The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 1 No. 19
18 May 2007
YIISA LAUNCHES WEBSITE
The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism has launched its new website.
Please visit us at www.yale.edu/yiisa.
EVENTS AT YALE
May 31, Thursday at 12:00
A special seminar: Authors Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez will be speaking about their new book just released by Yale University Press,
“Foxbats Over Dimona: The Soviets’ Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War”
It will be held at ISPS, 77 Prospect Street, room A001
Since lunch is being provided, if you are interested in coming,
please RSVP by May 28 to yiisa.program@yale.edu
SPECIAL ARTICLES: IRAN MAKES SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS
West ‘fails’ on Iran nuclear fuel
(BBC) International efforts to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment programme have been “overtaken by events”, the head of the UN’s nuclear agency has said.
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Inspectors Cite Big Gain by Iran on Nuclear Fuel
(NY Times) Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency’s top officials.
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Bush and Blair Discuss Middle East and Iran
(The White House) President Bush said Thursday: We talked about the Middle East, and we’re concerned about the violence we see in Gaza. We strongly urge the parties to work toward a two-state solution. I’ve instructed my Secretary of State to be actively engaged. She represents the position of the Bush government, which is two states living side by side in peace. We believe that vision is possible, but it requires strong leadership on both sides of the issue.
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We must attack Iran before it gets the bomb
(Telegraph) John Bolton, who still has close links to the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph that the European Union had to “get more serious” about Iran and recognise that its diplomatic attempts to halt Iran’s enrichment programme had failed.
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A Day after Cheney Visit, Iranian President Leads Unprecedented anti-U.S. Rally in Dubai
(International Herald Tribune) Iran’s president led a raucous anti-American rally in the United Arab Emirates, a tightly controlled U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, a day after a low-key visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney aimed at countering Tehran’s influence in the region.
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The case for bombing Iran
(Commentary) Norman Podhoretz writes, “As the currently main center of the Islamofascist ideology against which we have been fighting since 9/11, and as the main sponsor of the terrorism that is Islamofascism’s weapon of choice, Iran too is a front in World War IV.
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Iranian businessmen in Dubai chafe over U.S. restrictions
(International Herald Tribune) Nasser Hashempour, the vice president of the Dubai-based Iranian Business Council, says U.S. pressure is persuading international banks to stop dealing with Iranian businesses, and ordinary Iranian commerce is being stifled.
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US and Iran court Gulf states
(Gulf News) Two radically different views on how the Gulf should manage its regional security were on show this week, as America and Iran ran unprecedentedly high level visits to the UAE and other GCC states. US Vice President Dick Cheney and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad both visited the UAE, giving very different messages.
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REPORTS
ADL Survey in Five European Countries Finds Anti-Semitic Attitudes Rising
(Anti-Defamation League) A large number of Europeans continue to be infected with anti-Jewish attitudes, holding on to the classical anti-Semitic canards and conspiracy theories that have dogged Jews through the centuries, according to a newly released poll.
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
MIDDLE EAST
Israel’s Deadly Stupor
(Boston Globe) Jeff Jacoby writes about the Winograd Commission, a blue-ribbon panel appointed last September to investigate Israel’s failings in its second Lebanon War. The scathing report documents in damning detail the bungling, the willful blindness, and the almost criminal ill-preparedness that pervaded the highest levels of Israel’s government during the war and the years leading up to it.
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Thomas L. Friedman: The Arab Commission
(Free Democracy) Thomas Friedman writes a blog about what an honest Arab League Inquiry Commission into last year’s war with Hezbollah would say about its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
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‘We can fire 3,000 rockets a day’ says Nasrallah
(YNet) During an interview, Hizbullah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah boasted that Hizbullah had amassed tens of thousands of rockets since the war last summer, adding that the international UNIFIL force stationed in southern Lebanon would be unable to stop Hizbullah from attacking Israel.
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Olmert visits Israeli town where residents flee rocket fire
(New York Times) Ehud Olmert visited municipal emergency and trauma centers in the company of the mayor, Eli Moyal; a home that had suffered a direct rocket hit on Tuesday, in which a woman and her 4-year-old son were wounded.
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Group affiliated with al-Qaeda declares Jihad against ‘Zionist’ Sarkozy
(YNet) The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group which calls itself al-Qaeda’s wing in Europe, has threatened terrorist attacks linked to Nicolas Sarkozy’s inauguration as French president, according to a statement posted on an Islamic Web site known as a clearing house for material from al-Qaeda and groups linked to it. The group vowed to launch bloody attacks in Paris to punish France for electing the “Zionist” Nicolas Sarkozy.
