The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA) was closed on July 31, 2011. This website is an archive of the official website upon its closure and is strictly for research archival purposes.
The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 4 No. 1
6 August 2009
YIISA CO-SPONSORS CONFERENCE:
Sunday, August 23, 2010
“Israel on Campus: Defending Our Universities”
This one-day Conference will assess the mounting threat to academic freedom and free inquiry posed by a growing Antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism.
Sponsor: The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR)
Location: Montreal, Canada
Speakers: Dr. Judith Woodsworth, President, Concordia University, Montreal
Irwin Cotler, Former Justice Minister, Canada; noted human rights advocate
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
Professor Robert Wistrich, Hebrew University
Professor Alvin Rosenfeld, Indiana University
Manfred Gerstenfeld, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Dr. Edward Beck, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Charles Asher Small, Director, YIISA
Please click here for more information
SAVE THE DATE FOR A SPECIAL COURSE WITH CHARLES SMALL AT THE 92ND STREET Y:
Sunday, February 7, 2010 from 9:30am – 1:30pm
“Radical Islam and Genocidal Antisemitism”
Location: 92nd Street Y – Warburg Lounge, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, New York, NY
Speakers: Charles Asher Small, Director, YIISA
Please click here for more information
REPORTS
Minimizing Potential Threats from Iran: Assessing Economic Sanctions and Other U.S. Policy Options
(Washington Institute) Matthew Levitt, senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on the efficacy of existing and potential new economic sanctions in the effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal.
Click here to read
A Jewish and Non-Legitimate State by Mordechai Kedar
(The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies) Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish nation-state, or as the rightful homeland of the Jewish People, is a necessary condition of any future Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty – according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Arab and Islamic leaders have rejected this demand. The reason for Arab inability and unwillingness to consider this demand is the fact that the Islamic world is ideologically incapable of according legitimacy to the State of Israel, for deep-seated religious, nationalistic and historical reasons.
Click here to read
SPECIAL ARTICLES OF INTEREST
New Play Associated With YIISA Making the Rounds
Doron Ben-Atar the play write, and a Professor at Fordham University and a research fellow at YIISA and, and Natalia Emanuel, an actress in the play and Intern at YIISA in the new play entitled The Peace Warriors. Click the following link.
Click here to read
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
IRAN
Press association in Iran shut down
(JPost) A press organization in Teheran was shut down on Wednesday night, apparently by Iranian authorities.
Click here to read
Defiant Iran president takes oath
(BBC) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sworn in for a second term as Iran’s president, after weeks of post-election unrest.
Click here to read
White House: Ahmadinejad ‘elected leader’ of Iran
(YNet) White House recognizes Ahmadinejad win but says US won’t congratulate him
Click here to read
U.S. losing faith in usefulness of Tehran dialogue
(Haaretz) The talks held in Israel this week by senior Obama administration officials, which focused to a large extent on blocking Iran’s nuclear program, indicate that the Americans – influenced by the Iranian regime’s conduct toward the post-election unrest that began in early June – are for the first time showing more understanding for Israel’s view of events.
Click here to read
U.S. Weighs Iran Sanctions if Talks Are Rejected
(NY Times) The Obama administration is talking with allies and Congress about the possibility of imposing an extreme economic sanction against Iran if it fails to respond to President Obama’s offer to negotiate on its nuclear program: cutting off the country’s imports of gasoline and other refined oil products.
Click here to read
Little hope Iran will meet U.S. diplomatic deadline
(Reuters) Iran now appears almost certain to miss President Barack Obama’s September deadline to respond to his diplomatic overtures, but it seems equally unlikely Washington will rush to impose tougher sanctions.
Click here to read
Progress in Iran has dire consequences if diplomacy fails
(The Times) Richard Beeston writes, “For the past two months the world has watched as political turmoil has deepened in Iran after the contested presidential election results that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a controversial second term. Now those problems threaten to grip not just Iran but the wider Middle East and beyond.”
Click here to read
U.S. briefs Israel on new Iran nuke sanctions
(Haaretz) American officials briefed Israel this week on the administration’s ideas for intensifying sanctions against Iran if it fails to respond to President Barack Obama’s offer of dialogue.
Click here to read
Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border
(The Times) According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is stronger than it was in 2006 when it took on the Israeli army in a war that killed 1,191 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians
Click here to read
Israel waging war of nerves against Iran and Hezbollah
(Haaretz) Amos Harel respondes to reports by The Times of London give the impression that Israel is raising the bar in the war of nerves against Iran and Hezbollah.
