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The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 4 No. 3
11 September 2009

YIISA SEMINAR SERIES SCHEDULE:
NOW AVAILABLE
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YIISA LECTURE
Thursday, October 1, 2009 @ 4:15pm
“Representations of Jews in Revolutionary Iran”
Location:        77 Prospect Street, Room A-002
Speaker:         Orly Rahimiyan, PhD Candidate, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University; Phyllis Greenberg Heideman and Richard D. Heideman Fellow, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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
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LECTURES OF INTEREST
Thursday, September 24th @ 12:00pm
“The Torah As We Have It:  Structure, Theme and Purpose”
The Whitney Humanities Center, Room 208
Speaker:         Baruch Schwartz, Jacob Perlow Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies
Sponsor:         Judaic Studies in cooperation with the Whitney Humanities Center
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REPORT

Holocaust Deflection and Whitewashing
(Institute for Global Jewish Affairs) Holocaust deflection entails admitting that the Holocaust happened while denying the complicity or various types of participation of countries, specific groups, or individuals despite ample evidence to the contrary. Major examples of deflection occur in those countries where, during the war, Germans were helped massively in the killing, deportation, and despoliation of the Jews.
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IRAN

Russia Says No to Iran Nuclear Sanctions
(Wall Street Journal) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear Thursday that Moscow wouldn't back any new rounds of tough sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, and he dismissed a U.S. timetable for securing progress from Iran on ending its nuclear-fuel program.
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U.S. Says Iran Could Expedite Nuclear Bomb
(NY Times) American intelligence agencies have concluded in recent months that Iran has created enough nuclear fuel to make a rapid, if risky, sprint for a nuclear weapon. But new intelligence reports delivered to the White House say that the country has deliberately stopped short of the critical last steps to make a bomb.
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Iran Rules Out Talks on Its Nuclear "Rights"
(NY Times) Iran's president snubbed U.S. President Barack Obama's end-September deadline to talk to world powers on its disputed nuclear program, saying in his opinion discussion on the issue is "finished."
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Nuclear Agency Said to Be in ‘Stalemate’ With Iran
(NY Times) The head of the United Nations nuclear oversight agency said his organization was in a “stalemate” with Iran over its nuclear program, just after the Iranian president affirmed once again that his country would not stop uranium enrichment or negotiate over its nuclear rights.
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Mohamed ElBaradei left out evidence of Iran bomb, France claims
(Times) Long chided for being soft on Iran, Mohamed ElBaradei goes into the annual conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency amid a diplomatic storm over whether he has deliberately hidden evidence of Iran’s work on a nuclear bomb.
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Officials: Discovery of Weapons Cache Suggests Iranian Meddling in Afghan War
(Fox News) Afghan and NATO forces uncovered the weapons cache on Aug. 29 in Herat. It included a small number of Iranian-made "explosively formed penetrators," hyper-powerful roadside bombs similar to the weapons used to kill U.S. forces in Iraq, a senior U.S. Defense Official told FOX News.
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Taking Iran Seriously
(Wall Street Journal) President Barack Obama and other world leaders agreed two months ago that at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh this month they would "re-evaluate Iran's posture towards negotiating the cessation of a nuclear weapons policy." That reassessment cannot come too soon.
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Pakistani Scientist Cites Help to Iran
(Washington Post) The creator of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program boasted in a recent television interview that he and other senior Pakistani officials, eager to see Iran develop nuclear weapons, years ago guided that country to a proven network of suppliers and helped advance its covert efforts.
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Israeli PM 'made secret visit' to Russia over Iran
(AFP)Israel's prime minister stole away to Moscow this week to discuss Russian arms sales to arch-foes Iran and Syria, a report said amid speculation over the premier's mysterious disappearance.
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Iran's revolution? The hardliners won
(Guardian) The difficulties inherent in dealing with Tehran have taken on new layers of complexity in the disputed election's wake
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Venezuela to export gasoline to Iran
(AP) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sealed an agreement to export 20,000 barrels per day of gasoline to Iran, state TV reported. The deal would give Tehran a cushion if the West carries out threats of fuel sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
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A Friend to Iran
(Washington Post) Does the Obama administration know what Venezuela is doing to assist Tehran's weapons programs?
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Ayatollahs cast growing shadow in Latin America
(AJC) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nomination last month of Ahmad Vahidi as defense minister starkly illustrates the danger posed by Iran’s Latin America penetration.
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MIDDLE EAST

