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
How Freelance Diplomacy Bankrolled by Rockefellers Has Paved the Way for an Iran Deal: Peter Waldman, Bloomberg, July 2, 2015
Iran Deal Could Lead to Improved Covert Arab-Israel Cooperation: Ariel Ben Solomon, Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2015
In the Face of Evil, Find No Comfort in Pacifism: George Jonas, National Post, July 13, 2015
France: The Early Diagnosis of the New Anti-Semitism: Manfred Gerstenfeld, Arutz Sheva, June 26, 2015
WEEKLY QUOTES
“When we examine this agreement — which is bad in every aspect — when we read this agreement, the picture becomes more bleak and we discover it’s filled with absurdities…For example, the agreement gives Iran 24 days’ [notice] before an inspection; it’s like giving a criminal organization that produces drugs a 24-hour warning before performing a search…In addition, the sanction snap-back mechanism is so complicated and serpentine that one needs a PhD to understand it. One clause creates a huge incentive to invest in Iran because it says that the reinstatement of sanctions will not apply to agreements that have [already taken place]. Another section includes the people that were removed from the sanctions list, one of them being Qassem Soleimani [commander of Iran’s elite Quds force], head of Iran’s global terror arm. It is absurd, terror [meets] nuclear [power].” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We are not committed to this agreement and will continue to oppose it. For existential [threats] there is no coalition or opposition. We need a united front to ensure our survival,” Netanyahu added. (Times of Israel, July 15, 2015)
“Do not be deceived by the propaganda of the usurper Zionist regime…Today, we are at an important juncture in the history of our country and our revolution and the situation in the region…Iran will honor the agreement, if the other sides abide by it.” — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani derided Israel for what he called its “failed” attempts to undermine his country’s interests. He dismissed claims that Iran seeks nuclear weapons, claiming “Iran has never sought to manufacture a nuclear weapon and will never seek to manufacture a nuclear weapon…The whole world knows very well that manufacturing a nuclear bomb … is considered forbidden.” (Times of Israel, July 14, 2015)
“Could you trust the Iranians if you get a deal with them, because their history isn’t, let us say, spotless in that regard?…A good deal has a few things it must have within it. One of them, it has to be verifiable. That is, we have to be able to know that the Iranians are taking the steps that the agreement calls for to not get a nuclear weapon. We can’t do that based on trust…Just like back in the old days of the Cold War when we had arms control with the Soviet Union, we didn’t trust the Soviet Union either. And we wanted to make sure that all the agreements are verifiable. So that’s a critical thing. And if it’s not verifiable, we’re not going to agree to it.” — U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (U.S. Department of Defense, July 10, 2015)
“We demanded a deal providing full dismantlement and de-establishment. The world powers came and said that’s not going to happen. It will be an agreement of monitoring and freezing [nuclear work] … But the freeze is anything but absolute and [the Iranians] continue to develop their nuclear program, and the unprecedented intrusive inspections regime Obama spoke about is becoming a joke, a farce. The monitoring under suggestion will be utterly useless,” —Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz. Steinitz said he was optimistic that Israel would be able “sway” lawmakers, and U.S. public opinion, to oppose and ultimately veto the nuclear deal with Iran. And should Iran seek “to attack Israel or obtain a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s right to respond using military force is unbound by any international accord, he said. “It is our right to do anything we want to prevent” Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he said. (Algemeiner, July 13, 2015)
“I think they [the Iranians] will invest in their surrogates; I think they will invest in additional military capability,” —U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey, during a June trip to Israel. Dempsey’s comments about Iran using sanctions relief to fund its terrorist activities and imperial ambitions has gone unnoticed by major media outlets. Dempsey remarked he “shared” Israeli concerns about funds going towards Iranian-supported Shiite terrorist groups like Hezbollah or to strengthen the Iranian military. And he expressed scepticism that relief from tight economic sanctions would go to improving the “lot of the average Iranian citizen.” (Camera, July 6, 2015)
