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The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 3 No. 13
13 February 2009

YIISA NOW ACCEPTING POST-DOCTORATE & GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS
YIISA invites applications for available post-doctorate research fellowships and graduate fellows in the final stages of their PhDs commencing in September 2009, tenable for one year, with possible renewal for one further academic year. Applications are welcome from candidates from all academic disciplines, with a strong background in the study of antisemitism and related fields. The goal of the fellowship is to support the work of emerging leading scholars whose research is focused on the study of antisemitism and to devote their efforts to further their research agenda and professional development generally.
DEADLINE: Monday, February 16, 2009
Click here for more information and post in the Chronicle for Higher Education

YIISA LECTURE
Thursday, February 19th @ 4:15pm
“Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial in the Contemporary World”
Location:        ISPS, 77 Prospect Street, Room A-002
Speaker:         Professor Robert Wistrich, Director, The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA), Hebrew University, Jerusalem

LECTURES OF INTEREST
Sunday, February 15th @ 5:00pm
“The Musical Event of the Year:  The Yuval Ron Ensemble”
Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street
*A musical celebration featuring songs of the Islamic Sufi origin from Turkey, Jewish prayers from Morocco, Yemen and Israel and Armenian chants.
Sponsor:         The Chaplain’s Office
Contact:         Chaplain’s Office Phone:  203.432.1128
Please click here for more information

Monday, February 16th @ 7:30pm
“Muslim, Jewish and Christian Harmony in the Golden Age of Spain”
Slifka Center, 80 Wall Street
Speaker:         Yuval Ron Ensemble
Sponsor:         The Chaplain’s Office
Contact:         Chaplain’s Office Phone:  203.432.1128
Please click here for more information

Tuesday, February 17th @ 4:00pm
“The Guardian of Israel Neither Dozes Nor Sleeps’: The Blood Libel, Exegesis, Polemics and Politics in Solomon ibn Berga’s Shevet Yehudah”
Slifka Center, 80 Wall Street
Speaker:         Jeremy Cohen, Tel Aviv Univeristy
Sponsor:         Program in Judaic Studies/Department of Religious Studies/Slifka
Center
Please click here for more information

Wednesday, February 18th @ 4:00pm
“The Nazis and Dixie:  African Americans and Germany in the 1930s”
Sterling Memorial Library, 128 Wall Street, Lecture Hall
Speaker:         Professor Glenda Gilmore
Sponsor:         Yale Library
Contact:         atYUL@yale.edu
Please click here for more information

REPORT

Hamas Challenge to the PLO: Opportunities and Prospects
(Washington Institute) Hamas's efforts to take over or replace the PLO represent a severe challenge to Palestinian moderates who have been weakened by stagnation in the peace process and the Israeli military action in Gaza.
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Beyond Belief
Journalist James Bennet recounts his encounters with Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan.
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SPECIAL ARTICLE OF INTEREST BY YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI, YIISA SPEAKER ON APRIL 2
No choice but to fight
(International Herald Tribune) “The curse of Jewish history - the inability to take mere existence for granted – has returned to a country whose founding was intended to resolve that uncertainty.”
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SPECIAL ARTICLE OF INTEREST BY CLEMENS HENI, YIISA POST-DOC
What is considered extremist in today's Germany?
(Jerusalem Post) Recent events demonstrate the relationship of German political culture today to antisemitism.
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SPECIAL ARTICLE OF INTEREST BY IAN BARUMA
Asia's Jewish myths
(Australian) A Chinese bestseller titled The Currency War describes how Jews are planning to rule the world by manipulating the international financial system. The book is reportedly read in the highest government circles. If so, this does not bode well for the international financial system, which relies on well-informed Chinese to help it recover from the present crisis.
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IRAN

U.S. now sees Iran as pursuing nuclear bomb
(LA Times) In a reversal since a 2007 report, U.S. officials expect the Islamic Republic to reach development milestones this year.
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Official: Iran not running out of raw uranium
(International Herald Tribune) Iran said it was not running out of raw uranium or seeking to buy uranium concentrate from abroad to sustain its ambitious nuclear program.
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Ahmadinejad: Iran ready for talk with U.S. based on 'mutual respect'
(Haaretz) Iran's hard-line president said his country was prepared talks with the United States - as long as mutual respect is exercises between the longtime adversaries. This was Tehran's strongest signal yet of welcoming Barack Obama's calls for dialogue.
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Iran: remember Jekyll as well as Hyde
(Times Online) President Obama must extend his hand to the Western-loving part of the nation, not the mullahs
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An Opening to Iran?
(Weekly Standard) Within days of his election, the State Department began drafting a letter to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intended to pave the way for face-to-face talks. The pundits and journalists may applaud, but their adulation for Obama's new approach is based more on myth than reality.
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Washington's man in Iran
(LA Times) Swiss diplomat Philippe Welti spent more than four years as his nation's chief envoy to Iran -- and Washington's. He discusses the benefits and limitations of diplomacy with the Islamic Republic.
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Britain's Miliband to Iran: Dispel nuclear fears or face new penalties
(Haaretz) British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Iran to work with the United Nations nuclear watchdog to disprove suspicions that its nuclear activities were geared toward producing weapons - and warned of new penalties if it does not.
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Cyprus: Iran ship breached export ban
(Jerusalem Post) A ship detained off Cyprus has breached a UN ban on Iranian arms exports, Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said.
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Iran charges 7 members of Baha'i faith with spying for Israel
(Haaretz) Seven people belonging to the Baha'i faith are scheduled to stand trial in Iran over charges of "spying for Israel," among other charges.
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MIDDLE EAST

