The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 3 No. 8
7 November 2008

YIISA EVENT

Wednesday, November 12th from 12:00pm – 2:00pm

YIISA Open House

ISPS, 77 Prospect Street, Common Room

Join YIISA in welcoming new Post-Doctorate and Graduate Researchers to our center’s new location!

Light Lunch will be provided – Please RSVP to yiisa.program@yale.edu or 203.432.5239 by Monday, November 10th.

YIISA LECTURE

Thursday, November 13th @ 4:15pm

“The Demoralisation of Britain: Moral Relativism, the Church of England and the Jews”

ISPS, 77 Prospect, Room A-002

Speaker: Melanie Phillips, Journalist and Author

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 Antisemitism”

Location: 92Y, Manhattan -- Please click here for more information.

LECTURES OF INTEREST

Friday, November 7th @ 4:15pm

“Drug Addiction in Iran”

Luce Hall, Room 203

Refreshments will be served.

Speaker: Richard Schottenfeld, Yale University, Master of Davenport College

Sponsor: The Council on Middle East Studies at the MacMillan Center

Contact: kira.gallick@yale.edu – Please click here for more information

Sunday, November 9th from 7:00pm – 8:45pm

“Movie Screening: ‘I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal”

Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High Street, Room 101

Sponsor: The Joseph Slifka Center

Contact: jennifer.cohen@yale.edu – Please click here for more information

Tuesday, November 11th @ 11:45am

“Germany, the Ottoman Caliphate, and the Young Turks, 1989 - 1914”

Allwin Hall, 31 Hillhouse Avenue, Room 108

Lunch will be served. RSVP Required as soon as possible.

Speaker: Sean McMeekin, ISS Chuancey Post-Doctorate Associate

Sponsor: International Security Studies Colloquium, Yale University

Contact: Susan Hennigan – susan.hennigan@yale.edu or 203.436.4098 – Please click here for more information

Tuesday, November 11th @ 12:00pm

“Religion and the Politics of Self-Determination”

8 Prospect Place, Room 119

Speaker: Khurram Hussain, Yale University

Sponsor: The MacMillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics and Society

Contact: khurram.hussain@yale.edu – Please click here for more information

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY

2009-2010 Fellowship Opportunities with The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum awards fellowships to support significant research and writing about the Holocaust. The Center welcomes proposals from scholars in all relevant academic disciplines, including history, political science, literature, Jewish studies, philosophy, religion, psychology, comparative genocide studies, law, and others. Deadline is Nov. 26. For complete fellowship competition guidelines and to download a fellowship application, please visit www.ushmm.org/research/center/fellowship.

REPORTS

Why the Next U.S. President Will Be a Wartime Leader

(Washington Institute) The challenges posed by the Middle East are legion: "fragile and reversible" security in Iraq; military fallout from a possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program; the destabilizing consequences of a nuclear breakout by the Islamic Republic; a new round of violence between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) -- this time in the West Bank; an Israeli military intervention in Gaza to halt renewed rocket attacks, preempt a Hamas military buildup, or crush the nascent Hamas government there; and the possibility of a second Hizballah-Israeli war.

Click here to read

The United States, Israel, and Iran: Defusing an “Existential” Threat

(Arms Control Association) There is no doubt that Iran poses a severe threat to Israel, not only in the nuclear field, but what kind of danger does its nuclear program constitute? Is Israel’s future in imminent danger if Iran goes nuclear? The answer is probably not. Although somewhat reassuring, this response is less than satisfying.

Click here to read

IRAN

Iran's Ahmadinejad offers congratulations to Obama

(Haaretz) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday congratulated Barack Obama on his election win - the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the message, Ahmadinejad also said he hopes Obama will use the opportunity to serve the [American] people and leave a good name for history during his term in office.

Click here to read

Israel cautions against Obama dialogue with Iran

(Washington Post) Israel said Thursday U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's stated readiness to talk to Iran could be seen in the Middle East as a sign of weakness in efforts to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear program. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said, "We live in a neighborhood in which sometimes dialogue -- in a situation where you have brought sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue -- is liable to be interpreted as weakness.”

Click here to read

New Beltway Debate: What to Do About Iran

(New York Times) It is a frightening notion, but it is not just the trigger-happy Bush administration discussing — if only theoretically — the possibility of military action to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. What is significant is that inside Washington’s policy circles these days — in studies, commentaries, meetings, Congressional hearings and conferences — reasonable people from both parties are seriously examining the so-called military option, along with new diplomatic initiatives.