Schulte:  Syria may have more nuke sites
(JPost) Syria may be operating more nuclear sites, apart from the reactor at Deir Azour which was bombed by Israel on September 6, 2007 in what came to be known as Operation Orchard, former US envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Gregory Schulte told Channel 10 Thursday evening.
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Ancestral homeland loses more Yemini Jews
(Yemen Times)  In the face of mounting US and Israeli pressure to transfer them out of the country, many Yemeni Jews continue to trickle out of their ancestral homeland, with three families leaving on Wednesday.
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Lebanon’s Hariri Quits in Attempt to Reduce Opposition Demands
(Bloomberg) Saad Hariri’s decision to quit yesterday as Lebanon’s prime minister-designate is aimed at forcing opposition parties to scale back demands in talks over the formation of a national unity government, analysts said.
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Amos Gilad: Israel will destroy Hamas if provoked
(YNet) The head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau said Tuesday that if Hamas was to make use of a much-boasted 60 km-range rocket Israel would "destroy it".
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Easy how-to guide for creating your own 'Israel apartheid' outrage
(National Post) Given all the recent attention that has been paid to twits and their never-ending need for attention, Benjamin Hartman, an editor at Haaretz.com, has prepared an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for inventing stories demonizing Jews in the guise of criticizing Israel.
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What Carter Missed in the Middle East
(Washington Post) As with most of Carter's recent statements about Israel and the Palestinians, instead of facts we get vignettes from recent Carter travels. And while he finds "a growing sense of concern and despair" among "increasingly desperate" Palestinians, polls do not sustain this view.
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Private Motive for Egypt’s Public Embrace of a Jewish Past
(NY Times) Egyptians generally do not make any distinction between Jewish people and Israelis. Israelis are seen as the enemy, so Jews are, too.
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EUROPE

AJC Protests Spanish Newspaper's Portrayal of Holocaust Denier as 'Expert'
(Reuters) The AJC protested the decision of El Mundo, one of Spain's leading newspapers, to publish an interview with the notorious British Holocaust denier David Irving this weekend, as part of its coverage of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.
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Spanish politico: Holocaust denier interview helps Israel
(Haaretz) Israel's image in Spain can only benefit from the upcoming publication of an interview with Holocaust denier David Irving in a Spanish paper, a senior member of Spain's ruling party said.
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'Dutch Jews suffered tenfold increase in Antisemitic attacks during Gaza war'
The number of Antisemitic incidents documented in Holland in January almost equaled the number of attacks recorded throughout the whole of 2008, according to the annual report by the country's watchdog on Antisemitism.
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Antisemitic incidents soar in Holland
(JTA) The number of Antisemitic incidents in Holland in January was nearly equal to the number of attacks in all of 2008, a new report shows.
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German Antisemitism panel has first meeting
(JTA) Germany's newly convened panel of experts on Antisemitism received a packet of background documents that included federal and police statistics on Antisemitic crimes and descriptions of current programs, as well as a working definition of Antisemitism that has been adopted at the European Union level.
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Student fined for Israel flag in Germany
(Jerusalem Post) A local district court in the West German city of Bochum fined a student €300 on Wednesday for displaying an Israeli flag at a demonstration organized by Muslim groups against the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in January.
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NORTH AMERICA

Harvard Crimson says Holocaust denial ad published by accident
(CNN) Harvard University, one of America's premiere academic institutions, is coming under fire for running an advertisement in its campus newspaper questioning the reality of the Holocaust.
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Why Walt, Mearsheimer, Still Wrong
(The Jewish Week) On the second anniversary of the publication of the highly controversial book, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” written by University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer and Harvard University’s Stephen Walt, it is worth noting that their central thesis — that Israel is a strategic liability and not an asset to the U.S. — is erroneous, as evident from examining the Mideast situation today.
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Voight feuds with old co-star over film-festival protest
(The Globe and Mail) Actor Jon Voight is accusing actress Jane Fonda - his co-star in his Oscar-winning turn in the anti-Vietnam war film Coming Home - of "aiding and abetting those who seek the destruction of Israel."
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B’nai Brith slams York report on student life
(JTA) A Canadian university's task force report fails to address the real issue of Antisemitism, B'nai Brith Canada, a Jewish group claims.
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Boycotting Israeli films is just the beginning
(National Post) As might have been expected, the usual suspects are deploring the Toronto International Film Festival's spotlight on Tel Aviv, complaining the "uncritical celebration" of the city is like "celebrating Montgomery (Alabama) buses in 1963" or "South African fruit in 1991."
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BOOK REVIEW

“Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters” by Louis Begley
(Forward) The Dreyfus case has become an iconic episode in the history of antisemitism. “Everything related to the affair,” including forged evidence, perjury and stone-walling at the highest levels of the French army, Louis Begley reminds us, was “envenomed” by the scapegoating of Jews that followed defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
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Weekly Quotes: source Canadian Institute for Jewish Research
"This will damage U. S. relations with Britain for years to come. I really can't think about a more duplicitous act by Britain vis-a-vis the United States in the post-war period." -- David Rivkin, a former U.S. Justice Department official, criticizing the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi in an alleged British-Libyan secret deal over oil. British PM Gordon Brown denied the allegation, stating, "There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to influence Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi." Foreign Minister David Miliband, in a radio interview, insisted, "We did not want him to die in prison ... we weren't seeking his death in prison. There was no pressure from the British government on the Scots." However, the next day, British Justice Minister Jack Straw admitted, "Yes, [trade and oil were] a very big part of that. I'm unapologetic about that... Libya was a rogue state. We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP [oil] deal." (National Post, September 3; Daily Telegraph, September 4)

"If you were a senior minister, would you do this without telling the boss? I doubt it. I have to think [Gaddafi] knew something was going to happen, something that the US would be pissed about, and he said OK." -- Richard Marquise, the senior FBI agent who led the U.S. task force probing the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, in a telephone interview, explaining why it is unlikely for a terrorist attack of that magnitude to have been authorized without Gaddafi's explicit approval. Gaddafi was never indicted. (Jer. Post, September 4)

"On other issues [than the Natanz enrichment plant] relevant to Iran 's nuclear program...there is stalemate." -- Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei, convening a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors to discuss Iran and Syria . U.S. envoy Glyn Davies noted that Ahmadinejad's repeated refusal to halt its enrichment activity, "in connection with Iran's refusal to engage with the IAEA regarding its past nuclear warhead-related work, [creates] serious [U.S.] concerns that Iran is deliberately attempting, at a minimum, to preserve a nuclear weapons option." (Ha'aretz, September 7, Jer. Post, September 9)

"The general context was one that was meant to pull Ahmadinejad's ear, to say, 'You're not alone; there are other currents.' But there were pressures put on Parliament not to reject a third of the cabinet ministers." -- Mustafa el-Labbad, Director of the Middle East Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo , assessing the Iranian Parliament's approval of all but three of Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 21 cabinet nominations. Inductees include Ahmad Vahidi, the man wanted by Interpol and Argentina for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre. Calling his appointment a "decisive slap to Israel ", Vahidi said that "[a]ll those who act against Iran will face the iron fist of the Iranian government, nation and armed forces." (National Post, New York Times, September 4)

"Instead of sending letters of congratulation to Ahmadinejad for his rigged victory, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, together with the member states, should be denying the tyrant any international recognition, which would automatically bar him from the rostrum." -- UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, ahead of Ahmadinejad's scheduled address to the UN General Assembly next week, warning that the illegitimate Iranian ruler and "leading Holocaust-denier of our time" should not be allowed to "abuse this global podium to legitimize his oppressive rule, deflect attention from his crimes, and spew hatred against the free world, especially Israel ." Director of the Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust at Touro College (N.Y.C.), Anne Bayefsky , explained that "[a]lthough the prevailing wisdom of the State Department is that they have no discretion under the terms and conditions of the host agreement, surely it is vitiated by an individual who advocates genocide." The bipartisan group United Against Nuclear Iran wrote in a letter to the Barclay InterContinental New York hotel: "By accommodating the Iranian delegation, the InterContinental...turns a blind eye to the regime's flagrant violations of human rights and its commitment to illegally developing nuclear weapons." (Jer. Post, September 2; New York Post, September 8)

"The state of Israel has become a murderous lackey at the service of imperialism. It's a genocidal government. I condemn that Zionist government that persecutes the heroic Palestinian people." -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, during the Syrian portion of his trip through Libya, Algeria, Iran, Belarus, Russia, and Spain, telling the 10,000 people gathered in a football stadium that "the people of Israel shouldn't support a genocidal government." At the same time, thousands of protestors across Latin America demonstrated against Chavez, accusing him of everything from authoritarianism to international meddling. Roberto Micheletti, who became president of Honduras after Manuel Zelaya, seeking to change the electoral laws, was ousted in June, proclaimed, "Any politician who tries to stay in power by hitching up with a dictator like Hugo Chavez, he won't achieve it. We'll stop him." (Jer. Post, September 4, 5)

"Where foreign forces have had a large footprint and failed in no small part has been because the Afghans concluded they were there for their own imperial interests and not there for the interests of the Afghan people...."I think what is important to remember is the President's decisions on this strategy were only made at the end of March.... We are only now beginning to be in a position to have the assets in place and the strategy or the military approach in place to begin to implement the strategy." -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a joint news conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, indicating that he is amenable to increasing the size of the U.S. deployment in Afghanistan . (Globe and Mail, September 4)

"What we did in this report, and what everybody should do, is to look at the facts. We found consistent, systematic false and unsupported statements. All of the reports on Israel are based on speculation designed to create incitement." -- Professor Gerald Steinberg , president of NGO Monitor, in a new report analysing the work of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division, concluding: "In terms of reports on Israel , HRW has a very serious bias and lack of credibility." (Jer. Post, September 8)

