Home > Newsletters

The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 4 No. 5
25 September 2009

YIISA SEMINAR SERIES SCHEDULE:
NOW AVAILABLE
Please click here for more information

YIISA LECTURE
Thursday, October 1, 2009 @ 7:45pm
“Blasphemy and Inquiry:  ‘The Cartoons That Shook the World’”
Location:        Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, 1 Prospect Street, Auditorium 114
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 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

SPECIAL ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Netanyahu speech/PM slams Gaza probe, challenges UN to confront Iran
(Haaretz) In a dramatic address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran poses a threat to the peace of the world and that it is incumbent on the world body to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Click here to read

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the UN General Assembly
(Haaretz) A transcript of Natanyahu’s historically significant UN General Assembly speech where he actually must reiterate that the Shoah occurred, in a chamber where state-sponsored Antisemitism and Holocaust denial has become a major narrative with profound implications.
Click here to read

REPORTS

Breaking Stalemates on Iran and Syria at the IAEA
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Mohamed ElBaradei will end his twelve years as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in November. Absent a last-minute breakthrough, ElBaradei will leave incomplete the critical safeguards investigations of Iran and Syria.
Click here to read

Hamas’ smile attack for the West: Ken Livingstone interviews Khaled Mashaal, a case study
(Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center) Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, was recently interviewed by Ken Livingstone for the New Statesman. The interview, laced with vicious anti-Israel propaganda, represented the Palestinians as the victims of Israeli oppression.
Click here to read

Hamas teaches kids to kill Jews
(Palestinian Media Watch) The bear puppet host, Nassur, of a Hamas children's TV program used different words for “slaughter” to describe how to rid Israel of Jews.
Click here to read

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

IRAN

Obama, Sarkozy, Brown issue ultimatum over second Iran uranium plant
(Haaretz) Using harsh diplomatic language, the leaders of the United States, Britain and France issued a strongly worded joint condemnation Friday over the existence of a second Iran uranium enrichment plant, revealed earlier this week by Tehran.
Click here to read

Leaders Warn Iran Over Nuclear Site
(NYTimes) President Obama and leaders of Britain and France accused Iran on Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying the country has hidden the covert operation from international weapons inspectors for years.
Click here to read

Ahmadinejad heads for UN, slammed at home and scorned abroad
(AFP) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travels to New York this week for the UN General Assembly, his disputed re-election still sparking violent protests at home and provocative remarks about the Holocaust drawing condemnation abroad.
Click here to read

Iran's Ahmadinejad proud of Holocaust denial
(AP) Iran's president said he is proud to stoke international outrage with his latest remarks denying the Holocaust as he heads for the United Nations this week — showing he is as defiant as ever while his country comes under greater pressure to curtail its nuclear program.
Click here to read

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's renewed attack on Israel hastens walkout
(Guardian) The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faced a series of walkouts at the United Nations general assembly after launching a renewed attack on Israel, which he accused of genocide, barbarism and racism.
Click here to read

Israeli ambassador to US: Ahmadinejad speech – classic Antisemitism
(YNet) Michael Oren says that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks at the United Nations General Assembly are "classic Antisemitism, which reveals the true colors of the regime, if anyone had any doubt."
Click here to read

The Grand Ayatollah unleashes his wrath
(The UAE National) Small, frail and in his 80s, he looks no match for Iran’s tough regime. But Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri is made of steel. He wields considerable moral authority as the country’s highest-ranking and most fearless dissident cleric, representing a potent challenge to hardline authorities who have tried and failed to silence him for two decades.
Click here to read

MIDDLE EAST

US sees hand of elite Iranian unit in Afghanistan
(Reuters) The United States believes Iran's Revolutionary Guards are providing training and weapons to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan to help them fight Western forces, U.S. counterterrorism officials said on Monday.
Click here to read

Obama's Rosh Hashana message decries Antisemitism
(Jerusalem Post) US President Barack Obama asked for support in trying to achieve peace for Israel in the coming year as part of his Rosh Hashana greeting.
Click here to read

Egypt bitter about UNESCO vote
(LA Times) Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who has been accused of making Antisemitic remarks, says 'there was a conspiracy against me' after losing a bid to lead the U.N. cultural organization.
Click here to read

