Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

Media-ocrities of the Week

 

“Iran, given its special relations with Syria, can be part of the solution.”—UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, in Tehran, claimed that Iran with its surrogate Hezbollah continues to contribute militarily to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown. Nevertheless, Annan contended that Iran can play a role in resolving the Syrian conflict. (Wall Street Journal, April 11.)

 

“I am very happy that Syrian officials are managing the situation well.…”—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising Syrian President Bashar Assad’s handling of a year-long anti-regime uprising in which more than 9000 people have been killed, and reiterating that Iran will do “all in its power to support [Syria].” For his part, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei stated that “Iran will defend Syria because of [its] support of the resistance front against the Zionist regime.” (Reuters, March 27 & Associated Press, March 29.)

 

“He is a whore who sells his soul to AIPAC.…”—Lee Whitnum, a Democratic candidate for Connecticut’s U.S. Senate seat, accusing rival U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) of pandering to the “Jewish lobby”. In response, Murphy reaffirmed his support for Israel, saying, “I stand with the U.S.-Israeli relationship and I’m willing to defend my position on it. It just should be done without name-calling.” The candidates are vying for the opportunity to replace the outstanding pro-Israel Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who is retiring. (JTA, April 6.)

 

Weekly Quotes

 

“The Jewish holiday of freedom [Passover] should become Pollard’s private holiday of freedom. I will continue working toward his release.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, calling for the immediate release from prison of former Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard. Pollard, now in the twenty-seventh year of a life sentence, has been hospitalized due to his deteriorating medical condition. (Haaretz, April 8.)

 

“Israel must always fight terrorism. It will not stop if we do not fight it.”—Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, at a ceremony marking the 40^th anniversary of the operation to free hostages on hijacked Sabena Flight 571—during which, as a young commando, he was shot and wounded, strongly denouncing last week’s firing of a Grad rocket from the Sinai Peninsula into a residential neighborhood in Eilat. According to Netanyahu, Sinai has become a “terrorism zone” that Israel is “dealing with.” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the rocket attack on Eilat “a grave incident.” (Jerusalem Post, April 5.)

 

“In the short term the risks are increasing. As a result, we will need to prepare for new challenges and fronts, for an increase in the threats and for more instability throughout the region in the coming years.”—Israel’s head of Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, describing the firing of a Katyusha rocket from Sinai into Eilat as an example of the changes sweeping through the Middle East as a result of the “Arab Spring”, and announcing for the first time that the IDF has thwarted at least 10 different terrorist plots to attack Israel from the Sinai Peninsula over the past two months. (Jerusalem Post, April 5.)

 

“The members of the Security Council are unified in their grave concern that this deadline has passed and the evidence is that not only has military activity continued, but over the last 10 days has intensified.”—US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, confirming Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime failed to abide by a UN-Arab League peace plan calling for the implementation of a cease-fire by April 10. Instead, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem introduced new preconditions to the deal, demanding that a cessation of violence occur simultaneously with the deployment of an international monitoring mission to the country and that opposition groups provide written guarantees to halt the violence should government forces be withdrawn from cities. (Wall Street Journal, April 11.)

 

“The regime will not implement this plan. This plan will fail.”—Riad al-Asaad, leader of the rebel Free Syrian Army, correctly predicting last week that the peace plan devised by UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan would not be implemented by Bashar Assad’s government. (Reuters, April 8.)

 

“I think that most of the burden for the inability to move in the last three years happens to be on the Palestinians’ shoulders, not on ours. But I can tell you honestly, I was the prime minister 12 years ago. I negotiated a very generous proposal with previous Chairman [Yasser] Arafat, together with [US] President [Bill] Clinton. [We] put a far reaching proposal on the table that was rejected by Arafat. And he turned deliberately to terror. And during that time, we were building [at] four times the pace of [current settlement] construction in Israel. I was also the defense minister in Ehud Olmert’s government five years ago when he made an extremely generous proposal to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]. We were building about twice the pace that we are building now. So this government of Netanyahu is not the most aggressive in building.… Not a single new settlement has been built in the last three years since this government took power.”—Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria, reiterating that construction in Israeli settlements is not an obstacle to peace, nor did it ever constitute  a barrier to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. (CNN, April 10.)