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UNIFIL caught between Israel and Hezbollah: a burning issue for Nicolas Sarkozy
(Le Figaro) The Shi’i militia, Hezbollah, is rearming north of the River Litani. For its part, Tsahal continues its flights over the Land of the Cedars: averting an incident detrimental to France’s UNIFIL blue helmets will be one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s priorities.
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Hamas seizes US weapons
(YNet) Hamas ambushed a convoy in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and seized a stockpile of US weapons transferred in recent months to militias associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, according to Hamas and Fatah sources.
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Hamas member reveals details of attacks
(McClatchy Washington Bureau) Bluntly titled “The Engineers of Death,” the 80-page booklet by Hamas militant Mohammed Irman offers a remarkable window into the evolution of Hamas strategy as the group tried to demoralize Israel, derail regional peace talks and establish itself as the dominant Palestinian political movement.
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ANALYSIS: With Hamas dominant, is there salvation in occupation?
(Ha’aretz) Avi Issacharoff writes about the phenomena happening during the current round in the Palestinian civil war in the Gaza Strip, with Fatah fighting Hamas.
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Prelude to the Six Days
(Washington Post) There has hardly been a Middle East peace plan in the past 40 years that does not demand a return to the status quo of June 4, 1967. Why is that date so sacred? Because it was the day before the outbreak of the Six-Day War in which Israel scored one of the most stunning victories of the 20th century. The Arabs have spent four decades trying to undo its consequences.
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A war this Summer?
(Ha’aretz) With great fanfare, it was announced this week that the Israel Defense Forces was conducting a general command drill. Last week, it held an important war game. One would have to be naive to think the Arab camp is just sitting there and not conducting drills, maneuvers and large-scale training exercises.
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Kawasmeh’s resignation / Anarchy wins in Gaza
(Ha’aretz) Hani al-Kawasmeh’s resignation as the Palestinian Authority’s interior minister – the person responsible for internal security – dealt a mortal blow to efforts to prevent chaos in the Gaza Strip. Kawasmeh, who is considered an independent, was appointed following exhaustive negotiations between PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. His resignation endangers the unity government’s continued existence.
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Unity Fractures as Palestinians Battle in Gaza
(NY Times) Gaza City was shuttered on Wednesday as gunmen took over rooftops and top-floor apartments. Most everyone else huddled fearfully indoors on the fourth day of factional Palestinian fighting that is drawing in the Israeli military.
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Aid to PA nearly tripled in ’06, despite international boycott
(Ha’aretz) Donations to the Palestinian Authority almost tripled last year as a result of the international boycott of the Hamas government, according to a report published this month by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Aid in 2006 totaled $900 million, up from $349 million a year earlier.
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Gaza gunmen wound Egyptian mediator defying truce
(Reuters) Gunmen shot and wounded a top Egyptian official in Gaza as he tested whether a shaky ceasefire deal between feuding Fatah and Hamas loyalists was holding, a Palestinian security official said.
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AP Reporter in Gaza Recounts Violent Day
(Washington Post) Ibrahim Barzak writes about the violence he sees as a journalist in Gaza – “With gunbattles raging outside my building and my windows blown out by bullets, I sat in the dark hallway outside my apartment with my wife and baby. It’s dangerous inside and out.”
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Woman seriously wounded by Kassam hit on Sderot
(Jerusalem Post) A Kassam rocket reportedly hit a four-story apartment building in Sderot Wednesday night. Several people were reportedly suffering from shock as a result, while another rocket hit a transformer, knocking out electricity in parts of the city.
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Qassams ignored abroad
(YNet) Qassam attacks on Sderot have received very little coverage in world media, despite the heavy barrages that have been going on for the past three days.
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U.S. Aims to Establish International Tribunal in Hariri Assassination
(Washington Post) The United States will introduce a draft Security Council resolution as early as this week to establish an international tribunal that would try alleged perpetrators of the 2005 car-bomb assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri and 22 others.
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Yemen recalls ambassadors from Iran, Libya
(Khaleej Times) Yemen is recalling its ambassadors to Iran and Libya over what it sees as their support for Shia Muslim rebels involved in bloody clashes with government forces. Yemeni officials have accused Iran and Libya of backing rebels led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in the northern province of Saada.
