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

YIISA SEMINAR SERIES SCHEDULE:
NOW AVAILABLE
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YIISA LECTURE
Thursday, October 1, 2009 @ 7:30pm
“Blasphemy and Inquiry:  ‘The Cartoons That Shook the World’”
Location:        TBA
Speaker:         Professor Jytte Klausen, Professor, Comparative Politics, Brandeis University; Affiliate, Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Thursday, October 1, 2009 @ 4:15pm
“Representations of Jews in Post-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

LECTURES OF INTEREST
Monday, September 21st @ 12:00pm
“The Salafi Critique of Islamism:  Doctrine, Difference and the Problem of Islamic Political Action in Contemporary Sudan”
Rosenkranz Hall, 115 Prospect Street, Room 005
Speaker:         Noah Salomon, CMES Post-Doctoral Student
Sponsor:         The Macmillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics and Society; The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund
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Thursday, September 24th @ 5:00pm
“The Nazi Doctors and Their Biomedical Vision”
The Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, Beaumont Room
Speaker:         M. Bekier, Director, Biomedical Communications, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Sponsor:         Program for Humanities in Medicine
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SPECIAL ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Secret IAEA document: Iran has ability to make atom bomb
(Haaretz) Experts belonging to the United Nations nuclear watchdog organization are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system capable of carrying an atomic warhead, according to a secret report.
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Israel: "Time is now" for all to act on Iran
(Reuters) Excerpts from an interview with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, who is also Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy, about the Iranian nuclear dispute.
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France 'certain' Iran working on nukes
(Sydney Morning Herald) French intelligence agencies are certain that Iran is hiding a nuclear weapons program, President Nicolas Sarkozy says.
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A book without a spine: Yale buckles to Muslim fanatics
(NY Daily News) James Kirchick writes, "Last week, a group of Yale alumni (myself included) released an open letter protesting Yale University Press' decision not to publish the infamous Muhammed cartoons in a book about those very illustrations."
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REPORT

What Happened to the U.S. Deadline on Iran?
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Iran's new proposal to the West did not provide any opening for serious negotiations on the nuclear issue, but rather vague formulations for the agenda of any future talks.
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IRAN

U.S. to Accept Iran’s Proposal to Hold Face-to-Face Talks (NY Times) The Obama administration said that the United States would accept Iran’s offer to meet, fulfilling President Obama’s pledge to hold unconditional talks despite the Iranian government’s insistence that it would not negotiate over the future of its nuclear program.
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Why Europe wants stiffer sanctions on Iran
(CSMonitor) Germany, France, and UK are ready to impose oil and gas sanctions on Iran to stave off military strikes. But Oct. 1 talks about Iran's nuclear program will likely delay any moves.
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Khamenei Speech Offers No Compromises
(Wall Street Journal) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his second address to the nation since the turmoil over the June presidential election, set a tough tone for where the country is heading: No compromises with opponents outside or inside Iran.
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WJC: World must boycott Ahmadinejad speech at UN
(Haaretz) The World Jewish Congress launched a new global campaign on to convince world leaders to boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's address to the United Nations General Assembly next week.
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Top IDF officer: Iran has taken over Hezbollah
(Haaretz) A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said all five incidents of rocket fire from southern Lebanon into Israel since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War have been carried out in absolute defiance of Hezbollah directives and that Iran had taken control over the Lebanese militia.
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MIDDLE EAST

