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The Yale
Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism YIISA | The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism YIISA SEMINAR Wednesday, April 16 @ 7:00 PM
YIISA SEMINAR Thursday, April 17 @ 4:15 PM Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE on Combating Antisemitism; Spokesman on Foreign Affairs for the SPD Group OSCE
EVENT OF INTEREST Center for Middle Eastern Studies The Ideology of the New Jihadist Movement in the West and in the Muslim World Speaker: Farhad Khosrokhavar, Professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
EVENT OF INTEREST TUESDAY, May 6 @ 11:00am – 2:00pm Co-Sponsored with the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Genocide Studies Institute for Social and Policy Studies, Room A001 (77 Prospect Street) Rescuers of Genocide Victims: Research Perspectives for the Future Speakers: John Dovidio, Social Psychology, Yale University Bruce Wexler, Psychiatry, Yale University Stephanie J. Bird, Neuroethics, Editor-in-Chief of Science and Engineering Ethics Moderator: Julius Landwirth, Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
DIRECTOR’S REPORT Today Charles Small, YIISA Director, will speak at the Tällberg Foundation Event “Tällberg Conversation: In search of the common sense-Leadership beyond the conflicts of interest” in New York City at 3:00pm. The program will feature many prominent leaders including Ulf Hjertonsson, Ambassador, Consul General of Sweden in New York, Edward P. Gallagher, President, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and Bo Ekman, Chairman, Tällberg Foundation.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST IRAN Site found where Iran building 6,000 km ballistic missile (Jerusalem Post) New satellite imagery exposed a site where Iran was developing long-range ballistic missiles, the Times of London reported Friday. According to the report, on February 4, Iran announced it had launched a "research rocket" as part of its space program. Experts have estimated since then, however, that the rocket launch was in fact a field test of Shihab-type ballistic missile. 'We can speed up enrichment 5-fold' (Jerusalem Post) Iran has for the first time tested an improved centrifuge that works five times faster than the current version, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday evening, following his earlier announcement that Iran had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Iran says installing 6,000 enrichment centrifuges (Reuters) Iran has started to install 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, an expansion of nuclear work the West fears is aimed at building bombs. Iran: Document shows Tehran pursued a military nuclear program after 2003 (National Council of Resistance against Iran) While the United Nations' Security Council recently adopted a third set of sanctions designed to force Iran to halt its nuclear program, Le Monde has obtained documents showing that Tehran has pursued a military nuclear program after 2003, contrary to an American National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) report published on December 3, 2007. U.S., Israel concerned N. Korean nuclear know-how reached Iran (Haaretz) The United States and Israel seek to pressure North Korea to cease its nuclear cooperation with Iran, which is one of the motives behind their agreement to disclose details on the air-force strike in Syria last September. According to foreign press reports, the strike targeted a nuclear installation built with North Korean assistance. Hizbollah turns to Iran for new weapons to wage war on Israel (Independent) It is an open secret south of the Litani river that thousands of young men have been leaving their villages for military training in Iran. In all, as many as 4,500 Hizbollah members have been sent for three-month sessions of live-fire ammunition and rocket exercises to create a nucleus of Iranian-trained guerrillas for the "next" Israeli-Hizbollah war. Hamas in Largest Arms Buildup Yet, Israeli Study Says (NY Times) An Israeli study says Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, is engaged in the broadest and most significant military buildup in its history with help from Syria and Iran. It adds that Hamas is restructuring more hierarchically and using more and more powerful weapons, especially longer-range rockets against Israel’s southern communities. Iran joined militias in battle for Basra (Times) Iranian forces were involved in the recent battle for Basra, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is expected to tell Congress this week. Military and intelligence sources believe Iranians were operating at a tactical command level with the Shi’ite militias fighting Iraqi security forces; some were directing operations on the ground, they think. Gen Petraeus warns of Iranian influence in Iraq (Telegraph) America's commander in Iraq warned today that Iranian support for Shi'ite militias posed the gravest threat to securing Iraq's stability. In hearings before two Senate committees in Washington, General David Petraeus said that the recent flare-up in violence in Basra and Baghdad by so-called "Special Groups" highlighted Tehran's malign influence among fellow Shi'ite armed factions. The Iran Problem (Washington Post) The language that Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker used yesterday to describe the Iranian role in Iraq was extreme -- and telling. They spoke of Tehran's "nefarious activities," its "malign influence" and how it posed "the greatest long-term threat to the viability" of the Baghdad government. 'German firm helps Iran monitor Israel' (Jerusalem Post) The Munich-based energy and electrical giant Siemens has with "high likelihood" delivered sophisticated data surveillance systems to Iran, an Austrian investigative journalist disclosed in a public broadcast ORF report on Monday. MIDDLE EAST 'Report on Sept. 6 strike to show Saddam transferred WMDs to Syria' (Jerusalem Post) An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday. Furthermore, according to a report leaked to the TV channel, Syria has arrested 10 intelligence officials following the assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh. Fars: Syria Arrests Saudi Official Over Mughniyeh Assassination (NASDAQ) In a move that could have far reaching consequences, Syria arrested a Saudi official in connection with the assassination of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported Tuesday. 