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The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 1 No. 35
30 November 2007

RELATED EVENTS OF INTEREST AT YALE
 
Tuesday, Dec. 4 @ 7 PM | Sudler Hall (William L. Harkness Hall, Rm. 201), 100 Wall St .
“The History of Hate” panel discussion
Chair: Jon Butler, Dean of the Graduate School ; Panelists: Professors Glenda Gilmore, Jonathan Holloway, and Ben Kiernan

Wednesday, Dec. 5 @ 4 PM | 208 Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St .
“Martyrdom Transfigured: The Holocaust and André Schwarz-Bart’s The Last of the Just 
Speaker: Froma Zeitlin,  Ewing Professor of Greek Language & Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University  
Presented by the Program in Judaic Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, and the Department of French at Yale University  
Free and open to the public 
Sponsored by Rose & John Fox Fund of the Program in Judaic Studies
 
 
SPECIAL REPORTS
 
Anti-Semitism and the Left that Doesn’t Learn
(Dissent) A determined offensive is underway. Its target is in the Middle East , and it is an old target: the legitimacy of Israel . Hezbollah and Hamas are not the protagonists, the contested terrains are not the Galilee and southern Lebanon or southern Israel and Gaza . The means are not military. The offensive comes from within parts of the liberal and left intelligentsia in the United States and Europe . It has nothing to do with this or that negotiation between Israelis and Palestinians, and it has nothing to do with any particular Israeli policy.
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Bush at Annapolis : Hints about the Final Thirteen Months
(The Washington Institute for Near East Policy) The Annapolis summit featured an impressive display of international support for renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Beyond the headlines and photo-ops, the most significant aspect of the event was that President Bush offered little sign he plans to devote the final months of his administration to a high-stakes personal quest for a permanent peace treaty between the two parties.
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An Invented Attack Leads to Decreasing Condemnation of Anti-Semitism in France : A Case Study
( Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) The affair of a falsely reported anti-Semitic attack on a woman in a suburban Paris train station in 2004 greatly affected how French politicians and media deal with anti-Semitism. Initially, all voices condemned the incident as the "victim" gave dramatic details. The increase in anti-Semitic acts since 2000 lent credence to the supposed aggression. The revelation that the story had been fabricated was met with almost total political silence. The media focused on apologies to nonintegrated communities, the supposed source of the invented assailants. Three years later, in 2007, a real anti-Semitic attack in Marseilles did not receive any public attention. The precedent of the fabricated 2004 incident appears to have significantly harmed the fight against anti-Semitism.
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BOOK REVIEW
 
The Big Lie: On Terror, anti-Semitism and Identity
By David Solway
Beryl Wajsman writes, “ Hudson resident David Solway is arguably Canada ’s finest poet. His numerous works are filled with passionate imagery and sublime expressions of spirit. But this year he entered into what was uncharted territory for him. And produced one of the most compelling works on the world in which we now live and the ongoing battle for its civilization.”
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
 