US Launches Military Strike in Somalia Against al Qaeda Target
(ABC News) A U.S. commando attack in Somalia has killed an al Qaeda operative who is on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, sources tell ABC News. The dead terrorist, Saleh Ali Nabhan, is believed to have taken part in the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
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Peres: Goldstone Report makes mockery of history
(YNet) President joins criticism of UN report probing Israeli offensive in Gaza, says it legitimizes terror, ignores Israel's right, obligation to defend itself
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'Syria, Somalia can't preach morality'
(Jerusalem Post) Israel called the Goldstone Commission Report "nauseating" on Tuesday, saying it created an unjust "equivalence of a democratic state with a terror organization" and lacked the context of a decade of terrorist attacks by Hamas.
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Analysis: Goldstone's kangaroo court report
(Jerusalem Post) In a first quick review, the 575-page report of the Goldstone mission seems as bad as or worse than was expected - the critics who warned of a "kangaroo court" created to find Israel guilty will claim that they were correct.
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Obama's impossible ambition
(Guardian) Benny Morris writes that the US president's intention to bridge the divide between Israel and Palestine is bound to fail
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UN must hold Obama to same standard as Israel
(Haaretz) Ari Shavit writes, "Only in matters involving Israel, do international law and justice suddenly discover that they have teeth. Only when Israel is involved is the judgment administered out of context. Only Israel is required to uphold a moral standard no superpower or Middle Eastern state is required to uphold."
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UN Investigation of Israel Discredits Itself and Undercuts Human Rights
(Hudson NY) Alan Dershowitz writes, "The so-called report commissioned by the notorious United Nations Human Rights Council and issued under his name is so filled with lies, distortions and blood libels that it could have been drafted by Hamas extremists. Wait, in effect, it actually was!"
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What Was Wrong With Carter's Words
(Washington Post) Charles Lane writes, "When the political temperature rises, it would be nice if we could turn to our elder statesmen and stateswomen for a cooling dose of wisdom and perspective. What we got from Jimmy Carter was more gasoline on the fire."
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Listen Up
(The New Republic) Barry Rubin responds to Jacob Weisberg’s article Newsweek, entitled, "A Friend in Need: Barack gets tough on Bibi." Rubin writes, “It is far more terrible because Weisberg is neither leftist nor anti-Israel but has simply imbibed what "everyone says."
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Blood Libel Stereotype Gaining Traction
(Jerusalem Post) The Antisemitic blogosphere and many Arab and Muslim media outlets are aflutter in recent days over accusations of an international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap Algerian children and harvest their organs.
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Egyptian tipped for UNESCO job despite Antisemitism row
(AP) World envoys to the United Nations cultural organisation UNESCO started voting to elect a new director general, as the Egyptian frontrunner for the job fought charges of Antisemitism.
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Embracing a Jewish past amid Antisemitism
(SF Gate) 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

Britain’s Special Air Services trains Libyan troops
(Telgraph) The SAS has been ordered by the Government to train Libyan special forces despite the country having armed the IRA.
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Israeli Minister to Swedish Jews: Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism
(Haaretz) Anti-Zionism is a new form of Antisemitism that can be found in foreign media, Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) told Swedish Jews Tuesday.
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German court fines student for showing Israel flag
(JTA) The student had displayed the flag during a Jan. 17 protest of Israel's Operation Cast Lead by some 1,600 people in the city of Bochum.
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NORTH AMERICA

A rising wave of Antisemitism?
(LA Times) Alarmist warnings about a surge in bigotry in the U.S. are not borne out by the facts.
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Rights Group Assailed for Analyst’s Nazi Collection
(NY Times) Human Rights Watch has suspended its senior military analyst following revelations that he is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.
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Film festival counter protest heats up
(JTA) A prominent list of celebrities is opposing a group that has criticized the Toronto International Film Festival's spotlight on Tel Aviv.
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Weekly Quotes : Source Canadian Institute For Jewish Research
"The Goldstone Commission report is a mockery of history.  It fails to distinguish between the aggressor and a state exercising its right for self defense." -- Israeli President Shimon Peres in a Sept. 16 statement excoriating the United Nations report on the IDF's 2008-2009 military operation in Gaza .  "For years, Hamas carried out attacks against the children of Israel , sending suicide bombers into city centers, injuring and killing civilians.  They fired over 12,000 rockets and mortar shells at towns and villages with one clear aim - to kill innocent civilians...While Hamas continued firing, Israel employed, time and time again, the diplomatic channels, including many appeals to the UN - in an attempt to bring about a cessation of rocket fire...Instead of building Gaza and caring for the welfare of its citizens, Hamas built tunnels to attack Israel, cruelly using children and innocent Palestinians to hide terrorists and ammunition."  The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, said it was "appalled and disappointed" at the report and that "Israel did not feel able to cooperate with the Fact Finding Mission because its mandate was clearly one-sided and ignored the thousands of Hamas missile attacks on civilians in southern Israel that made the Gaza Operation necessary. Both the mandate of the Mission and the resolution establishing it prejudged the outcome of any investigation, gave legitimacy to the Hamas terrorist organization and disregarded the deliberate Hamas strategy of using Palestinian civilians as cover for launching terrorist attacks."  (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 15; Globe and Mail, Office of the President of Israel , Sept. 16)

