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WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS IN REVIEW” ROUND-UP

 We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication. Please address your response to:  Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, PO Box 175, Station  H, Montreal QC H3G 2K7 – Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284; E-mail: rob@isranet.wpsitie.com

 

Contents: | Weekly QuotesShort Takes   |  On Topic Links

 

On Topic Links

 

American Jewish Leaders Fail to Confront the Anti-Israeli Bandwagon: Isi Leibler, Candidly Speaking, May 31, 2016

The Left vs Israel: Daniel Pipes, Israel Hayom, June 1, 2016

How to Save Clintonism: David M. Shribman, New York Times, May 21, 2016

Obama’s Hiroshima Genie: Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2016

 

WEEKLY QUOTES

 

“Canada has been a friend of Israel for almost seven decades, through triumph and tragedy. We will continue to stand with Israel, one of our closest friends and partners, thanks to our shared values and the presence of a dynamic and thriving Jewish Canadian community.” — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, via a prepared statement to the audience of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s 46th annual Walk with Israel event May 29. A record-setting 20,000 people participated in the event in downtown Toronto, eclipsing last year’s record of 17,000. (CJN, May 30, 2016)

 

“The possibilities of our two jurisdictions – Ontario and Israel – working together for our mutual benefit are huge. I was so gratified at the way we were welcomed in Israel and the opportunities we saw.” — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, at the Walk with Israel event. Wynne spoke of her recent week-long trip to Israel, which generated more than $87 million in business deals for Ontario in areas such as high-tech, education and medicine. (CJN, May 30, 2016)

 

“The UN reached new heights of absurdity today…By scapegoating the Jewish state for all the world’s health problems, just as medieval Europe once accused the Jews of poisoning the wells, the EU aids and abets the UN and its World Health Organization to betray the cause of humanity and the very principles upon which they were founded.” — UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. The World Health Organization (WHO) called for an investigation into alleged abuses of “mental, physical and environmental health” rights by Israel, the only country singled out during the U.N. agency’s annual assembly in Geneva. The motion was co-sponsored by the Arab Group of States and the Palestinian delegation, and it commissioned a WHO delegation to investigate and report on “the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory." France, Germany and the UK were among the 107 countries that voted for the proposal. Eight countries – the US, Canada, Australia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea – voted against the resolution. (Arutz Sheva, May 26, 2016)

 

“The blame here lies with those who abuse medical facilities and turn them into military facilities…It is Hamas and Islamic Jihad who should be the focus of your condemnation.” — Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. The WHO resolution stating that Israel violates Palestinians’ health rights is “a modern manifestation of anti-Semitism,” Lapid wrote to WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan. “Across the border, in Syria, hundreds of thousands have been murdered…While the carnage in Syria has continued unabated and terrorists commit unspeakable atrocities across the region, most notably in Iraq, Israel has been quietly working to treat injured Syrians. They are brought to the border, collected by the (IDF) and taken to Israeli hospitals where they are given first-rate medical care at no expense…These actions are purely humanitarian, just because it’s the right thing to do,” Lapid wrote. (Jerusalem Post, May 26, 2016)

 

“I am proud to sign the Mayors United Against Anti-Semitism pledge and I will encourage other mayors across the country and Europe to do the same, to help send the message far and wide that anti-Semitism is totally unacceptable and can never be justified…Sadly, for many Londoners, antisemitism is a very present problem. As a British Muslim, I am no stranger to discrimination and prejudice.” — Newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan, endorsing a pledge co-signed by dozens of U.S. and European mayors to fight antisemitism. The initiative received its first European cosignatory in Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. In all, 150 mayors from 30 European countries have signed along with more than 300 mayors from 50 U.S. states. Khan has condemned members of his own party who engaged in hateful rhetoric against Jews and Israel. This vitriol within Labour has exposed the party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to scrutiny in local media and by Labour members. (Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2016)

 

