The Institute for the Study of
Global Antisemitism and Policy
Newsletter
Volume 6 No. 3
22 August 2014
UPCOMING LECTURE
B’nai B’rith International 2014 Policy Forum
Monday, September 1, 2014
Location: Panama City, Panama
Lecturer: Dr. Charles Asher Small, Director of ISGAP
“Global Antisemitism: The Dangerous Combination of Islamism and Post-Modernity”
Session Abstract: Dr. Small will be a panelist during a round table session to discuss the reality of modern antisemitism. The three-day conference will bring together global policy makers, philanthropists, scholars, and heads of organizations to discuss insights and analysis of present day pressing issues.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“On August 20, 1940 Winston Churchill, Great Britain’s new Prime Minister, addressing Parliament as the desperate Battle of Britain continued, with the final victory of the RAF over the Luftwaffe’s assault against England still in the balance, said of Fighter Command, “Never on the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”. This speech, which rallied the British nation facing a Nazi cross-channel invasion should the Battle have been lost, is directly applicable today to the valiant soldiers and pilots of the Israel Defense Forces. With an attention to minimizing civilian casualties, even at the risks of their own increased losses, unknown in the annals of Western warfare, the IDF is defending Israel from the Hamas terrorists’ sustained rocket and tunnel assault on the civilian population. Let us salute our brave Israeli infantry, tankers, fighter-pilots, sailors, and Iron Dome personnel who, subject to an unbelievable wave of viciously unbalanced media and “international community” blindness and hypocrisy, are bravely and indefatigably defending Israel and the Jewish people. Once again, never have so many owed so much to so few; and once again, in the face of Hamas’ genocidal antisemitic campaign, we Jews repeat, “Never again!” — CIJR Director Prof. Frederick Krantz, from an Address to the Jewish People, Montreal, August 20, 2014
SPECIAL ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The Media Intifada: Bad Math, Ugly Truths About New York Times In Israel-Hamas War (Forbes)
Richard Behar
“Journalism ethics professors and historians take note: You are bearing witness, with few exceptions, to some of the most abysmal overseas reporting since Hearst’s New York Journal in 1898 got us into the Spanish-American War and Walter Duranty of the New York Times was ignoring Stalin’s crimes in the 1930s. ‘We’re not just talking bad journalism,’ says Weiss. ‘We’re talking about journalism that functions as a tool of a terrorist organization, Hamas: breathlessly pushing its narrative, whether cowed by its threats, sympathetic to its cause, or simply ignorant.'” Click here to read the full article.
Vatican Calls on Muslim Leaders to Condemn Christian Persecution in Iraq (The Guardian)
John Hooper
The Vatican has called on Muslim leaders to denounce unambiguously the persecution of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq – and hinted that it is considering breaking off dialogue with Islamic representatives if they fail to do so. Click here to read the full article.
Pope Backs Military Force to Protect Iraq Minorities (USA Today)
Alan Gomez
Pope Francis on Monday endorsed military action to stop Islamist militants from attacking religious minorities in Iraq, a rare pronouncement that goes against the Vatican’s usual guidance against the use of force. Click here to read the full article.
Pope Calls Family of Beheaded James Foley (The Boston Globe)
Associated Press
Pope Francis has called the family of an American journalist whose videotaped beheading by Islamic State militants has touched off torrents of outrage around the world. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi confirms the pope called James Foley’s parents, Diane and John Foley, on Thursday. Click here to read the full article.
REPORTS
Qatar Threatened to Expel Mashaal (Y Net News)
Roi Kais
A senior Fatah official claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood back Qatari Regime recently threatened Hamas’ political bureau chief, Khaled Mashaal, with expulsion if Hamas accepts the Egyptian ceasefire truce deal in its current format. Click here to read the full report.
Hamas kills 18 Suspected ‘Collaborators’ (Times of Israel)
Times of Israel Staff
Masked Hamas gunmen on Friday afternoon killed seven suspected informants for Israel near a Gaza City mosque as worshipers were ending midday prayers, bringing the total number of alleged collaborators killed in the coastal strip during the day to 18, according to witnesses and Hamas media. Click here to read the full report.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
ACADEMIA
Edward Said: Oppressed Fraud (Frontpage Mag)
Daniel Greenfield
“By damning legitimate scholars as racist colonialist Orientalists, Edward Said was able to impose his own racist and colonialist revisionist history on academia”. Click here to read the full article.
Israel Doesn’t Cause Anti-Semitism (Commentary)
Jonathan S. Tobin
Is the rising tide of hatred that is being directed at Jews in Europe and elsewhere the fault of Israel? That’s what many anti-Zionists have been claiming, and now their argument is echoed by the Forward’s J.J. Goldberg. Author Jonathan S. Tobin successfully works to disprove this claim and show that Israel is not the cause of contemporary antisemitism. Click here to read the full article.
NORTH AMERICA
The Ferguson/Palestine Connection (Ebony Magazine)
Kristian Davis Bailey
Ebony Magazine publishes article by Students for Justice in Palestine member accusing Israel and American Jewish organisations of helping to target innocents in US cities. The article makes unsubstantiated associates with Apartheid and white supremacy, antisemitic innuendos, and claims that Israel has played a role in the militarization of US Police Forces. Click here to read the full article.
Thousands March Up Bathurst Against Antisemitism (Canadian Jewish News)
Jodie Shupac
Several thousands of marchers, of all ages and religious denominations, coursed up Bathurst Street on the evening of August 20, carrying glowsticks, wearing blue and white or waving Israeli and Canadian flags in proud defiance of what much of the Jewish community feels is a resurgence of global antisemitism. Click here to read the full article.
