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WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS IN REVIEW” ROUND-UP

 

Contents: Weekly Quotes Short Takes|On Topic

 

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Israel’s Levy Report –
Clarifying the Misconceptions

 

 

Weekly Quotes

 

 

"The PLO’s UN bid [for unofficial statehood] is misguided and wrongheaded and will do nothing but add to the long list of historic mistakes made by Palestinian leadership which date back at least to November 29, 1947 when Palestinians failed to grab their chance for nationhood and self-determination."Jerusalem Post editorial. (Jerusalem Post, November 27, 2012)

 

“It won’t lastI don’t believe in it at all,” —Gavriel Yacobovich, a 22-year-old Israel reservist called to the Gaza border in anticipation of a possible ground invasion during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas. “I’m not sure we should have undertaken a ground invasion but we should have kept fighting until we were sure that our citizens in the south can sleep quietly without rocket fire. Of course, it is up to the political side to decide, but there was a sense [among the soldiers called up] that we didn’t do enough in Gaza. We should have finished the job.” (National Post, November 23, 2012)

 

“I know there are citizens expecting a more severe military action, and perhaps we shall need to do so.” —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, agreeing to a cease-fire with Hamas after 8 days of fighting. He said he had agreed to “exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce.” (Canada.com, November 22, 2012)

 

 “What Qatar is trying to do is change the reality. They are trying to blaze a trail that will weaken the international isolation of [Hamas in] Gaza from the Israeli blockade.” —Slaman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar.

 

“[T]he Verfassungschutz, [domestic intelligence agency] whether in Germany or Austria, has to make the analytical leap in treating the Trotskyite/jihadist movements as they did regarding Nazi and Communist espionage or terrorism. These provide cover for a fifth column of sleeper [cells] and lone-wolf recruits that endanger the host societies as much as, if not more than, their Jewish citizens. Jews have somewhere to go. Germans and Austrians do not.”—Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations. “The Holocaust began with the word and brought the world to the abyss. The alarms in Israel under Hamas rockets should reverberate in Vienna and Berlin, for the indifferent and exposed Austrians and Germans who do not realize that they have no Iron Dome.” (Jerusalem Post, November 26, 2012)

 

“If democracy means that people decide who leads them, then [we] accept it; if it means that people can change the laws of Allah and follow what they wish to follow, then it is not acceptable.”—Muslim Brotherhood website, 2005. (The New Republic, November 26, 2012)

 

“The constitutional declaration announced by Morsy is a way of raping the country, and wholly abrogates the role of all judicial authorities,” —Wahid Abdel Meguid, a former Constituent Assembly speaker who withdrew last week. “No leader confident in his popular support would go as far as to abolish the very idea of the state in order to protect himself.”  

   "People have lost faith in him. Anyone who takes such immature decisions can do anything to us, like establish a religious state similar to the dark ages in Europe,"—a  protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square. (Egypt Independent, November 23, 2012)

 

“We are in a state of revolution. He is crazy if he [Mohammed Morsi] thinks we can go back to one-man rule. If the Brotherhood’s slogan is ‘Islam is the solution’ ours is ‘submission is not the solution. God does not call for submission to another man’s will.”—Sara Khalili, a mass communications professor at the American University in Cairo, demonstrating in Tahrir Square against President Morsi’s recent power grab. ((Associate Press, November 24, 2012)

 

“We are honoured to announce that we gave them [Palestinian terrorists] the technology of how to make Fajr-5 missiles and now they have their hands on plenty of them.” —Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. “[T]he weapons that are being used today to resist this Israeli aggression and arrogance…come mainly from Iran,”  —Islamic Jihad commander [in Gaza] Ramadan Abdullah Shallah to Al-Jazeera TV (National Post, November 24, 2012)

 

“You know that here, in this democratic country [Canada], one can never say anything offensive against the Israelis, because it can be costly, you know….[M]adam, in this beautiful country we have freedom of expression, but one can never make negative comments, whatever their nature, against the Jewish people. Otherwise, there will be consequences.”  —Jacques Fabi, Quebec radio station 98.5FM’s nighttime talk show host to Maria, a caller describing herself as being of Arab descent, who said on air, without any challenge from Mr. Fabi, that the Holocaust was “For me…the most beautiful thing that could happen in history.” (National Post, November 28, 2012)

 

