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The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 4 No. 2
14 November 2009

YIISA CO-SPONSORS CONFERENCE:
Sunday, August 23, 2010
“Israel on Campus:  Defending Our Universities”
This one-day Conference will assess the mounting threat to academic freedom and free inquiry posed by a growing Antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism.
Sponsor:         The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR)
Location:        Montreal, Canada
Speakers:       Dr. Judith Woodsworth, President, Concordia University, Montreal
Irwin Cotler, Former Justice Minister, Canada; noted human rights advocate
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
Professor Robert Wistrich, Hebrew University
Professor Alvin Rosenfeld, Indiana University
Manfred Gerstenfeld, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Dr. Edward Beck, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Charles Asher Small, Director, YIISA
Please click here for more information

SAVE THE DATE FOR A SPECIAL COURSE WITH CHARLES SMALL AT THE 92ND STREET Y:
Sunday, February 7, 2010 from 9:30am – 1:30pm
“Radical Islam and Genocidal Antisemitsim”
Location:        92nd Street Y – Warburg Lounge, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, New York, NY
Speakers:       Charles Asher Small, Director, YIISA
Please click here for more information

REPORTS

Fatah Members: The Principle of Resistance and Armed Struggle Must Not Be Relinquished
(MEMRI) Statements made on the eve of the Fatah conference, and during its opening session, indicate that the dominant position among Fatah members is that resistance (muqawama) of various forms is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people.
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Reality Contradicts New Hamas Spin 
In recent interviews, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal has offered to cooperate with U.S. efforts to promote a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, indicated a willingness to implement an immediate and reciprocal ceasefire with Israel, and stated that the militant group would accept and respect a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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SPECIAL ARTICLE OF INTEREST

Obama's troubling stance towards Israel
(Spero Forum) Gregg Rickman, YIISA Fellow and Former State Dept Official for Antisemitism, writes: “By honoring Mary Robinson with the Medal of Freedom, President Obama reveals a frightening naivete or purposeful diversion. U.S. policy towards Israel has now come full circle.”
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At Home To War and Peace
(Forward) Doron Ben-Atar's New Play Slaps Back at Antisemitism in Academia
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'Foreigners Cannot Understand the Israelis' Vulnerability'
(Spiegel) Novelist David Grossman discusses the vicious cycle of fear and violence in Israel, the inability of foreigners to understand the Israelis' sense of vulnerability and lack of confidence in the country's future. He also expresses skepticism about Benjamin Netanyahu's belief in peace.
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Waiting for orders
(YNet) Hezbollah’s cells in Venezuela are part of the organization’s apparatus dedicated to attacks overseas. It is also known as the “Special Operations Command.”
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST

IRAN

Ignoring Iran's nuclear plan would be the West's greatest blunder
(Telegraph) The West has given up on its attempts to prevent Iran acquiring an atom bomb – and the result will be a nuclear arms race that threatens not only the future of the Middle East, but the entire world.
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Iran Inmates ‘Tortured To Death’
(BBC) One of Iran's defeated opposition presidential candidates has said some protesters held after July's disputed poll were tortured to death in prison.
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Amid Pressure For New Iran Sanctions, Obama Administration Weighs Efficacy
(Nasdaq) While the U.S. Congress appears on course to approve legislation that sanctions Iran, the Obama administration isn't convinced the punitive measures will work
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Nuclear Iran looms after hardliners prevail in vote
(Reuters) With Iran's hardline leadership prevailing over post-election unrest, its atomic program looks on course to reach bomb-making potential under the noses of U.N. inspectors and beyond the reach of U.S. overtures for talks.
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Antisemitism Vs Antisemitism in Iran
(History News Network) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Holocaust denier who, for many, is the living symbol of anti-Semitism, has recently become the target of an anti-Semitic attack.
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MIDDLE EAST

Assad to visit Iran to congratulate Ahmadinejad
(Haaretz) Syrian President Bashar Assad was scheduled to embark on an official visit to Tehran next week, during which he was expected to congratulate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his recent election victory.

