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The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 1 No. 33
9 November 2007

'Israel may strike Iran' – US
(Ynet) American military sources were cited by the Times on Thursday as saying that 3,000 centrifuges would be a "tipping point” leading Israel to act. Despite stern US warnings in recent weeks, the Times report said, the Pentagon is reluctant to strike Iran at this point, but Israel is a “different matter,” according to the American sources.
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Interpol Puts 5 Iranians on Wanted List
(AP) Interpol put an ex-Iranian intelligence chief, a former leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, three other Iranians and a Lebanese militant on its most-wanted list Wednesday for a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people at a Jewish center in Argentina.
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Top Hamas official: We'll seize control of West Bank if Israel withdraws
(Reuters) Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, would take over the West Bank if Israel pulled out of the territory, a senior Hamas leader said on Friday. The comments by deposed Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar contrasted with remarks by Ismail Haniyeh, who serves as prime minister of a Hamas-led government dismissed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
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Hamas warns Abbas against concessions to Israel
(Reuters) Hamas warned the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against making concessions to Israel at a proposed peace conference sponsored by the United States. Addressing Arab intellectuals in the Syrian capital, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said the Islamist group's rivals were risking their political future by preparing for statehood talks.
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Israeli intelligence: Abbas is too weak
(Jerusalem Post) A recently exposed joint document by the General Security Service (Shin Bet), the Mossad and military intelligence states that "even if understandings are reached in Annapolis, the chances of implementing them in the field are almost zero."
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Although different in name, Human Rights Commission, Council the same, Third Committee told

(Relief Web) As the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) concluded its review of the report of the Human Rights Council this morning, Israel’s representative said that the moral bankruptcy and numerous shortcomings of the dysfunctional Commission on Human Rights had not become ancient history; and although different in name, that Commission and the Human Rights Council were one and the same.
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Iranian TV film on local Jews reveals little about their plight
(Haaretz) A new film being broadcast on Iranian television tells the story of the country's Jews, but does not address any hardships they may face. With Israel and Iran on the opposite sides of a diplomatic conflict, Iranian Jews are caught in a tight corner.
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NORTH AMERICA

Washington tells EU firms: quit Iran now
(Guardian) Multinational companies are coming under increasing pressure from the US to stop doing business with Iran because of its nuclear programme. European operators are facing threats from Washington that they could jeopardise their US interests by continuing to deal with Tehran, with increasing evidence that European governments, mainly France, Germany and Britain, are supporting the US campaign.
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(Washington Post) The U.S. and French presidents forged a common front against Iran's nuclear ambitions, signaling a further warming of once-chilly relations between Washington and Paris. In a sign that diplomatic ties have advanced beyond the era of "freedom fries," President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to keep the pressure on Tehran, which has defied demands to halt uranium enrichment.
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Sarkozy Reaches Out to America, and to Its Jews
(NY Sun) Reversing the anti-American stance of his many predecessors as president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy heralded a new and optimistic era of American-French relations yesterday on his first state visit here. Talking to members of the American Jewish Committee earlier, Mr. Sarkozy said France is ready to defend the existence of Israel, but the existence of a Palestinian Arab "nation state" is essential to end the Jewish state's differences with the Palestinians.
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Sarkozy petitioned on al-Dura
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency) In a statement, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations asked Nicolas Sarkozy, who is on his first official visit to the United States, to pressure France 2 TV to make available its raw video footage of the shooting of Mohammad al-Dura in Gaza in September 2000.
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Arbour slammed for failing to address anti-Semitism
(Canadian Jewish News) A report released last week by Geneva-based UN Watch has given the United Nations a mixed grade – at best – for its treatment of anti-Semitism and, at the same time, was highly critical of Louise Arbour, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, for being virtually silent on the issue.
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TC Professor Condemns Anti-Semitism
(Columbia Spectator) A Teachers College professor whose door was defaced with a swastika decried anti-Semitism at Columbia. “We’re [Jews are] comfortable here, but we’ll never be safe,” said Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is the faculty adviser for the Teachers College Jewish Association, the group that convened the press conference. “Anti-Semitism is not taken seriously.”
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Anti-Semitism Up in US, Incidents Worldwide

(Israel Nation News) Several anti-Jewish hate crimes were recorded in recent weeks as the Anti-Defamation League released a survey recording a rise in American Anti-Semitism.
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'Borat' creator make glorious fun of bookstore audience
(USA Today) Borat took a break from insulting entire ethnic groups to practice a little face-to-face oblivious rudeness with fans. All in honor of his book: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which came out Tuesday.
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One Last Thing | A lesson on Muslim view
(Philadelphia Inquirer) Bernard Lewis was in Washington recently, courtesy of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He put on quite a show. Lewis, 91, spoke for nearly 40 minutes, without notes, before taking questions. Google a few TV chat-show transcripts, and you'll see that, even among people who talk for a living, it is rare to find someone who speaks in complete sentences. It has famously been observed that Lewis - did I mention he's 91? - speaks in complete paragraphs.
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EUROPE