“We are confident that the Islamic Republic of Iran will support, with greater drive, just causes of nations and work for peace and stability in the region and the world.” —Syria’s President Bashar Assad, who called the Vienna accord a “major turning point” for Iran and congratulated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2015)
“You cannot be with Palestine unless you are with Iran, and if you are an enemy of Iran, you are an enemy of Palestine and Jerusalem…The only entity that Israel considers an existential threat is the Islamic Republic of Iran…Why is Israel not afraid of anyone but Iran? Why Iran? Isn’t this a question we should ask on Quds’ Day?…Why doesn’t Israel have the same feelings toward Saudi Arabia or any other Arab regime? Because they know that Arabs have made an official decision to sell Palestine.” — Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, at a ceremony commemorating Al-Quds day in Beirut. “If the entire nuclear deal hinges on the precondition of acknowledging Israel as a state, the Iranian republic and its people would never accept such a condition, because they would be renouncing their religion if they accept such a stance,” Nasrallah added. (Almanar News, July 10, 2015)
“What concerns us every day is Iran’s terrorist activity against us, through arming Hezbollah and funding Hamas and Islamic Jihad and giving them information to develop weapons, and their attempt to open a terrorist front against us in the Golan…After the agreement, we’ll have Iran on the nuclear threshold and continuing to sponsor terrorism. Iran is mostly concerned with when and how sanctions will be removed. When they have more money to pay for these activities, Iran will be a greater threat not only to Israel but to the whole world…The bottom line is, a bad deal is coming, and after it, we will have to be prepared to defend ourselves on our own.” —Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. (Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2015)
“We assume that all sanctions against Iran will be lifted. We think that this [the sanctions] isn’t a way to solve international issues and problems.” —Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has backed Tehran’s calls for lifting the U.N.’s restrictions on conventional arms and missile sales to Iran. Iranian officials appeared to be using the arms-embargo issue to try to divide their opposite numbers at the negotiating table. (Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2015)
“The biggest regional fallout will be felt with regard to relations between Tehran and Riyadh, which are currently facing off in proxy wars to a greater extent and on more fronts than is the case with the Israeli-Iranian rivalry… [The] escalation and widening of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in recent years may pale in comparison with what will follow a nuclear deal and Tehran’s subsequent rehabilitation.” —Sharif Nashashibi, on Al-Arabiya reflecting on the increasing Arab anxiety over the Iran deal. Within the context of the greater Sunni-Shi’ite regional power struggle, an Iranian rapprochement with the West would tip the balance of power in Iran’s favor as it gains an economic windfall from the loosening of sanctions and increased trade. (Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2015)
“The conduct of the Iran nuclear negotiations has been wretched, with the Obama administration inconsistent, capitulating, exaggerating, and even deceitful. It forcefully demanded certain terms, then soon after conceded these same terms. Secretary of State John Kerry implausibly announced that we have “absolute knowledge” of what the Iranians have done until now in their nuclear program and therefore have no need for inspections to form a baseline. How can any adult, much less a high official, make such a statement? The administration misled Americans about its own concessions: After the November 2013 joint plan of action, it came out with a fact sheet that Tehran said was inaccurate. Guess who was right? The Iranians. In brief, the U.S. government has shown itself deeply untrustworthy.” — Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum. (National Review, July 14, 2015)