“For sure we underestimated profoundly the forces that were at work in the region and would take advantage of change once you topple the regime. That is the lesson. The lesson is not complicated. The lesson is simple. It is that when you remove a dictatorship out come these forces of destabilization whether it is al-Qaida on the Sunni side or Iran on the Shia side.” — Tony Blair, former U.K. prime minister. Tony Blair has admitted he profoundly underestimated the forces that were going to be unleashed in Iraq after the war, and says his understanding of the Middle East is much deeper now than at the time of the invasion in 2003. Blair still insists the only way to defeat Islamic State (I.S.), which filled the void that developed after Saddam’s removal, is with ground troops, including forces from the West. “Airstrikes are not going to defeat [I.S]. It does not mean it has to be our forces all the time – it could be that our forces are in support. But be in no doubt, if you want to defeat these people you are going to have to wage a proper ground war against them. The only question for us is whether we are prepared to.” (National Post, May 25, 2016)

 

“If there’s any chance of (Hillary Clinton) getting indicted, they shouldn’t even consider her for the nomination…We can’t have a criminal in the White House.” — Zachary O’Neill, 21. Senator Bernie Sanders may be trailing Clinton by hundreds of delegates, and Clinton may be treating the Democratic nomination as hers, but Sanders supporters are holding out for an 11th-hour miracle: divine deliverance at the hands of the F.B.I. Many of Sanders’s supporters hope that Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state would yield an indictment. (New York Times, May 27, 2016)

 

“If the D.N.C. wants to go ahead and put out the candidate who can’t win and we lose in November, it’s not because I didn’t vote…It’s because they were looking out for their interests and not for the better interests of the country.” — Jennifer Peters, 28. (New York Times, May 27, 2016)

 

“Everyone is like: ‘Trump has these terrible social issues. He hates Muslims and he hates the L.G.B.T. community…But our world is big enough that he’s not actually going to implement any of those changes in a realistic way. But what he will do is potentially audit the federal government, and he will try to break up some of the banks and try to at least influence government that way. However, with Hillary, it will just be a complacent, run-of-the-middle-of-the-road presidency.” — Jackie Becerra, 28. (New York Times, May 27, 2016)

 

“That is why we come to this place. We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of that terrible war and the wars that came before and the wars that would follow. Mere words cannot give voice to such suffering. But we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.” — U.S. President Barack Obama, in Hiroshima, Japan. Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on Friday, telling an audience that included survivors of America’s atomic bombing in 1945 that technology as devastating as nuclear arms demands a “moral revolution.” Obama is the first sitting American president to visit the most potent symbol of the dawning of the nuclear age. (New York Times, May 27, 2016)

 

Contents

 

SHORT TAKES

 

PM PARTIALLY EMBRACES ARAB PEACE PLAN (Jerusalem) — Netanyahu on Monday partially endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative, offering to negotiate with the Arab world the parameters of the plan, which promises Israel full diplomatic ties with 57 Arab and Muslim states after cementing a peace accord with the Palestinians. Netanyahu welcomed a recent speech by Egyptian President el-Sissi, who offered assistance in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach a peace agreement. Netanyahu did not mention his conditions for a peace deal, namely that any Palestinian state must be demilitarized and has to recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish people. Netanyahu also did not mention the French peace initiative, which will kick off Friday with a conference in Paris. (Times of Israel, May 30, 2016)

 

PA FAKED EVIDENCE LEADING TO WHO SINGLING OUT ISRAEL (Geneva) — A PA document, prepared to support a recent World Health Organization (WHO) resolution condemning Israeli violations of Palestinian health rights, was found to contain multiple false photographs, meant to “prove” Israeli atrocities. US-based watchdog group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) posted the faked evidence on its blog. Prior to the WHO decision, the PA Health Ministry submitted a report on the state of health in Palestinian territories. The 59-page document contains several illustrative photographs, many of which were either misleading or altered. One image, allegedly “taken during the Israeli war on Gaza, 2014”, is actually a poorly-photoshopped copy of an image which appeared in a blog imagining what would happen if Israel took military action against a nuclear Iran. The photo was exposed as a hoax. (Breaking Israel News1, June 1, 2016)

 

ISRAEL HOSTS FIRST-EVER ANTI-BDS CONFERENCE AT UN (Geneva) — More than 2,000 people attended on Tuesday the first-ever conference at the UN General Assembly aimed at combating the BDS movement, the largest gathering to date focused on battling the attempt to pressure Israel over its perceived ill-treatment of the Palestinians. Students, activists, legal professionals and representatives of Jewish organizations took part in the “Building Bridges, Not Boycotts” day-long summit, a partnership between Israel’s Mission to the UN and a dozen pro-Israel organizations. (Times of Israel, June 1, 2016)