 

“All companies that have sponsored the marathon of Jerusalem, including Adidas, will be boycotted.”—Saudi Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, announcing on behalf of Arab League countries the boycott of all companies that sponsored last month’s Jerusalem Marathon. According to Faisal, Israel uses the marathon to “misguide public opinion into believing that Jerusalem is its capital.” Arab ministers also announced they would hold an alternative marathon next year to coincide with the Jerusalem Marathon, called “Jerusalem is Ours.” (Jerusalem Post, April 5.)

 

“Jewish organizations are already interested in it.… Obviously they want now to desecrate the grave.”—Rostyslav Novozhenets, deputy head of the Ukrainian Republican Party, announcing for the first time that convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk, who died last month in Germany, was buried at a secret location in the United States, and accusing Jewish groups of trying to uncover the location of the grave in order to desecrate it. Demjanjuk was convicted last year by a German court for his role in the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Poland. (JTA, April 5.)

 

“Whenever Jews were in danger, or Jewish honor offended, he vigorously yet elegantly spoke up. Whenever Jewish memory was attacked, he attacked the attacker.”—Elie Wiesel, eulogizing former executive director of the World Jewish Congress Elan Steinberg, who passed away last week at the age of 59. According to Jerusalem Post columnist Isi Leibler, “Steinberg was one of the greatest political strategists of the post-war generation of Jewish leadership…[and] played a crucial role in introducing a dynamic and assertive Jewish global presence.” (Jerusalem Post, April 10.)

 

“Every day, for sport, Nazi guards threw a Jew into a cage occupied by a bear and an eagle. German doctors conducted medical experiments on living subjects and made soap from human fat. And Ilse Koch, wife of the camp’s notorious commandant, inspected naked ranks of prisoners, identifying tattoos she then ordered removed—to have sewn into lampshades made of human skin. At least 56,000 prisoners perished, through illness, starvation and summary execution. But 67 years ago, four soldiers of the U.S. Third Army’s Sixth Armoured Division under General George Patton liberated Buchenwald—one of the first and largest concentration camps in the Reich. A group of skeletal survivors gave the soldiers a hero’s welcome, and managed to throw some of them into the air.”—Michael Posner, marking the 72^nd anniversary (April 11) of the US-led liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. (Globe & Mail, April 11.)

 

Short Takes

 

IRAN REJECTS WEST’S ‘DEMANDS’ AHEAD OF TALKS—(Jerusalem) Iran has officially rejected Western conditions ahead of a new round of nuclear talks due to commence later this week. The provisions, outlined by US and European diplomats to the New York Times last week, call for Iran to immediately close and dismantle its underground Fordo nuclear facility and halt uranium enrichment to 20 percent and ship existing g stockpiles out of the country. Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, described the stipulations as “irrational.” Representatives of six world powers are scheduled to meet with Iranian negotiators in Istanbul on Friday. The talks are being viewed by military analysts as Iran’s last chance to resolve the showdown over its nuclear program diplomatically before Israel pushes up the timeline of a possible strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities. (Ynet News, April 8 & Jerusalem Post, April 9.)

 

CIA: IRAN CONTINUES NUCLEAR PROGRAM PROGRESS—(Jerusalem) According to a recent CIA report to Congress, Iran greatly expanded its nuclear infrastructure and uranium enrichment activities in 2011. The report claims that as of November 2011, Iran had produced 4,900 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, compared to 3,200 kilograms in November 2010 and 1,800 kilograms in November 2009. Iran’s holdings in November 2011 also included approximately 80 kilograms of 20-percent enriched uranium; however, an IAEA report published on February 24 of this year claims that Iran had increased to nearly 110 kilograms its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20%. The CIA report also showed that Iran has started producing highly enriched uranium at its underground facility near Qom, and that the total number of centrifuges operating in Iran is approximately 6,200, up from 3,800 in August 2010. Iran has also made significant progress in its ballistic missile program. (Jerusalem Post, April 5.)

