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The Yale
Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism SAVE THE DATE
YIISA Director, Dr. Charles Small, will engage in a conversation with Wall Street Journal writer and editor, Bret Stephens. Monday, December 1st @ 8:15pm Buttenwieser Hall, Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street, New York City “Radical Islam and the Nuclear Bomb: Understanding Contemporary Genocidal Anti-Semitism” Sponsor: 92Y -- Please click here for more information.
LECTURES OF INTEREST
Friday, September 26th – Saturday, September 27th Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue “Reconfiguring a Region: Opportunities & Challenges in the Middle East” Keynote Address: Robert Malley, International Crisis Group Also featuring: Featuring 25 leading scholars, diplomats, and policy analysts. Sponsor: Council on Middle East Studies Contact: cmes@yale.edu -- Please click here for a full program. Thursday, October 2nd @ 8:00pm Davenport College, 248 York Street Performance by Mamak Khadem, one of Iran’s leading female singers Sponsor: Yale Persian Society and Davenport College Contact: ypsofficers@gmail.com -- Tickets $25, $15 for college students
SPECIAL ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Charge Ahmadinejad with incitement to genocide, say former U.S., Israeli envoys to UN (Haartez) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements professing a desire to "wipe Israel off the map" are sufficient to serve as the basis for charges of incitement to genocide, two prominent former diplomats from the United States and Israel. Dore Gold, Jerusalem's former envoy to the United Nations, and former U.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke are among a group of scholars, lawmakers, and survivors of genocide from Rwanda and Sudan who gathered in Washington on Tuesday for a conference examining the plausibility of being the Iranian president before an international tribunal.
Summary of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's Speech at the "State-Sanctioned Incitement to Genocide: What Can Be Done?" Conference Co-sponsored by YIISA (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) "My theme is that words matter," asserted Ambassador Holbrooke in his address to the conference. Ambassador Holbrooke recounted how in 1933, his grandfather in Hamburg decided to leave Germany after reading Mein Kampf. Ambassador Holbrooke lauded the work of Ambassador Dore Gold and his colleagues who "have done a brilliant job of bringing the issue of Ahmadinejad’s incitement to world attention." But, Holbrooke cautioned that "people haven't focused energy on the core reason that Iran is uniquely dangerous--because of specific threats Iran has issued to another country based on ethnicity." Click here to read and watch video
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
IRAN Contact man's murder delays Syria nuclear probe: IAEA (Agence France-Presse) The UN atomic watchdog's probe into alleged illicit nuclear work in Syria has been delayed because the agency's contact man in Syria was murdered, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei revealed Thursday. "The reason that Syria has been late in providing additional information (is) that our interlocutor has been assassinated in Syria," ElBaradei told a closed-door session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board. A recording of his remarks was obtained by AFP.
Everyone Needs to Worry About Iran Wiesel urges U.N. to indict Iranian president (International Herald Tribune) Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel urged the United Nations on Monday to indict Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide rather than allow him to speak at the U.N. General Assembly. Wiesel spoke to thousands of people at a rally to urge world leaders to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons -- something Tehran denies it is trying to do, but which Western powers suspect is the true aim of its nuclear program. Where’s the Outrage, Turtle Bay? (National Review) Iranian extremist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has wangled invitations from various patrons of New York polite society this week, seeking “dialogue” and discussion, during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. He is, after all, president of Iran. But we should harbor no illusions about what the man is up to. Ahmadinejad has revealed his agenda. He is not just against Israel. He is against the Jewish community in its entirety. A reply to Ahmadinejad (Haaretz) Israel is justifiably concerned about the naivete with which Ahmadinejad was received by the American media, as well as the world's growing tendency to view him as a legitimate leader and cease efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program. The calls by the Iranian president to destroy Israel deserve the strongest condemnation, and we must continue the diplomatic struggle against them. But Israel must not be boxed into the corner where Ahmadinejad wants it and join an exchange of threats and counterthreats, which would only intensify the anxiety in Israel and possibly lead to a confrontation. Again: Antisemitism, welcomed and cheered (National Review) Anne Bayefsky writes, “The United Nations has become the largest global purveyor of antisemitism in the world today. In the full knowledge that the president of Iran denies the Holocaust and advocates the destruction of the U.N. member state of Israel, the U.N. invited him to mount the dais and gave him a megaphone.” Making a joke of the UN (National Post) Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni -- who could soon be that country's prime minister -- says it would be "absurd" to elect Iran to a seat on the United Nation's Security Council, and she's right. But absurd is the UN's stock in trade. This is the world organization, remember, that ignores epic human rights abuses in places such as Darfur and Cuba, even as it passes endless resolutions slamming Israel. Ideas that are obviously ridiculous often strike the UN's collective brain trust as perfectly sensible. Nuclear Agency Says Iran Has Improved Enrichment (NY Times) Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday, indicating that the nation has overcome some of the technical challenges that had plagued its enrichment program. Iran hasn't answered questions on nuclear program, arms control chief says (LA Times) The world's top arms control authority harshly criticized Iran on Monday, saying it had failed to clear up questions about its nuclear past, while the Islamic Republic accused the agency of becoming a tool for Western pressure. Mohamed ElBaradei, secretary-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told his board of directors at an annual meeting here that his inspectors failed to get Iranians to clear up questions related to documents allegedly showing that Iran engaged in a series of experiments and studies consistent with the operation of a clandestine nuclear weapons program. EU: Iran closer to nuke arms capacity (USA Today) Iran is nearing the ability to arm a nuclear warhead even if it