Contents: | Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
What's Next for Israel's Satellite Program After Amos-6?: Noam Amir, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 2, 2016
Obama’s Iran Deal Is a Fraud on the American People: Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, Sept. 3, 2016
The West Can’t Let Putin Decide Ukraine’s Future: Aurel Braun, Globe & Mail, Sept. 1, 2016
Taking the Fight Against Anti-Semitism to the United Nations: Danny Danon, New York Post, Sept. 6, 2016
WEEKLY QUOTES
“We used to have three enemy countries: Syria, Jordan and Egypt…We signed a peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan, and today we have four enemy countries – Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, which has an army of terrorists, and Iran, an enemy state.” — Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head and current chairman of Israel’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Avi Dichter. Dichter said the Middle East is undergoing “tectonic movements…I think that we all understand that Iran learned that the best way to gain support among the Arab countries in general, and the Arab people in particular, is by creating hatred, or launching attacks against Israel…They know that directly [attacking Israel] is very complicated. They have seen that it is a lot easier to do it by proxy.” In terms of the Palestinian conflict, Dichter said that while the world discusses a two-state solution, “we are living in a three-state solution: Israel, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Gaza led by Hamas.” Noting the advanced age of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, 81 – compounded by his limited influence in Gaza, which he has not visited in nearly 10 years – Dichter said Hamas head Khaled Mashaal is poised to succeed him, to disastrous effect. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 5, 2016)
“We’re living under Israeli occupation…but to be honest with you we’ve never seen anything like this from the Israeli soldiers.” — Abdullah Halawa. Halawa’s brother Ahmed was beaten to death while in the custody of Palestinian security forces. Halawa’s death underscored the internal divisions tearing at Palestinian society with the approach of municipal elections next month. It came after weeks of violence between the Palestinian authorities and what they call outlaw groups, touching off a wave of unrest marked by stone throwing, tear gas and a raucous funeral procession for Halawa of thousands of people marching through the streets this week. The riots and protests reflect the challenge for Palestinian security forces to maintain order in West Bank cities under the full control of the Palestinian Authority amid disenchantment with the authority and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas. (New York Times, Sept. 2, 2016)
“When I see these protests that are taking place, it’s an indicator that there’s a lot of discontent with Fatah and its rule, and Mahmoud Abbas and his rule and specifically with where this government is not taking us…He’s got nothing to show after all these years, and so increasingly he’s turning inward, and so he’s trying to suppress dissent.” — Diana Buttu, a lawyer in Ramallah who once worked for Abbas but is now one of his harshest critics. Palestinians have not held national elections since parliamentary contests in 2006 resulted in surprise victories by Hamas. Abbas, 81, and in his 12th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term, surprised many by calling the October balloting. In roughly half of the jurisdictions, the filing deadline passed with only one slate of candidates, or even none at all, making the elections something between a coronation and a joke. (New York Times, Sept. 2, 2016)
“This is a proud result that we couldn’t have dreamed of some time ago…Hopefully this is today, finally, the beginning of the end of the chancellorship of Angela Merkel.” — Leif-Erik Holm, Alternative for Germany’s top candidate in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Germany’s upstart anti-immigrant party beat Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats on Sunday for the first time in a state election, while the center-left Social Democrats held on to win the vote in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. The results—in particular the AfD’s performance—reflected a wave of public discontent with Merkel’s refugee policy, which dominated the regional campaign. The AfD has now won seats in nine of Germany’s 16 powerful state parliaments and is building momentum ahead of next year’s national elections that could spell trouble for the chancellor. (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 4, 2016)