MIDDLE EAST
 
Gathering Israelis and Arabs May Have Been the Real Feat
( Washington Post) The outcome of Bush's new effort in Annapolis with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will depend greatly on the personal commitment he is willing to invest in the unfolding process, according to officials and experts on the Middle East . White House officials reject the frequent criticism that Bush has been disengaged from the Middle East peace process, while waging war in Iraq and focusing on other issues.
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Oasis or Mirage?
(NY Times) Thomas Friedman writes about the Annapolis conference: “The Middle East is experiencing something we haven’t seen in a long, long time: moderates getting their act together a little, taking tentative stands and pushing back on the bad guys. The only problem is that this tentative march of the moderates — which got a useful boost here with the Annapolis peace gathering — is driven largely by fear, not by any shared vision of a region where Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Jew, trade, interact, collaborate and compromise in the way that countries in Southeast Asia have learned to do for their mutual benefit.”
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Day after Annapolis: Palestinian Authority TV shows" Palestine" map erasing Israel
(Palestinian Media Watch) Just a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Annapolis peace conference pledged to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008, Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority continues to paint a picture for its people of a world without Israel .
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Gillerman: UN giving Palestinians fictitious sense of reality
(Ynet) The United Nations General Assembly conducted a discussion Thursday marking 60 years since the vote ending the British mandate and establishing in its stead two states- one Jewish, the other Arab. Nevertheless, instead of celebrating the event, Arab states continued to force on fellow member nations an annual discussion under the title "the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."
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Exclusive: 'Fatah, Hamas will join ranks if IDF raids Gaza '
( Jerusalem Post) Fatah will fight alongside Hamas if and when the IDF launches a military operation in the Gaza Strip, a senior Fatah official in Gaza City . "Fatah won't remain idle in the face of an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip," the official said. "We will definitely fight together with Hamas against the Israeli army. It's our duty to defend our people against the occupiers."
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At least 60 hurt in Fatah-Hamas clashes
( Jerusalem Post) "Today we are going to break the bones of anyone who dares to demonstrate in the street," a Palestinian police officer shouted at a group of journalists as they arrived to cover the funeral of a man who was killed a day earlier during protests against the Annapolis peace conference.
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BRIEFING: For militants, Gaza violence a way of life
( Washington Times) Paul Martin presents an image of the role of violence in the daily life for those who live in Gaza . He tells the story of Haroon, a veteran of the conflict with Israel, who first threw stones at soldiers as an 11-year-old,  began firing bullets in 2000, and soon learned the dark arts of rocket preparation and dispatch. Now he is handing an automatic rifle to his nephew, half the size of the weapon.
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Day after Annapolis : Palestinian Authority TV shows “ Palestine ” map erasing Israel
(Palestinian Media Watch) Just a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Annapolis peace conference pledged to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008, Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority continues to paint a picture for its people of a world without Israel .
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Rights group slams Iran crackdown on activists
(Agence France-Presse) The government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up a crackdown on students, unionists and teachers in the past months, Nobel winner Shirin Ebadi's rights group said.
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Al-Qaeda kingpin: I trained 9/11 hijackers
(The Sunday Times) From his Turkish jail, a senior terrorist claims a key role in atrocities around the world.
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The Crime of Qatif
(The Daily Standard) Much of the world has expressed shock and outrage at the sentences recently handed down by a court in the Saudi Arabian city of Qatif . Judicial authorities there ordered that a 19-year-old woman be lashed 200 times and jailed for six months after she was kidnapped at knife-point and raped by seven men, twice by each. Her assailants received "enhanced" penalties--two to nine years in prison.
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NORTH AMERICA
 
Metro Views: Metro- New York Jewry under siege?
(JPost) After a disturbing season of bias incidents, New York City will hold a "Day Out Against Hate." It seems, though, that despite the hand-wringing and headline-grabbing incidents, there are not serious anti-Semitic or racial problems in metropolitan New York and its environs.
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Barbara Kay on the college campus: anti-Semitism's last refuge
(Canadian National Post) A new strain of the old cancer is metastasizing throughout Western countries with large, alienated Muslim populations. The new international, Israel-focused anti-Semitism -- the 2001 Durban Conference was a classic manifestation -- joins fascist Muslims and left-wing ideologues in common cause.
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Barbara Kay: Taking back the campus
(Canadian National Post) The coming milestone of Israel 's 60th anniversary next spring is ratcheting up anti-Zionist organizations' zeal for greater impact during the 2007-08 academic year. Like most such initiatives -- Israeli Apartheid Week is an American import -- their new projects will soon make their way to Canadian campuses.
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Quebec cardinal seeks forgiveness for his church
(The Star) Canada 's senior Roman Catholic clergyman has issued an extraordinary mea culpa for a host of historical misdeeds from sex abuse of children to anti-Semitism – raising hackles for critics of Quebec 's church-dominated past.
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EUROPE
 