Egyptian minister blames Jews for UNESCO loss
(AP) Egypt's culture minister blamed a conspiracy "cooked up in New York" by the world's Jews for keeping him from becoming the next head of the U.N.'s agency for culture and education.
Click here to read

US, Jewish ‘Conspiracy’ and ‘Islamophobia’ Blamed for Arab’s Defeat in U.N. Election
(CNSNews.com) – In a rare victory for Western democracies at the United Nations, a controversial Egyptian favored to win the top post at UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency, lost his bid to a European candidate, despite having been endorsed by the Arab, Islamic and African blocs.
Click here to read

U.S. Is "Concerned" About the Goldstone Report on Gaza; Maybe Washington Should Turn Its Eyes on Afghanistan and Itself
(The New Republic) Marty Peretz writes, "The report is a pastiche built largely on one of the habits of Arab culture: this is actually a culture that lies to itself."
Click here to read

Opportunity missed
(The Economist) A UN report on the fighting in Gaza is deeply flawed. But that should not stop Israel holding itself and its soldiers to the highest standards
Click here to read

Report: 30 Shiite militia leaders killed in Syria
(YNet) Sources tells Saudi daily Jaish Al-Mahdi killed by unknown assailants in their Damascus apartments, others flee to Iran
Click here to read

EUROPE

Swedish paper cleared of Antisemitism
(Guardian) The Swedish newspaper accused by Israel of Antisemitism has been cleared of the charges by Sweden's chancellor of justice. Göran Lambertz refused to hold an inquiry into a story published by Aftonbladet last month in which it was alleged that Israeli soldiers stole and sold body parts of dead Palestinians.
Click here to read

ADL: Antisemitism in Spain on the rise
(Jerusalem Post) An Anti-Defamation League statement cited an increase in public expressions of Antisemitism and a "greater acceptance of virulent anti-Jewish attitudes."
Click here to read

BOOK REVIEW

Louis D. Brandeis: A Life” by Melvin I. Urofsky
(NY Times) Brandeis, 59, played a leading role in advancing the American Zionist movement and advised President Woodrow Wilson. He would go on to serve for more than two decades on the Supreme Court, becoming one of its greatest justices and helping create the modern law of free speech and privacy.
Click here to read

Weekly Quotes: Source Canadian Institute for Jewish Research

"We can be remembered as a generation that chose to drag the arguments of the 20th century into the 21st.... Or, we can be a generation that chooses to see the shoreline beyond the rough waters ahead; that comes together to serve the common interests of human beings, and finally gives meaning to the promise embedded in the name given to this institution: the United Nations." -- U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking to the UN General Assembly. Speaking for forty-one minutes, Obama addressed nuclear non-proliferation, Middle East peace, climate change and addressing poverty among developing nations. (The Guardian, September 23)

"It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the Terror Council." -- Libyan dictator Moammar Ghadafi, during a rambling ninety-six minute speech -- his first at the UN in forty years -- denouncing the UN Security Council. Ghadafi's, from the UN rostrum, wondered"why did this Israeli [Jack Ruby]  kill the killer of John F. Kennedy?... We have to open the files!" He also called for international investigations into the Afghan war, the Korean War, the Suez Crisis, the Vietnam War, the wars in Iraq, the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during the 1982 Lebanon War, Israel's recent Gaza offensive, and the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. (National Post, September 23)

"President Ahmadinejad's repeated denial of the Holocaust and his anti-Israel comments run counter to the values of the UN General Assembly, and they're shameful. He uses his public appearances to provoke the international community, and that is why Canada 's seats will be empty." -- Canadian official Catherine Loubier, speaking on behalf of Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, explaining why Canada planned to walk out of the UN General Assembly when the Iranian president spoke. (National Post, Sep.23)

"I took note of the fact that the leading democracies that were in this [Richard Goldstone-led] U.N. commission, they opposed this. They were against this mandate, because it looked like a kangaroo court in the first place, where Israel was basically hanged, drawn, and quartered morally and given an unfair trial to boot right at the start of these proceedings. I think this is wrong. But understand this. It's not only we who will be damaged. It's you, too. I mean, American pilots, NATO pilots, let alone Russia and other countries that are fighting terrorists, are going to be put on the dock, too, because it's said that you cannot fight terrorists. It means that all the terrorists have to do is put themselves in a residential quarter, and they receive immunity. And that's not something that any country fighting terrorism can accept. And I don't think you can accept it either." -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, answering Wolf Blitzer on CNN, warning that the "upside-down" conclusion of the recently-released "Goldstone Report" will have troubling consequences not only for Israel , but also for any democracy fighting terrorism. ( Israel MFA, Sep. 22)

