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The Yale
Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism YIISA SEMINAR SERIES ANTISEMITISM IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE On March 29, James Woolsey, former CIA Director 1993-1995 and Chair of Freedom House, will speak on "Energy, Security and the Long War of the 21st Century." This seminar will be held in Linsly-Chittenden, 63 High Street, room 101. Please see the seminar website for the Spring semester schedule. Please note that many of our seminars this semester will be held in room 101 at Linsly-Chittenden. YALE EVENTS Tuesday, March 27 at 4:30 Max Boot, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations "Revolutions in Military Affairs and the War on Terrorism." This lecture will take place William L. Harkness Hall (WLH), Room 208, 100 Wall Street Sponsored by ISS (International Security Studies) MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR During the last several months I have had the good fortune of being able to lecture at universities, human rights and community organizations in the United States, Canada, England, Germany and Israel. At the beginning of each lecture I ask those present if anyone has read the Hamas Charter. Incredibly very few people have, even students of the Middle East. Consistently, only about two or three percent of those attending my lectures have taken the time to do so. It is important that people read this central document and begin to understand the ideology, world view and agenda of the most popular political organization in Palestinian society. During these times when people are expressing a desire to see a settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, I believe that it is crucial to study and understand the perspective of Hamas, the potential partner in a peace process. A significant amount of scholars, public intellectuals and journalists in western countries are demanding that Israel be more flexible, and it appears that many view Israel as the obstacle to a just peace settlement. Some of these public figures envision all Israelis and Palestinians living together in one state. At the very least it is incumbent upon us to develop an understanding of the perspective and agenda of the parties in Palestinian society, as well as their supporters in Iran and across the Middle East. Please take the time to read the Hamas Charter, the foundational document of this growing social movement and political party. At one level you will find the Charter to be clear, honest and straightforward. There is no hypocrisy in the document. The main question, in my opinion, is how do we who strive for social justice, human rights and respect for all Peoples, and deal with and respond to a social movement of this nature. Charles Small Director of YIISA Click here to read Charter REPORTS Annals of National Security: The Redirection (New Yorker) Seymour Hersh explores whether the Administration’s shift in policy benefits our enemies in the war on terrorism. Click here for story NGO Monitor Highlights biased and distorted NGO submissions at the UN This report details problems associated with reliance on politicized NGOs, highlighting their lack of credibility because of advance biased political agendas based on a highly distorted narrative, heightening the conflict by utilizing inflammatory rhetoric which demonizes Israel and promoting false historical claims. Click here for report The Mecca Agreement: A Strategic PLO-Hamas Alliance for Establishing a Palestinian State without Hamas Recognizing Israel (Translated by MEMRI) Click here for report VIDEO, TV Palestinian Media Watch – Political Impact (PMW) Senator Hillary Clinton introduces PMW report on Palestinian schoolbooks. In her speech, she says “we must stop the propaganda to which Palestinian children are being exposed. That must be a priority for all people who care about children, who care about the kind of peace, stability, safety and security that Israel deserves to be guaranteed.” Click here to view The Israel Debate (Sky News) Is Israel guilty of ethnic cleansing? Dr. Ilan Pappe, called by some as the “most hated Jew in Israel,” says yes. But fellow Israeli Professor Efraim Karsh says he is “fabricating history.” Click here to view YIISA IN THE NEWS UN Must Stop Iran’s Threat of Genocide (Yale Daily News) YIISA’s student intern, Aaron Rothstein, a History major at Yale, co-wrote this op-ed with Ben Bosker in the Yale Daily News. Click here to read From the Yale Bulletin "As the Iranian regime becomes more explicit and bold in its incitement to genocide, the hypocrisy of some of the western left is intolerable. It is no longer enough to claim opposition to the fascist anti-Semitism