Al-Qaida recruiting teenagers to attack targets in Britain, warns MI5 chief
(Guardian) Teenagers as young as 15 are being groomed to carry out terrorist attacks in Britain and al-Qaida sympathisers are hatching plots in a growing number of foreign countries against targets in Britain, the head of MI5 warned. In his first public speech, Jonathan Evans described the threat posed by al-Qaida-inspired extremism as "the most immediate and acute peacetime threat" the security service had faced in its 98-year history. The threat, he emphasised, had its roots in ideology, making it all the more important that the response must not be indiscriminate.
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Our once-respected news sources are so dishonest
(Independent) Ian Doherty writes, “It's always hard to see something you used to respect and believe slipping into a mire of mediocrity and dishonesty. But it's something that cannot be ignored” in reference to the recent phone-in scam at BBC and articles at the Guardian.
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Britain’s Anti-Semitic Turn
(City Journal) Melanie Phillips writes, “At the heart of this ugly development is a new variety of anti-Semitism, aimed primarily not at the Jewish religion, and not at a purported Jewish race, but at the Jewish state. Zionism is now a dirty word in Britain, and opposition to Israel has become a fig leaf for a resurgence of the oldest hatred.”
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UK treasury minister to rabbis: We will fight anti-Semitism
(Ynet) The Standing Committee of Conference of European Rabbis convened last week in Manchester to discuss various issues ranging from anti-Semitism to building Jewish community life. One of the guests of honor was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Andy Burnham. Minister Burnham assured delegates that the UK would continue to fight anti-Semitism and make certain freedom of religion was preserved.
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Study: German teens anti-Jewish

Ukraine: Jewish school torched
(Ynet) Youths with history of harassing Chabad students set fire to Jewish school in Kiev, causing massive damage but no injuries. Local Chabad leaders say motive behind arson likely anti-Semitism.
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WEEKLY QUOTES (Source: Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)

“The new human rights council was delivered by some who thought they were giving birth to a new baby, but they have given birth to a horrendous monster.”
- ­Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman, slamming the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday for failing to deal with human rights violations around the world, and for disproportionately singling out Israel. “The real burning…human rights situations in our tormented world have certainly not been reflected in the council's deliberations, and one wonders, sadly, if they ever will,” Gillerman said following a meeting of the General Assembly's Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), currently discussing the Human Rights Council's institution-building package.

Meanwhile, an extensive study of antisemitism at the UN released by the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch on Nov. 1, argued that while some “unprecedented” steps have been made by the world body to recognize and reject antisemitism, it has yet to “fully live up to its promise.” Antisemitism, the report stated, is “aided and abetted” by “an infrastructure of manifestly one-sided and irrational UN measures designed to demonize the Jewish state,”­referring to the so-called “automatic majorities” of Arab and Muslim nations in the General Assembly which continue to push through anti-Israel, and often antisemitic, resolutions. The report also accused the UN’s Human Rights High Commissioner, Louise Arbour, of having “failed to take any public action” on bias against Jews. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 1, 6; National Post, Nov. 7)

“No Palestinian is authorized to offer concessions. With Palestinian divisions and the absence of institutions no one has the right to conduct negotiations as they please…. I tell my brothers in Ramallah. Your game is dangerous. Don't gamble with your political future. The Palestinian people won't accept negotiating on the core of the Palestinian cause as part of a game destined to fail.” -­Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, threatening the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday not to make any concessions to Israel at the proposed Annapolis peace conference sponsored by the United States. Israel and Abbas have said it would serve as the basis for talks to create a Palestinian state on land taken by Israel in 1967 as a result of the Six Days War. (Reuters, Nov. 5)

“First, the Palestinian Authority should return Gaza to its control, it should rule, establish security. Then we can talk about Jerusalem… If they put a border here, we'll move to Haifa and Tel Aviv. You'll have 50,000 people who live here leaving East Jerusalem in minutes.” -­Jamil Sanduqa, head of the popular committee that governs the dangerous Shuafat refugee camp, in an outlying district of Jerusalem, responding to a reporter’s inquiries about Israel’s talk of handing over parts of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians and dividing the city into two parts­: the capitol of Israel and the capitol of the Palestinian state-to-be. Of the some 250,000 Arabs who could find themselves under Palestinian rule for the first time in decades if the idea goes forward, many are less than eager for an end to Israeli administration. (Jerusalem Report, Nov. 12)

