hit them from the air, from the sea and by land in such a way as to make their leaders understand we would not accept any attack on the security of our civilians.” — Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, a former IDF chief of staff. In his address to the families of the fallen, Ya’alon said that the sacrifices of their loved ones had not been in vain. (Jewish Press, July 6, 2015)
“If Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran or Da’esh (ISIS) attempts to harm Israel, they are risking their lives.” —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during remarks he delivered Monday at the ceremony in Jerusalem. (Jewish Press, July 6, 2015)
“The US might arrive at some agreements with us within the framework of the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany), but we should never hold a positive view over the enemy…Our enmity with them is over the principles and is rooted because we are after the truth and nations’ freedom, but they seek exploiting nations and putting them in chains.” — Iranian Ground Force Commander General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan. (Jerusalem Post, July 6, 2015)
“Even if it chose to use 90 percent of those funds to address real domestic needs, $15 billion could have a dramatic effect on Iran’s ability to use Hezbollah and other Shiite militias to pursue its ‘resistance’ agenda in the region and continue to shift the balance of power in its favour.” — State Department negotiator Dennis Ross, in Politico. If negotiators from the P5+1 and Iran emerge from their chambers in Vienna with a finalized deal — and the deadline has been postponed for the second time to July 10 — and sanctions are phased out according to Iranian compliance, then within six to 12 months Iran could receive up to $150 billion in frozen assets, wrote Ross. (Algemeiner, July 7, 2015)
“The significant air strikes tonight were executed to deny Daesh the ability to move military capabilities throughout Syria and into Iraq…This was one of the largest deliberate engagements we have conducted to date in Syria, and it will have debilitating effects on Daesh’s ability to move” — Coalition spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gilleran, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. U.S.-led coalition aircraft unleashed a wave of air strikes targeting Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa in eastern Syria in what the coalition said Sunday was one of its most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date. The Islamic State said at least ten people were killed and many others wounded in the attacks. (Globe & Mail, July 5, 2015)
“Tunisia, which is dear to all of us, is going through difficult circumstances, exceptional circumstances, that necessitate exceptional measures to face them and prevent a worse situation…Our security forces are in a full alert status, but we do have weaknesses as our prime minister admitted…We are not blaming anyone, but we are calling for everyone to feel and act responsibly. If such incidents happen again, the state will collapse. It is the duty of the president to take a stance.” Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. Speaking on national television, Essebsi declared a state of emergency in Tunisia on Saturday, eight days after a terrorist attack killed more than 30 foreign tourists. (New York Times, July 4, 2015)
“When Egypt comes under the auspices of the Khalifa [Caliphate], there will be no more Pyramids, no more Sphinx, no more idolatry. [This] will be just.” — British Muslim political activist Anjem Choudary. With Omar Bakri Muhammad, Choudary helped form the Islamist organisation al-Muhajiroun. Choudary praised those responsible for 9-11 and the July 7, 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people, and supports the implementation of Sharia law throughout the UK. (Telegraph, June 30, 2015)
“We have been clear: Canadian citizenship is a privilege that carries both rights and responsibilities …Dual nationals who commit the most serious crimes, those who seek to harm Canada and Canadians, will face serious consequences: we will move to revoke their Canadian citizenship.” — Kevin Menard, spokesman for Citizenship & Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. The government has begun the process of revoking the citizenship of an Iranian-Canadian serving a prison sentence in Edmonton for terrorism. Hiva Alizadeh is the first Canadian to be targeted by a law that allows Ottawa to strip the citizenship from Canadians convicted of terrorist offences, provided they are citizens elsewhere. The legislation came into force on May 29. (National Post, July 1, 2015)
“We think that there is a mutual desire for the dynamic deepening of the strategic cooperation between our two friendly peoples…When I see people coming from Israel, I always think these people, this population, loves Greece so much – but we have to learn to love Israel in the same way.” — Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. With Greece’s future shrouded in great uncertainty, Kotzias spoke in Jerusalem on Monday of developing an axis of security and stability among Israel, Greece, and Cyprus inside what he called a regional “triangle of destabilization.” Speaking alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu, Kotzias said this “triangle” begins “at the top” with Ukraine, and extends on one side to Libya, and on the other through Iraq and Syria. “We have to create inside this triangle a security and stability framework, and the relations between Israel, Cyprus and Greece are very important,” he said. “I call it the stabilization line in this area.” Kotzias was appointed in January, after the elections brought to power the radical- left Syriza Party, whose leaders in the past took a strongly pro-Palestinian position. (Jerusalem Post, July 7, 2015)