that shook Europe to its core more than 60 years ago, a common practice these days. The left must stand firmly against this new contemporary form of genocidal anti-Semitism." --Charles Asher Small, quoted from his essay in YNet News, "Anti-Semitism and Unholy Alliance: Western Leftists, Islamists Have Nothing in Common Except Disdain for Israel." JOURNAL ARTICLES On Michael Walzer, Gaza, and the Lebanon War (Dissent) Jerome Slater discusses Michael Walzer’s theories on the morality of wars and claims that Walzer uses just war theory to defend Israel’s policy and the decision to go to war against both Hamas and Hezbollah. Click here to read Response to Jerome Slater: The Lebanon War (Dissent) Michael Walzer refutes and Slater’s claims in his previous piece and states that Israel faces an existential threat that is not of its own making and that last summer’s war was a radical disjunction between Israel’s two big Lebanon wars. Click here to read Iran: High Stakes (Dissent) Joschka Fischer, former German foreign minister (Green Party), gives a speech in Tehran to the Iranian Center for Strategic Research. He speaks on the current state and future of European-Iranian Relations. Click here to read Shlomo Avineri Responds (Dissent) Avineri discusses the Islamic Republic of Iran and the threat that the current regime poses in today's world. He explores to how the Western world should respond to the Iranian regime based on its character. Click here to read The London Review of Hezbollah (Dissent) A criticism of the London Review of Books for one-sided criticism of Israel and no concern about the dangers that the country faces. Click here to read The Jihadism of Fools (Dissent) Far left-wing politicians in the Middle East and Europe find common cause with representatives of Islamist parties. Since 2003, there has been an overt coincidence of policies, with considerable support for the Iraqi “resistance,” and more recently and even more explicitly, support for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Click here to read The Globe of Villages: Digital Media and the Rise of Homegrown Terrorism (Dissent) Feisal G. Mohamed explores the phenomenon of Western jihadists – those who have grown up in affluent Western democracies, yet attempt to attack their home countries with jihadist zealotry. He writes, “We still cannot entirely explain why lunatic Muslim clerics have found an audience among young men born into liberal societies.” Click here to read Who Wins in Iraq? Iran (Foreign Policy) Vali Nasr writes "After nearly 25 years of wrestling with Saddam Hussein, Iran's Shite rulers have the war to thank for their newfound power. Click here to read ARTICLES OF INTEREST Rhetorical Violence and the Jews (New Republic--Reprinted on Engage) On January 31, 2007, the New York Times ran a prominent story with the headline "Essay Linking Liberal Jews to Anti-Semitism Sparks a Furor," referring to Alvin Rosenfeld's essay "'Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism" (published in December 2006). "Prior to the Times' article, there really hadn't been much of a furor," he writes here, but "a major story in America's leading newspaper about an alleged attack on 'liberal Jews' raced around the globe and, in no time at all, unleashed a huge and bitter debate." Click here to read U.S. Criticizes UN Human Rights Body (Washington Post) For the second year in a row, the United States has decided not to seek a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, the State Department, accusing the panel of an anti-Israeli bias. Spokesman Sean McCormack said the council has had a "singular focus" on Israel, while countries such as Cuba, Myanmar and North Korea have been spared scrutiny. He said that though the United States will have only an observer role, it will continue to shine a spotlight on human rights issues. Click here to read No Apartheid in the Middle East (Guardian) Letters: Readers criticize the UN report comparing occupied Gaza to apartheid South Africa, and defend Israel’s current restrictions, which are based on legitimate security concerns not a belief in racial superiority. Click here to read Druze, Circassian Forum: Israel Should Remain a Jewish State (Ha'aretz) The chairman of the forum of the Druze and Circassian authority heads, Nabiah Nasser A-Din, on Thursday criticized the "multi-cultural" Israeli constitution proposed by the Israeli Arab organization Adalah, saying that he finds it unacceptable Click here to read Pushin' Europe's Button (Jewish Weekly) The storm over the Israeli band, Tea Pack, entry song in Eurovision, highlights the cultural gap between Israelis and Europeans. Sung in Hebrew, French and English, the lyrics to Pushin the Button allude to