 “Iran's conservative sect is gaining power. The Iranian regime is faced with internal issues, but there is no threat to its existence or stability. Assuming it faces no difficulties, the worst-case scenario is Iran obtaining nuclear arms by 2009.”­Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence's research bureau, warning the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that time is running out  on taking action against Iran. If Iran's nuclear program went unchecked, Baidatz said, the Islamic Republic could have nuclear weapons by the end of 2009.  He added that the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained popular throughout the region, despite criticism farther abroad. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 6)

“I believe that in the face of the threat Iran's nuclear programme poses to Israel, our responsibility must be more than empty words. These words must be backed up by deeds. My government will follow its words with action…. It means intervening to protect the safety of Israel today and in the future, as well as our common values of democracy and the rule of law.”­ -German Chancellor Angela Merkel, upon receiving the prestigious Leo Baeck Prize in Berlin from the Central Council of Jews in Germany on Tuesday. She said she felt a moral duty to protect Israel and would stand firm in the face of Iran's nuclear ambitions and its threats to wipe the Jewish state off the map. She reiterated her support for tougher UN sanctions against Iran if it fails to comply with the demands of the international community to halt sensitive nuclear work. The chancellor said Germany only fully accepted its role in the Holocaust after reunification because the communist East German regime had rejected moral responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis: “It took more than 40 years for Germany as a whole to accept the responsibility it carries to ensure the safety of Israel…. Only by accepting Germany's past can we lay the foundation for the future. Only in as far as we acknowledge our responsibility for the moral catastrophe of Germany's history, can we build a humane future.” (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 6)

“If he doesn't, then I believe that the international community must choose between the people of Pakistan and him.”­Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, in her strongest comments since Musharraf assumed emergency powers on Saturday, told Britain's Channel 4 that the world must make Pakistan's military leader revoke his measures or tell him to quit. Bhutto, who arrived in the capital Islamabad on Tuesday, was due to meet leaders of smaller parties on Wednesday­though several have been detained. The United States and Britain were joined by the 27-nation European Union in urging Musharraf to release all political detainees, including members of the judiciary, relax media curbs, and seek reconciliation with political opponents. Bhutto said militants had taken control of the lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan­raising the possibility of the country fragmenting under the control of warlords. “God alone knows what would happen to our nuclear weapons in such a scenario,” she said. (National Post, Nov. 7)
 
“We will show that the various state sanctions in Arab countries did not occur haphazardly, but were the result of an international collusion organised by the League of Arab States at the time [post-1948] to set in place a blueprint for the denationalization of their Jewish nationals, the sequestrations of their property and the declaration of Jews as enemies of the state.” -­Canada’s former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, identifying new research that reveals an Arab League conspiracy to persecute 850,000 Jews residing within their borders in the post-war division of Mandate Palestine. At a press conference Monday, Cotler, along with co-researchers David Matas, a Winnipeg refugee lawyer, and Stan Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, unveiled their discovery of new documents, which they feel should be a factor at the upcoming Annapolis peace summit. The campaign will focus on how the UN failed to investigate the Jewish refugee issue due to Arab League interference.  (National Post, Nov. 5)

“Saudi Arabia is the ideological source of much of this sectarianism and must be held to account for it…. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should…be pressed to give full disclosure as to the extent and character of the support which it provides to a range of Islamic institutions in the U.K. … The British government must demand a far greater level of transparency from Saudi charitable institutions operating in this country.”­Excerpt from a report by the British research institute Policy Exchange, which calls on Prime Minister Gordon Brown for a “proper audit of the costs and benefits of the Saudi-U.K. relationship” and confront Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah over hate literature found in British mosques and schools that are funded with Saudi money.  The report, The Hijacking of British Islam, revealed that one-quarter of the 95 sites visited held documents teaching strident sectarianism, the abhorrence of non-Muslims and, in some cases, the advocating of violence. (National Post, Oct. 31)

SHORT TAKES

PALESTINIANS SMUGGLING WEAPONS ­(Gaza Strip) The IDF announced its discovery and subsequent explosion of seven tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt last Thursday. A Hamas representative acknowledged the tunnels were used to smuggle weapons and black-market goods. An IDF spokesperson said that all seven tunnels near the southern village of Dahaniya were active and used extensively in recent months, some had electricity, lighting, and ventilation. This week, U.S. House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia Chair Gary Ackerman estimated as much as twenty million dollars is smuggled into the Gaza Strip each month, emphasising it supports “the economy of a rogue government that staged a coup against the wishes of the Palestinian people.” (Jerusalem Post, Nov.1; New York Times, Nov. 2; Ha’aretz, Nov. 2, 6)