Click here to read

U.S. Efforts Divert Iran-Bound Cargo

(Washington Post) The United States thwarted a suspect shipment from North Korea to Iran by persuading the Indian government to deny clearance for the North Korean flight to travel through Indian airspace, U.S. officials said yesterday.

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Iranian Group Recruits Iranian Volunteers for Anti-U.S. Suicide Operations to be Carried Out by Hizbullah

(MEMRI) On November 1, 2008, the Iranian website Tabnak, which is identified with Expediency Council Secretary and former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezai, reported that flyers have recently been circulated in Iran calling on the public, especially young people, to sign up for suicide operations to be carried out by the Lebanese Hizbullah. The flyer promises registrants that they will become "fighters in the worldwide front against the Global Arrogance [i.e. the U.S.]."

Click here to read

Lawmakers Impeach Iranian Cabinet Minister

(Washington Post) Iran's parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to impeach a cabinet minister who has been a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a political setback that reflects growing opposition among lawmakers to the president's policies

Click here to read

MIDDLE EAST

Israel denounces UN Human Rights Council

(AP) Israel accused the U.N. Human Rights Council Tuesday of targeting the Jewish state "in an obsessive and discriminatory fashion," but Egypt said it is imperative that the U.N. body investigate violations of Palestinian rights. The performance of the council, which replaced the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission 2 1/2 years ago, was the subject of debate in the General Assembly which was considering the annual report of the Geneva-based council.

Click here to read

Lawfare Against Israel

(Wall Street Journal) In an op-ed, Anne Herzberg writes, “Israeli and Spanish officials engaged in a flurry of secret talks last month to avoid a diplomatic crisis. The reason? A Palestinian nongovernmental organization, or NGO, filed suit in Madrid, seeking arrest warrants against seven former Israeli officers allegedly involved in the 2002 targeted killing of Hamas leader Salah Shehadah in Gaza. Israel's foreign ministry warned the men against travel to Spain for fear of arrest while Madrid tried to defuse the tensions.”

Click here to read

Hamas' Deif: We'll continue to attack Zionist enemies of God

(Haaretz) Mohammed Deif, the former head of Hamas' military wing, on Tuesday declared that the Palestinian military group will continue to launch terror attacks against Israel. Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Hamas leader Fawzi Abu Al-Kara, Deif said his men will continue Jihad "until victory and martyrdom."

Click here to read

NORTH AMERICA

Mazel Tov, Obama

(Jerusalem Post) In an opinion piece, the Jerusalem Post writes, “Israelis can learn from how Obama and McCain reacted to the election results. Their classy behavior stands in sharp contrast to the deportment of many an Israeli politician who, confronted by defeat, goes off and sulks. Granted, Israel's proportional system does not foster absolute winners. Still, where is it written that competing politicians should treat each other with unrelenting disdain?”

Click here to read

Analysis: The Challenge

(Jerusalem Post) Winning over his country, as Barack Obama did on Tuesday, was an extraordinary achievement for this improbable presidential candidate. But that was the easy part. In his victory speech, Obama hailed the election outcome as a response from those who had "put their hands on the arc of history" and bent it "once more toward the hope of a better day." President-elect Obama's challenge is not to disappoint them. America's future depends on it. And so, to a considerable extent, does Israel's.

Click here to read

Hamas: McCain, Obama both 'awful'

(Haaretz) Israel Radio quoted a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoom, as describing the choice between the Republican candidate John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama as one between two "awful" options. However, Hamas' Damascus-based political chief Khaled Meshal said that the Palestinian militant group would welcome any change in U.S. policy - especially if it corrected what he termed "bias" toward Israel. He added that Hamas is prepared to work with any U.S. president.

Click here to read

EUROPE

German parliament vows to fight antisemitism

(Jerusalem Post) Germany's parliament pledged to fight antisemitism and to encourage the revival of Jewish life in a resolution Tuesday ahead of the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. The lower house renewed its commitment to "counter with determination every form of anti-Jewish hatred and antisemitism." It said that "strong and varied" Jewish life enriches Germany and Europe.

Click here to read

Antisemitism is alive and kicking in Romania

(Haaretz) Anyone in need of additional reminders of how much Romanians love the Jews could have found it in the recent destruction and desecration of some 200 graves in the great cemetery in Bucharest. Even though there are almost no Jews in Romania (their number is estimated at a mere few thousand, excluding Israelis who have gone there on business), antisemitism is nevertheless alive and kicking.