Click here to read
Waiting to See
(National Review) Anne Bayefsky writes, “Pres. Barack Obama has decided to let Iran acquire nuclear arms. Unless Israel acts in self-defense against the president’s wishes, the world’s most dangerous regime will command the world’s most dangerous weapon.”
Click here to read
U.S. Republicans in Israel: We are `troubled` by Obama policy
(Haaretz) A U.S. delegation of Republican congressmen visiting Israel on Thursday said that the Obama administration’s policy on Israel is misguided, puts too much emphasis on the issue of settlements and ignores the bigger threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Click here to read
Iran is ready to build an N-bomb – it is just waiting for the Ayatollah’s order
(The Times) Sources said that Iran completed a research programme to create weaponised uranium in the summer of 2003 and that it could feasibly make a bomb within a year of an order from its Supreme Leader.
Click here to read
Mullash and Generals
(National Interest) Hossein Askari writes, “Will the turmoil in Iran continue? Can Ayatollah Khamenei survive? Can the regime continue to call itself “Islamic”? Now that the supreme leader has shed his religious mantle and has trashed the constitution, the options are far narrower than you might think.”
Click here to read
Report: Iran plane was carrying arms for Hezbollah
Italian newspaper says plane crash north of Tehran which left 168 people dead was caused by explosion of fuses slated to be delivered to Lebanese organization. According to report, members of Revolutionary Guards among casualties
Click here to read
Police beat mourners in new wave of unrest in Iran
(Washington Post) Iranian police fired tear gas and beat protesters to disperse thousands chanting “Neda lives!” Thursday at a memorial for victims of post-election violence held at the gravesite of the woman whose death made her an icon of the pro-reform movement, witnesses said.
Click here to read
MIDDLE EAST
Palestinian split stalling move toward state: Saudi king
(AFP)Saudi King Abdullah has told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that the split within the Palestinians’ ranks is more damaging to their cause of an independent state than the Israeli “enemy.”
Click here to read
Hamas rocket attacks ‘war crimes’
(BBC) The firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip amounts to a war crime, a prominent human rights group has said.
Click here to read
NGO Monitor: 6 Questions on HRW’s Gaza Rockets Report
Jerusalem based research organization NGO Monitor has reviewed .Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) report (“Rockets From Gaza”) on Hamas’ rocket fire on Israel.
Click here to read
Hamas Pretends Resistance Is Futile
(Commentary Magazine) Michael Totten writes, “Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal told the Wall Street Journal that he’s finally willing to accept a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Meshal needs to do a lot more than make the right kind of noises to the Wall Street Journal before any of us begin to take what he said seriously.”
Click here to read
Fatah: Israel behind Arafat’s death
(YNet) Five years after former Palestinian leader’s death, Fatah Congress unanimously concludes Israel was behind it, set up inquiry commission to probe matter
Click here to read
Old guard “hijacks” Fatah congress, say reformers
(Reuters) The first congress in 20 years of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah has been “hijacked” by an older generation, reformers said, threatening to blunt their efforts to rejuvenate the movement.
Click here to read
‘Old guard’ want to keep young reps out of Fatah
(Jerusalem Post) Fatah operatives expressed skepticism over the weekend that their faction’s general conference, which is scheduled to convene in Bethlehem on Tuesday, would pave the way for the emergence of a young leadership.
Click here to read
Former PA Minister Hatem Abd Al-Qader: Fatah Should “Reactivate the Option of Resistance”
(MEMRI) Excerpts from an interview with Hatem Abd Al-Qader, former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs. The interview aired on Al-Quds TV on July 13, 2009.
Click here to read
Fatah activists don Islamic garb to flee Hamas-run Gaza
(Haaretz) Two dozen Fatah activists have sneaked out of Hamas-ruled Gaza in recent days, including a woman who said she hitched a ride with farmers on a donkey cart Friday to get past Hamas troops at a border checkpoint. The getaways are the latest twist in a standoff between the Islamic militant Hamas and Fatah, Palestinian rivals who rule Gaza and the West Bank, respectively.
Click here to read
Egyptian TV Teaches Anti-Semitism
(Israel Nation News) Egypt’s Al-Rahma network is airing several anti-Semitic programs including children’s shows where kids memorize and recite anti-Semitic slogans, and discussions and speeches from numerous sheiks which call Jews “offspring of snakes and vipers”, call for reading “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and state that “our hatred of the Jews is purely on religious grounds.”
Click here to read
EUROPE
Al-Qaeda ‘seek to infiltrate MI5′
(BBC) Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Home Affairs counter-terror sub-committee, said sources told him six had sought to infiltrate the security service.