"Gilad is not a prisoner, he is being held as a captive or hostage and must be immediately released, not only for humanitarian reasons but also because holding a hostage is a serious war crime according to Clause 8 of the Treaty of Rome." -- Noam Shalit, father of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, asserting that his son is a hostage and not a prisoner of war as argued in the Goldstone Commission.  (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 16)

"Your brothers in Palestine , despite the blockade and the closing of border passages...despite the fleets from east and west, despite all of this, we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms." -- Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, declaring during a visit to Sudan Wednesday that his organization produces and smuggles weapons despite the Israel-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip.  (Jerusalem Post, Sept.9)

"Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, the custodian of its two holy mosques, the world's energy superpower and the de facto leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds -- that is why our recognition is greatly prized by Israel.  However, for all these same reasons, the kingdom holds itself to higher standards of justice and law.  It must therefore refuse to engage Israel until it ends its illegal occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights as well as Shabaa Farms in Lebanon .  For Saudis to take steps toward diplomatic normalization before this land is returned to its rightful owners would undermine international law and turn a blind eye to immorality." -- Prince Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies and former ambassador to the United States , in an editorial dashing Obama Administration hopes for Saudi forthcomingness, outlining the Saudi position on diplomatic relations with Israel. (New York Times, Sept. 13)

"The war on terror is in Afghanistan ... The fact that we weakened our commitment to Afghanistan in order to concentrate in Iraq has taken a toll." -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a 2007 speech emphasizing the importance of the American-led mission in Afghanistan .  Her, and her Democratic Party's position has since evolved, and President Barack Obama may well refuse Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal's probable request to increase further the number of American troops in Afghanistan .  Meanwhile, an audiotape of what is purported to be Osama Bin Laden's voice was released on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  "The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neoconservatives and the Israel lobby," Bin Laden is quoted as saying in a message addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama, where he warns that the West's war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is doomed to failure.  (WSJ, Globe and Mail, Sept. 12; Globe and Mail, Sept. 15)

"I think there were other activities that gave us concern... IAEA inspectors actually asked to go to a number of other sites, and the Syrians wouldn't let them go there; they claimed they were military sites.  They claimed the uranium particles that the inspectors found at the destroyed reactor came from Israeli bombs." -- Gregory Schulte, former US envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a Sept. 10 interview where he said that Syria may be operating more nuclear sites even after their Deir Azour reactor was bombed by Israel on September 6, 2007. Israel has never formally admitted to bombing Deir Azour. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 10)

"We have made clear to the Iranians that any talks we participate in must address the nuclear issue head on.  It cannot be ignored....We are on the one hand working to see whether anything positive can come from this meeting on Oct. 1.  But we are also working with the international community on consequences that would flow if Iran fails to fulfill their international obligations on their nuclear program." -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, outlining the purpose of an upcoming meeting between Iran and the U.S. , Russia , China , Britain , France and Germany .  Russian President Vladimir Putin also cautioned Iran to be careful with their nuclear program, saying that "We have told Iran that it has the right to a civilian nuclear program but it should understand what region of the world it is in....This is a dangerous region and Iran should show responsibility, especially by taking into account Israel's concerns, all the more so after the absolutely unacceptable statements about the destruction of the state of Israel."  Meanwhile, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini warned local opposition leaders against dissenting against the government, and insisted that Iran was not gong to compromise over its nuclear program.  "We must stand firm for our rights... If we give up our rights, whether nuclear or other rights, this will lead to decline."  (National Post, New York Times, Sept. 12; National Post, Sept. 16)