2 Israeli civilians killed in attack by Gaza infiltrators (Haaretz) Two Israeli civilians were shot dead and two others were wounded Wednesday afternoon when four Palestinian terrorists infiltrated from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. "Terrorists entered Nahal Oz and the fuel depot. They shot at civilians inside. There are two Israelis dead and two wounded," an IDF spokeswoman said. A Town Under Fire Becomes a Symbol for Israel (NY Times) Sderot, Israel — This long neglected immigrant town a mile from Gaza, pounded by Palestinian rockets for the past seven years, is taking on a new identity, edging into the center of Zionist consciousness as a symbol of the nation’s unofficial motto: “Never Again.” Yemen: Empty Jewish homes destroyed (Jerusalem Post) In the latest attack targeting Yemen's few remaining Jews, rebel Houthi militiamen destroyed several homes that had belonged to the now-absent Jewish community in the northwestern Saada province. All 67 members of Saada's Jewish community fled following threats from the Houthis, Rabbi Yehia Youssuf told Reuters in the capital, San'a. Israel to deny UN official entry for comparing Israel to Nazis (Haaretz) The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it will not allow the United Nations official appointed to investigate Israeli-Palestinian human rights to enter the country, after he stood by comments comparing Israelis to Nazis. Richard Falk is scheduled to take up his post with the UN Human Rights Council in May, but the Foreign Ministry said it will deny Falk a visa to enter Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, at least until a September meeting of the council. The ethnic cleansing of the Jews (Jerusalem Post) Today, more than ever, certain obscene canards are thrown at Israel in its war of words with those who seek to delegitimize the Jewish State. A cursory study at the many statements that derive from certain extremists sympathetic to the Palestinian cause would see the lie that Israel is "ethnically cleansing" the Palestinians is rife. NORTH AMERICA The Three Revolutions (Washington Post) Henry Kissenger writes, “The long-predicted national debate about national security policy has yet to occur. Essentially tactical issues have overwhelmed the most important challenge a new administration will confront: how to distill a new international order from three simultaneous revolutions occurring around the globe: (a) the transformation of the traditional state system of Europe; (b) the radical Islamist challenge to historic notions of sovereignty; and (c) the drift of the center of gravity of international affairs from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian Oceans.” Santorum calls for war with ‘Islamo-fascists’ (Yale Daily News) As part of a speaking tour throughout various college campuses about the dangers of Islamic extremism, Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum spoke at the Yale Political Union debate on the importance of defining the enemy in the “War on Islamic Extremism” — the subject of the debate — and on the historical roots of the clash between Islamic and Judeo-Christian culture. U.S. Government Equates Some Criticism Of Israel With Anti-Semitism (Jewish Press) The Bush administration has taken the groundbreaking step of identifying some virulent criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, as it warns that anti-Jewish attitudes and incidents are on the rise worldwide. B'nai Brith reports anti-Semitism on the rise in Canada (AFP) For the second year in a row, the number of attacks on Jews in Canada has hit a record high, a leading Jewish advocacy group said Wednesday. In its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, B'Nai Brith Canada reported a total of 1,042 death threats, assaults and intimidation of Jews last year by Canadians. EUROPE Cemetery desecration: French Jews express solidarity with Muslim community (European Jewish Press) The French Jewish community has expressed outrage after people desecrated Muslim graves in France's biggest war cemetery, hanging a pig's head from one tombstone and daubing slogans insulting France's Muslim Justice Minister Rachida Dati. MISCELLANEOUS Anti-Semitism group protests Nazi-themed cosmetics ad in South Korea (International Herald Tribune) The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center called the leaders of the South Korean company Coreana Cosmetics to be withdraw a television ad for a skin lotion that shows a young woman in a short skirt and military-style trench coat, holding a soldier's cap that appears to have the swastika-gripping eagle Nazi insignia. A version shown in previews and posted on the Web contained the slogan: "Even Hitler didn't have the East and West." WEEKLY QUOTES (Canadian Institute for Jewish Research) “I would talk to the Palestinian leadership and suggest that we develop, rapidly, an economic peace that could produce results very, very quickly. Just as we turned the Israeli economy around, we can help turn the Palestinian economy around. I would keep security in our hands because, effectively, this is the only force that guarantees security, not only for us, but for the Palestinian Authority. If we leave, it is not that Abbas's government would protect us. It is that by staying, we protect them, and of course us.” Knesset Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, asserting that the Annapolis peace process is futile and it is naïve to believe that Hamas is not the most powerful Palestinian force. He added that if Israel withdraws from the West Bank, “Hamas comes in, with Iran.” (Globe & Mail, April 7) SHORT TAKESAD CALLS ON U.S. TO BOYCOTT DURBAN CONFERENCE (Jerusalem) An ad this week in four major U.S. newspapers signed by 25 public figures including former politicians, religious leaders and intellectuals has called on the U.S. government to boycott next year’s United Nations anti-racism conference. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, law professor Alan Dershowitz and former CIA Director James Woolsley were among the signatories. The ad says that next year’s conference “seeks not to combat racism, but to promote and fuel hatred toward Israel and the America…” The U.S. State Department has said, however, that a decision whether to attend or boycott will be made conditional on guarantees that the event would not become a rerun of the previous United Nations rights conference in Durban in 2001. (Ha’aretz, April 3,4) Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism | ISPS | yiisa.program@yale.edu
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