the threat of nuclear war, something on the minds of Israelis. Eurovision contest organizer says, "this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition." Click here to read Israel to Hold Nationwide Nuclear Attack Drill (Agence France-Presse) Next month, Israel will stage its first-ever nationwide drill simulating a nuclear and chemical missile attack on its cities, in response to the wake of last summer's war in Lebanon and Iran’s calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Click here to read Ahmadinejad under Fire in Iran for Hardline Nuclear Stance (Guardian) Critics from across the Iranian political spectrum criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his uncompromising stance on uranium enrichment as the US and Britain launched a new diplomatic effort to agree on harsher UN sanctions. Click here to read A Different Iran (YNet) "Israeli has a right to exist alongside a Palestinian state," says Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Iranian Human Rights activist, Shirin Ebadi. She added that "only a national survey should determine the fate of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program." Click here to read Iranian Women Are Arrested after Protests Outside Court (New York Times) Iranian authorities arrested 33 women on Sunday after protests outside a court where five of them were being tried for leading a campaign to gain more legal rights for women, newspapers reported Monday. Click here to read Israel: Arms Flow to Hizbullah Must Stop (Jerusalem Post) The world must stop the rearming of Hizbullah if it wants to see stability in the region, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told UN special envoy Michael Williams. For months, Israel has been saying that arms are being smuggled across the Lebanese-Syrian border to Hizbullah, while Western diplomatic officials have said Israel has not provided intelligence information to prove it. Click here to read Hamas Recently Upgraded its TV station and Internet Sites (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center) Although the Hamas government is bankrupt, the movement has invested massive sums in improving its propaganda assets, aware of their importance in the battle for hearts and minds against Israel and against its opponents in the internal Palestinian arena. Click here to read Iran Urges Visiting Hamas Leader to "Keep Resisting Israel" (Ha'aretz)Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday urged visiting Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal to continue its "resistance" against Israel, Iran's state television said. Click here to read Panel Finds 'No Evidence' Israel Used Depleted Uranium in 2006 War (Daily Star) International agencies announced a unanimous determination that no depleted-uranium weapons had been used in the summer war in Lebanon and that levels of uranium found in Khiam are consistent with natural occurrence. Click here to read Al-Qaida in South Lebanon (UPI) Al-Qaida has begun to infiltrate southern Lebanon, replacing Hizbollah militants who were forced out of the area by Israel last summer, said an Arab politician who spoke on condition of anonymity. Click here to read Palestinians Will Respond to Attack on Iran (YNet) Major Palestinian terrorist organizations are preparing to work together and will target American interests in the Middle East in the event that Iran is attacked said Abu Ahmed, the northern West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Click here to read Former Iranian Defense Official Talks to Western Intelligence (Washington Post) A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization. Click here to read Iran Providing Direct Military Training to Palestinian Militants (Ha'aretz) Iran is helping Hamas upgrade its military capabilities by providing technology, funding, and direct military training to Palestinian militants throughout the Middle East, Israel Defense Forces GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said. Click here to read Mashaal: Hamas after Mecca is Same Hamas (YNet) Exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal arrives in Tehran and says despite the Mecca agreement, Hamas has not changed and still will not recognize Israel. Click here to read Analysis: What Actually Happened in Riyadh? (Jerusalem Post) Dr. Guy Becher writes, "there are still no details on the conversation itself, but Abdullah apparently warned Ahmadinejad about the Americans, who are increasing their presence in the Persian Gulf. I believe that Abdullah offered to mediate between the Iranians and the Americans, and he has the ability to do so comparatively well." Click here to read Iran Poised to Strike in Wealthy Gulf States (Telegraph) Iran