Short Takes
FACT-FINDING MISSION FINDS THE FACTS IT WANTS -- (New York City) The much-anticipated Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (better known as the "Goldstone Report") was released today using the language of human rights and international law developed in the "Durban Strategy" at the 2001 NGO Forum as political weapons in a campaign to delegitimize Israel and restrict legitimate responses to terror. The report is primarily based on statements, publications, and submissions from NGOs, uncritically repeating flawed methodology and false claims -- e.g., the classification of Gaza police as "civilian" and including the legal claim invented by the PLO Negotiation Affairs Department that Gaza remains "occupied" after the 2005 disengagement -- rendering the report invalid. One paragraph even blatantly ignores evidence that contradicts the predetermined conclusion that there was no "use of mosques for military purposes or to shield military activities." (Arutz Sheva, NGO Monitor, Sep. 16)

B'TSELEM REPORT DISTORTS FACTS -- (Jerusalem) Following a document released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem which shows a significant discrepancy in the number of Gazan fatalities reported by the IDF after Operation Cast Lead, the Center for Injury Prevention and Genocide Prevention Program at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine issued its own analysis.  The report charged that the B'Tselem report "is flawed by major errors of commission and omission and possibly major misclassification biases." According to B'Tselem, 1,387 Palestinians were killed in Cast Lead. Of those killed, 773 were non-combatants. The IDF claims that of 1,166 total fatalities, 709 were combatants and 162 Palestinian males aged 16-50 were unclassifiable. (Jerusalem Post, Sep. 16)

LEBANESE PM-DESIGNATE RESIGNS; ROCKETS HIT ISRAEL -- (Jerusalem) Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Sa'ad Hariri said Sept. 10 he is abandoning efforts to form a new government after the Hezbollah-led parliament minority rejected his list for a national unity Cabinet.  Hariri's move, coming two days after his proposed 30-member cabinet list was turned down, highlights the continuing deadlock between Lebanon's U.S.-backed camp headed by Hariri and the pro-Syrian bloc led by Hezbollah.  Meanwhile, at least two rockets fired from southern Lebanon hit open areas in northern Israel on Sept. 11, and Israel returned fire.  No injuries were reported.  The Katushya rockets were the first in over six months to be fired at Israel from Lebanon .  (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 10; New York Times, Sept. 12)

RARE TV SATIRE MOCKS PALESTINIAN POLITICIANS -- (Jerusalem) Palestine TV, a state-run station, has launched an irreverent comedy show that mocks and often bites the hand that feeds it: the Palestinian Authority.  "Homeland on a Thread" satirizes inept Palestinian politicians, police bullies and Muslim extremists.  The popular 30-minute program is Palestine TV's first-ever attempt at political satire, an art form that remains rare in an Arab world where authoritarian regimes abound.  (Jerusalem Post, Sept, 10)

GROWING TIES BETWEEN ISRAELI, PA POLICE -- (Jerusalem) Israeli and Palestinian Authority police forces and the IDF's civil administration are increasing their cooperation and have implemented a series of confidence-building measures over the past two years.  One example is the payment of an estimated 4 million shekels in traffic fines paid to Judea and Samaria Police by PA residents.  The police transfer the money to the civil administration, which in turn invests the money in Palestinian infrastructure in the West Bank.  "The cooperation between us certainly helps to build a positive atmosphere," said Chief Superintendant Daniel Israel, who heads the Israel Police's Coordination Unit with the Palestinian Civil Police.  "It most helps in building deterrence, so that both Israeli [Arab] and Palestinian lawbreakers don't feel they can seek shelter in West Bank cities."  (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 10)