Click here to read

The legacy of Kristallnacht

(Guardian) Seventy years ago this week the Nazis led a brutal attack on German Jews, their businesses and their synagogues, a prelude to the Holocaust. Paul Oestreicher remembers the night terror struck

Click here to read

OP-ED: Confronting hate crimes

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency) Despite the notable improvements in civil rights and race relations of the past 70 years, we find ourselves today facing the threat of personal violence motivated by those same biases. Violent hate crimes are on the rise, reflecting an overall increase in xenophobic attitudes across Europe and North America, a revival of antisemitism and a continuation of prejudice against Muslims, Roma, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. Though governments are not now the perpetrators of the violence, they are failing to do everything in their power to stop it.

Click here to read

London U. event likens Gaza to Ghetto

The situation in Gaza will be compared to that in the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis, at a prestigious London university next week. The Student Union at Goldsmiths college, University of London, is hosting an event on Wednesday titled “From the Warsaw Ghetto to the Gaza Ghetto.” The event is being organized by the Palestine Twinning Campaign, a student union group that won a vote last February to twin Goldsmiths with Al-Quds University’s campus near Nablus and to offer scholarships to two Al-Quds students.

Click here to read

BOOK REVIEW

Globalising Hatred: The New Antisemitism by Denis MacShane

(Tribune) Denis Macshane’s book on antisemitism seeks to analyse, describe and condemn with forensic skill the oldest aberration on record – Jew-hatred, which antisemitism was called before it became a tenebrious sophistication for what it has always been: a crude, tribal, perhaps even mystical, prejudice. But MacShane, who is not a Jew, goes beyond the usual excoriation of this ancient racialist scab on rationality: indeed his book is an important departure from that critcial norm because MacShane focuses on what he regards as a quite new phenomenon – not, he argues, “just traditional Jew-hatred” but part of a new and growing “component element of international politics”.

Click here to read

Source: Canadian Institute for Jewish Research

WEEKLY QUOTES

“I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctors bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you we as a people will get there.

“There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way its been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends… though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.” President-Elect Barack Obama, delivering his acceptance address in Chicago’s Grant Park, articulating the need for unity among Americans. (Huffington Post, November 5)

“I’ve always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too. But we both recognize that though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation’s reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

“A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.…

“I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating [Barack Obama], but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.…

I would not be an American worthy of the name, should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone and I thank the people of Arizona for it.” Senator John McCain, conceding the election from the Biltmore’s Squaw Peak Lawn in Arizona, praising the ability of Americans to overcome racism and elect their first African-American president. (JohnMcCain.com, November 5)

“Any Presidential victory is partly personal, and certainly this one is a credit to Mr. Obama's rhetorical skills and unique appeal. Mr. Obama becomes the first Democratic Presidential candidate since LBJ in 1964 to win more than 50.1% of the vote. That was Jimmy Carter's share in 1976, and even Bill Clinton never matched that in his two victories. The Illinois Senator's appeal among younger voters was overwhelming, as it also was among African-Americans, whose huge turnout helped push the overall electorate to what may have been record numbers.

“A man of mixed race has now reached the pinnacle of U.S. power only two generations since the end of Jim Crow. This is a tribute to American opportunity, and it is something that has never happened in another Western democracynotwithstanding European condescension about "racist" America. That blacks voted for Mr. Obama so heavily is a typical rite of American passage, and it is similar to the kind of cultural pride that Catholics took in the victory of John Kennedy in 1960.” Wall Street Journal editorial board commenting on President-elect Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American President of the United States of America. (Wall Street Journal, November 5)

Barack Hussein Obama would present another challenge for Iran’s mullahs. Their whole rationale for being is that they are resisting a hegemonic American power that wants to keep everyone down. Suddenly, next week, Iranians may look up and see that the country their leaders call ‘The Great Satan’ has just elected ‘a guy whose middle name is the central figure in Shiite Islam Hussein and whose last name Obama when transliterated into Farsi, means “He is with us,”’ said [Karim] Sadjadpour.”New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, presenting the comments of Karim Sadjapour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (New York Times, October 29)

“We all witness a UN human rights body targeting Israel in an obsessive and discriminatory fashion. We can only watch in disbelief as the council ignores human rights abuses around the world while offering silence at best, and praise at worst to some of the world’s most ruthless, abusive dictators.” Israeli Deputy UN Ambassador Daniel Carmon, during the General Assembly’s annual performance review of the Human Rights Council, criticising the council’s seven resolutions condemning Israel and for holding “a one-sided special session against Israel”. (Jerusalem Post, November 5)

“Falk’s UN title is deliberately deceptive.… [T]he Arab-controlled council decided in 1993 to investigate only ‘Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law.’… Falk’s is the only UN mandate that is inherently one-sided, presumptive of guilt and immune from regular review. What kind of person would accept such a biased mandate?