has trained secret networks of agents across the Gulf states to attack Western interests and incite civil unrest in the event of a military strike against its nuclear programme, a former Iranian diplomat has told The Sunday Telegraph. Click here to read U.S. Agrees to Meeting with Iran and Syria (Washington Post) The Bush administration has agreed to sit around a negotiating table with official representatives of Iran and Syria next month -- as part of the current policy of using the Iraqi government as a channel for discussion with its neighbors about ways to stabilize Iraq. Click here to read Hundreds of Hamas Terrorist Training in Syria, Iran (YNet) Hundreds of Hamas members are being smuggled across the Rafah border terminal to Egypt to attend advanced terror training camps in Syria and Iran, senior defense officials told YNet. Click here to read Report: Assad Flips Out at Ahmadinejad (Jerusalem Post) A phone conversation between Iran and Syria’s president reportedly turned ugly when Ahmadinejad voiced support for the establishment of an international tribunal on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariria sensitive subject for Syria. The report from a Kuwaiti newspaper said that Assad became enraged and launched into an angry tirade, cursing the Iranians at the end of the conversation. Click here to read Gang Expresses No Remorse for Rapes (Jerusalem Post) A gang of serial rapists has been prowling the North, raping Jewish women as revenge for IDF actions in the West Bank, police revealed Tuesday after arresting six suspects. "We are raping Jews because of what the IDF is doing to the Palestinians in the territories," one of the six suspects told investigators. Click here to read How My Eyes Were Opened to Islam: Is it Racist to Condemn Fascism? (Times Online) Phylis Chesler, a professor of Psychology and Women Studies at CUNY, writes an essay on her experiences living in Kabul married to an Afghan. Click here to read The Star of Afghaninstan's Jihad (Spiegel) The Taliban are gearing up for their "spring offensive" in Afghanistan. A series of brutal propaganda films is heralding thousands of suicide attacks. Click here to read One on One with Sir Martin Gilbert: Hindsight and Aforethought (Jerusalem Post) Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, promotes his upcoming book, Churchill and the Jews, and answers a series of questions about his views on anti-Semitism in today’s world and current events in the Middle East. Click here to read Germany's Merkel Condemns Attacks on Jewish Nursery (Reuters) Merkel called it "a horrible attempt to disrupt Jewish life in Germany." A leader of Germany's Jewish community said in an interview that anti-Semitic violence had reached a new and worrisome level with Sunday's attack on the nursery school. Click here to read Germany's Jews Say Government Fails to Fight Anti-Semitism (YNet) Berlin Jews still shaken by recent neo-Nazi attack on community's kindergarten, claim government underestimates anti-Semitics threats. Violent attacks against Jews have more than doubled over past year, community official says. Click here to read Bishops Equate Israel's Actions to the Holocaust (YNet) Hours after historic visit to Jerusalem holocaust museum, group of German bishops tour Palestinian Authority, say Israel behaving like Nazis . Click here to read Sanctions, What Sanctions? (Spiegel) German energy giant E.on has confirmed it is in talks with Iran to buy natural gas -- although Germany is currently discussing further sanctions over Iran's nuclear program with its allies. Click here to read An Insult to our War Dead (Guardian) A new law in Estonia threatens the very principle of the sanctity of the war dead by allowing the memorial that stands in the centre of the capital, Tallinn, to be dismantled, and the bodies of unknown soldiers who died fighting fascism to be disinterred and reburied elsewhere. Click here to read ‘Israelites Didn’t Build the Pyramids’ (YNet) Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, filed an official complaint to the Egyptian attorney general against a Cairo high school for teaching students that Israelites built the pyramids. Click here to read Islamic Movement Head Arrested in Protest against Mugrabi Dig (Ha’aretz) The head of the northern branch of Israel's Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, was arrested on Wednesday in East Jerusalem after waving a Syrian flag and delivering speeches seen as inciting. Click here to read ADL Condemns Farrakhan for Touting ‘notoriously anti-Semitic’ Books (Ha'aretz) The Anti-Defamation League condemned Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan for a speech in which he recommended "several notoriously anti-Semitic