Protests as Holocaust denier appears at Oxford
(Ynet) Chaos erupts as enraged demonstrators break into Oxford debating society to protest platform given to controversial historian David Irving, BNP leader Nick Griffin. Student: ' Irving as much an offense to history as he is to the Jewish people.' Oxford Union president defends invite, says debate is about freedom of speech
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MP quits Oxford Union in BNP row
(Telegraph) A senior Conservative MP has resigned his membership of the Oxford Union as the pressure mounted on the organisers of tonight's debate on free speech to withdraw an invitation to Nick Griffin, of the British National Party, and Holocaust denier David Irving.
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Jewish lobby' comment surprises France
( Jerusalem Post) France 's Foreign Ministry expressed surprise on Wednesday over an Algerian government minister's remarks about a "Jewish lobby" being behind French President Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power.
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In French Suburbs, Same Rage, but New Tactics
(NY Times) Two years after France ’s immigrant suburbs exploded in rage, the rituals and acts of resentment have reappeared with an eerie sameness: roving gangs clashing with riot police forces, the government appealing for calm, residents complaining that they are ignored.
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Paris Jews face growing anti-Semitism
(Ynet) A wave of anti-Semitic violent incidents in the Albert Camus neighborhood in Paris ' 10th quarter has shaken the lives of the suburb's Jewish residents, who are becoming increasingly concerned for their safety.
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Ukrainian Jewish activists meet
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency) More than 30 Jewish activists and experts from throughout Ukraine gathered Nov. 23-24 in Kiev for the annual meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine, or Vaad, together with the Zionist Federation of Ukraine.
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Ukrainian cemetery vandalized
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency) The Jewish cemetery in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir was vandalized. Unidentified vandals forced open the front door of the Ohel of Tzadik Rabbi Aharon from Zhitomir , a student of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. Swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were spray-painted on the walls and ceiling of the Ohel.
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WEEKLY QUOTES (Source: Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)
 
 “We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples, to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition, to propagate a culture of peace and non-violence, and to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis. In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treat. ­-Excerpt from the Joint Statement of the Annapolis Conference, finally presented to President George W. Bush only minutes before he was to go on national television to read the joint remarks. Absent from the statement is any reference to the status of Jerusalem , a “core issue” that Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas repeatedly promised to address. The British weekly The Economist ran a cover shot of President Bush under the banner headline “Mr. Palestine. The only man who could make it happen.” (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nov. 27; Globe and Mail, Nov. 28; The Economist, Nov. 24-30)

“Our purpose here in Annapolis is not to conclude an agreement. Rather, it is to launch negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.... First, the time is right because Palestinians and Israelis have leaders who are determined to achieve peace. The emergence of responsible Palestinian leaders has given Israeli leaders the confidence they need to reach out to the Palestinians in true partnership. Second, the time is right because a battle is underway for the future of the Middle East­ and we must not cede victory to the extremists. With their violent actions and contempt for human life, the extremists are seeking to impose a dark vision on the Palestinian people.”­-President George W. Bush, signing off on the start of new Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process that will allegedly result in the creation of a Palestinian state before Bush leaves office in January 2009. Negotiating teams will hold their first session in the region in just two weeks, on Dec. 12. (Ha’aretz, Nov. 28)

“I have no doubt that the reality created in our region in 1967 will change significantly. While this will be an extremely difficult process for many of us, it is nevertheless inevitable. I know it. Many of my people know it. We are ready for it.” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Annapolis talks, pledging Israel’s readiness to make “painful compromises”, and suggesting that Israel would cede the West Bank land it acquired in the 1967 Six Days War. (National Post, Nov. 28)

“Neither we nor you must beg for peace from the other. It is a joint interest for us and you…. Peace and freedom is a right for us, just as peace and security is a right for you and us.”Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority and leader of the Fatah faction, directing his post-Annapolis comments to the Israeli people. But in a clear sign of the obstacles ahead, Abbas gave no indication that the Palestinians were willing to concede on any of the issues, which include final borders and the existence of Jewish settlements: “I have the right to defend openly and with no hesitation the right of my people to see a new dawn, with no occupation, no settlements, no separation wall, no prisons with thousands of prisoners, no assassinations, no siege and no roadblocks around villages and cities,” he said. (Daily Telegraph-UK, Times Online-UK, Nov. 28