Short Takes

POLL SHOWS SURGE IN US SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL -- ( Jerusalem ) A recent poll for the Israel Project shows American support for Israel has bounced back after slipping in the aftermath of U.S. President Barack Obama's Cairo speech. The poll surveyed 800 likely voters and found that, when asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 59 percent considered themselves supporters of Israel , while only 8 percent considered themselves supporters of the Palestinians. The findings are an improvement over the results of a poll taken in June, where 49 percent identified themselves as Israel supporters and 5 percent considered themselves supporters of the Palestinians. The poll also found that 63 percent of respondents felt that the U.S. should support Israel over the Palestinians, and that 57 percent believe Israel is committed to peace, compared to 36 percent who felt the same way about the Palestinian Authority. (Jer. Post, September 9)

HAMAS APPROVAL RATING LOW -- (Jerusalem) A recent poll including hundreds of face-to-face interviews with adults in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as focus groups in Cairo and Ramallah, has reported that Hamas' approval rating has sunk to significantly low levels. According to the poll, 58 percent of Gazans said that they approve of Hamas, while 42 percent disapproved "strongly." Moreover, the poll indicated that Fatah would beat Hamas by at least 10 percentage points if parliamentary elections were held today. Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has agreed to sign a reconciliation accord with Fatah after Egypt promised to permanently reopen the Rafah border crossing between Sinai and Gaza . (Jer. Post, Sept. 9)

HEZBOLLAH'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS DISCOVERED AFTER "WORK ACCIDENT" -- ( Kuwait ) A Hezbollah arms stockpile which exploded more than a month ago in southern Lebanon was found to have contained chemical weapons. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa reported that Hezbollah has been stockpiling chemical weapons and that three of the eight terrorists killed in the July 14 explosion died due to contact with the chemicals. Al-Siyasa also reported that Iran has sent Hezbollah new kinds of chemical weapons as well as gas masks via Syria . (Ha'aretz, September 8)

IRAN PROTESTERS PUNISHED -- ( Dubai ) Iranian reformist websites are reporting that students who took part in the street protests following the June 12 presidential election are being disciplined and suspended. A government panel has also begun an investigation of the humanities curriculum at Iranian universities, amid calls for purging professors deemed "un-Islamic." Meanwhile, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, accused former president Mohammad Khatami and other reformists of challenging the Islamic regime, putting them at greater risk for government punishment. (New York Times, September 6; Globe and Mail, September 3)

NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT PROGRAM "NEAR COMPLETION" -- ( Washington ) North Korea has announced that it is in the final stages of enriching uranium, defying the UN efforts to stymie its nuclear weapons program. Two prior North Korean nuclear weapons tests have involved plutonium, which is a normal by-product of certain nuclear reactors. Enriched uranium opens up new means for North Korea to build more nuclear weapons. Pyongyang has declared that it "will neither accept nor be blinded" by UN sanctions. North Korea 's neighbours have reacted angrily, with both Japan and South Korea calling for further sanctions and increased bilateral talks with the United States . ( Washington Post, Sept. 4; Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5)

LIQUID EXPLOSIVES TERRORISTS CONVICTED -- ( London ) Three British Muslims were convicted of plotting to explode seven airliners bound for the U.S. and Canada in the largest intended terror attack since 9/11. A London jury found Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain guilty of conspiracy to murder. Four others were acquitted, while the jury was unable to reach a verdict on an eighth man. The al Qaeda-linked attack involved smuggling liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks onto passenger jets. If the plot had been successful, British authorities estimate that about 2,000 people would have been killed. ( New York Post, September 8)

TEL AVIV SPOTLIGHT IN TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL DRAWS CONTROVERSY -- (Toronto) An international group of over 50 left-wing cultural critics of Israel, including Naomi Klein and Jane Fonda, has published a letter protesting the Toronto International Film Festival's decision to showcase Tel Aviv and include works by 10 Israeli filmmakers. The group described the Film Festival's decision as "staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of an apartheid regime." The group's protests not only drew condemnation from some members of the Israeli and Canadian film communities, but also prompted American actor and former Jane Fonda co-star Jon Voight to issue a letter condemning the anti-Israel activism. (Globe and Mail, September 8-9)

FALLEN 9/11 HERO HONOURED -- ( New York ) Eight years after perishing at Ground Zero, volunteer Long Island firefighter Glenn Winuk has been awarded a posthumous 9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor Award at a park named in his honour. Winuk, an attorney and member of the Jericho Volunteer Fire Department, rushed to the World Trade Center after the attacks to assist in rescue operations and died when the towers collapsed. The process of awarding Winuk the medal had been stymied by Justice Department red tape. ( New York Post, September 8)