“Back in 1994, American negotiators promised a “good deal” with North Korea. Its nuclear plants were supposed to be frozen and dismantled. International inspectors would “carefully monitor” North Korea’s compliance with the agreement and ensure the country’s return to the “community of nations.” The world, we were told, would be a safer place. It wasn’t. North Korea never forfeited its nuclear plants and the inspections proved useless. The community of nations is threatened by North Korean atomic bombs and the world is anything but safe. And yet, against all logic, a very similar deal has been signed with Iran. And Iran is not North Korea. It’s far worse. Pyonyang’s dictators never plotted terrorist attacks across five continents and in thirty cities, including Washington, D.C. Tehran’s Ayatollahs did. North Korea is not actively undermining pro-Western governments in its region or planting agents in South America. Iran is. And North Korea – unlike Iran – did not kill many hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.” — Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. (Time, July 14, 2015)
SHORT TAKES
CHANTING ‘DEATH TO AMERICA, ISRAEL,’ MILLIONS MARCH IN IRAN ON AL-QUDS DAY (Teheran) — Millions of Iranians took part in anti-Israel and anti-US rallies across Iran on Friday, chanting “Down with America” and “Death to Israel” on Al-Quds Day, internationally observed annually on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. The controversial holiday was proclaimed in 1979 by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini as a religious duty for all Muslims to rally in solidarity against Israel and for the “liberation” of Jerusalem. Iranian President Rouhani attended the protest but did not speak at the main rally in Tehran, which coincided with nuclear talks in Vienna. (Times of Israel, July 10, 2015)
CANADA TO KEEP SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN (Ottawa) — Canada will keep its sanctions in place – at least for now – despite the nuclear agreement Iran has reached with major world powers. Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson issued a statement saying that Canada “will continue to judge Iran by its actions not its words,” and that the government in Ottawa will examine the agreement carefully before making any policy changes. But Prime Minister Harper was caught between two allies on this deal. While Washington pushed for a deal, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has warned against it. So far, Harper is sticking with Netanyahu’s doubts – though Nicholson said that Canada appreciates the “efforts of the P5+1” to negotiate an agreement. Harper’s government has also been sharply critical of Iran, and it suspended diplomatic ties, closing the embassy in 2012. (Globe & Mail, July 14, 2015)
WEST TO TEACH IRAN HOW TO BLOCK ISRAELI NUCLEAR SABOTAGE (Vienna) — Disturbing details of the Iran nuclear deal continue to come to light. Tucked away near the very end of the deal’s massive text is a section entitled “Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security,” which stipulates that the West will train Iran to thwart sabotage against its nuclear facilities. According to text, Iran will learn how to secure its controversial and covert nuclear program from all threats thanks to training by the “E3/EU+3,” another designation for the P5+1 countries. The section seemingly begins benignly enough, But then things take a turn, with the same world powers obligating to “co-operation in the form of training courses and workshops to strengthen Iran’s ability to prevent, protect and respond to nuclear security threats to nuclear facilities…” The text then promises “co-operation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against, and respond to nuclear security threats, including sabotage.” (Arutz Sheva, July 15, 2015)
NEW IRANIAN CELL PHONE GAME FEATURES HAIFA ‘MISSILE STRIKE’ (Teheran) —Iran has come up with a new video game that features a missile attack on Haifa. ‘Missile Strike’ was unveiled Friday on International Quds Day – the Iranian-created international holiday devoted to the destruction of Israel. The new anti-Israel game “displays Iran’s missile power and the Zelzal, Zolfaqar and Sejjil missiles (all built in Iran)” which are used by the players in the game’s first stage, according to game production project manager Mehdi Atash Jaam. (Jewish Press, July 13, 2015)
IRANIAN COURTS REPORTEDLY ISSUE $50 BILLION IN FINES AGAINST THE U.S. (Teheran) — Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei announced the tally of lawsuits brought against the U.S. on Monday. The $50 billion total represents only a partial list of legal complaints brought against the U.S. for damages inflicted on individuals and Iranian companies since the 1979 revolution. The fines against the U.S. include such complaints as aiding Iran’s enemies, including Saddam Hussein. (Breitbart, July 13, 2015)