"We do believe that if war is waged in Iraq and Afghanistan , it is because of Zionists' provocation. If Sudan is suppressed it is because of Zionists' temptations. Zionists are behind all the conspiracies of the arrogance and colonialism. They do not allow the main factor of excuses for Palestine occupation to be examined and surveyed. The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie -- a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust." -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during Iran 's annual al Quds ( Jerusalem ) Day ceremony, repeating the baseless accusation that all of the problems in the Arab world are due to the existence of the Jewish State of Israel. (MEMRI, Sep. 18)

"Let us work to achieve lasting peace and security for the state of Israel , so that the Jewish state is fully accepted by its neighbors, and its children can live their dreams free from fear. That is why my Administration is actively pursuing the lasting peace that has eluded Israel and its Arab neighbours for so long. Throughout history, the Jewish people have been, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, 'a light unto the nations.' Through an abiding commitment to faith, family and justice, Jews have overcome extraordinary adversity, holding fast to the hope of a better tomorrow." -- U.S. President Barack Obama, in a video greeting to Jews around the world on Sep. 17, just ahead of Rosh Hashanah. ( Jerusalem Post, Sep. 16)

"We are not exactly impotent little babies. [The Israelis] have to fly over our airspace in Iraq . Are we just going to sit there and watch?... If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this, but it could be a Liberty in reverse." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter, and one of President Obama's foreign policy advisors, during an interview for The Daily Beast, suggesting that USAF fighters intercept and shoot down any Israeli fighters crossing Iraq on a mission to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. Brzezinski was referring to the 1967 incident when Israel accidentally attacked the USS Liberty, mistaking the U.S. Navy intelligence vessel for an Egyptian warship. (The Daily Beast, Sep. 18)

"But do we really grasp the meaning of these values? Do we truly understand the nature of these virtues, to serve and to sacrifice? Jared Monti knew. The Monti family knows. And they know that the actions we honor today were not a passing moment of courage. They were the culmination of a life of character and commitment." -- U.S. President Barack Obama, in his first presentation of a Congressional Medal of Honor, eulogizing Sgt. First Class Jared Monti, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2006 while trying to save a wounded soldier trapped in a Taliban ambush. ( New York Post, Sep. 18)

Short Takes

IAEA: IRAN CAN NOW BUILD NUCLEAR BOMB -- (Jerusalem) Experts at the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead, according to a secret report. According to a document drafted by senior IAEA officials and leaked by the Associated Press, the Islamic republic has "sufficient information" to build a bomb, and is likely to "overcome problems" on developing a delivery system. The IAEA denied the report, however, saying that it has no "concrete proof" of any Iranian nuclear weapons program. ( Jerusalem Post, Sep. 18)

150-NATION MEETING CRITICIZES ISRAEL 'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM -- ( Vienna ) A 150-nation assembly at the September 18 annual International Atomic Energy Agency meeting has formally passed a resolution directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first time in 18 years. Iran hailed the vote as a "glorious moment." The result was a setback not only for Israel but also for the U.S. and other backers of the Jewish state, who had lobbied for debate on the issue without a vote. The resolution, which "expresses concerns about the Israeli nuclear capabilities," was sponsored by Arab nations and supported by many developing countries. Of delegations present at the meeting, 49 voted for the resolution, 45 were against and 16 abstained. Israel has never disclosed the nature of its nuclear program. ( Jerusalem Post, Associated Press, Sep. 18)

IRANIANS COMMANDING HEZBOLLAH UNITS -- ( Jerusalem ) In a sign of Iran 's continued efforts to solidify its control over Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic has deployed dozens of military officers in Lebanon to command Hezbollah fighting units. According to senior Israeli defence officials, Iran decided to step up its involvement in the Hezbollah decision-making process following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, and has instituted a number of structural changes to the guerrilla group's hierarchy. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's authority is now "somewhat restricted," according to one defence officer. "Nowadays, most of the control over the group is from Iran ." Iran has reportedly invested billions of dollars into rehabilitating the guerrilla group. ( Jerusalem Post, Sep. 18)