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Hezbollah suspected of setting up camp in Venezuela
(YNet) Senior Israeli political official: Nasrallah established major terrorist base in Venezuela under Chavez sponsorship. Hezbollah members collect intelligence from continent, including Brazil, Argentina, and Peru with objective of carrying out a low-profile revenge attack for assassination of Imad Mughniyeh
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Analysis: How Fatah Has Evolved Into the Palestinian Ba'ath Party
(JPost) Fatah's sixth General Assembly has shown that the 44-year-old faction is still not ready to transform itself from a revolutionary movement into a governing body - one that cares about establishing institutions and infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.
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The Truth About Fatah – Revealed By Fatah Itself (& Fatah’s General Secretary Claims That Abbas Helped “Murder” Arafat)
(Tom Gross Media) This dispatch concerns the Fatah General Assembly which has been continuing for the past week in Bethlehem, and is central to understanding why Israeli-Palestinian peace remains so elusive.
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Following Election Triumph, Fatah Sets Out To 'Liberate' Gaza
(Haaretz) At the start of the week, a member of Iz al-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, died in the Palestinian Authority's Juneid Prison, in Nablus. The circumstances of Fadi Hamadneh's death are unclear, with PA officials claiming he committed suicide, and Hamas claiming he was tortured to death by PA security operatives. In response to the charges, the spokesman of the Palestinian security services, Adnan Damiri, said that Hamas, which has executed hundreds of people in the Gaza Strip, has no right to talk about torture or the violation of human rights.
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Syrian President to Visit Iran Soon
(ChinaView) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to pay a state visit to Iran in the near future, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday
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U.S. security team to visit Syria, focus on Iraq
(Reuters) A U.S. security delegation will visit Syria on Wednesday in a sign of growing cooperation between the two countries since U.S. President Barack Obama started talking with the Damascus government, diplomats said.
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Americans Still See More Enemies Than Friends In Middle East
(Rasmussen Reports) The United States still has a long way to go building friendships in the Middle East despite President Obama’s highly-publicized outreach to the Muslim world.
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Analysis: New faces of an unreformed, hard-line Fatah
(Jerusalem Post) Many of the newly-elected members of Fatah's Central Committee may be younger than their ousted predecessors, but that does not necessarily mean that they are more reform-minded or less corrupt.
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The agony of Fatah
(Financial Times) The historic movement of Palestinian national aspiration for freedom and statehood, the Fatah party of the late Yassir Arafat, has managed to convene its first congress inside the occupied territories, after 20 years without meeting at all. What a spectacle it offers.
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Terrorists who fought U.S. in Iraq make way to Gaza
(Haartez) Dozens of Islamic terrorists have entered the Gaza Strip over the past year and are operating there in the framework of extremist organizations identified with the "Worldwide Jihad." The terrorists are Sunni Muslims, many of whom have taken part in the fighting against American forces in Iraq.
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71 senators ask Obama to pressure Arab states
(YNet) Democratic and Republican senators send letter to US president, saying Arab countries should consider 'dramatic gestures' toward Israel in order to show their commitment to peace, similar to steps taken by Prime Minister Netanyahu
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Senators ask Obama to lean on Arab states
(The Hill) The effort, led by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), is being promoted and circulated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and comes two months after Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo.
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The choir practice in Brazil
(Jerusalem Post) Yaakov Ahimeir writes, "Like other Israeli members of the media, I had been invited to participate in a UN-sponsored seminar on the age-old (some would say tired) topic of "Middle East Peace." Its stated purpose: to bridge the gaps in viewpoint between the people of the region, minimize controversy and create dialogue. By the time the two-day rounds of discussions had come to an end, however, I felt that the very opposite had been accomplished
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Israel tells nationals: Leave Sinai immediately
(Haaretz) The Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office warned Israelis to exercise caution when traveling abroad during the Jewish holidays, due to the assessment that Hezbollah may try to attack Israeli citizens, and urged citizens in Sinai to leave immediately.
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Survivor of 1929 Hebron Massacre recounts her ordeal
(Haaretz) Yonah Molchadsky had given up hope of finding the little apartment in which her family had lived in Hebron. But her daughter, Geula Wolfson, and the other family members and friends who went along on the 1967 visit, were not prepared to give up.
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80 years on, the scars still show
(Jerusalem Post) On the Hebrew anniversary of the 1929 massacre of 67 Jewish residents by an Arab mob in Hebron, 81-year-old Shlomo Slonim recounts the details of that fateful day, when he was only a year old.
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Israelis, Palestinians and History
In discussing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute (“The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything,” Op-Ed, Aug. 11), Hussein Agha and Robert Malley stress dislocation and subsequent refugee status as core Palestinian grievances.
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"Mine Enemies Make Me Wiser"
Robert Malley and Hussein Agha are (let me just to be polite say "adversaries" instead of) enemies of Israel. That is why they are so welcome in the New York Review of Books and, of course, on the op-ed page of the New York Times where their latest missive, "The Two-State Solution Doesn't Solve Anything," appeared on Tuesday.
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Amid mini-exodus, more Jews leave Yemen
(SABA) Three relatives of the Jew killed late last year in northern Yemen have left the country for Israel, a departure which comes amid a mini-exodus triggered by alleged harassment.
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Israel protests exclusion from int'l archeological conference in Ramallah
The Israel Antiquities Authority condemned the World Archeological Congress on Wednesday for holding an international conference in Ramallah dedicated to "overcoming structural violence" and the negative impact of politics on archeology.
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EUROPE