“The failed policy of the chancellor is a stroke of luck for our party…It drives voters towards us.” — Alexander Gauland, a leader of Alternative for Germany. By opening Germany’s borders to all last year without consulting even one member of Parliament, Gauland added, Chancellor Angela Merkel behaved like a dictator. “It is regarded by just about every European leader as an act of madness,” he said. Merkel’s approval rating in a monthly poll slipped to 47 percent in August, compared with 75 percent in April 2015, before the refugee challenge. If national elections were held now, her conservative bloc would get 33 percent of the vote, according to a poll of 2,503 selected respondents. That compares with just over 41 percent in the last national vote in 2013. (New York Times, Sept. 7)
“If the Swedish foreign minister is concerned about human rights in the Middle East, she needs to talk about the Palestinians’ use of children as terrorists and human shields…She needs to talk about the discrimination against the gay community [by the Palestinians], about the Der Sturmer– like incitement spread by the Palestinian Authority, and about the abuse of women in Gaza…If your attack on Jews is detached from facts and based only on bias, there is a name for it: anti-Semitism.” — Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. Last week, Lapid accused Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom of antisemitism during a speech at a pro-Israel rally in Stockholm. Wallstrom sparked outrage earlier this year by calling for an investigation to determine whether Israel is guilty of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians during the recent wave of terrorism. She made no such call following terrorist attacks in Europe in which local police killed the terrorists. Wallstrom also lamented the “disproportionate” number of deaths on the Palestinian side relative to Israelis. Wallstrom opposes the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and boycotts of Israel in general. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2016)
“(The) so-called human-rights issue stems from the West’s long-standing prejudice and arrogance against China…Some indigenous people in Canada still live in miserable conditions…It is penny wise and pound foolish to spoil China-Canada ties with these domestic concerns in Canada.” — Editorial in Xinhua, a Chinese news agency. China’s treatment of its own people has regressed under Xi Jinping, Canada’s ambassador to China said, hours after Prime Minister Trudeau completed a meeting with the Chinese President. Open discussion of Chinese human rights comes at a sensitive time, as Trudeau seeks a renewed relationship with China to smooth a path for Canadian trade. Trudeau publicly mentioned human rights in an address to business leaders, although he was cautious to not cause China public embarrassment when speaking beside its political leadership. Xinhua called Canadian concerns over Chinese human rights “groundless,” noting that China guaranteed human rights in its constitution in 2004, “and has promised harder efforts in the future.” (Globe & Mail, Aug. 31, 2016)
“While millions of people are suffering from genocide, sexual slavery and starvation, it is far from clear why the UN would instead focus its attention on unidentifiable ‘urgent threats’, let alone on economic subjects about which it has neither competence nor expertise…The same UN human rights office has failed to issue a single tweet about this past month’s dire human rights crisis in Venezuela, where millions face mass hunger in part due to attacks on the free market.” — Hillel Neuer, the head of UN Watch and a former CIJR Dateline Middle East Editor. The UN human rights office has been accused of “bizarre” behaviour after deleting a “loony tweet” asking whether free market economics posed an “urgent threat”. The row came as Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, launched a verbal attack on right-wing “demagogues”, accusing Donald Trump and Nigel Farage of sharing I.S. tactics. Before Hussein delivered this impassioned speech, his office in Geneva had sent a tweet to 1.5 million followers asking if “belief in the infallibility of free market economic policies” amounted to an “urgent threat”. (Telegraph, Sept. 6, 2016)
“There is no question that Donald Trump’s campaign, under its new management, sees Brexit as a big opportunity. Trump even recently styled himself as “Mr. Brexit.” But when the Trump team draw parallels between the situations in Britain and the United States — the detachment many voters feel — and compare their effort to our recent referendum success, they are absolutely right. Brexit won because 2.5 million people who normally don’t vote or who have never voted in their lives turned out to vote on this occasion, meaning that a huge 17.4 million people in total ended up voting for Britain to leave the European Union…Brexit has now become a political football in the U.S. presidential election. On the one side is a belief in nation-state democracy and proper border controls. On the other is continued global corporatism and the complete failure of Clinton and President Obama to accept the result in Britain on June 23. The world is changing — they just can’t see it.” — Nigel Farage, a UKIP member of the European Parliament for the southeast of England and a prominent supporter of the UK leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum. (Washington Post, Sept. 6, 2016)