 

OBAMA WILLING TO ACCEPT IRANIAN CIVILIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM—(Jerusalem) US President Barack Obama has reportedly sent a secret letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei expressing his willingness to accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program provided Iran guarantees that its ultimate objective is not to acquire a nuclear bomb. According to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Obama sent Khamenei the message via Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Iran last week. The message, sent ahead of this week’s scheduled nuclear negotiations, was purportedly meant to emphasize that “time is running out for a peaceful settlement.” (Jerusalem Post, April 6.)

 

OBAMA REJECTS PERES’ CALL TO FREE POLLARD—(Jerusalem) US President Barack Obama has rejected a request by Israeli President Shimon Peres to commute the life sentence of captive Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard. In an urgent personal appeal written to Obama, Peres noted that in view of Pollard’s poor health coupled with the nearly 27 years that he has already served—for the crime of passing classified information to an ally during peacetime, which historically has drawn an average term of 2-4 years—his release from prison would be considered by Israel as a supreme humanitarian gesture. Last weekend, Pollard was admitted to hospital where he is currently being treated for multiple ailments. Esther Pollard, Jonathan’s wife, described her husband’s condition as grave and said “to return him to prison would be a death sentence.” (Jerusalem Post, April 10.)

 

GANTZ PRESENTS NEW DETERRENCE POLICY—(Jerusalem) IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz has unveiled Israel’s new deterrence policy, whereby the firing of missiles or rockets at Israel’s south will be met with military operations against Hamas targets, regardless of the group behind the shooting; rocket fire from Lebanon will result in a response targeting Hezbollah; and any terror attack by Iranian emissaries overseas will prompt action directly against Tehran. Gantz described the IDF as “Israel’s sharpened sword and protector,” and warned that “anyone who tries to test [Israel], domestically or overseas, will find a sophisticated army ready to defend Israel and subdue its enemies.” (Ynet News, April 5.)

 

EGYPT COURT BLOCKS CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY—(Cairo) An Egyptian court has halted the formation of the country’s constitutional assembly, challenging the legitimacy of a body spurned by secular and Christian groups because of its domination by Islamists. Tasked with drafting Egypt’s post-revolutionary constitution, the assembly was selected by parliament and therefore comprises mainly Islamists, who overwhelmingly dominated Egypt’s recent elections. The case was brought by lawyers and activists arguing that the assembly fails to reflect the diversity of Egyptian society. The new constitution, amongst other things, will set out the terms of authoritative power and thus likely decide which institution of state will effectively control the country. (Reuters, April 10.)

 

EGYPT JAILS CHRISTIAN STUDENT FOR INSULTING ISLAM—(Cairo) An Egyptian court has sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy, Gamal Abdou Massoud, to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. The cartoons, published by Massoud in December, prompted violence on the part of Muslims; several Christian houses were burned and several Christians were injured in multiple assaults. Longstanding tensions between Egyptian Muslims and Christians have boiled over since Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year, with Christians increasingly worried by a surge in attacks. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million population. (Reuters, April 4.)

 

CANADA LOBBIED HARD AGAINST PALESTINIAN BID FOR STATEHOOD—(Ottawa) According to newly released documents, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird worked intensely behind the scenes last year to block Palestinian efforts to obtain a unilateral declaration of statehood at the UN. Though Canada publicly opposed the resolution, briefing notes obtained under the Access to Information law reveal previously undisclosed details of a high-level lobbying campaign in the months leading up to the Palestinian bid, which saw Mr. Baird personally call at least eight fellow foreign ministers from other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Chile, Panama and El Salvador. A spokesman for Mr. Baird said the calls were made to press Ottawa’s argument that a Palestinian statehood resolution in the General Assembly would act as an obstacle to Mideast peace. (Globe & Mail, April 10.)