In battling British anti-Semitism, more is more
(New Jersey Jewish News) In England, the issue of anti-Semitism never seems to go away. This summer, two phenomena demonstrate the disturbing and damaging trend afflicting the country’s Jews and pro-Israel community
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Report: Building housing Hasidim torched in Ukraine
(YNet) Ukrainian TV reports unidentified perpetrators set house used by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov Hasidim on fire in city of Uman. Local Jewish shops also said to have been vandalized
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NORTH AMERICA

Jewish Groups Say Obama’s Pick for Medal Has Anti-Israel Bias
(NY Times) President Obama’s decision to bestow one of the nation’s highest honors on Mary Robinson, the first woman to serve as Ireland’s president, has touched off protests by Jewish groups and lawmakers, who claim she has shown a persistent anti-Israel bias in her work as a human rights advocate
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Failure of Leadership
(The New Republic) Why Obama should retract his decision to give Mary Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Op-Ed: There’s something about Mary
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, but don’t expect everyone to be smiling Wednesday when President Obama recognizes 16 distinguished people with the award.
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Jerusalem Think Tank Attacks Obama On Failure To Name Anti-Semitism Envoy
(The Bulletin) A monograph published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, run by Dr. Dore Gold, a close advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahy, entitled "The Politics of the American Response to Global Anti-Semitism” has leveled stinging criticism of the Obama administration for failing to to name an envoy to  monitor and combat  anti-Semitism around the world.
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Surprising Donors to J Street
The J Street political action committee has received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from dozens of Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as from several individuals connected to organizations doing Palestinian and Iranian issues advocacy, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
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Extremist Christians: 'God hates Jews'
Members of the extremist Westboro Baptist Church, known for its anti-gay and anti-Semitic rhetoric, protested in front of several Jewish institutions in New York on Tuesday.
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Swastikas found on public, private property in Montreal
The recent appearance of swastikas on public and private properties in the predominantly Jewish Montreal suburbs of Côte Saint-Luc and Hampstead is definitely cause for concern, says the Quebec chairman of B’nai  Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights.
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Jewish Congress accuses United Church debate proposal of anti-Semitism
The Canadian Jewish Congress says its relationship with Canada's largest protestant denomination is in jeopardy because of resolutions to be debated at the United Church's general meeting next week.
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United Church drops Israel 'apartheid' wording
(CBC) Delegates at the United Church of Canada's national meeting have voted almost unanimously to reject controversial language used in material for a proposed divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel
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MISCELLANEOUS