 

NETHERLANDS: BDS ‘FREE SPEECH’ (Amsterdam) — Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders announced that calls to boycott Israel fall within the limits of free speech. Sweden recently made a similar declaration. Koenders’ statement struck a chord in Israel where the Foreign Ministry is in the midst of a legislative campaign to outlaw BDS throughout western parliaments. Jerusalem argues that BDS falls into the category of “hate speech.” Israel’s position is based on the argument that by calling to divest and boycott Israel, BDS supporters are seeking the destruction of Israel. Human rights organizations and left wing parliamentarians in turn are using EU governments to affirm that BDS is protected by the laws of free speech. (Jerusalem Post, May 26, 2016)

 

SPOKESMAN IN NEW DELHI SAYS ‘BDS FAR FROM INDIAN MENTALITY’ (New Delhi) — BDS has no stronghold in India, Ohad Horsandi, a spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, said on Tuesday. Horsandi, who was discussing the intricacies of what he called the “improving, but delicate” relations between the two countries, in light of a report in The Hindu over the weekend that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduling a trip to Israel in a few months. According to the report, the trip – which would be the first-ever visit of an Indian premier to the Jewish state – is being arranged to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Jerusalem. Israel and India established diplomatic relations on January 29, 1992. Since then, only one Israeli Prime Minister – Ariel Sharon – has visited the country. (Algemeiner, May 31, 2016)

 

20 ISRAELIS BEHIND MASSIVE US ACADEMIC BOYCOTT VOTE (Jerusalem) — A new report compiled by right-wing group Im Tirtzu has revealed that some 20 Israeli academics are encouraging the American Anthropological Association to boycott Israel in a vote that is expected to be tallied at the end of the month. The AAA is the world's largest professional body for anthropologists, with some 10,000 members, and it has just opened the polls for a vote on whether to sever all ties with Israel. The 20 Israeli academics supporting the boycott are university lecturers and faculty members, some of whom receive their salaries from Israeli tax dollars. (Israel Hayom, May 26, 2016)

 

ISRAEL LETS JORDANIAN WORKERS CROSS BORDER FOR JOBS (Jerusalem) — Israel and Jordan signed their peace treaty in 1994, but it has often been a cold peace, without real people moving back and forth. For the past six months, however, Israel has been allowing Jordanians to cross the border to its Red Sea resort to work minimum-wage jobs at hotels. The first 700 of 1,500 have started. There are 55,000 Israelis living in Eilat and 40 hotels with 12,000 rooms that employ 9,000 workers, about a third of them in housekeeping — jobs Israelis won’t do anymore, or won’t do for the money offered. A dozen Jordanian hotel workers interviewed said they were either happy with their new jobs in Eilat — or as happy as someone who changes dirty sheets in a foreign country can be. (Washington Post, May 16, 2016)

 

36 ADVOCACY GROUPS DEMAND ACTION AT AFTER ANTISEMITIC PROTEST (Los Angeles) — In light of the pervasive antisemitism at the University of California Irvine (UCI), 36 Jewish and civil rights groups demanded UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman immediately implement the recently passed Regents Statement of Principles Against Intolerance. In the letter, organized by AMCHA Initiative, the groups demand Gillman publicly disclose how he plans to combat the rampant antisemitism on his campus. Incidents include a disruption of a recent Hillel movie screening and a speech, by Neturei Karta’s Yisroel Dovid Weiss. UC Irvine has played host to a number of antisemitic events over the past decade including the disruption of a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren where multiple student protesters were arrested and prosecuted. (Jewish Press, May 25, 2016)

 

HAMAS BEGINS EXECUTIONS IN GAZA (Gaza) — Hamas executed three people reportedly by firing squad and hanging this morning, in a move that defied protests from the UN and will likely deepen tensions with the PA government in the West Bank. Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, said it had executed three alleged murderers at dawn. Two of the men were shot dead by firing squad while a third, a policeman, was hanged. The group said earlier this month that it has 13 people on death row and intended to carry out further executions. Under Palestinian law, executions are forbidden without the permission of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. However, Hamas has repeatedly defied the Palestinian Authority since it took control of Gaza in 2007.  (Telegraph, May 31, 2016) 

