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Contents: Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
“Even if we speak of other neighboring countries – the dramatic conflict in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt – the fact remains that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is one of the issues, perhaps the central one, for the region.” — Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister, in Ramallah, after meting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday [Aug. 24]
“I say that because for too long people believed that the root cause of this instability in the Middle East was the Palestinian-Israeli problem. It is not the root cause; it’s one of its results. If we have peace with the Palestinians, the centrifuges will not stop spinning in Iran, the turmoil will not stop in Syria, the instability in North Africa will not cease, the attacks on the West will not cease.” — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responding to comments made by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 26, 2013)
“Those who are here understand why the vision of two states is unrealistic and will ever happen. Those who think they can force us to build only within the Auschwitz borders are wrong. I suggest that one should look for those big criminals against humanity somewhere else, They won’t be found here, they are elsewhere in the Middle East.”— Israel’s Housing and Construction Minister, Uri Ariel, on Sunday evening as he helped dedicate two new neighborhoods of 160 homes in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 26, 2013)
“I discovered from the Algerian Al-Watan newspaper, that al-Sisi is of Jewish origin. His mother is called Mulaika Titani, and her brother was a member of the Jewish Haganah organization. Thus, we see that this man, by any standard, is implementing a Zionist plot to divide Egypt… Whoever reads The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the writings of [the Jews], including those who were writing in the US, realizes that this Zionist plot was premeditated.” —Gamal Nasser, former media secretary to the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, quoted by Sarah Honig in an opinion piece in Jerusalem Report. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 23, 2013)
"If the US goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it. [The] US needs to "try to work within an international framework to do everything we can to see Assad ousted." — President Barak Obama, in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. (Jerusalem Post,Aug. 23, 2013)
“If there’s been any use of nerve gas it’s the rebels that used it. If there has been a use of chemical weapons it was Al-Qaeda that used the chemical weapons – who gave al-Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here’s my theory, Israel gave them the chemical weapons.” — George Galloway, pro-Iranian British MP, in a speech on Friday [Aug. 23], which was posted on a video by the Iranian government’s Press TV. (Jewish Press, Aug. 25, 2013)
“They will be there, Allah's soldiers. They will visit us, the Islamic fanatics. We, the lost ones of the West, need their blessing. Upon invitation from the Collectif Indépendence, sponsored by the charitable organization HCI (Human Concern International), they will come from Europe to save us from hell. They want to cleanse us of our sacrileges. They want to show us the right path, we the perverts, the debauched, the libertines, the egotists, the impious, the miscreants. They will preach on September 7th and 8th [2013] at the Palais des congrès in Montreal. They will preach the revealed Word, denouncing the Crusades and blaming our women. And they will do so in two languages, Arabic and French. Yes, they'll use the language of l'Homme rapaillé to try and reach the lost children of Quebec. They will offer us the recipe for a ticket to paradise.” — Karim Akouche, Quebec author and native of Kabilya, North Africa, in an opinion piece on Huffington Post. (Huffington Post, Aug. 26, 2013)
“In his heart of hearts Obama seems to yearn for a utopian synthesis of pious Islam with Jeffersonian democracy. He’d like to show all of Islam’s detractors that the Muslim Brotherhood and associated offshoots (like those in Turkey, Gaza or even Iran) can conduct their affairs with gentleness, tolerance and justice for all. That was the gist of the paean of praise for Islam that he delivered at Cairo University in 2009 and which he later followed up in Turkey. It was no accident that then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak absented himself from the milestone Cairo address. With his keen political antennae, pro-American Mubarak could feel the ill-winds blowing from Obama’s direction. He wasn’t wrong. Obama’s cold shoulder facilitated and expedited Mubarak’s ouster. Obama kick-started the disastrous Arab Spring. And now, say the Muslim Brotherhood’s rivals, Obama continues to evince sympathy for the deposed Mohamed Morsi and his theocracy-boosting supporters. So how do the pro-military agitators propose to punish Obama? By hitting Israel, of course.” — Sarah Honig, in an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 23, 2013)