Mamet’s Next Project: Anne Frank Film
(New York Times) In the introduction to his essay collection “The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred and the Jews,” David Mamet offered the book, in part, to readers “whose favorite Jew is Anne Frank and whose second-favorite does not exist.” We presume he won’t be quite as provocative with his next project, a new film version of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which Mr. Mamet is writing and directing for Disney.
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Israel is just too successful for the losers of the Leftist intelligentsia
Stephanie Gutmann comments on George Gilder's new book, entitled The Israel Test.
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Beyond Chutzpah
A book review in the Palestinian Chronicle of “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History” by Norman G Finkelstein is well received and supported by Avi Shlaim and Noam Chomsky.
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Latin American Jews contend with spike in anti-Semitism
(Christian Science Monitor) Derogatory political statements and attacks on synagogues have increased since Israel's January war in Gaza
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Source – Canadian Institute for Jewish Research:
WEEKLY QUOTES
 "If Hezbollah joins the Lebanese government as an official entity, let it be clear that the Lebanese government, as far as we are concerned, is responsible for any attack--any attack--from its area on the state of Israel. It cannot hide and say: 'It's Hezbollah, we don't control them.'"--Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to news that Hezbollah could join the new Lebanese government, and declaring that Israel would then hold Lebanon responsible for any future attack from its territory. (Ha'aretz, August 11)
 
"If one hair on the head of an Israeli representative or tourist is harmed, we will see Hezbollah as responsible and it will bear the most dire consequences.... We know it's not just Egypt...we know that Hezbollah has tried and is trying to collect intelligence and to carry out some actions...it has had its failures but it keeps trying. So it's important to put things on the table and send this warning to Lebanon, which is eventually responsible for Hezbollah, that it will also be responsible for any harm it may suffer if Israelis are targeted."--Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, in an interview on Israel Radio, responding to the arrest of a group in Cairo allegedly plotting to kill Israel's ambassador to Egypt. The Israel Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a warning Tuesday against traveling to the Sinai--where a large Hezbollah cell was recently exposed. (Ha'aretz, August 10; Ynet News, Aug. 11)
 
"At this stage, we are focusing on popular struggle, but the armed struggle is a right reserved to us in international law."--Senior Fatah member Nabil Shaath, at the conclusion of Fatah's first convention in twenty years, clarifying that although party members voted to endorse a platform calling for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, they would not rule out the use of armed aggression against Israel. (Ha'aretz, August 10)
 
"We have to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of Gaza. We left, and Hamas came in and started shooting against us."--Israeli President Shimon Peres, addressing a delegation of U.S. Democratic Congressmen, conveying Israel's caution regarding a final peace settlement with Palestinian neighbours. (Jerusalem Post, August 10)
 
"[D]escribing our efforts as a 'global war [on terror]' only plays into the warped narrative that al-Qaeda propagates. It plays into the misleading and dangerous notion that the U.S. is somehow in conflict with the rest of the world. We the United States are willing to engage in a dialogue with any organizations or groups that are dedicated to realizing peaceful solutions to existing problems.
"Those elements within Lebanon, be they Hezbollah or others, know the United States has tried to be a very honest broker there regarding support for Lebanese institutions and those who shun terrorism will in fact gain favour with the United States. The same thing with the Palestinian community: those Palestinians that are really going to ensure that they pursue a path towards peace that does not bring terrorism to bear are going to be partners of the United States."--U.S. Chief Counter-Terrorism Advisor John Brennan, during a meeting with a think-tank in Washington D.C., insisting that Pres. Obama's strategy of diplomacy with Muslims should yield more effective results than the previous Administration's "global war on terror". (National Post, August 7)
 
"We heard that some of the western leaders have decided to recognize but not congratulate the new government. Well, no one in Iran [was] waiting for your messages. The Iranian nation neither values your scowls and threats, nor your smiles and greetings."--Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking to Parliament after having been sworn in for a second term, taunting the West and the hundreds of demonstrators outside protesting his fraudulent election. (National Post, August 5)
 