 

I.S. GRABS TERRITORY FROM SYRIAN REBELS NEAR TURKISH BORDER (Istanbul) — I.S. on Friday seized a string of villages from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border in rapid advances that forced the evacuation of a hospital and trapped of thousands of people. The advances in the northern Aleppo province brought the Islamists to within three kilometres of the rebel-held town of Azaz and cut off supplies to Marea further south. Rights groups said around 165,000 civilians are trapped near the Turkish border as a result of the fighting. Turkey has closed its borders with Syria for the past 15 months, and Turkish border guards enforcing the closure have at times shot at and assaulted Syrian asylum seekers as they try to reach safety in Turkey — charges the Turkish government denies. Friday's advance was the biggest by I.S. in Aleppo province in two years. (CTV, May 27, 2016)

 

AIRSTRIKES IN SYRIA KILLED AND HURT DOZENS NEAR HOSPITAL (Damascus) — Rescue workers pulled children and other victims from the rubble of their homes in insurgent-held northern Syria on Tuesday after the latest aerial bombardments killed dozens of people. The attacks in the cities of Idlib and Aleppo began Monday. Witnesses said they appeared to be airstrikes conducted by Syrian government forces or their Russian allies. Rescue workers said that more than 20 people had been killed, with dozens more injured. In Idlib, eight strikes around the National Hospital destroyed several buildings in a crowded area of the city. Hospitals have been hit regularly during the five-year civil war in Syria — sometimes several hospitals or clinics in a single day. Earlier this spring, more than half a dozen medical facilities were attacked in about a week in Aleppo. (New York Times, May 31, 2016)

 

MORE THAN 1,000 MIGRANTS FEARED DEAD AT SEA IN PAST WEEK (Naples) — The treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Libya to Italy has claimed the lives of over 1,030 migrants in the last week, mostly as barely seaworthy smuggling boats foundered and sank despite calm seas. A U.N. spokesman said that this year is already proving to be “particularly deadly” on the Mediterranean, with some 2,510 lives lost compared to 1,855 in the same time span a year ago. An International Organization for Migration spokesman said traffickers could be also cutting prices to draw in new migrants, and have recently been seen using bigger boats that can carry up to 750 people. Over the last year “smaller rubber inflatable dinghies” were more prevalent on the smuggling route, he said. (Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2016)

 

JEWISH WEDDING IN TURKEY SPARKS ANTISEMITISM ONLINE (Istanbul) — A historic wedding in Turkey triggered a deluge of antisemitic speech online. Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, president of the Jewish Community of Turkey, said that some social network users responded with hate speech to his invitation to watch a live streaming video of the first Jewish wedding in 41 years in Edirne, a city in western Turkey.  “Many anti-Semites regurgitated their hatred in Periscope,” Ibrahimzadeh said in reference to the streaming service that offered the feed from the wedding at the Great Synagogue of Edirne, which reopened last year after decades of disuse. Edirne has few Jews and nearly all of the hundreds of guests at the wedding came from Istanbul, elsewhere in Turkey and beyond. (Haaretz, May 30, 2016)

 

MUSLIM MOB ATTACKS ELDERLY CHRISTIAN WOMAN, TORCHES HOMES (Cairo) — A Muslim mob in Egypt attacked an elderly Christian woman and torched several Christian homes in a recent attack in the country’s Minya province. According to a statement by security officials, the attack began after rumors spread that the woman’s son had an affair with a Muslim woman. Police have so far arrested six men and are looking for 12 more. Many Egyptian Christians blamed extremist Salafi Muslims for being behind the attack. Anba Makarios, a top Christian cleric in Minya, said that the mob dragged the elderly woman out of her home, beat her, and stripped her clothing, then forced her to walk through the streets naked while they chanted “Allahu Akbar.” (Breaking Israel News, May 29, 2016)

 

MOROCCO REFUSES TO PLAY ISRAEL IN WHEELCHAIR TENNIS WORLD CUP (Tokyo) — Politics reared its ugly head in sports on Thursday, this time at the World Team Cup wheelchair tennis event in Tokyo. Israel was scheduled to face Morocco in a Men's World Group 2 tie for positions 5-8, but the Moroccans never showed up, being ordered to forfeit by their local paralympic committee. A total of 51 teams from 29 countries are competing in Tokyo in four categories: men, women, quad and junior. The World Team Cup, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015, is the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis event, often referred to as the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis. (Jerusalem Post, May 26, 2016)