insists its atomic activities are peaceful, the European Union warned Wednesday. In comments prepared for delivery to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35 board members, the EU also asserted that Iran appeared to have had a past nuclear arms program despite its denials. Russia Won’t Meet With U.S. on Iranian Nuclear Program (NY Times) Russia said on Tuesday that it would not participate in a meeting with the United States this week to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, the most significant indication yet of how Russia’s war with Georgia has spoiled relations regarding other security issues. Mystery surrounds hijacked Iranian ship (Long War Journal) A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. Its declared cargo consists of minerals and industrial products, however, Somali and regional officials directly involved in the negotiations over the ship and who spoke to The Long War Journal are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents. EUROPE Anti-Jew, Muslim attitudes rise in Europe: survey (Washington Post) Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings are rising in several major European countries, according to a worldwide survey released on Wednesday. The Washington-based Pew Research Center's global attitude survey found 46 percent of Spanish, 36 percent of Poles and 34 percent of Russians view Jews unfavorably, while the same was true for 25 percent of Germans, and 20 percent of French. New Report Finds Violent Hate Crime on the Rise (Human Rights First) Incidents of violent hate crime targeting a number of minority groups are increasing or occurring at historically high levels in many of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) member-states, as governments fail to combat such crimes, a new report finds. Paris: Attack on teens was anti-Semitic (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) Three Jewish teens in Paris were attacked recently because of their faith, a French Jewish leader reiterated. A Jewish suspect charged with participating in the group assault of the kipot-wearing teens on Sept. 6 "intervened at a later time," said Richard Prasquier, the president of the French Jewish umbrella organization CRIF in an interview with the daily Le Figaro published Saturday. Sarkozy slams anti-Semitism (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned anti-Semitism and all forms of racism as he accepted an award for statesmanship. "When a Jew is insulted in France, when a Jew is ill treated because he is a Jew, it affects Jews throughout the world," Sarkozy said Tuesday in New York upon receiving the World Statesman Award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. "Anti-Semitism is a stain" that must be eradicated. Holocaust scholars urge al-Bashir prosecution (Washington Post) Holocaust scholars appealed Monday to the International Criminal Court prosecutor to pursue his indictment of Sudan's president on charges of genocide in Darfur. The 130 scholars signed a letter to chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo urging him to resist pressure to drop the case against Omar al-Bashir. They warned against putting politics ahead of justice, and said al-Bashir's prosecution would "deter future atrocities." NORTH AMERICA US textbooks misrepresent Jews, Israel (The Jerusalem Post) American elementary and high school textbooks contain many "gross misrepresentations" of Judaism, Christianity and Israel, according to a book-length study released this week by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research. "It is shocking to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism and the Middle East as those [used] in Iran," the IJCR said in a summary of the findings of the five-year study. Prof sees mixed picture on hatred, Shoa denial (New Jersey Jewish News) Deborah Lipstadt describes herself as basically an optimistic person. That might account for her saying that in some ways there is less anti-Semitism than in the past. “Universities that once had quotas now have Jewish presidents, law firms that once would not hire Jews now have Torah study sessions at lunch, people who would not socialize with Jews now have grandchildren who are marrying Jews (I am not sure if that is a better or a worse),” the Emory University professor wrote in an e-mail. The Dangerous Brew (New York Sun) As an organization committed first to combat anti-Semitism but also to work against all forms of prejudice, the Anti-Defamation League often talks against a "hierarchy of hate," a competition for victimhood among minorities. Our philosophy is that the emphasis should fall on the commonalities of those who are targeted for hate as the best way to form strong coalitions.Every once in a while an event takes place, however, that jars us out of that kind of approach. The speech by President Ahmadinejad of Iran before the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 is one such event. Exploring anti-Semitism is Freud's work (Daily Pennsylvanian) Penn and the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia co-sponsored the program "Anti-Semitism in the Freud Case Histories" last night at Steinhardt Hall. The program, part of the Freud, Franklin and Beyond series of lectures on psychology, culture and society, was co-sponsored in conjunction with Hillel and the Jewish Studies Program. Building bridges to fight anti-Semitism in Quebec (Globe and Mail) The mayor of a quiet resort town north of Montreal says a spate of seemingly anti-Semitic acts against visibly Jewish residents is nothing more than the rogue behaviour of a few teenagers. But the recent incidents in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, a popular weekend and summer destination for members of Montreal's Hasidic Jewish community, has roused calls for diversity training for youths and more cultural events bridging the two cultures. WEEKLY QUOTES Source - Canadian Institute for Jewish Research "The dignity, integrity and rights of the European and American people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the U.S. in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support... This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against [their] will... Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters… In Palestine, 60 years of carnage and invasion is still ongoing at the hands of some criminal and occupying Zionists. They have forged a regime through collecting people from various parts of the world and bringing them to other people's land by displacing, detaining and killing the true owners of that land... The Security Council cannot do anything and sometimes, under pressure from few bullying powers, even paves the way for supporting these Zionist murderers...” -- Excerpts from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hate-filled speech at the United Nations General Assembly. A round of applause followed these passages. Ambassadors of Israel and the United States were not present for the address. (EyeontheUN.org, Sept. 24)
Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism | ISPS | yiisa.program@yale.edu
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