"This one baffles even us: President Obama today will grant the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a key critic of the United States and Israel and protector of regimes like Saddam Hussein's.
"That's right: Among the 16 medal winners is Mary Robinson, who ran the UN's Human Rights Commission from '97 to '02 and built a notable anti-West, anti-US and anti-Israel legacy. In knocking NATO's Yugoslavia mission in the '90s, slapping America for its criminal-justice practices and opposing sanctions against Hussein, she drew much US ire. Indeed, so hostile was she to US interests that Washington actively sought to oust her.
"Her one-sided hits on Israel won special notice. The late Rep. Tom Lantos (a Democrat, human-rights advocate and Holocaust survivor) called the UN's '01 Durban parley, which she organized, 'the most sickening . . . display of hate for Jews I have seen since the Nazi period.'
"Obama aide Robert Gibbs defends the award, calling her a 'crusader of women's rights.' Which, uh, misses the point, no? Judging by Obama's recent global 'apology tour,' his view of America is pretty clear. But this award goes too far."--New York Post Editorial, chastising Pres. Obama's decision to bestow the prestigious award on one of the most frequent critics of his nation's policies and those of its allies. (New York Post, August 12)
 
"He was arrested, subjected to humiliating interrogations, accused of spying for Israel, lived under the specter of a 13-year prison term and sold everything he owned to pay for his legal defense. But Lawrence Franklin, 63, a former senior officer in the U.S. Air Force, an intelligence expert, university professor and senior official in the U.S. administration, did not crack. A devout Catholic, he accepted his bitter fate submissively and saw it as a test from heaven, as a means of achieving salvation.... While making his way through that vale of tears, he arrived at an insight: that some of the agencies of the U.S. administration, and in particular the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are tainted by anti-Semitism.
"But Franklin's troubles...are the result of something deeper--the FBI's constant and unwavering suspicion that Israel is a treacherous state which, unsatisfied with the generous aid it receives from its American ally, systematically and unscrupulously connives to spy and steal information and technology in the United States.
"Those suspicions, which became an obsession, were reinforced in 1985 with the affair of the civilian navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, who was discovered to be spying for Israel. From its investigation of Pollard, the FBI concluded that Israel had another spy deep within the administration--someone even more senior than Pollard.... The agency initially thought it was Franklin....
"Franklin's impression was that his interrogators believed Pollard had a secret partner, a mole, probably in the office of the secretary of defense. 'The pursuit to uncover the mole was fed by a malevolent anti-Semitic passion. In the intelligence community, Israelis are called 'Izzis,' which has an unpleasant odor to it. They can't say 'kikes' nowadays, so they resort to 'Izzis.''"--Yossi Melman, reporting on an interview with Lawrence Franklin, who plans to write a book saving the world from the Iranian threat. (Ha'aretz, July 27) 

SHORT TAKES
 
   
ISRAEL, JORDAN HOLD SECRET TALKS--(Jerusalem) The thorny issue of the status of Palestinian refugees was at the center of discreet high-level talks carried out in Amman last week between Jordanian officials close to King Abdullah II and the Israeli Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau. The Jordanians have opposed proposals to create a Palestinian state in Jordan or give the Palestinians, who make up 70 percent of Jordan's population, any sort of loose autonomy within the Kingdom. Despite Israeli assurances that the Netanyahu government was not planning on evicting Palestinians to Jordan, Amman is concerned that "Israel is considering Jordan as an alternative for a Palestinian state," one Israeli official said. (Jerusalem Post, August 12)
 
CONGRESS: EAST JERUSALEM NOT WEST BANK--(Jerusalem) In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called for the Palestinian Authority to drop any preconditions to negotiations and said that Congress differentiated between building in east Jerusalem and in the West Bank. Hoyer, currently in Israel as part of a Congressional delegation, criticized the inflammatory rhetoric coming from the Fatah General Assembly in Bethlehem as "unfortunate in the sense that it re-instilled a sense of confrontation and resistance." Hoyer will bring these concerns to PA president Mahmoud Abbas when the two meet later this week. (Jerusalem Post, August 11)
 