“We cannot in the 21st century allow the idea that chemical weapons can be used with impunity, that people can be killed in this way and that there are no consequences for it.” — British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has been leading the charge among Western countries to respond forcefully to the use of chemical weapons by Syria. (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 27, 2013)
“We are at the beginning of the storm.” — Ashraf Rifi, former chief of Lebanon’s police forces who lives near the scene of a powerful bomb that killed 42 people near two Sunni mosques in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Friday [Aug. 23]. (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 24, 2013)
“The use of force without the approval of the United Nations Security Council is a very grave violation of international law. If anyone thinks that bombing and destroying the Syrian military infrastructure, and leaving the battlefield for the opponents of the regime to win, would end everything – that is an illusion.” — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, commenting on the West’s proposed plans to use force against the Syrian regime for its use of chemical weapons against its civilian population. (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 27, 2013)
“Now, Hamas is an orphan. Hamas was dreaming and going up with its dreams that the Islamists were going to take over in all the capitals. Those dreams have been dashed.” — Akram Atallah, a political analyst and columnist, referring to the fact that the movement sprang from Egypt’s Brotherhood a quarter century ago. (Dialog Ireland, Aug. 24, 2013)
“My reading of Saturday’s Folio (Crisis in Syria – Aug. 24) ground to a halt when I came to the short history of chemical weapons. The threat of poison gas never materialized during the Second World War? I cannot fathom the logic of excluding mention Zyklon B as a weapon of mass destruction.” — Julie Hughes, from Ottawa, in a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail. (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 27, 2013)
“That Friday's verdict in the Hasan case was preordained by the defendant's admission of the murders he committed in no way diminishes the value of the jury's finding of guilt. It was a clear statement of fact. Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 people in 2009 on the Fort Hood army base in Texas, a national debate broke out over whether political correctness in the military had permitted Hasan to advance his career despite clear evidence of Islamist radicalization. At issue was whether the Army, in deference to Muslim sensitivities, had failed to act on warning signs dating to 2003 that included Hasan's known email exchanges with the late Anwar al-Awlaki, the former Virginia-based cleric who fled to Yemen and proceeded to tutor terrorist killers. Hasan commenced his killing spree by shouting "Allahu Akbar"—God is great. A senior Army officer nonetheless appeared on the morning talk shows to say, "This terrible event would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty." Earlier in 2009, the Obama Administration quietly retired the phrase "war on terror," instead preferring "overseas contingency operation." On Friday the jury swept away the political hemming and hawing and said simply that Hasan was guilty of 13 acts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The Hasan case carried so much emotion precisely because the connection between the awful murders and the murderer's politically inspired motives remained so clear. Hasan's Army colleagues were in his mind enemies of Islam, so he slaughtered them. If there is a time and place for capital punishment, it is for such acts and motives as Hasan's.” — editorial in the Wall Street Journal. (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 25, 2013)
“T’was the Arab Spring and we all clapped hands, and rooted for freedom in their hapless lands. Gaddafi and Mubarak were gone at last, no point in dwelling on the evil past. But beneath the blue Arabian sky, no birds of freedom did we spy. ‘Tis the Arab spring and the serfs have ris, and we wonder where the democrats is. They said the dems were close at hand, but they were just a mirage in the desert sand.” — William Bedford, in a letter to the editor in the National Post. (National Post, Aug. 27, 2013)
“If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it – do we have the coalition to make it work? Those are considerations that we have to take into account.” — U.S. President Barak Obama, hedging his bets on the possibility of conducting strikes against Syria for its use of chemical weapons. (Associated Press, Aug. 24, 2013)