Hamas rules out permanent truce under Gaza blockade
(AFP) The political supremo of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, on Sunday ruled out any "permanent ceasefire" until Israel ends its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.
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U.N. Halts Aid to Gaza In Dispute With Hamas
(Washington Post) A United Nations aid agency that serves more than half of the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip suspended humanitarian shipments, accusing Hamas of confiscating U.N. material.
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Battle gets nasty at critical juncture for U.N. agency aiding Palestinians
(JTA) UNRWA, the massive United Nations bureaucracy that administers assistance to the Palestinians, is locked in an unseemly epithet-laden battle here with some pro-Israel figures who say the relief agency should be shut down because it has been co-opted by radicals.
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Amnesty: Hamas eliminating opponents
(Jerusalem Post) Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Hamas of waging a deliberate campaign to kill or maim scores of Palestinian opponents in the Gaza Strip since the end of December.
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Amnesty International: Hamas harmed Palestinians
(JTA) Amnesty International issued a report detailing Hamas violence against Palestinians during Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.
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Gaza: Hamas hunting Fatah loyalists who 'collaborated with Israel'
(YNet) Human rights researchers say Islamist group killed at least six Fatah men it claims assisted in killing of senior Hamas figures during recent war. 'Hamas turned on their own people,' relative of Fatah loyalist in hiding says
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PA: Hamas converts hospitals into jails
(YNet) According to Palestinian Ministry of Health in West Bank, Hamas expels medical staff from Gaza hospitals, takes control of entire wards in order to use them for torture, imprisonment.
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Nazi find sheds light on Egypt's sensitive past
(AP) Nazi hunters urged Egypt to come clean about how much it knew about a fugitive dubbed "Dr. Death," who reportedly lived here for decades until he died in 1992.
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Yemeni Jews tell their story and demand rescue
(Yemen) Despite numerous government assurances and presidential instructions to protect and relocate the Jewish minority in Raidah village, Amran governorate, the some 400 Yemeni Jewish citizens fear for their lives today more than ever.
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NORTH AMERICA

CIA warns Barack Obama that British terrorists are the biggest threat to the US
(Telegraph) American spy chiefs have told the President that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain.
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Obama’s Prime-Time Press Briefing
(NY Times) Atranscript of President Obama’s first press prime-press conference, as provided by Federal News Service.
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EUROPE

Jews say pope must condemn antisemitism in Church
(Washington Post) Pope Benedict must take a clear stand against antisemitism in the Roman Catholic Church if he wants to defuse a controversy over a bishop who denies the Holocaust, Jewish leaders said.
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Jewish leaders speak of tensions before meeting Pope Benedict
(Reuters) Two Jewish leaders due to meet Pope Benedict say he has to ensure the ultra-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) changes some of its core views before current Catholic-Jewish strains can ease.
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Survey: European antisemitism strong
(AP) The Anti-Defamation League said that a survey it commissioned found nearly a third of Europeans polled blame Jews for the global economic meltdown and that a greater number think Jews have too much power in the business world.
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Survey: 31% of Europeans blame economic crisis on Jews
(YNet) Anti-Defamation League poll conducted in seven European countries shows almost half of Europeans believe Jews more loyal to Israel than countries they live in, 40% say Jews have too much power
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Sowing antisemitism
(Mail and Guardian) “After the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11 2001 and in the United Kingdom on July 7 2005, the British liberal-left urged Britons to be careful in their language not to generalise, from individuals to a community, and to make clear to Britain's Muslims that they are part of the national life. It was the right reaction.”
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Rise in antisemitic attacks 'the worst recorded in Britain in decades'
(Guardian) Police patrols have been stepped up in Jewish neighbourhoods following the most intense period of antisemitic incidents to have been recorded in Britain in decades.
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Senior U.K. diplomat said arrested over antisemitic tirade
(Haaretz) A senior diplomat in the British Foreign Office has been arrested for inciting religious hatred after he launched into an antisemitic tirade at a London gym.
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Foreign Office diplomat arrested over 'antisemitic' rant
(Telegraph) Rowan Laxton, 47, an expert on the Middle East, allegedly shouted "f*****g Israelis" "f*****g Jews" while watching television reports of the Israeli attack on Gaza in the gym.
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Diplomat Arrested Over Alleged Antisemitic Remark
(Totally Jewish) Just days before the Foreign Office hosts the London Conference for Combating Antisemitism, a senior diplomat in the same government department faces a police investigation after allegations that he launched an antisemitic tirade while watching television coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
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Arabs throws pipebombs and fires rockets on peaceful pro-Israeli demonstration
(Ted Ekeroth) This time the police was in better shape to handle the Arabic mob that once again attacked our peacful pro-Israeli demonstration in Malmö.
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MISCELLANEOUS

For the ICC to work, the worst must come first
(Jerusalem Post) There are efforts now underway to try to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on charges of alleged war crimes. Neither Israel nor the United States has signed on to this court, primarily out of fear that its power would be used against democracies that try their best to avoid war crimes, rather than against dictatorships and terrorist nations that routinely engage in them.
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Jews in S. America Increasingly Uneasy
(Washington Post) Jewish leaders said it had never before happened in Venezuela: a break-in with anti-Jewish intent at one of the city's most prominent synagogues.
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Venezuela's Jews fear more attacks
(Washington Post) As President Hugo Chavez intensifies his anti-Israel campaign, some Venezuelans have taken action, threatening Jews in the street and vandalizing the largest synagogue in Caracas  where they stole a database of names and addresses.
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What lurks behind Iran's close relationship with Venezuela?
(Haaratez) Venezuela and Iran have recently stepped up mutual cooperation in efforts to establish terror bases and infrastructure across Latin America, United Nations sources believe.
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South African politician says she meant ‘Zionists, not Jews,’ control U.S.
(Jewish Journal) A statement from Fatima Hajaig, the South African deputy foreign minister, who said last month that “control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money.“
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