“We were trying to live through the war, the hard times, in the ways which were known to us before the war,”  —Vladka Meed, a Warsaw Ghetto courier who posed as gentile during World War II, to the Jewish newspaper Forward in1995. Meed, born Feigel Peltel in Warsaw, smuggled weapons and documents into the ghetto and found hiding places for children outside. “Nobody imagined any gas chambers. Jewish resistance took different forms and shapes under Nazi occupation. Our defiance of the Germans, who wanted to dehumanize us, expressed itself in varied ways. To remain a human being in the ghetto, one had to live in constant defiance, to act illegally. We had illegal synagogues, illegal classes, illegal meetings and illegal publications." Vladka Meed died last week at the age of  90. (Ynet, November 28, 2012)

 

"[Oh] lovers of the trigger: Killing the occupiers [Israelis] is worship that Allah made into law…Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah. Arise, oh determined men. The color of [the Martyr's] blood protects the land. Oh masked one wearing a keffiyeh, terrifying the Jews… call out in Zionism's face: 'Muhammad's army has begun to return.'"—video aired on Hamas TV during the 8-day conflict with Israel. (Palestine Media Watch, November 28, 2012)

 

“I think such a conflict [in Gaza] makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who pose a national security risk to Hungary.” —Hungarian political leader Marton Gyongyosi who is deputy leader of the far-right Jobbik party, the third-largest party in the Hungarian parliament.  In response, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the SWC in Israel, said, “The fact that after making such a demand in the Hungarian Parliament, Gyongyosi has not been forced to resign, is a sad commentary on the current rise of anti-Semitism in Hungary, which is being propagated primarily by the Jobbik party, the heirs of the fascist Arrow Cross,” referring to the Hungarian Nazi party during World War II. (Jerusalem Post, November 27, 2012)

 

Top of Page

 

 

 

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT CHANGED: IDF MAY NOT SHOOT BACK IN GAZA(Tel Aviv) One week after the conclusion of operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza the rules of engagement have been altered radically. [T]he IDF has been instructed to show restraint [and] farmers on both sides are permitted to stretch their tilled lands all the way to the border fence… If [a Palestinian] approaching the [Gaza border fence] engages in sabotaging the security fence…the IDF must treat them now as suspects to be arrested and shooting at those suspects is limited to the legs and not beyond. [The changes also apply to] terrorist cells in the process of launching a rocket. In the past, the IAF would be alerted and a plane would be sent directly to attack the target. Now the attack may take place only should the terrorist cell actually initiate the process of launching.(Jewish Press, November 28th, 2012)

 

 

EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT GIVES HIMSELF NEW POWERS(Cairo) President Mohamed Morsy issued a new constitutional declaration on Thursday [Nov. 22] to acquire more more power for the President. The seven-article declaration renders the President's decrees and laws immune from appeal or cancellation. It also protects both the Shura Council and the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly from dissolution by any judicial authority, and further protects the Assembly by extending its mandate to draft the constitution to eight months instead of six, as stipulated in an earlier constitutional declaration. (Egypt Independent, November 23, 2012)

 

FRANCE TO BACK PALESTINIAN BID FOR UN OBSERVER STATUS(Paris) France will vote in favour of the Palestinians’ request to heighten their profile at the United Nations, the French foreign minister told Parliament on Tuesday, embracing a move that Israel and the United States oppose. The support of France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is the most significant boost to date for the Palestinians’ hopes to be granted non-member observer status and thus greater international recognition. Russia and China, two other permanent members, have also thrown their support behind the Palestinian bid. (National Post, November 28, 2012)

 

JERUSLAEM TO REBUILD OLD CITY SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED IN 1948(Jerusalem) The Jerusalem Municipality awarded initial approval to a plan to rebuild the iconic Tifereth Israel synagogue in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, a magnificent domed synagogue from the 19th century which was destroyed in the 1948 War of Independence. The project will recreate the three-story-tall synagogue as well as the iconic dome on the top. Ashkenazi hassidim bought the land for Tifereth Israel Synagogue in 1843, though the building wasn’t inaugurated until 1872. (Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2012)

 

ISRAEL SUCCESSFULLY TESTS ‘DAVID'S SLING’ INTERCEPTOR(Tel Aviv)

Israel and the US successfully tested the David’s Sling defense system, designed to stop medium-range rockets and cruise missiles, bringing the country a step closer to having an active defense shield against Hezbollah’s arsenal of projectiles. The system would defend against Iranian missiles such as the M600, the Zelzal, Fajr and Fateh 110 deployed heavily in Hezbollah hands in Lebanon as well as other missiles with a range between 70 and 300 kilometers. It is slated to become operational in 2014. (Jerusalem Post, November 25, 2012)