“How can it be that the eternal symbol of the Jewish people — the very symbol that the Nazis required Jews to wear in the death camps and ghettos of Europe during the Second World War — is deemed unfit for public display in Kavala?” —The American Jewish Committes’s executive director, David Harris. Kavala, Greece and its mayor, Dimitra Tsanaka, made international headlines a few weeks ago when Tsanaka cancelled the dedication of the unveiling of the city’s Holocaust Memorial because it had a Star of David on it. Tsanaka wanted the Star of David removed from the memorial. The international outcry made a mockery of the mayor and her city, until she was forced to reschedule the ceremony, which took place on Sunday, June 7. (The Pappaspost, June 9, 2015)
“I’m sick and tired… when we’re able to name South Carolina as a hate crime – which it absolutely was… a monstrous abomination of hate, a White hater killing nine innocent African Americans – you think it’s any different when Jews are slaughtered because they’re killed in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)? But there we start hearing there was a ‘provocation,’ because we dared live in their neighborhoods! There was a provocation because Israel built a wall to keep the murderers out!…We are the only nation on earth who are murdered and we are not even accorded the dignity of victimhood! We are the culprits, we incited our own murder!” —American Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Boteach was contrasting the worldwide outcry over the racist mass-murder of Black churchgoers in Charleston to the international reaction to murders of Jews by Arab or Muslim terrorists, what he said was a clear double standard. (Arutz Sheva, June 24, 2015)
“Governing has no relish for him. Yet he works hard at his public statements, and he wishes his words to have a large effect.” —Yale professor David Bromwich, blasting Obama in Harper’s magazine for his “peculiar avoidance of the business of politics.” In an earlier essay in the London Review of Books, Bromwich called Obama “the world’s most important spectator,” marveling at the chief executive’s seeming inability to even be aware of major problems bedeviling his administration until reading about them in the papers. “The weakness was built in to the rapid rise that carried him from his late 20s through his early 40s. His appreciative, dazzled, and grateful mentors always took the word for the deed. They made the allowance because he cut a brilliant figure,” writes Bromwich in Harper’s. (New York Post, July 5, 2015)
SHORT TAKES
U.S. AND IRAN RESUME TALKS AFTER ANOTHER DEADLINE LAPSES (Vienna) — The Iran nuclear talks puttered along Wednesday as Iranian and U.S. negotiators met a day after a deadline was pushed back to allow them to continue to seek a final deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear program and lift sanctions against the country. The delay in reaching a comprehensive agreement has assured an extension to 60 days the period Congress will have to review any agreement before President Obama can act to waive sanctions. As the talks have bogged down, foreign ministers from five countries negotiating alongside the U.S. all left Vienna after it became clear no deal would be reached by Tuesday’s deadline. In their absence, the negotiating teams from the U.S. and Iran remained in the Austrian capital, and kept trying to narrow their differences. (Washington Post, July 8, 2015)
IRAN WANTS U.N. ARMS EMBARGO LIFTED (Vienna) — Iran is pushing for a U.N. arms embargo to be completely lifted as part of the international community’s moves to improve relations with Tehran in the wake of an emerging nuclear agreement, a senior Iranian diplomat said Monday. The diplomat said his government wasn’t specifically linking the lifting of a U.N. ban on arms sales to a nuclear accord. But he said the U.S. and European Union no longer could justify placing curbs on Iran’s military and ballistic-missile programs. The demand is among the final issues still being negotiated between Iran and six world powers. Current resolutions ban Iran from producing nuclear fuel, mining uranium, and developing ballistic missiles that could be used to carry an atomic bomb. (Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2015)
IRAQ JET ACCIDENTALLY BOMBS BAGHDAD, KILLING EIGHT (Baghdad) — A bomb fell from an Iraqi Sukhoi warplane and exploded in eastern Baghdad on Monday because of a “technical problem”, killing at least eight people and wounding 17. The explosion ripped through small houses in Baghdad Jadida, tearing down walls and smashing roofs. Iraq received Sukhoi Su-25 jets from Russia and Iran last year as it sought to bolster its fledgling air force to combat IS. The Su-25s are robust aircraft designed for ground attack missions, but Iraq’s Sukhoi fleet is made up of ageing planes that have seen heavy use as Baghdad’s forces battle to push the jihadists back. The US agreed to sell Baghdad 36 F-16 warplanes, but none have been delivered to Iraq so far. (Yahoo News, July 6, 2015)