“In August (Obama) notched his 300th round as President. That may seem excessive—and Mr. Obama is known for a leisurely pace on the course. But think of it as the better part of a year that Mr. Obama didn’t spend drafting executive orders…Obama can still rank among the greatest of Presidents when it comes to golf, even if he can’t reach the level of Dwight Eisenhower, who is said to have completed an astounding 800 rounds in office…Bill Clinton would present a formidable challenge—if anyone believed his scores. According to Links, Mr. Clinton “has a solid game, albeit very difficult to quantify because of his penchant for mulligans and gimmes…” — Editorial (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 2, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
DEATH TOLL RISES TO FOUR IN TEL AVIV CAR PARK DISASTER (Tel Aviv) — The death toll from Monday's construction collapse in Tel Aviv rose to four on Tuesday as search and rescue workers found another body under the rubble. Police received reports of a building collapse on the corner of Habarzel and Hanahoshet Streets on Monday. Meanwhile, the IDF Home Front Command has been using a new hi-tech search and rescue system that uses cellular devices of trapped people to track their locations in the rubble of the collapsed parking lot. The system, made by Israel Aerospace Industries is designed to enable the fastest possible geo-location of survivors. The system activates all cellular phones in a disaster area, before carrying out identification and location of individual devices. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2016)
ISRAELI SATELLITE EXPLODES ON ROCKET IN CAPE CANAVERAL (Miami) — In a major setback to Israel’s space program, a rocket carrying the most-advanced Israeli communications satellite in history exploded on the launch-pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, destroying the $200 million device just two days before it was scheduled to take off into space. The Israel Space Agency said an explosion occurred during the fueling of the missile launcher, leading to the satellite’s total loss. Israel Aerospace industries, which made the satellite, said Amos 6 was the “most advanced” to be built in Israel. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined. The Amos-6 satellite was to head into space for a 16-year mission that was meant to serve Facebook, bring Internet connectivity to Africa, and television service to providers in Europe and the Middle East. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 1, 2016)
TERRORISTS KILLED AND WOUNDED IN ATTEMPTED RAMMING ATTACK (Jerusalem) — One Arab terrorist was killed and a second one wounded in an attempted ramming attack Monday. Police were finishing up an operation in Shuafat, in Jerusalem, and were starting to exit the neighborhood, when a car began driving towards them very quickly. Despite the policemen’s warning, the car continued to speed up directly towards the officers. The police then opened fire at the vehicle, killing one of the terrorists. No police were wounded in the attack. (Jewish Press, Sept. 5, 2016)
BOMBINGS IN SYRIA CLAIMED BY I.S. KILL AT LEAST 48 (Damascus) — I.S. launched a series of suicide bombings and other attacks across Syria on Monday, killing at least 48 people as it targeted government-held areas and Kurdish forces. This week Turkish troops and Syrian rebels drove I.S. back from the last stretch of Syria's northern border under its control. The I.S.-run Aamaq news agency said the group was behind the "simultaneous" attacks in Syria, which included six suicide bombings and a remotely-detonated bomb. Syrian media said 48 people were killed in blasts around the coastal city of Tartus, the central city of Homs, the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, and the northeastern city of Hasakeh. I.S. said it also carried out an attack in Qamishli, in Hasakeh province. (Ynet, Sept. 5, 2016)
ATTACKS ACROSS BAGHDAD KILL 15 PEOPLE, WOUND MORE THAN FIFTY (Tel Aviv) — A series of attacks across Baghdad, including an explosion at a weapons warehouse that set off munitions and sent a huge plume of smoke over the Iraqi capital, killed 15 people and wounded over 50 on Friday. The attacks underscore the poor security situation in the Iraqi capital, which has been subject to several recent large-scale attacks, including a July shopping centre bombing that killed nearly 300 people. At least three rockets landed in eastern Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 15. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but I.S. has often said it was behind deadly bombings targeting Shiite civilians in the Iraqi capital, including the July attack. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 2, 2016)