U.S. COMMANDOS KILL AL-QAEDA KINGPIN -- (Nairobi) U.S. commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic terrorists in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia Sept. 14, according to U.S. and Somali officials, in a move designed to counter al-Qaeda's growing influence in the region.  Western intelligence agents have described the terrorist, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, as the ringleader of an al-Qaeda cell in Kenya responsible for the bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002.  (Globe and Mail, Sept. 15)

PAKISTAN NABS TALIBAN SPOKESMAN IN SWAT VALLEY -- (Islamabad ) The Pakistani army has captured Muslim Khan, a top Taliban commander who once worked in Boston as a housepainter.  It is the first capture of a senior Taliban figure to be announced officially by the Pakistani authorities since the beginning of the Pakistani Army offensive in the Swat Valley this May.  Khan had helped spearhead the Taliban's two-year uprising in the region, and also served as the Taliban's chief spokesman for local and foreign journalists.  He was arrested earlier this week with four other commanders in the suburbs of Mingora, the Swat Valley's main city.  (Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, New York Times, Sept. 12)

IRAN WILL TALK NUKES BUT NOT ENRICHMENT -- (Teheran) Iran announced that its nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili will discuss Iran's nuclear program with world powers, including EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana as well as representatives of the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. The meeting set for October 1 is meant to prepare for more substantive negotiations on Iran's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and heed other UN Security Council demands. Although Iran still formally refuses to discuss enrichment, the U.S. believes talks may eventually expand to encompass enrichment and related topics. In related news, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il ordered a third nuclear test to force the U.S. into another round of negotiations, this one using an enriched uranium-fuelled bomb. (Jerusalem Post, Sep. 13-14)

EXPLOSIONS IN IRAQ TARGET SHIITES -- (Baghdad) Two bombs exploded near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Saturday, while another was found hidden inside a Koran at one of the city's holiest Shiite shrines and was subsequently defused. At least three people were killed in the explosions and more than a dozen others were wounded at another holy Shiite site in the city. The latest violence added to a particularly bloody month that included two large suicide bombings that badly damaged the Iraqi Finance and Foreign Affairs ministries and killed 132. (New York Times, Sep. 16)

LIFE TERMS FOR "SODA-BOTTLE" TERRORISTS -- (London) A High Court judge on Monday imposed minimum prison terms of 32 to 40 years on three British Muslims convicted last week of plotting to smuggle liquid explosives onto at least seven trans-Atlantic airliners heading to the United States and Canada from London, with the aim of blowing the aircraft apart in midair.  The judge, Sir Richard Henriques, called the plot "the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction" and added that if police and security forces had not intervened, the attack would have certainly succeeded.  "The intention was to perpetrate a terrorist outrage that would stand alongside the events of Sept. 11, 2001," said the judge.  (New York Post, Sept. 15)

9/11 MUSEUM TO ADDRESS ROLE OF HIJACKERS -- (New York) The museum being built at Ground Zero will display photos of the 19 men who hijacked the four airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The exhibit may also include printed quotations from so-called martyr videos filmed by the terrorists before the attacks.  "Let's show the world the 19 individuals who boarded planes and murdered so many.  To not do that would be a major disservice to the public," said Joseph C. Daniels, president and chief executive of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center .  (New York Times, Sept. 12)

RUSSIA ARMS VENEZUELA -- (Moscow) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Russia has offered him a $2.2 billion line of credit for Venezuela to purchase weapons, insisting that the U.S. intends to invade and commandeer his country's oil fields from its military bases in Colombia. He said the deal would include 92 Russian-made T-72 tanks and anti-aircraft missile launching systems. Chavez also suggested that the deal included the purchase of surface-to-surface missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers. (Jerusalem Post, Sep. 14)

ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS SPAN THE GLOBE -- (Buenos Aires & Khabarovsk) Four skinheads were arrested in Khabarovsk , Russia on Sunday suspected of having attacked a synagogue with firebombs. Meanwhile, vandals destroyed nearly 60 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires , Argentina . The cemetery includes the graves of some of the victims of the 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish community centre. The incident took place during Shabbat, and was not discovered until Sunday. (Jerusalem Post, Sep. 14)