“Lebanon has officially entered the regional war which has been raging in Syria and Iraq. There are serious fears that the country has entered a vicious cycle of tit-for-tat explosions and car bombs. A dynamic of violence and reprisals, once set in, is hard to reverse. Until the Syrian conflict reaches its conclusion, instability and periodic violence will be the order of the day in Lebanon” — Randa Slim, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 24, 2013)
“Don’t talk behind my back, don’t play with my honor. Here is the head of the man who played with my honor.” — Nevin Yildirim, a 26-year-old Turkish mother of two, to the men sitting in the coffee house on the [south-west Turkish village] square. Ms. Yildirim is awaiting trial after beheading a man who she says raped her repeatedly for months and is the father of her unborn child. "I thought of reporting him to military police and to the district attorney, but this was going to mark me as a scorned woman," Yildirim said at her preliminary hearing. "Since I was going to get a bad reputation I decided to clean my honor and acted on killing him. I thought of suicide a lot but couldn't do it. Now no one can call my children bastards. I cleaned my honor. Everyone will call them the children of the woman who cleaned her honor." (CNN, Aug. 28, 2013)
"Donors will not be ready to keep funding Palestinian state-building much longer if we are not seeing a political horizon. I think this is important for the Palestinians to know, because if anyone there thought they could sort of just fall back to the comfort of an internationally subsidized state-building endeavor, that may be wrong," he said. "And I think that it is important for some people on the Israeli side…to know that this cannot continue forever." —Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post Tuesday. Norway heads the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, the international donors group. The Norwegian foreign minister stressed that the release of 26 Palestinian terrorists was a "very important and very difficult concession which I know was hard to make. I also think that the Palestinians must now be ready to make some concessions, first and foremost on contributing a sense of security for the people of Israel." (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 28, 2013)
NETANYAHU HAVING DOUBTS OVER PEACE NEGOTIATOR: REPORT—(Jerusalem) Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly losing trust in the performance of Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator, in peace talks with the Palestinians, amid suggestions that she is offering too many concessions. Israel’s prime minister is said to be unhappy that Livni has “strayed from the official line” during the first two sessions of the recently revived talks. Netanyahu is reported to be upset that Livni offered to compromise on Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital. She has also spoken of withdrawing from the West Bank, where around 350,000 Israeli settlers live, and dismantling settlements. While such concessions are widely seen as essential to any peace agreement, the prime minister is understood to oppose putting them on the table before it is known what the Palestinians will give in return. (London Daily Telegraph, Aug. 27, 2013)
TWIN BLASTS KILL MORE THAN 40 IN LEBANON'S TRIPOLI—(Tripoli) Twin explosions hit two mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday, killing at least 42 people and wounding about 500 hundred, intensifying the sectarian strife that has spilled over from the civil war in neighboring Syria. The apparently coordinated blasts – the biggest and deadliest in Tripoli since the end of Lebanon's own civil war – struck as locals were finishing Friday prayers in the largely Sunni Muslim city. The explosions in Tripoli, 70 km (43 miles) from Beirut came a week after a huge car bomb killed at least 24 people in a part of the capital that is controlled by the Shi'ite Muslim movement Hezbollah. A recent resurgence of sectarian violence in Lebanon has been stoked by the conflagration in Syria, where President Bashar Assad is fighting a largely Sunni-led rebellion. Both Hezbollah and radical Sunni groups in Lebanon have sent fighters over the border to support opposing sides in Syria. (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 23, 2013)
AL-QAIDA VOWS TO STRIKE AT HEZBOLLAH FOR LEBANON BOMBINGS —(Tunisia) Al-Qaida's North African branch blamed Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah for twin bombs that hit the northern city of Tripoli on Friday and threatened retribution, a US-based intelligence monitoring website reported on Saturday. Although al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is not operational in Lebanon, its statement shows a growing regional hatred against Hezbollah by radical Sunni Muslim groups and a wider, deepening sectarian divide in the Middle East. AQIM said in tweets it knew "with certainty" that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was responsible for the attack that killed more than 42 people in Tripoli. "That vile party… should know that it will meet retribution soon," AQIM said, according to the SITE monitoring service. (Reuters, Aug 24, 2013)