EGYPT: NEARLY 250 I.S. TERRORISTS KILLED IN SINAI, OVER 60 ARRESTED (Cairo) — While the worst of the battles between the Islamic State and the Egyptian army is likely over, fighting on the ground continued on Wednesday. The Egyptians claimed they lost “only” 17 soldiers over the past week, while killing hundreds of jihadists. According to reports from Cairo, most of the fighting is now centered in the Sheikh Zuweid area, not far from the Israel-Gaza-Egypt border. On Tuesday, the Egyptian army’s spokesman said 241 terrorists have been killed, four wanted men and 49 other suspects have been arrested, and the army destroyed 26 vehicles and 18 motorcycles used by the militants. (Ynet, July 8, 2015)
HAMAS: ISRAEL SENT I.S. TO DESTROY US (Gaza) — A journalist for an official Hamas paper has made a startling accusation: Israel sent I.S. to Gaza to undermine Hamas. Last Friday, Hamas finally acknowledged that I.S. was operating in Gaza, after long denying its presence. In response, journalist Faiz Abu Shamala posed a series of accusatory questions to the terrorist group, known in Arabic and Hebrew as Daesh. “Why doesn’t Daesh attack international naval ships on the Red Sea and the Israeli tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh? Why does Daesh attack the Palestinian fighters and not the collaborators with Israel?” The answer, Shamala proposed, is that ISIS is a pawn of Israel, sent to undermine Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip since Israel was not able to overthrow Hamas directly. ISIS and its supporters view Hamas as being too “moderate”, a sentiment expressed last week in a threatening video produced by the group and aimed at Hamas, Fatah and “the Jewish state”. (Breaking Israel News, July 7, 2015)
BOMB BLASTS ACROSS NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA KILL AT LEAST 31 PEOPLE (Kano) — Bombings have killed scores across northern Nigerian cities since Monday, the latest attacks in the worst spate of violence since President Muhammadu Buhari took office about five weeks ago. A bomb targeting a government building exploded in the city of Zaria, leaving at least 25 people dead. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed herself and four others at a military checkpoint in Borno state. At a mosque in Kano on Monday, a teenage suicide bomber detonated explosives as Muslims broke their Ramadan fast. The latest attacks come after about 40 people were killed in two suicide bombings in Jos on Sunday, the first major incidents in that city since February. Islamist militant group Boko Haram is trying to carve out its own state in Nigeria, which has a population of 180 million divided between a mainly Muslim north and Christian south. (Bloomberg, July 7, 2015)
FRANCE REPORTEDLY DROPS PRO-PALESTINIAN UN RESOLUTION (Paris) —France is reportedly back-pedaling from a decision to submit a resolution to the UN Security Council forcing Israel to renew negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. PA foreign minister Fiyad al-Maliki told Palestinian radio that France was instead advancing a suggestion to form a negotiations committee. The move follows a visit to Israel in early June, during which French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged the resumption of final status talks between Israel and the PA. (Jewish Press, July 8, 2015)
ISRAEL SLAMS US CHURCH FOR PASSING DIVESTMENT MEASURE (Jerusalem) — The Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed the million- member U.S.-based United Church of Christ (UCC) for passing a resolution calling for the boycott of settlement products and the divestment from companies that “profit from the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.” The resolution passed by a vote of 508 to 124. One of the more well-known churches affiliated with this movement is Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, which for many years was headed by controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright. President Obama attended Trinity for years, before quitting during the presidential campaign in 2008 as a result of a series of incendiary statements made by Wright. (Jerusalem Post, July 1, 2015)
REPORT: SOROS, SABAN GIVE TOTAL OF $3 MILLION TO CLINTON CAMPAIGN (Washington) — Jewish billionaires George Soros and Haim Saban reportedly have donated a total of $3 million to the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Saban, an Israeli Hollywood mogul, has given $2 million to Priorities USA Action, Clinton’s super PAC, while Soros, a Hungary-born business magnate, has donated $1 million, according to Politico. According to an analysis published Friday, also by Politico, Clinton is privately signaling to wealthy Jewish donors that no matter the result of the Iranian nuclear negotiations, she will be a better friend to Israel than Obama. But on the Iranian nuclear deal, which the Obama administration is working to close in the near future despite strong-worded objections by Israel’s government, Clinton has been noncommittal. (JTA, July 3, 2015)
IDF TO PLACE FOUR ELITE COMBAT UNITS UNDER NEW COMMAND (Jerusalem) — The IDF is placing its four elite combat units under a single commando brigade in the 98th Paratrooper’s Division. The combat units Egoz, part of the Golani Brigade; Rimon, part of the Givati Brigade; Duvdevan of the Central Command; and Maglan of the combat engineering force will be under the new command to be headed by Col. David Zainy. The new commando brigade will “improve joint operations of special forces in emergency [conditions]” and serve as “decisive front lines of the IDF against future challenges of the enemy,” said Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot. (Jewish Press, July 7, 2015)