KUWAIT FOILS PLAN TO BOMB U.S. FACILITIES--(Kuwait) Kuwaiti officials said Tuesday that they have foiled an al Qaeda-linked plan to bomb American facilities, including an army camp, in Kuwait. The Interior Ministry released a statement saying that they arrested six terrorists who confessed to planning attacks on U.S. targets. As well as being the world's fourth largest oil exporter, Kuwait is an important U.S. ally in the region, and serves as a staging ground for forces deploying in Iraq. (Washington Post, August 11)
 
TALIBAN CLASH WITH AFGHAN, U.S. FORCES--(Pul-e-alam, Afghanistan) Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers occupied a shopping centre in the capital of Logar Province and used the building as a launching ground for an attack on provincial government offices. The confrontation between the Taliban and American and Afghan forces lasted several hours and left four people dead. Violence in Afghanistan has been escalating in anticipation of the August 20 election, despite President Hamid Karzai's desire to include "moderate" Taliban and other groups in a political solution to the war. (New York Times, August 11)
 
PAKISTANI TALIBAN LEADER: DEAD OR ALIVE?--(Islamabad) Despite assurances from Pakistani and U.S. officials that the Pakistani Taliban chief, Baitullah Mehsud, has been killed, Pakistani Taliban members insist that Mehsud is still alive. Pakistani security sources believe that a number of Taliban commanders are engaged in a struggle to succeed Mehsud and gain control of his $40-million fortune, acquired through drug and weapon smuggling and donations from al-Qaeda. The power struggle is believed to have taken the lives of two senior Taliban figures, Wali Rahman and Hakimullah Mehsud. (National Post, August 11)
 
PAKISTAN NUCLEAR SITES ATTACKED--(Washington) Over the past two years Pakistan`s nuclear facilities have been attacked by Taliban and al Qaeda-affiliated forces three times. In November, 2007 a nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha was attacked; on December 10, 2007 a suicide bomber targeted Pakistan`s nuclear airbase in Kamra; and on August 20, 2008, Taliban suicide bombers blew up multiple entry points to the Wah nuclear weapons assembly plant. Professor Shaun Gregory of Bradford University, UK, has tracked all the attacks and says that the proximity of Pakistan`s nuclear infrastructure to areas dominated by the Taliban makes them more vulnerable to attack. (Times of India, August 11)
 
INDONESIAN POLICE, TERRORISTS CLASH--(Jakarta) Indonesian anti-terrorism police clashed with terrorists suspected of carrying out attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta last month. According to police spokesman Nanan Sukarna, the firefight occurred outside a house near Temanggung, a town in central Java province. Sukarna did not confirm reports that police had arrested two terrorists involved in the attack, or whether Noordin Mohamed Top, the Malaysian citizen believed to have masterminded the hotel bombings, had been captured or killed. Noordin and members of his terrorist group have been known to hide in other Islamist networks as well as in hard-line Muslim schools. (Wall Street Journal, August 8-9)
 
ROBINSON: "JEWISH GROUPS BULLYING ME"--(Jerusalem) Former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has accused "certain elements" of the Jewish community of "bullying" people who support Palestinians. Her comments come after Jewish groups voiced their concerns over Robinson's being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the top U.S. civilian honour, by President Barack Obama. (Ha'aretz, August 5)
 
NEW YORK BAR MITZVAH BOY GIVES SDEROT $40,000--(Sderot) Benjamin Sternklar Davis, a 13-year-old boy from New York, has donated $40,000 to the children of Sderot, to build a park.  Sternklar Davis, who celebrated his bar mitzvah in Sderot, said: "I felt bad during the war for the children of Sderot who had to go to school and come back with the constant thought that they could be hit by a Qassam rocket at any given second." (Ha'aretz, August 11)