Click here to read
UK funding political activity in Israel
(Jerusalem Post) British spokesman Martin Day said in an interview in Dubai with Al-Arabiya television last week that the British government was “taking practical steps towards freezing settlement activities.”
Click here to read
German police storm neo-Nazi ‘camp’
(Jerusalem Post) A neo-Nazi “youth camp,” which had been set up in a debt-ridden hotel in Germany by a leading Holocaust denier, was raided by German commandos on Tuesday, hours after a court in Lower Saxony had ordered the “campers” evicted, the Telegraph reported on Thursday.
Click here to read
Man Sentenced to Life in Killing of Jew in France
(NY Times) One of the most sensational criminal cases in France, which brought comparisons to the Dreyfus case and involved charges of racial and religious hatred, ended late Friday with the conviction of Youssouf Fofana for murdering a young Jewish man.
Click here to read
Polish head of EU Parliament political group rejects accusations of anti-Semitism
(European Jewish Press) In an exclusive interview with EJP, Michal Kaminski, chairman of the new anti-federalist political group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the European Parliament, rejects what he calls “false accusations” of anti-Semitism brought against him by his opponents and acknowledges that some Poles have been involved in the WWII anti-Jewish pogrom of Jedwabne.
Click here to read
Fighting or Whitewashing Nazism: Will the Real Norway Please Stand up?
(Huffington Post) Rabbi Abraham Cooper writes, “This year Norway has reached two milestones that go to the heart of how it deals with its past history and future values。”
Click here to read
NORTH AMERICA
FBI informant: ‘Anti-Semitism was behind case’
(Jerusalem Post) One of the former AIPAC staffers once accused of illegally sharing classified information with Israeli officials lashed out at the FBI Thursday following comments from an FBI’s informant that anti-Semitism had been a motivation for the case.
Click here to read
Franklin: Some FBI agents anti-Semitic
(JTA) The former Pentagon official at the center of the classified information case involving AIPAC staffers accused some FBI agents of displaying anti-Semitism.
Click here to read
Rabbis’ arrests shake Jewish world
(Jewish Standard) Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano and 43 other New Jersey public officials, including Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell — who resigned on Tuesday — and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, were arrested last week on corruption charges. Also arrested in a separate but related operation were four rabbis from Brooklyn and Deal on charges of money laundering, and another Jewish Brooklyn man charged with conspiring to sell human organs.
Click here to read
RCMP recommend hate charges in anti-Semitic incident in Ucluelet, BC
(Canadian Press) A special prosecutor in B.C. is now considering whether to pursue charges of inciting hatred after three men allegedly wrote swastikas and racial slurs on their clothes and yelled at bystanders at a local dock.
Click here to read
MISCELLANEOUS
Al-Qaeda Second-in-Command Ayman Al-Zawahiri Threatens France
(MEMRI) Al-Zawahiri also tates: Obama No Different Than Bush – Obama Has No Religion; He Was Born to a Muslim Father, Then Converted to Christianity, and Recently, Prayed the Jewish Prayers
Click here to read
Israel pulls anti-Semitism card on Venezuela
(Press TV) Tel Aviv has accused the administration Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of cooperating with Israel’s enemies and supporting anti-Semitism. On the last leg of his South American tour, hawkish Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman expressed concern about the collaboration between Chavez and what he called “radical branches of Islam”.
Click here to read
India to execute 2003 bomb trio
(BBC)A court in India has sentenced to death three people for carrying out bombings that killed more than 50 people in Mumbai (Bombay) in 2003.
Click here to read
Source: Canadian Institute for Jewish Research
WEEKLY QUOTES
“Hezbollah has been rearming and recruiting for the next conflict with Israel, and Iranian President Ahmadinejad made Hezbollah responsible for retaliation against Western targets should the U. S. attack Iranian nuclear sites…. Hezbollah’s military wing is responsible for planning and executing terrorist acts and collecting intelligence. Hezbollah members may reside in Canada to undertake activities such as intelligence collection.” — Canadian Intelligence Reports, recently declassified, warning that the Lebanese terrorist organisation is preparing to attack Israel on behalf of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should his nuclear program be targeted. (National Post, July 23)
“All these reports about recognizing Israel are false. It’s all media nonsense. We don’t ask other factions to recognize Israel because we in Fatah have never recognized Israel .”–Fatah Central Committee member Rafik Natsheh, in an interview with Al-Quds Al-Arabi, admitting that the Palestinian government, neither in the past nor today, has any intention of recognising Israel ‘s right to exist. ( Jerusalem Post, July 22)
“[Rahim] Mashaie is one of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad’s inner circle of trustees…. His appointment was to have total supervision of the cabinet, especially control over sensitive sectors like oil, economy and central bank. His appointment was aimed at having total control over the cabinet over the next four years so there would be absolutely no opposition.” — Independent Analyst Mohammad Saleh Sedghian, speaking to Association France-Presse, commenting on the reported letter from Ahmadinejad to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini informing him — after Ahmadinejad initially refused to rescind the appointment — of Mashaie’s resignation, for which Ahmadinejad had been criticized. (AFP, July 25)
“The aim is to build what leaders here call a ‘culture of resistance,’ the topic of a recent two-day conference. In recent days, a play has been staged, a movie premiered, an art exhibit mounted, a book of poems published and a television series begun, most of it state-sponsored and all focused on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. There are plans for a documentary competition.