HAMAS HOLDING TWO ISRAELIS HOSTAGE IN GAZA FOR MONTHS (Gaza) —Two Israeli men are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, including one who was captured in the Strip in September after he sneaked over the border fence for unknown reasons. The man who has been in Gaza since September was named as Avraham Mengistu, 28. The name of the second man, a Bedouin who also apparently crossed the border of his own volition, was not released. Ethiopian-born Israeli Mengistu is alive and being kept by Hamas in Gaza. Hamas denies holding Mengistu, but an Israeli source said this was because Hamas is seeking to avoid responsibility for his fate. (Times of Israel, July 9, 2015)
I.S. CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR BLAST AT ITALIAN CONSULATE IN CAIRO (Cairo) — The Islamic State (I.S.) claimed responsibility for a powerful explosion outside the Italian Consulate’s compound in Cairo Saturday that killed one person and was the first major bombing of a foreign diplomatic mission since the start of an insurgency here nearly two years ago. A statement by I.S. that was circulated on jihadist Twitter accounts said the group’s “soldiers” had carried out the attack, using a 450-kilogram car bomb. Over the past few weeks, terrorists have assassinated the country’s top prosecutor, carried out a large-scale assault on troops stationed in the Sinai Peninsula and tried to attack Egypt’s best-known tourist attractions. (New York Times, July 11, 2015)
SUSPECTED U.S. DRONE STRIKES KILL KEY I.S. FIGURES IN AFGHANISTAN (Kabul) — A key leader of I.S. and another top commander were killed in recent U.S drone strikes in eastern Afghanistan, the latest sign that the Islamist group is considered a growing threat in the country. A strike in Nangahar province — which the U.S. military said occurred Tuesday — killed more than two dozen I.S. militants, according to local media reports. They included Shahidullah Shahid, a former spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban who defected last year to help launch I.S.’s branch in Afghanistan. Afghan intelligence officials said I.S. commander Gull Zaman also was killed this week in a U.S. drone strike. (Washington Post, July 9, 2015)
PALMYRA EMPTIES AS BOMBS RAIN DOWN (Damascus) — Palmyra is fast becoming a crumbling ghost town, as Syrian government airstrikes aimed at loosening the grip of I.S. over the historic city uproot its residents and further endanger its famed antiquities. Nearly two months after I.S. took control of the once thriving outpost of the Roman Empire, Palmyra’s streets are mostly empty, and entire neighborhoods sit deserted. Out of a total population of 80,000 just weeks ago, only a few thousand inhabitants remain. Last week, Islamic State said it destroyed a number of statues in Palmyra, days after it demolished two mausoleums—one the grave of a deeply revered Shiite Muslim saint, the other the resting place of an esteemed Sufi scholar. (Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2015)
ARREST MADE IN ANTISEMITIC PARIS GANG ATTACK ON 13-YR OLD JEWISH BOY (Paris) — One arrest has been made and a suspect detained by Paris police so far in the gang beating of a 13-year-old Jewish boy on July 6 after he left the Colonel Fabien Jewish Day School. The boy was attacked by the gang after leaving the building in the 19th arondissement, according to the Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l’Antisémitisme (BNVCA). Sammy Ghozlan, president of the watchdog organization, issued a statement condemning the attack. “He was spotted as a Jew because he was wearing a kippa,” the group said in a statement on its website. (Jewish Press, July 11, 2015)
ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS IN FRANCE UP 84% (Paris) — The number of antisemitic attacks recorded in France during the first quarter of 2015 increased by 84 percent over the corresponding period last year. The SPCJ security service (Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive) of France’s Jewish communities released the figures in a quarterly report that counted 508 antisemitic acts recorded between January and May. In the first four months of 2014, SPCJ recorded 276 incidents between January and May out of a total of 851 that year, making 2014 second only to the 974 incidents recorded in 2004 by the service. The worst of the attacks this year occurred on January 9, when a terrorist killed four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket. Officials are expecting record number of French Jews to immigrate to Israel this year amid fears of rising antisemitism. (Times of Israel, July 13, 2015)
NEW ISRAEL FUND SUPPORTING & OPENLY FUNDING BDS AGAINST ISRAEL (New York) — Funded heavily by the New Israel Fund ($237,980 from 2006-2013), Israel Social TV is an NGO often used as a platform for conveying the anti-Israel ideologies of numerous NIF organizations. It is also used to promote the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement. Former NIF president, Naomi Chazan, serves on Social TV’s Public Council, along with noted supporter of sanctions against Israel, Noam Chomsky and Michael Sfard, the radical leftist Israeli lawyer who testified for the PLO during a federal trial in New York. (Jewish Press, July 13, 2015)