AS MAUSOLEUM GOES UP, ARAFAT’S POPULARITY BUILDS ­(Ramallah) Three years after his death, a mausoleum honouring the late head of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, is almost completed in the heart of Ramallah. The $1.7 million mausoleum project marks the beginning of a new campaign to mythologize Arafat, who is more popular now than when he was alive.  An adjacent mosque dedicated to Arafat is also being built, and will include a minaret topped by a laser beam that will point towards Jerusalem, the city he claimed as the capitol of a Palestinian State.  The Ramallah mausoleum remains a “temporary” tomb, said Mohammed Shtayeh, head of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction which oversaw the project, “until we reach Jerusalem.” (Globe and Mail, Nov. 3)

HEZBOLLAH RE-ARMED, CONTRAVENES UN RESOLUTION ­(New York) Despite the presence of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) a report compiled by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 indicates that Hezbollah has increased its military strength north of the Litani River. In addition to establishing a unit armed with ground-to-air missiles and tripling its arsenal of C-802 land-to-sea missiles, Hezbollah, according to an Israeli assessment, has acquired “hundreds of Iranian-made Zelzal and Fajr missiles that have a range of over 250 kilometers and are capable of hitting areas south of Tel Aviv.” This week, Hezbollah confirmed reports that it had recently held a large-scale exercise with thousands of armed troops near the Israeli border, to “deter Israel from attacking”. (Ha’aretz, Oct. 31, Nov. 5; New York Sun, Nov. 1; Jerusalem Post, Nov. 5)

U.S. NAVY PREPARES FOR PERSIAN GULF CAMPAIGN ­(Bahrain) Following an agreement in London by major world powers to impose additional sanctions on Iran, the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet began a five-day exercise in the Persian Gulf involving amphibious, air, and medical forces with an aircraft carrier and two expeditionary assault ships. Iran brushed off the threat as American morale-boosting. (Reuters, November 3)

ANTI-ZIONIST INTERIOR MINISTER ­(Jerusalem) The Jewish Agency for Israel, mandated with encouraging Zionism, received Israel’s Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who told its Board of Governors that “Israel should no longer grant automatic citizenship to Jews.” He proposed that Jews should reside in Israel for five years and pass a citizenship test, and denied that efforts should be made to promote aliyah or facilitate the immigration of underprivileged communities. Currently, Israel’s Law of Return grants citizenship automatically to every Jew who requests it. (Jerusalem Post, November 5)
 
SURVEY: AMERICAN ANTISEMITISM INCREASING ­(New York) A new survey by the Anti-Defamation League, of two thousand Americans registered to vote, concluded that fifteen per cent hold “unquestionably anti-Semitic” views, one per cent more than in 2005. This reverses a decade-long reduction in the rate of antisemitism. As in the last survey, fifteen per cent believe that Jews have too much power. Some results did decline: thirty-one (from thirty-three) per cent believe Jews more loyal to Israel than the U.S. and twenty-seven (from thirty) per cent believe Jews responsible for the death of Christ. (Last week, a Jewish professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Elizabeth Midlarsky, discovered a swastika on her office door.) (Ha’aretz, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 1)
 
NYU MERGES WITH THE CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY ­(New York) New York University has merged with the Center for Jewish History to boost its academic standing and secure the future of one of the world’s largest Jewish archives. However some sceptics believe the deal will cripple the Center, already struggling with operating budgets. It was formed in 2000 to create synergy among its five member groups: YIVO, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Yeshiva University Museum, the American Sephardi Federation, and the Leo Black Institute. Chair Bruce Slovin presented the groups’ leaders with a plan for the transfer of ownership to NYU and relocation of the University’s Hebrew and Judaic Studies department to the Center’s shared building, creating the largest institute for Judaic research outside of Israel. (The Forward, October 31)

INDECENT PROPOSAL ­(London) The proposal for a new London mosque, which would be the largest mosque in Europe, has raised controversy over a plan for it to occupy a lot within view of the financial district and at the entrance to the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. The group responsible for the project is Tablighi Jamaat, an international evangelical Islamic sect based in Pakistan that encourages Muslims to be more loyal to their faith. European and American law enforcement officials claim their simple message masks a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists. Two of the suicide bombers in the 2005 London attack had attended Tablighi Jamaat gatherings. The plan is currently on hold. (NYT, Nov. 4)
 
RICE AND HADLEY SUBPOENAED IN AIPAC TRIAL ­(Washington) Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, White House deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams, former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, and former undersecretary of defense Douglas Feith have been  approved for subpoenas by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis, who is presiding over the trial of two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee senior staffers, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman.  The two former AIPAC staffers are accused of conspiring from early 2002 through June 2004 with former Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, to disclose classified national defense information to foreign [Israeli] government officials. The defendants argue that the information obtained in conversation­no classified documents ever changed hands­was part of the normal “back channel” method often used by the U.S. government to convey information to the media or allied countries. The trial is scheduled to begin in January. (Ha’aretz, Nov. 4; Wall Street Journal, Nov. 6)