“‘Armed resistance is still important and legitimate, but we have a new emphasis on cultural resistance,’ noted Ayman Taha, a Hamas leader and former fighter. ‘The current situation required a stoppage of rockets. After the war, the fighters needed a break and the people needed a break.’… ‘What did the rockets do for us? Nothing,’ Mona Abdelaziz, a 36-year-old lawyer, said in a typical street interview here.” — Columnist Ethan Bronner, reporting on a militarily weakened Hamas’ strategy after using propaganda to continue the war against Israel from Gaza . (NYT, July 23)
“Israel has made it clear that it could strike plants at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, although it has agreed to the Obama administration’s policy of first trying to engage Iran in talks. But the official, who was briefing reporters in advance of [U.S. Defense Secretary Robert] Gates’s trip [to Jerusalem ], acknowledged that the Israelis did not think the diplomacy would work and that they were losing patience. ‘Are they anxious?’ the official said. ‘Yes, they’re anxious. But we’re not having regular conversations where they’re coming in and saying, ‘Stop your engagement now, bomb Iran tomorrow.’…
“On Saturday, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned that Iran was prepared to counterattack. ‘There is nothing stopping us from targeting Israel’s nuclear sites and this will definitely happen if we are attacked,’ Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari told the Arabic-language channel al-Alam, in a translation provided by The Associated Press. ‘Our rockets have the precision capabilities to target all the Israeli nuclear sites.” — Reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, describing the standoff developing between Israeli and Iranian military postures. (NYT, July 26)
“The OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe] Parliamentary Assembly [resolution on antisemitism] endorses the declaration of the London Conference on Combating Antisemitism and reaffirms in particular: a) concern for the dramatic increase in recorded antisemitic hate crimes and attacks targeting Jewish persons and property, and Jewish religious, educational and communal institutions and the incidents of government-backed antisemitism in general, and state-backed genocidal antisemitism, in particular [and] b) the role parliamentarians, governments, the United Nations and regional organisations should play in combating antisemitism in all its forms, including denial of the Holocaust, and in reaffirming the principles of tolerance and mutual respect.” — OSCE Parliamentary Assembly resolution on antisemitism formed part of the Vilnius Declaration during the OSCE’s 18th annual session. The OSCE PA is composed of 56 member states from Vancouver to Vladivostok ; Canadian Senator Jerahmiel S. Grafstein is its Vice-President and leader of the Liberal Democratic Reform Group within the OSCE. ( Vilnius Declaration of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Resolutions Adopted at the Eighteenth Annual Session: Vilnius , June 29-July 3, 2009; Parliamentary Press Release, July 14)
SHORT TAKES
BIN LADEN JR. KILLED? — (Washington) Saad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden‘s son, is believed to have been killed during U.S. drone operations in late April and early May. Saad had been climbing through the ranks of al Qaeda and was presumed to be a liaison between the organisation and Iran . The Pakistani government denies that Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenants are hiding on its territory. (Wall Street Journal, July 24)
IRANIAN OPPOSITION PROTEST CRACKDOWN — ( Dubai ) Sixty-nine leading figures of the Iranian opposition movement, including former presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi, have signed an open letter to the country’s highest religious authorities protesting the “illegal, immoral and irreligious methods” in the crackdown following last month’s disputed presidential election. The opposition also calls for the release of hundreds of arrested people, and accuses the government of behaviour “reminiscent of the oppressive rule of the Shah” The letter represents the ongoing challenge to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei‘s authority. (New York Times, July 26)
CONFERENCE AT RYERSON HOSTS HAMAS SUPPORTER — ( Toronto ) The Ryerson Student Union booked a four-day conference at the University featuring Dr. Azzam Tamimi, a British scholar and known Hamas advisor and supporter. The Mississauga Ontario-based Al-Fauz Institute for Islamic Thought, organized and ran the July 24-27 event entitled “From Caliphs to Kings: The Fall and Rise of Muslim Ummah” at which Tamimi lectured almost exclusively. Adam Kahan, vice-president, university advancement, claimed that the conference was “not for us to allow or disallow. It’s not our call. It’s up to the [student] council, an independently run entity located on the Ryerson campus.” (Jewish Tribune, July 28; National Post, July 21)