ISRAEL AND CHINA EXPAND TRADE CREDIT BY $500M (Beijing) —Israel and China signed an agreement to expand by $500 million a financial protocol that helps finance Israeli exports to China. The financial protocol, which since its inception has reached a total of $2.6 billion, insures lines of credit Israeli banks issue for Chinese companies purchasing Israeli goods. Most of the transactions, according to the Finance Ministry, are in health and medical devices, although education, transportation, communications, infrastructure and agriculture are included. Israel has identified expanding markets in Asia as one of the main potential growth engines for Israel’s economy. (Jerusalem Post, July 9, 2015)
OSKAR GROENING CONVICTED ON 300,000 COUNTS OF ACCESSORY TO MURDER (Berlin) — A 94-year-old former SS sergeant who served at Auschwitz was convicted Wednesday on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to four years in prison. Oskar Groening testified during his trial at the state court in Lueneburg, Germany, that he guarded prisoners’ baggage after they arrived at Auschwitz and collected money stolen from them. Prosecutors said that amounted to helping the death camp function. Presiding Judge Franz Kompisch said Groening had decided to be part of the Nazis’ machinery of death. The charges against Groening related to a period in 1944 when hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary were brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in Nazi-occupied Poland. Most were immediately gassed to death. (Globe & Mail, July 15, 2015)
RARE HOLOCAUST-ERA HIDEOUT PRESERVED NEAR WARSAW (Warsaw) — Polish officials have registered a rare hideout used by Jews during the Holocaust as national monument. The hideout in Rekowka, a village situated ninety miles south of Warsaw, was used by two non-Jewish families for sheltering several Jews in 1942. The subterranean hideout, which is connected by a trapdoor to the house that the two families shared, was home to six Jews, who were absent when German troops showed up at the house in December 1942 to search the premises, probably acting on an informant’s tip. Upon discovering the trapdoor, the Nazis killed ten of the two families’ members. Only four survived, and they sealed the hideout and left it untouched for 72 years. (Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2015)
14TH EUROPEAN MACCABI GAMES WILL BE FIRST JEWISH SPORTING EVENT IN GERMANY (Berlin) — More than 2,000 Jewish athletes will participate in the 14th European Maccabi Games that will open this month in Berlin. The competition will be first Jewish-organized sporting event to take place in Germany. The competition will take place at the Olympiastadion, the same Olympic stadium built and used for the Summer Olympics of 1936 during the Nazi era. At that time, Jews were discouraged from participating. Participants in this month’s competition will come from 36 countries and compete in 19 disciplines. The previous European Maccabi Games were held in Vienna in 2011, which marked the largest Jewish gathering in the Austrian city since the Holocaust. (JNS, July 14, 2015)
How Freelance Diplomacy Bankrolled by Rockefellers Has Paved the Way for an Iran Deal: Peter Waldman, Bloomberg, July 2, 2015 —Cutting a nuclear deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be the easy part for President Obama, who must then persuade both houses of Congress to sign off on the pact.
Iran Deal Could Lead to Improved Covert Arab-Israel Cooperation: Ariel Ben Solomon, Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2015 —If a nuclear deal is reached between world powers and Shi’ite Iran, it could stimulate covert cooperation between Israel and Sunni Arab states.
In the Face of Evil, Find No Comfort in Pacifism: George Jonas, National Post, July 13, 2015 —What excuses, or at least mitigates, U.S. President Barack Obama and his negotiating team’s inability to get to first base in trying to convince the current rulers of Iran to give up the idea of developing nuclear weapons, is the near-certainty that no one could.
France: The Early Diagnosis of the New Anti-Semitism: Manfred Gerstenfeld, Arutz Sheva, June 26, 2015 —Anti-Semitism in Europe has increased to a level where many committed Jews ask themselves if they should emigrate. The same is true for a significant number of more assimilated Jews. Even more widespread across the Jewish community is the question of whether their children should remain in their native country.