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The Yale
Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
PETITION AGAINST THE BOYCOTT WEEKLY QUOTES (Source Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)
“With God’s help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine. By God’s will we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future.”Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a speech preceding the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad, who hasrepeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state, insisted June 3 that Iran would not back down from its nuclear plans. Washington has been leading efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic because of atomic activities which U.S. officials say are aimed at building nuclear warheads, a charge Teheran denies. The United Nations has slapped two rounds of sanctions on Iran since December and Washington has threatened more UN steps unless Teheran heeds a demand to halt uranium enrichment. (Reuters, June 3; New York Post, June 4) “I know that a peace agreement with Syria requires me to return the Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty. I am willing to fulfill my part of this deal for the sake of peace between us.”Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, secretly offering Syrian President Bashar Assad Israel’s strategic northern plateau in a letter made public June 8. This initiative was reportedly approved by President Bush six weeks ago. In exchange for the Golan Heights, Syria would have to break ties with Iran and with terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Olmert has been criticized by Israelis who claim that these back-channel messages are just a desperate ploy to remain in power. (New York Post, June 9) “[T]he Americans are pressuring the Olmert government to agree to…Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas's request to bring millions of bullets, thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles, RPGs, antitank missiles and armored personnel carriers into Gaza from Egypt…. [But] Fatah forces are unwilling and presumably unable to defeat Hamas forces. [And] Fatah forces use their arms to attack Israel. So even if there was no chance of Hamas laying its hands on the weapons, allowing Fatah to receive them would still endanger Israel. The same limited logic informs Israel's strenuous objection to the Pentagon's intention to sell Saudi Arabia Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-guided "smart bombs," or JDAMS. The government claims that while it has no quarrel with the Saudis, it fears for the stability of the regime. If the House of Saud falls, Osama bin Laden would get the bombs. Yet like Fatah, the Saudis aren't simply vulnerable. They are culpable. In addition to being the creators of al-Qaida and Hamas's largest financial backers, the Saudis themselves directly threaten Israel. In direct contravention of their commitment to the US…the Saudis have deployed F-15 fighter jets at Tabuk air base, located 150 km from Eilat.”Caroline Glick, columnist. (Jer. Post, June 7) “We do not physically supply the Palestinians with weapons. We just allow it to happen.”Statement issued from Defense Minister Amir Peretz's office, clarifying that these weapons would not be transferred by Israel to the PA. The guns and ammunition would be sent from Egypt to forces in the Gaza Strip loyal to Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas. Some officials in the Israeli establishment are opposed to this plan. “The last thing needed are more weapons in the Gaza Strip…. What good would it do to allow Fatah to get weapons if they won't be used against Hamas?” asked an unnamed high-ranking Israeli official who believes that the weapons would find their way into Hamas’s possession. (Jer. Post, June 7) “Allah Akbar. Praise be to Allah…. Who is your role model? The Prophet…. What is your path? Jihad…. What is your most lofty aspiration? Death for the sake of Allah. What is your most lofty aspiration? Death for the sake of Allah.”Excerpts from the Islamic Association in Gaza’s boys kindergarten graduation ceremony aired on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV. (MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 1607, June 1) “The president of the United States has made it clear that we are on a course that is a diplomatic course. That policy is supported by all of the members of the cabinet, and by the vice president of the United States.”Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, attempting to minimize any sense of division within the Bush administration over Iran after the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency delivered a pointed warning against what he called the ''new crazies'' pushing for military action against Teheran. During an interview with BBC Radio Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he did not want to see another war like the one in Iraq. “You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say, 'Let's go and bomb Iran,' ” Dr. ElBaradei said. Last year the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France offered a package of incentives to Iran if it stopped enriching uranium. Iran rejected the offer, and the UN Security Council has since passed two sets of sanctions aimed at forcing that country's governing religious leadership to change its mind. (New York Times, June 2) “This case shows, as did Fort Dix, that in some ways we have to face a more difficult challenge nowto find local and homegrown terrorist groups that want to cause harm to America. We have to expand our awareness that there is a new type of terror that is homegrown, less sophisticated but harder to track down because you can’t follow them from one place to another.”Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, following the arrest on June 3 of three suspects in the plot to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport. (New York Post, June 4) “Just like homophobia is illegal and anti-Semitism is illegal, religion-based hatred of the othercalling for the destruction of Israel, talking about jihad against the West, talking about an expansionist state in the Middle Eastall of that must be considered seditious. That’s got to be outlawed.”Ed Husain, a former member of the radical British Islamic group Hizb-ut Tahrir, explaining that Britain’s multiculturalism project has failed and that the country’s youth need a national identity in which they can root themselves. A notion of “Britishness” is key, Husain said. Husain turned his back on the Islamist group a decade ago after witnessing the murder of a Christian Nigerian man by a member of the Islamist organization: “[I] realized that ideas aren’t just ideas, they have an impact on people’s lives…”(Globe and Mail, June 9) PALESTINIANS ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE SOLDIER(Jerusalem) At least four Palestinian gunmen using grenade launchers and an armored vehicle broke through Israel’s border fence from Gaza on June 9 and battled with Israeli soldiers, while Israeli troops entered Gaza near the southern town of Rafah to search for weapons and tunnels used to smuggle arms and explosives from Egypt. Abu Ahmed, spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said that the goal of the raid (carried out with the help of members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed-wing of Fatah) was to kidnap an Israeli soldier. Today, the Israel Security Agency announced that it had foiled a double suicide attack on Tel Aviv and Netanya, also planned by the Islamic Jihad. Fatma Yunes Hassan Zak, the mother of eight children and pregnant with her ninth, and Ruba Ibrahim Yunes Haviv, Zak’s niece and a mother of four children, were arrested May 20 by Israel’s Shin Bet Security Agency as they were entering the Erez crossing which connects Gaza to Israel. Haviv requested the Israeli authorities' permission to travel to Ramallah, falsely claiming she needed to undergo medical tests. Zak was supposed to accompany her. (New York Times, June 10; Ha’aretz, June 13) SHIMON PERES ELECTED PRESIDENT(Jerusalem) Vice-Premier Shimon Peres was elected Israel's ninth president today, capping a six-decade political career in which he has held every senior government post. He will be sworn into office on July 15, for a seven-year term, replacing Moshe Katsav, who faces multiple allegations of sexual assault against female staffers. Speaking at the Knesset after the final round of voting, Peres thanked his family and the lawmakers who supported him and pledged to “give my all to serve Israel.” Peres said he saw his new role as a unifier of Israel's fractured society. (Ha’aretz, June 13) BARAK TO LEAD LABOUR AGAIN(Tel Aviv) Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak regained the leadership of the left-wing Labour Party with 51.3 percent of the vote, Tuesday, after resigning the post six years ago. His opponent and the head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, Ami Ayalon, earned 47.7 percent of the 65 percent turnout. Barak will replace current party leader and defense minister Amir Peretz, and is expected to keep the party in Ehud Olmert’s coalition government. (Globe and Mail, Jerusalem Post, June 13) SHIITE SHRINE ATTACKED AGAIN(Baghdad) Suspected al Qaeda insurgents today destroyed the two minarets of the Askariya Shiite shrine in Samarra, in a repeat of a 2006 bombing that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of retaliatory sectarian violence in Iraq. With the four-month-old increase of U.S. troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, U.S. commanders are turning to another strategy: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight terrorists linked with al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past. U.S. commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. (New York Sun, June 13; NYT, June 11) CLASHES IN LEBANON CONTINUE(Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon) Five Lebanese soldiers were killed June 9 in the latest bout of heavy fighting against al Qaeda-inspired terrorists entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp. Clashes between the Fatah al-Islam terrorists and Lebanese troops in the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon have claimed 130 lives since fighting broke out on May 20. The conflictthe worst internal violence in the country since the 1975-90 civil warhas dragged on, with the Lebanese army besieging the camp in efforts to uproot the terrorists inside. In the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanese security forces arrested three suspected al Qaeda members, including a Belgian, security sources said. (Reuters, June 10; Jerusalem Post, June 12) LAUDER ELECTED; HERBITS RESIGNS(New York) Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics magnate, was elected interim president of the World Jewish Congress June 10 following the organization’s open ballot voting which led to Lauder’s 11-4 victory. The board then confirmed Lauder as successor to Edgar Bronfman, who is retiring after 30 years as president. Lauder served as the U.S. ambassador to Austria in the 1980s and has since dedicated his time and fortune to supporting the Jewish community through schools to educate young Jews in Eastern Europe about their faith and history. Meanwhile, controversial WJC Secretary-General Stephen E. Herbits officially resigned from the organization June 10. Herbit’s resignation, which was long sought by Israeli and European officials of the organization, came after months of bitter in-fighting over control of the Israel office, which has not yet been resolved. (New York Times, Ha’aretz, June 11; Jerusalem Post, June 12) HASIDIC COMMUNITY SHAKEN(Montreal) Montreal’s Hasidic community is deeply concerned after a summer home in the Val-David area belonging to one of the community’s families was burned down on June 5. This was the second arson attempt on the home, the first attack, June 2, was extinguished by firefighters. This time the blaze destroyed the home built last year in the Préfonatine sector of Val David. Last summer, there were isolated incidents in which paint balls were shot at Jewish children and anti-Jewish insults hurled, noted Meyer Feig, director of the Jewish Orthodox Council for Community Relations. “Some of these people have never met a Jew before,” Feig said. The Hasidic Jews who live in the area of the fire are “extremely identifiable and it appears highly doubtful this was a random act,” said Steven Slimovitch, national legal counsel for the B’nai Brith League of Human Rights. (Montreal Gazette, June 6, 7) MOHAMMED NO. 2 NAME IN BRITAIN(London) Official records from Britain’s Office for National Statistics list “Mohammed”, when all 14 different spellings of the name are taken into account, as second, behind Jack, in its annual analysis of the top 3,000 names given to children. According to the Times, if the growth of the name Mohammed continuesit rose by 12 per cent last yearthe name will take top spot by the end of this year. It first entered the Top 30 in 2000. (Times-UK, June 6)
Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism | ISPS | yiisa.program@yale.edu
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