THOUSANDS STAGE PROTEST IN IRAN -- ( Beirut ) During the annual Jerusalem Day ceremonies, tens of thousands of green-clad protesters chanted and carried banners through the heart of Tehran and other Iranian cities. Defying tear gas and truncheons, they turned large swaths of a government-organized anti-Israel march into the largest opposition rally in two months. The protests, held in defiance of warnings from the clerical and military elite, served as a public embarrassment to Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who nonetheless delivered a fiery anti-Israel speech in honour of the annual Jerusalem Day ceremonies, calling the Holocaust "a lie" and berating the West for its criticisms of Iran 's disputed June 12 presidential election. (New York Times, National Post, Sep. 19)

PAKISTAN BOMB KILLS DOZENS -- ( Islamabad ) A suicide car-bomb attack in Northwest Pakistan killed at least 29 people, a sign that insurgents bent on destabilizing the nuclear-armed country are still active despite recent setbacks. The attack comes as Pakistani officials prepare to announce charges against seven suspects in last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Pakistan has been under pressure from India to do more to bring to justice those behind the attacks, in which terrorists raided hotels and other targets over three days, killing 163 people. (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Sep. 20)

LIBYANS TRAINING AT BRITISH BOMB SCHOOL -- ( London ) Britain has been secretly training Libyan security officers in the methods used by terrorists to make bombs. At least 20 Libyan police officers have attended explosives training courses at a specialist counterterrorism school in Wiltshire. The training was approved in advance by the British Ministry of Defence and the Home Office. Chris Grayling, a Conservative MP, said the bomb training raised serious questions about the government's motives. "It is time ministers [offered] a full explanation of what our relationship now is with Libya and the ways in which we are cooperating," he said. ( Libya supplied IRA terrorists with weapons and training during their campaign against Northern Ireland and England .) ( New York Post, Sep. 20).

TORONTO 18" GUNRUNNER PLEADS GUILTY -- ( Toronto ) A Toronto man caught smuggling handguns into Canada pleaded guilty to terrorism charges yesterday, making him the latest of the " Toronto 18" group to admit to wrongdoing. Somali-born Ali Mohamed Dirie, 26, was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to participating in the activities of a terrorist group. The sentence will be handed down Oct. 2. A resident of suburban Markham , Ontario , Dirie was one of 18 Toronto-area men charged in 2006 with a plot to carry out terrorist attacks in southern Ontario , in protest to Canada 's military presence in Afghanistan . (National Post, Sep. 22)

CIA CHIEFS ASK OBAMA TO ABANDON ABUSE INQUIRY -- ( Washington ) Seven former directors of the CIA strongly urged U.S. Pres. Barack Obama last week to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects. They argue that the inquiry "will seriously damage" the nation's ability to protect itself. In a letter to Obama, the former CIA chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. (New York Times, Sep. 19)

INDONESIA 'S #1 TERRORIST KILLED -- (Kepuh Sari , Indonesia) Armed Indonesian police stormed a hideout early Sep. 17 in a raid that killed fugitive terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top and three other terrorists, bringing to end an exhaustive six-year manhunt. Noordin, a 41-year-old Malaysian who was Southeast Asia 's most wanted man, led a radical splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network blamed for a string of deadly attacks. The offshoot, labelled Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, is suspected of being behind the July 17 suicide attacks on Jakarta 's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. (National Post, Sep. 18)

IRVING KRISTOL, 1920-2009 -- (New York )  Irving Kristol, the political commentator who played a large role in defining modern conservatism and helped revitalize the Republican Party in the late 1960s and early 70s, died Sep. 18 in Arlington , Virginia , at the age of 89. Kristol exerted an influence across generations through a variety of positions he held over a long career: executive vice-president of Basic Books, contributor to the Wall Street Journal, professor of social thought at New York University , senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He also co-founded the Public Interest, which, along with Commentary, became a seminal neoconservative journal. (National Post, New York Post, Sep. 19)