 

ISRAEL SPOTS IRANIAN SHIP BEING LOADED WITH ROCKETS FOR GAZA(Tel Aviv) Israeli spy satellites have spotted an Iranian ship being loaded with missiles that analysts say may be headed for Gaza….According to the report, the cargo may include Fajr-5 rockets, in addition to Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, which could be stationed in Sudan to pose a direct threat to Israel. The cargo would travel via the Red Sea, Sudan and Egypt, following a well-established route used by Iran to smuggle arms into Gaza…“With a lot of effort, Iran has skillfully built a strategic arm pointing at Israel from the south,” an Israeli source was quoted as saying. “We believe that Iranian warships anchored in Eritrea will accompany the weapons ship as soon as it enters the Red Sea,” an Israeli source told the Times. (Ha’aretz, November 25, 2012)

 

EGYPT: COPTS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR ANTI-ISLAM FILM—(Cairo) A Cairo court on Wednesday [Nov. 28} sentenced to death seven Egyptian Christians tried in absentia for participating in an anti-Islam video, "Innocence of Muslims", that…had prompted violent protests in many Muslim countries. "The seven accused persons were convicted of insulting the Islamic religion through participating in producing and offering a movie that insults Islam and its prophet," Judge Saif al-Nasr Soliman said. In his first public statements about the video, the creator, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, said he had no regrets about his negative portrayal of Islam, as he wanted to reveal what he called "the actual truth" about Mohammad and raise awareness of the violence committed "under the sign of Allah." (Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2012)

 

IRAN BLASTS CANADA AS ‘RACIST’ AND ‘SELF-CENTRED’(New York) Iran called Canada “racist” and “self-centred” at a UN meeting on Tuesday [Nov. 26], where it balked at a Canadian-led resolution condemning Iranian abuses. In a statement before the humanitarian affairs committee, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, said Canada had “a long list of human rights violations” against immigrants, Muslims, aboriginals and “Afro-Canadian women,” and accused Ottawa of “abusing human rights mechanisms to advance its self-centred political interests. In fact, if any country had to get a resolution, [Canada] would have deserved it more than others because of their unsparing support of a regime [Israel] that has frequently committed genocide in the Palestinian Occupied Territories,” (National Post Nov 28, 2012)

 

CANADIAN PM PERSONALLY INTERVENED TO STOP PA STATEHOOD BID AT UN(Ottawa) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally intervened to pressure Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to drop his bid for upgraded status at the United Nations. Harper…told Mr. Abbas: If you keep doing what you're doing 'there will be consequences.'" Effectively, the Canadian government has warned the Palestinian Authority’s representatives that their ‘embassy’ in Ottawa – in fact a delegation office, because Palestine isn’t a state – might be closed, and the Palestinian envoy, Said Hamad, sent home.” (Israel National News, November 27, 2012)

 

EGYPT KIDNAP GANGS BURN ERITREAN CAPTIVES ALIVE(Sinai) More than 10,000 refugees from Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in Africa, have been abducted and held to ransom by Bedouin gangs in the Egyptian desert in the past four years…[M]ore than 2,000 have been murdered as impoverished families were unable to pay sums of up to £25,000 demanded for their return. Others may have had hearts, lungs or kidneys removed and sold to the illegal organ trade. A leading authority on the region said eight people, including a 22-year-old woman, had been burnt to death, after being dowsed with gasoline, in the past fortnight after relatives failed to pay ransoms. (Sunday Times of London, November 25, 2012)

Top of Page

 

 

 

 

Arab Columnists Criticize Firing of Rockets from Gaza: MEMRI, Nov. 21, 2012—Alongside the official Arab condemnations of Israel's attack on Gaza, and the popular protests against it in some of the Arab countries, there has also been criticism against Hamas.

 

Will the Arab Spring Deliver for Hamas?: Fouad Ajami, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 20, 2012

Mr. Morsi didn't rise to power to carry the burden of the Palestinian question. Egyptians could rightly claim that they had paid their dues for Palestine. Enough was enough…

 

A Cease-Fire Named Iran? : Evelyn Gordon, Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2012 — Last week’s cease-fire agreement is a terrible deal for Israel. Yet even so, the government wasn’t necessarily wrong to accept it. The crucial question is whether it caved because it got cold feet, or whether it sensibly sacrificed a lesser gain now for a greater one later. The truce with Hamas is a lousy deal. But it’s justified if it facilitates IDF action against Iran. 

 

 

 

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