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Pakistan on strike as court crisis worsens
(Times) A general strike shut down Karachi and several other Pakistani cities today to protest against the Government’s handling of clashes that left 41 people dead over the weekend as the crisis over the country’s judicial independence deepened.
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Violence in Karachi puts more pressure on Musharraf
(International Herald Tribune) A day after political clashes claimed 39 lives in Karachi, Pakistan, analysts said the violence and accusations that the government had done little to stop the killings had put renewed pressure on the president, General Pervez Musharraf
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No right of return, but Israel must offer a solution
(Globe and Mail) Amos Oz writes that Israelis need to “make a distinction between the refugee problem and what is called the right of return” because “solving the refugee problem is a vital Israeli interest because as long as the problem is not solved – as long as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees rot in camps in inhuman conditions – we will have no peace.”
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The Great Circle of Enmity
(U.S. News and World Report) Fouad Ajami writes, “American diplomacy can’t reconcile the ruling order of power in Arab lands any more than it can sweet-talk the Arab “street” to accept the right of this new Iraq to its place among the nations.”
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Not funny at all: Martyr Mouse again exposes Islamic fanaticism
(YNet) “Martyr Mouse,” as it has been dubbed in the Western media this week, was encouraging Palestinian children not to raise their arms in protest, but to actually go out and find guns and murder people.
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Hamas’ giant mouse goes back on the air
(Chicago Tribune) A weekly children’s show on a Hamas-run TV station featuring a Mickey Mouse look-alike preaching Islamic domination was broadcast as usual Friday, two days after the Palestinian information minister said it would be suspended immediately. The show, featuring a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice, made headlines because the character has preached against Israel and the U.S. and urged Palestinian children to fight Israel.
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Physicians for Human Rights urge Olmert to protect Israel’s citizens
(YNet) Physicians for Human Rights organization called on Hamas to cease launching Qassam rockets on Israel, and urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to defend Israel’s citizens.
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NORTH AMERICA
Hasidic boy attacked near firebombed Mtl. School
(CTV) The beating of a Quebec Hasidic boy has been caught by surveillance footage just outside the Skver Toldos Jewish School, the same institute firebombed last September.
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EUROPE
Sarkozy proves Jewish, immigrant heritage no barrier to France’s top job
(San Diego News) Nicolas Sarkozy’s biography is an intriguing story of an outsider who made it to the top.
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Can France Be Saved?
(Commentary) Michel Gurfinkiel writes about the complexities of French elections and their surprising outcomes, which “can be as entertaining as Russian roulette.” He further writes, “the French are and will always remain an utterly fickle people, as individuals and as a nation…the vagaries of the French vote tell us a great deal about the profound uncertainties the country is now facing.”
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EU to reconsider renewing ties with PA
(YNet) The EU should start reconsidering its stance towards the Palestinian Authority, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Monday following a meeting with Arab League representatives in Brussels.
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EU Proposes Monitoring Radical Mosques
(Washington Post) Security officials from Europe’s largest countries backed a plan Saturday to profile mosques on the continent and identify radical Islamic clerics who raise the threat of homegrown terrorism.
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Anti-Semitic attitudes in Europe rising, ADL says
(YNet) Survey of five European countries reveals that most Europeans believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their country and that they have too much power in business and finance.
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Anti-Israel Boycotts: A British Disease
(Jewish Week) The vote on yet another anti-Israel boycott resolution by a British trade-union this time by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) is scheduled to take place at the end of May. Beyond the obvious violations of the academic process inherent in a political and ideological boycott, this effort is part of a carefully prepared strategy aimed at isolating the Jewish state.
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Israel warns Ukraine on anti-Semitism
(JTA) Israel’s ambassador in Kiev said the activities of a Ukrainian university with a history of anti-Semitism could damage Ukrainian-Israeli relations.
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MISCAELLAENOUS
Bloody Jews?
(Commentary) Hillel Halkin writes that authors’ claims of having unearthed a widespread pattern of Jewish religious violence toward Gentiles over the centuries are greatly exaggerated in terms of the evidence presented.
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Local yeshiva student stabbed to death in St. Petersburg
(Ha’aretz) A 22-year-old Jewish man was stabbed to death on Saturday at the entrance to his apartment in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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NEW BOOKS
Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets’ Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War
By Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor
(Jerusalem Post) In a new book that “totally contradicts everything that has been accepted to this day” about the Six Day War, two Israeli authors claim that the conflict was deliberately engineered by the Soviet Union to create the conditions in which Israel’s nuclear program could be destroyed.
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