 

CANADA ORDERS EXTRADITION OF SUSPECT IN 1980 PARIS SHUL BOMBING—(Toronto) Canada’s Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, has issued an extradition order against Hassan Diab, an Ottawa professor facing charges in France related to the 1980 bombing of a synagogue in Paris that killed four people. The RCMP arrested Diab in November 2008 in response to a request by France, and an Ontario court ruled to extradite him last year. The terrorist bombing in central Paris killed four passersby, and many others inside and outside the synagogue were injured. The Lebanese-born Diab, a Canadian citizen, has denied any role in the attack, claiming mistaken identity. Diab will appeal the ruling, meaning he will likely stay in Canada for the foreseeable future. (JTA, April 6.)

 

ABBAS TO PURSUE STATEHOOD AT UN ASSEMBLY IF NO TALKS—(Jerusalem) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed he will ask the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestinian statehood if Israel does not accede to his demands for the resumption of negotiations. According to Palestinian sources, Abbas is in the process of writing a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that will reiterate the Palestinians’ unwillingness to resume talks unless Israel freezes all construction across the Green Line, accepts as a basis for negotiations a withdrawal to the 1967 borders, and releases Palestinian political prisoners. Otherwise, the Palestinians will reportedly pursue a bid at the General Assembly to have “Palestine” upgraded to a non-member observer state, like the Vatican. Abbas will reportedly deliver the ultimatum to Netanyahu next week. (Independent Media Review and Analysis, April 8 & 11.)

 

YISHAI DECLARES GRASS PERSONA NON GRATA—(Jerusalem) Interior Minister Eli Yishai has declared Guenter Grass persona non grata in Israel, effectively barring the German Nobel laureate from entering the country after he published a poem in which he labeled the Jewish state a threat to “already fragile world peace” over its stance on Iran. According to Yishai, “Grass’ poem fans the flames of hatred against Israel and the Israeli people, thus promoting the idea he was a part of when donned an SS uniform.” The poem, titled “What Must Be Said” and published in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, assailed Israel for its threats to attack Iran over its nuclear program, called for supervision of Israel’s nuclear weapons and warned that Germany, through its sales of submarines to Israel, risked being complicit in a crime. The poem drew widespread criticism throughout world, with the German Welt newspaper calling Grass “the eternal anti-Semite.” (Ynet News, April 8.)

 

JEWISH LEADERS WELCOME ROSENBERG’S REMOVAL—(Jerusalem) Liberal watchdog group Media Matters has fired anti-Israel writer M.J. Rosenberg, who regularly invoked the antisemitic term “Israel firster” to accuse American Jews of putting their loyalties to Israel ahead of those to the US. Harvard law school professor Alan Dershowitz, who announced in February his mission to oust Rosenberg from his position, hailed the decision, saying, “I’m proud of whatever small role I played.” Dershowitz also pledged at the time to turn Rosenberg’s tirades against Israel into a campaign issue for Barack Obama, due to the US President’s close affiliation with Media Matters. In this respect, Dershowitz alluded to possible White House intervention, saying “It wouldn’t surprise me if there were some calls to Media Matters from the White House.… It would have been a smart thing for somebody to have made it clear that the White House could not have any association to somebody who accuses [AIPAC] of not having loyalty to the US.” (Jerusalem Post, April 10.)

 

LITHUANIA AWARDS $52M. TO JEWS FOR LOST ASSETS—(Jerusalem) Lithuania has passed a law to compensate the local Jewish community $52 million for communal property lost or confiscated during and after World War II. Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said the ratification of the bill acknowledged the suffering of the country’s Jewish community decimated during the Holocaust and asserted that “by doing this [Lithuania] has made a huge step forward to assuming moral responsibility for history.” However, Efraim Zuroff, Israeli director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was deeply critical of the deal and accused the Lithuanian government of paying nine times less than the worth of Jewish assets lost. “This is a very bad deal but at least it’s something,” he said. “Unfortunately, the passage of the law was delayed for years during which most of the survivors passed away.” The vast majority of Lithuania’s estimated 220,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators during World War II. The money will go towards supporting community centers, schools and other projects catering to the country’s remaining 4,000 Jews. (Jerusalem Post, April 5.)