books.” Click here to read BOOK REVIEWS Islam in the West (Dissent) An essay that discusses books that fall into two categories – those that present Europe’s fight as a war between democratic Europe and the fifteen million indigestible Muslims it has, they believe, foolishly imported from undemocratic countries. The second school believes that this conservative analysis is a betrayal of democratic Muslim immigrants, a rebuke to the millions who have become Europeans and cannot be casually counted in the camp of jihad. They believe this is a civil war within the Muslim world, between Islamic fundamentalists and the Muslim moderates who despise them. Click here to read QUOTES AND SHORT TAKES “The remarks illustrate a woeful ignorance of history and a distorted sense of perspective… Making analogies between the mass murder that was part of the plan to annihilate the Jewish people, carried out under the German Nazi regime and the current situation in Ramallah, and using words whose rhetorical power is immense, does nothing to help us understand what is going on today; such words only further poison the atmosphere making it that much more difficult to find workable solutions to deeply entrenched and thorny problems. These unwarranted and offensive comparisons serve to diminish the memory of victims of the Holocaust and mollify the consciences of those who seek to lessen European responsibility for Nazi crimes. I urge all people to keep the Holocaust out of cheap political exploitation and demagoguery… Such use of the Holocaust misrepresents both today's reality as well as that of the Shoah; it distorts historical facts and context, and trivializes the memory of the Holocaust's victims and events.”Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev in a letter sent Tuesday to Cardinal Karl Lehmann, who led the Conference of German Catholic Bishops on a 10-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The German bishops' bitterly contentious comparisons of the situation in the Palestinian territories and the Holocaust stunned Yad Vashem officials, who had hosted the senior Christian leaders just hours earlier. (Jerusalem Post, March 6) “The Palestinian government should use its brave and pious forces to continue resistance against the Zionist regime.”Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urging visiting Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshal March 6 to keep fighting Israel. Damascus-based Meshal, for his part, praised Iran’s “financial, political and moral” support, and said, “We are looking forward to Iran’s support to the Palestinian nation and government…to break Palestine’s economic and political isolation.” Meanwhile, Syrian president Bashar Assad exchanged harsh words with Ahmadinejad during a phone conversation, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah reported March 7. The conversation reportedly turned ugly when Ahmadinejad voiced support for the establishment of an international tribunal on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariria sensitive subject for Syria, which has been suspected of involvement in the Lebanese leader’s death. The report said that Assad became enraged and launched into an angry tirade, cursing the Iranians at the end of the conversation. (Ha’aretz, March 7) “In the span of just two weeks, the United States has agreed to hold high-level contacts with Iran and Syria, and to start down the path toward formal diplomatic recognition of North Korea. Has the Bush administration gone soft on its foes? As recently as Jan. 12, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated what has been a constant of Bush foreign policy: a refusal to bestow on Iran, Syria and North Korea the legitimacy of diplomatic engagement as long as they refuse to bend on disputed issues. ‘That’s not diplomacy,’ Ms. Rice said before a Senate panel, in defending the administration’s stand on Iran and Syria. ‘That’s extortion.’ Administration officials insisted Wednesday that the new overtures, including an agreement to join Iran and Syria in talks on Iraq, did not mean there had been a change in policy… White House spokesman, Tony Snow [said:] “A number of people have been characterizing U.S. participation in a regional meeting as a change in policy; it is nothing of the sort.”