NBA STAR’S GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN RAISES $440,000 TO SAVE LIVES IN ISRAEL (New York) — On June 22, six-time NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire presented a check for $441,318 to United Hatzalah—a nonprofit emergency medical services organization in Israel—as part of the Amar’e Saves campaign. Throughout the 2014-2015 season, Amar’e Saves asked young people to create teams of friends and family, each of whom pledged to make a donation for every point Amar’e scored. While playing for both the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks, Amar’e racked up a total of 719 points this season and drew the support of nearly 600 participants to the campaign. Stoudemire—who is part owner of the professional Israeli basketball team Hapoel Jerusalem—considers himself culturally Jewish and visits the country often. (Jewish Press, July 7, 2015)
MILAN’S HOLOCAUST MUSEUM NOW A SHELTER FOR AFRICAN REFUGEES (Milan) —Seventy years ago, Platform 21, the vast cavernous space underneath Milan’s Central Train Station where the Memoriale della Shoah di Milano (Milan’s Holocaust Memorial) now stands, was used to load Jews in secret onto trains destined for the death camps. Last week it was turned into a shelter to accommodate the influx of men, women and children who have fled war, hunger and persecution in Africa. In the past few weeks, thousands from Syria and Eritrea have traveled through chaotic Libya to sail across the Mediterranean Sea and reach Italian shores. Over 55,000 Africans have illegally entered Italy since the beginning of 2015. (Times of Israel, June 25, 2015)
KAFKA COLLECTION GOES TO ISRAEL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY (Tel Aviv) — After decades of legal wrangling, the Tel Aviv District Court last Wednesday awarded custody of the estate of Max Brod, Franz Kafka’s friend and publisher, to the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. The Court’s decision ended a longstanding dispute between Eva and Ruti Hoffe – the daughters of Brod’s secretary Esther Hoffe, whom Brod had left in charge of his estate upon his death in 1968 – and Israel’s National Library, which was suing for possession of the documents. At the heart of the debate lay the equivocal legal status of the Kafka estate. Brod – himself a major cultural figure known for his work as a novelist, journalist, Zionist activist and composer – had received the collection from Kafka; several decades later, he made a present of it to his secretary and associate Hoffe, whom he also named sole executor of his estate in his will. (Jewish Press, July 8, 2015)
ANCIENT JEWISH NECROPOLIS NAMED WORLD HERITAGE SITE (Jerusalem) — A top UN cultural organization on Sunday declared a 2nd century CE Jewish burial complex at Beit She’arim in northern Israel a World Heritage Site. A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) committee voted on including the Beit She’arim tombs in its list of sites notable for cultural heritage. The World Heritage List enshrined Beit She’arim because its catacombs contain a “treasury of artworks and inscriptions in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew” and bear “a unique testimony to ancient Judaism under the leadership of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch, who is credited with Jewish renewal after 135 CE.” Beit She’arim reached its apogee as a Jewish burial site in the 3rd and 4th centuries of the common era, after two Jewish revolts against Rome. Beit She’arim is the ninth site in Israel to be declared a World Heritage Site. (Times of Israel, July 5, 2015)
IMPERIAL ROMAN LEGIONARY CAMP UNCOVERED NEAR MEGIDDO (Jerusalem) — The remains of an imperial Roman legionary camp — the only one of its kind ever to be excavated in Israel or in the entirety of the Eastern Empire from the second and third centuries CE — have come to light at a dig near Megiddo, archaeologists said this week. Legio, a Roman site situated next to Tel Megiddo in northern Israel, served as the headquarters of the Sixth Legion Ferrata — the Ironclad — in the years following the Jewish Revolt, and would have helped keep order in the Galilee during the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132-135 CE. This season’s excavations have unearthed large numbers of ceramic roofing tiles marked with the sign of the Sixth Ironclad Legion, clay pipes, sewer channels and several buildings, all of which attest to the high level of planning at the site. (Times of Israel, July 7, 2015)
Iraq Falls apart as Iran-Backed Forces Keep Islamic State at Bay: Jonathan Spyer, The Australian, July 4, 2015 — Baghdad in the early summer has the atmosphere of a city under siege. Armoured vehicles carrying heavy machineguns are patrolling the area surrounding the international airport.
WFB Video: 12 Times Obama Admin Caved to Iran: Truth Revolt, July 7, 2015 —As another deadline for the Iran deal came and went, the Washington Free Beacon posted a new devastating SUPERcuts video highlighting twelve times that the Obama administration blatantly caved to Iran during its nuclear deal negotiations.
Still Unhidden Connections: Israel, Iran and ‘Palestine’: Louis René Beres, Jerusalem Post, June 28, 2015 — Although a seemingly separate issue, the Middle East peace process cannot be properly assessed without considering the simultaneous impact of a nuclear Iran.
The President Against the Historian: Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2015 —Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, has written the smartest and juiciest diplomatic memoir that I’ve read in years, and I’ve read my share. The book, called “Ally,” has the added virtues of being politically relevant and historically important.