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MEMO BLESSES EGYPTIAN CHURCH BURNINGS—(Cairo) A memo posted on the Facebook page of a local office of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows a clear call to incitement against Egypt's Coptic Christian population, giving its blessing to the burning of churches. Over 40 Coptic churches have been burned by Muslim Brotherhood supporters since the Egyptian police cleared demonstrators protesting the overthrow of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday. Brotherhood supporters also reportedly blocked the road between Cairo and Aswan in southern Egypt looking for Copts, taking seven Copts hostage Thursday. They were later released after a ransom of 150,000 Egyptian pounds, roughly $21,500, was paid. (Investigative Project on Terrorism, Aug. 19, 2013)
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LARGE ARMS SHIPMENT REACHES SYRIAN REBELS: OPPOSITION — (Amman) Gulf-based supporters have sent a 400-ton shipment of arms to Syria's outgunned rebels, one of the biggest to reach them in their two-year-old uprising, opposition sources said on Sunday. The consignment – mostly ammunition for shoulder-fired weapons and anti-aircraft machine guns – came into northern Syria via the Turkish province of Hatay in the past 24 hours, and was already being handed out, the sources added. One rebel officer told Reuters the flow of arms bound for rebels had increased since opposition groups accused the government of launching deadly chemical weapons attacks in Damascus on Wednesday. "Twenty trailers crossed from Turkey and are being distributed to arms depots for several brigades across the north," said rebel official Mohammad Salam, who told Reuters he saw the weapons come over the border. (Reuters, Aug, 25, 2013)
ISRAEL'S EFFORTS TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH TURKEY FALTER—(Jerusalem) Israeli government officials have signaled that Israel's efforts to normalize its diplomatic relations with Turkey have failed, even after Prime Minister Netanyahu apologized for the deaths of Turkish citizens during the Marmara incident in 2010. The two issues that caused talks between the two countries to deadlock were the amount of compensation the Turkish victims' families would be paid and the very definition of the restitution payment. Turkey insisted on calling the payments "punitive damages" and not "compensation." (Israel Hayom, Aug. 26, 2013)
IN EGYPT'S SINAI, RISING MILITANCY THREATENS PEACEKEEPING FORCE—(Sinai) A dramatic rise in militancy and violence in the Sinai desert is increasingly threatening a peacekeeping force there that includes nearly 700 U.S. troops acting as guarantors of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Heavily armed locals have blockaded bases and convoys of the Multinational Force and Observers, and, in a few instances, launched attacks against the peacekeepers, raising concerns about the long-term stability of their mission. The peacekeeping force, which includes American, Colombian, Fijian and Uruguayan troops, operates out of two main bases and a network of 30 small outposts. (Washington Post Aug. 27, 2013)
EGYPT POLICE ARREST BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS' RELATIVES — (Cairo) Egyptian authorities detained more than 60 people associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in less than 24 hours, including relatives of the group's leaders, officials said Wednesday. The crackdown on the group, from which ousted President Mohammed Morsi hails, started shortly after the July 3 coup. It intensified this month after security forces cleared out two of the group's sit-ins, killing hundreds and sparking unrest that killed more than 1,000 people in a few days. The Interior Ministry says more than 100 policemen and soldiers have also been killed since mid-August. The local media, in close step with the new leadership after Morsi, repeatedly describe the actions of the Brotherhood and its supporters as acts of terrorism. Many have been charged with inciting violence. Security forces have arrested much the Brotherhood's senior and midlevel leadership, while others remain in hiding. (ABC News, Aug. 28, 2013)