PAKISTANI TALIBAN ATTACKS CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORHOOD AND COURTHOUSE (Islamabad) — At least twelve people were killed and 54 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up Friday just outside a district court in the Pakistan province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The attack occurred just hours after four would-be suicide bombers entered a community of minority Christians near Peshawar, killing one civilian and shooting and wounding a security guard and three other security officers in an exchange of gunfire. Both attacks were claimed by the Jamaat-ur-Ahrar group, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, which also claimed a huge assault that killed 93 people, including numerous lawyers, in the southwestern city of Quetta a month earlier. (Washington Post, Sept. 2, 2016)
RADICAL ISLAMIST ANJEM CHOUDARY JAILED FOR FIVE YEARS (London) — Anjem Choudary, one of Britain’s best known Islamists, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison after having been convicted in July of encouraging support for the I.S. Choudary, 49, had been found guilty of promoting I.S. in speeches and messages posted online, which is a crime under Britain’s antiterrorism laws. Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, an associate of Choudary’s, received the same sentence. Choudary’s supporters shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” as he was sent to jail in London. Choudary had praised those who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and he refused to condemn the London subway and bus bombings of 2005. (New York Times, Sept. 6, 2016)
NEGOTIATORS ALLOWED INSPECTIONS LOOPHOLES FOR IRAN: THINK TANK (Washington) — The U.S. and world powers had a secret deal with Iran to allow the Islamic Republic to dodge restrictions in last year's nuclear deal, according to a new report from a U.S. think tank. The findings are based on information from officials involved in the negotiations. The full details are contained in a report from the Institute for Science and International Security. Iran allegedly is not being held to the publicly announced conditions of the deal, which was supposed to allow a decade of inspections and transparency aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. According to the report, some of the exemptions allowed Iran to exceed the limitations on how much low-enriched uranium could be kept at its nuclear facilities. (Fox News, Sept. 1, 2016)
IRANIAN REPORT: ASSAD FORCES, HEZBOLLAH COORDINATING OPERATION ON GOLAN HEIGHTS (Jerusalem) — The Syrian army and Lebanon-based Hezbollah are coordinating a large-scale “anti-terrorism” operation in southern Syria, near the border with Israel in the Golan Heights, Iranian news agency Fars reported. According to the report, the purpose of the operation is to “end militancy” in the area adjacent to the border. Fars is aligned with the Iranian regime, which backs Syrian President Bashar Assad against rebel forces — among them I.S. — in the country’s raging civil war. On Sunday the IDF confirmed that it had retaliated against “errant mortar fire” from Syria that hit the Israeli side of Golan Heights. The mortar fire caused no Israeli casualties. (Algemeiner, Sept. 5, 2016)
BELGIAN OFFICIAL WHO CALLED ISRAEL ‘IDENTICAL TWIN’ OF I.S. RESIGNS (Brussels) — A Belgian Muslim official who compared Israel to Nazi Germany and I.S. is no longer employed as a minister’s adviser. Youssef Kobo, the adviser on diversity for the minister in charge of equal opportunity in Brussels, offered to resign after finding he could no longer fulfill his duties. Last month, Kobo apologized for his vitriol against Israel. However, in recent days Belgian media discovered earlier tweets, in which he proposed to slaughter activists working to prevent the ritual slaughter of animals. Kobo had referenced I.S. in posting a caricature of Israel cutting the throat of the Gaza Strip, where Israel in the summer of 2014 carried out strikes against Hamas. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 6, 2016)
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE PASSES ANTI-BDS LAW (Los Angeles) — California’s State Assembly has voted nearly unanimously to send the state’s the first-ever anti-“boycott, divestment and sanctions “(BDS) bill to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will need to decide whether to sign or veto it by September’s end. AB 2844 overwhelmingly passed with bipartisan support in the Assembly with a 69-1 in favor, less than one week after passing the Senate 34-1. While the original intent of the bill was to prohibit California from contracting with businesses that engage in boycotts against Israel, the bill’s language was changed so that companies must now prove that they will not violate California’s civil rights law, in general, by boycotting a nation that is recognized by the United States. (Breitbart, Sept. 1, 2016)