 

IRAN CANCELS PARTICIPATION IN HAJJ PILGRIMAGE (Tehran) — Iran on Sunday canceled its participation in this year’s holy pilgrimage to Mecca, blaming rival Saudi Arabia. Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization blamed “Saudi sabotage” for the cancellation. The annual pilgrimage takes place in the western Saudi city, the holiest in Islam. The decision followed months of talks over how Iranians would obtain Saudi visas after Riyadh severed diplomatic ties with Iran in January. The break was a response to attacks on Saudi diplomatic compounds in Iran by people angry with the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and activist. (Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2016)

 

IRAN STUDENTS FLOGGED WITH 99 LASHES FOR 'DANCING AND JUBILATING' AT MIXED PARTY (Tehran) — At least 30 Iranian students have been flogged with 99 lashes each after being caught “dancing and jubilating” at a party attended by both men and women. Mixed dancing and alcohol are illegal in Iran where females are obliged to wear Islamic dress. The women at the party were described as “half-naked”, meaning they were not clad in the legally-required attire of "rusaris", or veils, and long overcoats. The judiciary, which is dominated by hardliners, announced that swift retribution had been meted out to the students in the city of Qazvin. (Telegraph, May 27, 2016)

 

US ARMY MAY SOON USE ISRAELI-DESIGNED ‘SUICIDE DRONES’ (Washington) — Israeli defense company UVision has teamed up with US defense giant Raytheon to adapt the Israeli-designed Hero-30 remotely-operated loitering munition to US military requirements. Now, both companies are jointly offering it to American infantry forces for use on future battlefields. Unlike larger suicide drones, the Hero 30 is designed for individual soldier use. Each soldier can carry up to three. The Hero 30 is the lightest member of its loitering munition family, and weighs just three kilograms. It carries a half kilogram warhead. (Jerusalem Post, June 1, 2016)

 

BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY TO AWARD HONORARY DOCTORATE TO ISI LEIBLER (Jerusalem) — Next month Bar-Ilan University will award an honorary doctorate to Australian-Israeli Jewish leader Isi Leibler.  An ardent advocate of the State of Israel and world statesman, Leibler will be recognized for his tireless efforts to address the challenges facing the Jewish Nation at every historic crossroad – from Soviet Jewry to the BDS. Earlier this year Leibler donated his unique Judaic library collection of 40,000 volumes – one of the most unique, private Jewish library collections in the world — to Bar-Ilan University. The Leibler Collection covers all aspects of 4,000 years of Jewish existence in the land of Israel and in the Diaspora. (Candidly Speaking, May 29, 2016)

 

Contents

On Topic Links

 

American Jewish Leaders Fail to Confront the Anti-Israeli Bandwagon: Isi Leibler, Candidly Speaking, May 31, 2016—The confusion and uncertainty arising from the presidential election campaign, together with the hostility generated over the new Israeli coalition, has emboldened a number of prominent Jewish progressives to initiate a new crusade implicitly criticizing the security policies of the democratically elected Israeli government.

The Left vs Israel: Daniel Pipes, Israel Hayom, June 1, 2016—Since the creation of Israel, Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims have been the mainstay of anti-‎Zionism, with the Left, from the Soviet Union to professors of literature, their auxiliary. But this ‎might be in process of change: As Muslims slowly, grudgingly, and unevenly come to accept the ‎Jewish state as a reality, the Left is becoming increasingly vociferous and obsessive in its ‎rejection of Israel.‎

How to Save Clintonism: David M. Shribman, New York Times, May 21, 2016—SINCE their premiere on the national stage a quarter-century ago, Hillary and Bill Clinton have been the closest of partners in politics. Through some rocky times they have turned to each other on vital projects, as in 1993, when Mr. Clinton asked his wife to lead an ultimately failed effort to establish universal health care.

Obama’s Hiroshima Genie: Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2016—No phrase in national security is more familiar than the notion of putting the nuclear genie back in the bottle. In his speech Friday in Hiroshima, President Obama proposed such a miracle: “Among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear, and pursue a world without them.”

 

 

 

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