“Today you are here to send a message to...say the land of Palestine is not for sale. Whoever thinks we will recognise a Jewish state...are deluding themselves. There will be no recognition of the state of Israel .”­ -Mahmoud Zahar, a hate-spewing Hamas member, expressing the ever-popular Palestinian sentiment never to recognize Jewish Israel, at the Gaza protest of the Annapolis conference. More than 100,000 people attended the Gaza demonstration, while in the Fatah-controlled West Bank, violence erupted during anti-Abbas protests. Fatah police opened fire on a crowd in the city of Hebron , killing a 36-year-old man. In Ramallah, around 1,000 people tried to march from a mosque, but were surrounded by police who clubbed protesters, fired over their heads to disperse the crowd, and attacked an Al Jazeera TV crew. Around 150 arrests were made. (Daily-Telegraph-UK, Nov. 28; CBS News, Nov. 27)

“We realize that this conference was stillborn and is not going to achieve for the Palestinian people any of its goals or any of the political and legal rights due to them.”­ -Hamas’s Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, insisting that the Annapolis conference will achieve nothing for the Palestinians. Haniyeh added that President Abbas did not have the mandate to make compromises in talks with Israel , especially over the demand of the Palestinians’ so-called right of return. “No one is authorized to compromise or to give up any of these rights, especially the right of return,” Haniyeh said. (Ha’aretz, Nov. 22)

“Any settlement that does not include the return of the refugees, [ Israel 's] ceding of the land and the holy sites, and the release of the prisoners is ridiculous…. The attempt to force such a solution led to the second Intifada.” ­-Ahmad Baher, deputy chairman of the Hamas parliament in a veiled threat at the signing of an anti-Annapolis petition by Hamas parliamentarians in Gaza . The petition, signed by former Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh, declares their opposition to any Palestinian "concessions" on Jerusalem and on the refugee issue and affirms the Palestinian’s right to uphold the armed struggle against Israel . “The Palestinian people hold the exclusive right to decide its fate in any manner it sees fit, and it owns the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea ," the statement reads. (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 26)

“If you don’t control the guns and a monopoly on force, people don’t respect you…. Will an Israeli prime minister make existential concessions to a man who doesn’t control the guns?” -­Former American peace negotiator Aaron David Miller, explaining that Abbas is considered by many a virtual president in charge of little, and that if the Israeli military pulled out of the West Bank, he might not last more than a day. (New York Times, Nov. 25) 

“One must be blind not to see that dividing the capital will bring the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, government ministries and schools into the range of Kassams.”­ -Former chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (Res.) Moshe Ya'alon, explaining the dangers of dividing Jerusalem , at a Jerusalem rally last Sunday. The former chief of staff, who was a vocal opponent of the 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gaza , said that those who believed an Israeli withdrawal from Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem would lead to stability had not learned the lessons of the pullout from Gaza . “Whoever runs away from terrorism will find himself chased by terrorism,” he said. “We cannot let blind politicians divide Jerusalem .” ( Jerusalem Post, Nov. 25)


SHORT TAKES

PA TV: SHOWS “ PALESTINE ” ERASING ISRAEL ( Jerusalem ) Just a day after Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas pledged to negotiate a peace treaty at the Annapolis peace conference, the Palestinian Authority continues to paint a picture for its people of a world without Israel . An information clip produced by the PA Central Bureau of Statistics and rebroadcast today on Abbas-controlled Palestinian TV, shows a map in which Israel is draped in the colors of the Palestinian flag. This uniform message of a world without Israel is repeated in school books, children's programs, crossword puzzles, video clips, formal symbols, school and street names. The picture painted for the Palestinian population, both verbally and visually, is of a world without Israel . This message would appear to contradict the central promise of the Palestinians at the Annapolis conference: Israel ’s right to exist. (Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, Nov. 28)
 
ISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS: LITTLE HOPE FOR PEACE­ ( Jerusalem ) Recent polls show that while most Israelis and Palestinians support the Annapolis conference, few expect a successful outcome. The Near East Consulting firm found 57 per cent of the 1,200 Palestinians they polled don’t believe the conference will lead to progress. Of the 500 Israelis polled by the Dahaf Research Institute, 82 per cent doubt a final peace agreement can be achieved by the end of 2008, 55 per cent are not in favour of dismantling most of Israel’s West Bank settlements, and two-thirds of respondents would not compromise on control of Jerusalem. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is worried that Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman may resign from the coalition when final-status negotiations begin. If his Yisrael Beiteinu party left, the Orthodox religious Shas party would in turn come under pressure to follow. Last week, Lieberman said the decision would depend on the results from Annapolis . ( Jerusalem Post, Nov. 23; Ha’aretz, Nov. 26)
 
PA RELEASES HAMAS PRISONERS ­(Ramallah) No Hamas prisoner detained in Palestinian jails in the West Bank since June has gone to trial and most have been released, reported the Jerusalem Post Sunday. On Nov. 25,  prior to Abbas’ departure to Annapolis, the Palestinian Authority decided to release three more prisoners­ Ahmed Dolah, a senior Hamas leader, and Ala al-Titi and Assid Amarneh, both from Al-Aqsa TV­ despite the terrorists’ stated intention to disrupt the conference. ( Jerusalem Post, Nov. 25)

PROTESTERS DISRUPT OXFORD DEBATE WITH HOLOCAUST DENIER ­(Oxford, UK) Five hundred anti-fascist demonstrators, including Jewish and Muslim students, broke into the hall where the Oxford Union, a 184-year-old debating society, was holding a free-speech debate that included Holocaust-denier David Irving, far-right British National Party leader Nick Griffin, and four other speakers. The society’s president, Luke Tryll, despite major protests, defended inviting these speakers, saying the best way to counter extremism is to defeat it intellectually through debate. (Ha’aretz, Nov. 28)

DENMARK SENTENCES THREE IN BOMB PLOT­ (Copenhagen) Two Danish Muslims and an Iraqi Kurd were sentenced to prison for four to 11 years for planning a bomb attack in Copenhagen. The defendants, who wanted to protest the publication of Mohammad Cartoons in a Danish newspaper and the presence of Danish soldiers in Iraq , discussed bombing Copenhagen ’s City Hall Square , the Tivoli amusement park, or the Jyllands-Posten newspaper­ which published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The three men were among nine suspects arrested last year for collecting bomb-making materials. (NYT, Nov. 24; Associated Press, Nov. 24)

VIOLENCE SPREADS IN FRANCE AS POLICE FACE GUNFIRE­ (Villiers-le-Bel) President Sarkozy faces a severe challenge as a thousand police were sent to Villiers-le-Bel, a suburb in Paris , to minimize riots three nights of rioting. Bands of ethnic youth set fire to grocery store and a local library as well as many cars and garbage bins. French policemen were reportedly being shot at. Patrice Ribeiro, of the Synergie police union, said "genuine urban guerrillas with conventional weapons and hunting weapons" were among the rioters. The riots, a reaction to the deaths of two teenagers killed in a car collision with police, are even more concentrated than those from 2005. Eighteen people have been detained. (Globe and Mail, Nov. 28)
 
CANADA ’S SENIOR CATHOLIC OFFICIAL APOLOGISES FOR SINS ( Montreal ) Traditionalist Cardinal Marc Ouellet, made a sweeping apology in a letter to newspapers for the Church’s historical sins in Quebec . These sins included antisemitism, racism, and discrimination against women and homosexuals. The apology follows Ouellet’s controversial speech at the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodation where he said that “secular fundamentalism” had contributed to Quebec ’s current social problems. The Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops made clear that, in its view, Ouellet was not speaking on behalf of the Church. (Globe and Mail, Nov. 22; AFP Nov. 22)