AT U MASS, HARAMBE JOKES NOW CONSIDERED RACIST (Boston) — A letter sent out by residential advisors at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, claims that jokes about Harambe, the gorilla that died in an incident at the Cinnicinati Zoo in May, are a “direct attack” on the school’s African-American community. After tributes to Harambe began to appear on a whiteboard in a residence hall, two residential advisors sent out an email essentially banning mentions of the beloved gorilla in the dormitory. The advisors claimed that Harambe jokes are racist and an attack of Amherst’s African-American population due to the fact that the university’s residential community for African-Americans shares its name with the now famous gorilla. (Breitbart, Sept. 6, 2016)
ISRAELI GROUP SEEKS REFERENDUM ON PALESTINIANS (Jerusalem) — A group of former Israeli politicians, security officials, artists and social activists has urged the government to hold a national referendum on the future of the Palestinian territories. The group launched the campaign ahead of the 50th anniversary next year of the 1967 Mideast war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. The Israeli group, calling itself “Decision at 50,” is led by prominent figures in Israel’s so-called peace camp. They believe that establishment of a Palestinian state will ensure Israel’s future as a democracy with a solid Jewish majority. The group’s founders include Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, Amram Mitzna, a retired general, and Gilead Sher, who was a peace negotiator under former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. (Washington Post, Sept. 5, 2016)
ISRAEL’S UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLE (UGV) PATROLLING GAZA BORDER (Jerusalem) — Israel is trying out its latest technology along the Gaza border as the IDF seeks new ways to protect its military forces as well as its civilian population from terror attacks. The IDF has teamed with defense contractor Elbit Systems to equip 350 “Border Protector Unmanned Ground Vehicles” (UGVs) with four driving cameras and a 360-degree observation camera as well as specialized remote driving technology. The IDF first introduced the Guardium Unmanned Ground Vehicle, which patrols the Gaza fence around the clock, in 2012. The Ford F-350 pickup trucks are unarmed, and are driven by operators using a steering wheel, joystick and pedals in a remote control room. (Jewish Press, Sept. 6, 2016)
JAPAN, ISRAEL UPGRADE RELATIONS AS ARAB OIL INFLUENCE WANES (Tokyo) — Japanese executives say they are increasingly drawn to investments in Israel as the price of oil falls and, with it, the influence Arab oil suppliers have on Japan. Over the past two years, Japan and Israel have strengthened business ties, signing a series of economic agreements on the back of a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Israel in 2015 and Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Tokyo in 2014. Bilateral trade in goods in the first seven months of 2016 rose to $1.4 billion from $1.1 billion, making Japan Israel's fourth-largest market in Asia. It is part of a growing shift in focus as Asia overtakes the U.S. to become Israel's largest trading partner after Europe. The deal that put Israel on Japan's business map was the $900 million acquisition of chat app Viber by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc in 2014. (Reuters, Sept. 5, 2016)
What's Next for Israel's Satellite Program After Amos-6?: Noam Amir, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 2, 2016— The future of Israel's satellite industry has recently been called into question.
Obama’s Iran Deal Is a Fraud on the American People: Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, Sept. 3, 2016 — Iran “has fully implemented its required commitments.” That was the representation Obama secretary of state John Kerry made to the American people in announcing on January 16 — “Implementation Day” of President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal (aka, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) — that international economic sanctions were consequently being lifted against Iran.
The West Can’t Let Putin Decide Ukraine’s Future: Aurel Braun, Globe & Mail, Sept. 1, 2016 —Last week’s celebrations of 25 years of independence in Ukraine were bittersweet. Domestic problems aside, fighting escalated in eastern Ukraine with Moscow-controlled separatist rebels, Crimea remained firmly in Russia’s grip as the Kremlin increased its military presence there, Russian forces massed on Ukraine’s border and the Putin government provocatively accusing the Kiev government of seeking to invade Crimea.
Taking the Fight Against Anti-Semitism to the United Nations: Danny Danon, New York Post, Sept. 6, 2016 —For all of its good intentions, the United Nations is an institution full of contradictions. The organization’s founding charter in 1945 stated it would hope to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” Yet all too often, the UN has been manipulated by dictators and despots who place little importance on these values.