“One with the moral compass to argue, as Falk did in 2002, that suicide bombings were the ‘only means still available by which to inflict sufficient harm on Israel so that the (Palestinian) struggle could go on.’ One with the political judgment to write, in a 1979 New York Times op-ed, that Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution ‘may yet provide us with a desperately-needed model of humane governance for a third-world country.’ One with the good sense to support as Falk has done openly and repeatedly conspiracy theories about the September 11, 2001 attacks.…

“How tragic that in the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN’s representative figures have gone from luminaries like René Cassin and Eleanor Roosevelt to loonies.” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, in a letter to The Jerusalem Post, contextualising the latest condemnation of Israel by Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”. (Jerusalem Post, October 29)

“Israel and the Jewish people are grateful to the UN for its decision to commemorate the Holocaust. But that’s not the end of it. We must learn the lessons of the Nazi genocide and recognize such threats during these times as well. In this very hall we still hear a country leader calling to terminate a country that is a member of the UN as well.… May I remind you that in this very place all member countries took a ‘never again’ oath, and it is therefore our duty not only to condemn such remarks, but to take firm and immediate action against a county whose leader says such despicable and dangerous things. Israel’s new Ambassador to the United Nations Professor Gabriella Shalev, in a speech to the General Assembly, protesting against the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent appearance and comments before them. (Ha’aretz, November 4)

“The recent events in the South prove that the cease-fire agreement only serves the interests of Hamas. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who organized, decided on and was proud of the agreement, needs to internalize its immediate results, and quit.” Israel Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman, in light of the failed cease-fire agreement and escalation of Palestinian attacks in the Negev, demanding the resignation of Israel’s defence minister. (Jerusalem Post, November 4)

SHORT TAKES

JEWS VOTE DEMOCRAT, AS USUAL(Washington) Exit polls from yesterday’s historic U.S. presidential election revealed that seventy-eight per cent of Jewish voters voted for Senator Barack Obama, compared to only twenty-one per cent for Senator John McCain. John Kerry garnered seventy-four per cent in 2004, and in 2000, seventy-nine per cent of Jews voted for Al Gore. Jewish voters comprised two per cent of the total population, and a record number of Jewish Congressmen, about forty-five, were elected. (Jerusalem Post, November 5)

MISSILES DISCOVERED IN EGYPT(Cairo) Egyptian security officials reported the discovery of eight surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles in an underground bunker in the Sinai. Though it is not uncommon to discover weapons, missiles are rare and more effective than the usual explosives, light arms, and mines. Israel has repeatedly accused Egypt of failing to quash Hamas’ attempts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. Dr. Ely Karmon, a senior terrorism expert from the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya said, “Hamas is attempting to emulate Hizbullah by setting up an underground infrastructure and acquiring long-range rockets. This is one of the mistakes of agreeing to the cease-fire, which has only strengthened Hamas. Eventually, both sides will pay.” (Jerusalem Post, October 30)

GAZA AGGRESSION, QASSAM ATTACKS, INCREASE (Sderot) IDF soldiers came under fire as two anti-tank missiles were launched from the Gaza Strip near the Kissufim crossing Friday. While Palestinians have launched over forty rockets and mortars into Israel since the cease-fire with Hamas went into effect, this is the first instance of anti-tank missiles. Israel had shut the border crossings a day earlier when a Qassam rocket landed near Sderot. Yesterday, an IAF strike killed six Palestinian terrorists, leading to a barrage of forty Qassams landing in Israel this morning. (Ha’aretz, October 30; Jerusalem Post, October 30-1; Ha’aretz, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, Washington Post, November 5)

ISRAEL TO U.S.: DO NOT INTERFERE(Jerusalem) Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni issued a warning to the newly elected U.S. President against increased international pressure on Israel, insisting the international community must “not expect Israel to carry out shortcuts which would hurt its ability to safeguard its needs.” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is preparing to visit the region and Sunday’s meeting of international peace mediators in Egypt. (Ha’aretz, November 5)

CANADIAN “SLEEPER” AGENT TIED TO BIN LADEN(Ottawa) The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has testified that Ottawa resident Mohamed Harkat, currently on trial as a terrorism suspect, met with Pacha Wazir a money-handler for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in the early 1990s. CSIS also insisted that Harkat was a “sleeper” agent since he arrived in Canada in 1995, that he traveled to Canada on a phony Saudi Arabian passport, that he has been lying about visiting Afghanistan and that he established contact with Islamic fighters there. Mr. Harkat is one of five terrorism suspects on trial. (Globe and Mail, November 5)

Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism | ISPS | yiisa.program@yale.edu