CARLETON UNIVERSITY NIXES HIRING OF ALLEGED BOMBER — (Ottawa) The alleged bomber of the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris, Hassan Diab, was not hired by Carleton University as a part-time lecturer. Diab, who was arrested last in Ottawa year in connection with the 1980 bombing which killed four and injured dozens, is a sociology professor at the University of Ottawa. Currently on bail, he maintains that this is a case of mistaken identity. (National Post, July 29)
IRAQ TROOPS ATTACK IRANIAN EXILES — ( Baghdad ) Iraqi troops raided the camp of an Iranian dissident group which had previously been sheltered by the U.S. military. The group, Mujaheddin-e Khalq, has supplied intelligence to the U.S. regarding the Iranian nuclear program, and has long been an irritant to Iran , which has repeatedly requested that Iraq expel it. The attack was the Iraqi government’s boldest move since it declared its sovereignty a month ago. Eight Iranians were allegedly killed and some four hundred were injured during the clashes. ( Washington Post, July 29)
IRAQI KURD ELECTION: BARZANI WINS, FRAUD CLAIMED — ( Sulaimaniya , Iraq ) Iraq ‘s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region elections have had high turnout — 78.5 percent — for presidential and parliamentary elections. Results show that incumbent president Massoud Barzani has gained 69 percent of the vote, though opposition parties have alleged fraud. The governing coalition of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have maintained their hold on power, as many Kurds credit the regional government for the relative security and prosperity the region enjoys. (New York Times, July 26, Associated Press, July 29)
SEVEN CHARGED WITH TERRORISM IN NORTH CAROLINA – ( Raleigh ) Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have accused seven men of conspiring to provide material support to foreign terrorists and to commit murder overseas. The charges come as part of a long-running investigation into the men, who also stockpiled a cache of military weapons. Daniel P. Boyd, 39, a Muslim convert who trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1980′s, and fought the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan , returned to the U.S. to allegedly recruit Muslim men for a jihad. ( Washington Post, July 28)
BLAST AT DAHLAN WEDDING — (Gaza City) At least fifty people were injured, four of them seriously, at the wedding of former PA security chief Muhammad Dahlan‘s nephew, Mahmoud Dahlan. The wedding took place in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, where a majority of the Dahlan clan is based. Most of those in attendance were affiliated with the Fatah movement, leading some to report that the blast was caused by Hamas, which flatly rejected the claim. ( Jerusalem Post, July 22)
GAZA CHILDREN STAGE SCHALIT ABDUCTION — (Gaza City) More than 120,000 Palestinian children are enrolled at Hamas summer camps, where they undergo religious education and military-style indoctrination. At a recent summer camp graduation ceremony, children re-enacted the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in the presence of top Hamas officials, including Osama Mazini, the Hamas leader in charge of Schalit negotiations with Israel , according to photos obtained by the Jerusalem Post. ( Jerusalem Post, July 27)
PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOUR — ( Jerusalem ) The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority, is threatening movie star Sacha Baron Cohen for including the movement in Cohen’s new comedy “Bruno.” Ayman Abu Aita claims he was falsely portrayed in the film as a member of the terrorist group, and is planning to sue. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, however, threatened Cohen, saying that “we reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man…the movie was part of a conspiracy against the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.” (Ha’aretz, July 29)
ISRAELI FILMMAKER’S NEW FILM: “THE THIRD JIHAD” — ( Toronto ) Israeli filmmaker Raphael Shore contends that “millions of people are working…to bring down America ” in an interview with the Jewish Tribune. The interview discussed Shore’s new film, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America, a “chilling account of the profound danger looming at our doorstep.” The film features interviews with prominent experts as well as leaders of radical Islamic terror organizations. For more information, please see thethirdjihad.com. (Jewish Tribune, June 25)
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA CONSIDERING ISRAEL BOYCOTT – ( Toronto ) Among the many proposals the United Church of Canada is considering during its general council in August is a “comprehensive boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions at the national and international level.” Jewish groups have criticized the proposal as an “obscene gesture from a religious group” and “anti-Semitic behaviour.” However, a similar proposal in 2006 was defeated. In 2003, the Church affirmed the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. (National Post, July 29)