… Ms. Rice has come under criticism from conservative hard-liners, both in and out of the administration. So far, her close relationship with President Bush has allowed her to prod the administration toward more engagement, while at the same time taking pains not to push Mr. Bush further than he is willing to go, administration officials said... In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s shift, [Ms. Rice] joined the rest of the Bush administration in increasingly confrontational oratory toward Iran. She accused Iran of aiding Shiite militias in attacks against American troops. She referred to ‘increasing lethality’ in those attacks, which she said the United States would not stand for. One senior administration official said the hard line helped Ms. Rice answer critics who accused her of being too soft. It also allowed the United States to sit at the table with Iran and Syria from a position of strength, the official said...”Helene Cooper, reporting for the New York Times. (NYT, Mar.1) PA CURRICULUM REJECTS ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST(Washington D.C.) A recent poll of Palestinian children shows a direct correlation between the PA curriculum and Palestinian children’s opinions. Among young people ages 18-25, those who have been most influenced by PA education, an overwhelming 84 to 93 per cent denied Israel’s right to exist. This was higher than the overall figure of 75 per cent who denied Israel’s right to exist. (Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, Feb. 28) ATTACK ON SHIITE PILGRIMAGE; EXECUTION OF SHIITE SECURITY TROOPS(Baghdad) Two suicide attacks targeted a crowd of Shiite pilgrims streaming toward the holy city of Karbala yesterday, killing 93 people. Meanwhile, the al Qaeda-affiliated group, Islamic State of Iraq, posted an online video March 3 of the execution of 18 Iraqi security troopsall shot in the back of the head while kneeling in a field. According to the three-minute video, the men were slain in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Sunni Muslim woman by members of the Shiite-dominated police. (New York Times, Mar. 7; AP, Mar. 4) MISSING IRANIAN OFFICIAL HAS ‘FLED TO U.S.’(Teheran) The Iranian former deputy defense minister who disappeared in while on a private trip to Turkey last month is said to have sought asylum in the United States. According to the pan-Arab London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat on Tuesday, Asghari left for the U.S. shortly after arriving in the Turkish capital. Earlier Tuesday, Iran’s top police chief accused Western intelligence services of possibly abducting Asghari, who is also a retired general in the elite Revolutionary Guards. Al-Sharq al-Awsat’s sources, however, claim the official was not abducted but left for the U.S. “along with the secrets he carried.” (Ha’aretz, March 3) POLLS: BBC SAYS ISRAEL LEAST POPULAR; GALLUP SAYS AMERICANS PRO-ISRAEL(London) Israel, Iran and the U.S. have the most negative image according to a globe-spanning survey of attitudes toward 12 major nations. The survey for the BBC’s World Service asked more than 28,000 people to rate 12 countriesBritain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the U.S. and Venezuelaas having a positive or negative influence in the world. Israel was viewed negatively by 56 percent of respondents. According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans are more pro-Israeli in their views today than they were 10 and 20 years ago. The figures have varied slightly from year to year, but averaging all polls conducted from 1993-1999 and comparing these with all polls conducted since 2000, Gallup trends show that the average level of sympathy for Israelis rose from 41 percent to 53 percent, while the average sympathy for Palestinians rose from 13 percent to 16 percent. (Ha’aretz; Jerusalem Post, March 6) MASHAAL SAYS ISRAEL WILL ‘DISAPPEAR’(Gaza) Israel will eventually disappear from the world, and the Palestinians should be prepared for that, Israel Radio reported Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal saying Monday during a meeting in Teheran with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At a press conference, Mashaal was asked if Hamas had now recognized Israel. Mashaal did not answer directly, but said: “The Palestinian government insists on June 4, 1967 borders (for Israel), full Palestinian sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital.” (Jerusalem Post, March 6) JORDANIAN PROSECUTOR REVEALS ASSASSINATION PLOT(Amman) A Jordanian prosecutor today revealed a previously undisclosed plot by three alleged terrorists to assassinate U.S. President George Bush during his last visit to the kingdom. The military prosecutor charged the three Jordanians, Nidhal Musleh al-Momani, Sattam al-Zawahrarh and Tharwat Daraj, with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks and the illegal possession of explosives. The three also were planning to attack the U.S. and Danish embassies in Amman. (Ha’aretz, March 7) Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism | ISPS | yiisa.program@yale.edu
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