WHERE MUSLIMS CAN SPEAK FREELY IN THE MIDDLE EAST — (Tel Aviv) Arab journalists and columnists in Israel have been expressing their views about the Egyptian crisis without fear, while their colleagues in Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are afraid to speak their mind. Israel, for example, is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Muslims are permitted to demonstrate in favor of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization. This is not because Israel supports Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood; it is because the Muslim protesters know that in a democratic country like Israel they can hold peaceful demonstrations and express their views without having to worry about being targeted by the authorities. (Gatestone Institute, aug. 26, 2013)
THE PALESTINIANS DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE WITH ISRAEL — (Tel Aviv) Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, has publicly complained about PA negotiators having to actually talk one on one with their Israeli counterparts: "The Americans from the beginning were supposed to be there. I don't see why the Israelis don't want the Americans there, as witnesses….These are not two-way negotiations." The Palestinian negotiators fear being trapped in a room with the people they are supposed to be crafting a deal with. That is because the last thing they want is to actually reach an agreement they'd have to justify to a Palestinian people that is still not ready to accept a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn. (Commentary, Aug. 22, 2013)
ISRAEL HELPING THE BEDOUIN MOVE INTO THE 21ST CENTURY — (Yeruham) Negev Bedouin leader Sheikh Uda Zanoon has reached agreement with the State of Israel to establish a modern Bedouin settlement for his tribe near the Israeli town of Yeruham. The settlement will be planned with the full participation of the 300 families of the Uda Zanoon tribe, who today are without basic infrastructure, such as electricity, running water and roads. The Israeli government has decided to allocate $2.6 billion to resolve land disputes and promote economic development within the Bedouin sector. The plan includes building thousands of new housing units, expanding and developing existing settlements and establishing new Bedouin settlements. The guiding principle is to push for a dramatic improvement in Bedouin quality of life without harming tradition. (i24 News, Aug. 21, 2013)
ISRAELI SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH COULD EASE DROUGHTS AND FAMINES — (Tiberius) A team of Israeli scientists has developed a new technology that may enable crops to weather droughts worldwide. The team, led by Professor Shimon Gepstein, Chancellor of Kinneret College, genetically engineered a plant that can withstand droughts by "freezing itself" after not receiving water for a certain period of time. The plant then "returns to life" after the water supply is renewed, and this occurs without any damage to the plant's physical structure. Moreover, the engineered plants flourished with only a third of the water other plants required. International firms have expressed interest in the technology. (Algemeiner, Aug 19, 2013)
END OF ETHIOPIAN ALIYA AS FINAL FLIGHT SET TO LAND IN ISRAEL—(Ben Gurion Airport) The Jewish Agency is to bring the last of Ethiopia’s Jews to Israel on Wednesday afternoon with a flight of 400 Falash Mura, bringing an end to a saga that has spanned decades and seen tens of thousands of men, women and children coming to the Jewish state. Ethiopian-Israelis are planning a protest outside of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office at the same time that a plane representing the official end of Ethiopian aliya is scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport. At the protest, which is being organized by activist Avraham Neguise as well as through Facebook, members of the Ethiopian community will hold aloft images of their loved ones who will remain in Gondar following the closure of the Jewish Agency’s facilities there. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 28, 2013)
Israeli Scientific Breakthrough Could Ease Droughts and Famines: Anav Silverman, Algemeiner, August 19, 2013—
A team of Israeli scientists has developed a new technology that may enable crops to weather droughts worldwide, thus minimizing famine and strife.
Another Tack: Egypt's Polish Syndrome: Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 22, 2013—Jewish culpability always was – and apparently remains – a key element in lending moral authority to any contentious cause.
S#!t Debaters Say About Israel and “the Jews”: Eylon Aslan-Levy, Times of Israel, Aug. 27, 2013—The Israeli Debating League is heading home from this year’s European Universities Debating Championship in Manchester. This year, over two hundred teams battled over the motion: “This House Believes that Israel Should Allow Members of the Jewish Diaspora to Vote in its Elections“.
Ber Lazarus , Publications Editor Canadian Institute for Jewish Research /L'institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 Fax: (514) 486-82843
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