EUROPE
Swedish Woman Attacked While Wearing Star of David (Haaretz)
JTA and Haaretz
A Swedish woman wearing a star of David was attacked while walking through a largely Muslim neighborhood in a city in central Sweden. Anna Sjögren’s jaw was so severely damaged in the incident in Uppsala, central Sweden, that she was initially unable to speak after the attack. Click here to read the full article.
MIDDLE EAST
The Challenge of Antisemitism (Haaretz)
Avi Shavit
Despite the Zionist revolution and Israeli sovereignty, we’re still Jews. As Jews we must defend ourselves, and as Jews we must stand for justice. Click here to read the full article.
SHORT TAKES FROM THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH
B’Tselem’s Gaza War Statistics Under Fire (Jerusalem Post)
Benjamin Weinthal
Two organizations in Israel have cautioned against accepting casualty figures coming out of Gaza. Both the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Center and NGO Monitor criticized the verification methods of the left-wing human rights group B’Tselem for its claims of Gaza casualty numbers that were recently released for Operation Protective Edge. The Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor issued a report in which it concluded: “B’Tselem presents what it terms ‘initial’ and ‘preliminary’ data, but these are inherently unverifiable and based solely on information from Palestinian sources in Hamas-controlled Gaza.” NGO Monitor leveled criticism against B’Tselem for relying on the Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza as its “primary source for casualty claims,” asserting that “B’Tselem has no independent sources of information in Gaza…its only source of independent information is from telephone interviews with Gaza residents, whose claims cannot be verified.” Click here to read the full article.
Hamas In West Bank Planned To Topple Palestinian Authority (Jerusalem Post)
Yaakov Lappin
A large-scale Hamas terrorist formation in the West Bank and Jerusalem planned to destabilize the region through a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel and then topple the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Monday. The Shin Bet announcement was a follow to a Jerusalem Post story regarding the indicting of Hamas’s West Bank leader, dozens of his operatives, and a massive plot to recreate Hamas’s West Bank infrastructure on August 7. The plot was orchestrated by overseas Hamas operatives headquartered in Turkey, and centered on a string of mass-casualty terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, the Shin Bet added. The end goal was to destabilize the Palestinian territories and use the instability to carry out a military coup, overthrowing the government of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Click here to read the full article.
Islamic State Claims It Executed American Photojournalist (Washington Post)
Karen DeYoung and Adam Goldman
The Islamic State claimed Tuesday to have beheaded an American photojournalist in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. A video posted on YouTube, later removed, purported to show the execution of James Foley after he recited a statement in which he called the U.S. government “my real killers.” A second prisoner, said to be Steven Joel Sotloff, like Foley an American journalist who disappeared while covering Syria’s civil war, then appears in the video. The masked executioner, speaking in English with a British accent, identifies Sotloff and states “the life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.” Foley, 40, was working in Syria for the Boston-based news Web site GlobalPost when he disappeared on Thanksgiving in 2012. Click here to read the full article.
Yazidi And Christian Leaders To Unite In Geneva, Demand UNHRC Action (UNWatch)
UNWatch
Breen Tahseen, an Iraqi diplomat whose father, Prince Tahseen Saeed Bek, is a Yazidi leader, will join together with leaders from the Iraqi Christian community at a rally tomorrow in Geneva calling for the UN Human Rights Council to meet urgently to discuss the dire situation of minorities in Iraq. Organized by the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group UN Watch, the rally will call on UN rights chief Navi Pillay to convene an urgent session of the 47-nation council on the ISIS atrocities in Iraq against minorities, echoing a recent appeal by more than 20 MPs and human rights activists. UN Watch has also arranged for the Yazidi and Christian leaders to meet with key diplomatic figures in the UNHRC system. Click here to read the full article.
UK Supermarket Sainsbury’s Removes Kosher Goods (Breitbart)
Breitbart London
A Central London branch of Sainsbury’s, Britain’s third largest supermarket chain, removed UK-made kosher goods from their shelves this weekend in an apparent stand with ‘Free Gaza’ protesters. While the central Twitter account of the national chain denied that it was a protest, customers visiting the store have reported that staff claimed that the goods were being removed to coincide with anti-Israel protests. The news comes shortly after a report about anti-Israel protesters trashing a Tesco store in Birmingham. Sainsbury’s apologized on Monday for removing the kosher food, following an outpouring of outrage on social media. Click here to read the full article.
White House Now Scrutinizing Israeli Requests For Ammunition (Wall Street Journal)
Adam Entous
White House and State Department officials who were leading U.S. efforts to rein in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip were caught off guard last month when they learned that the Israeli military had been quietly securing supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon without their approval. Since then the Obama administration has tightened its control on arms transfers to Israel. In addition, current and former American officials say, U.S.-Israel ties have been hurt by leaks that they believe were meant to undercut the administration’s standing by mischaracterizing its position and delay a cease-fire. The battles have driven U.S.-Israeli relations to the lowest point since President Barack Obama took office. Click here to read the full article.
Anti-Israel Protesters Demand End To US Military Aid To Israel (Jewish Press)
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Nearly a dozen anti-Israel protesters were arrested after having been removed from the Los Angeles, California office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on Monday afternoon, Aug. 18, according to a report in a far left website. The group included members of Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine, as well as some clergy members. The protesters staged a sit-in at Feinstein’s office to protest any further U.S. military aid to Israel. Another group staged a similar sit-in at the senate office of another progressive California senator, Barbara Boxer. Click here to read the full article.
20,000 March In India In Show Of Support For Israel (Times of Israel)
Amanda Borschel-Dan
In what is being called the biggest pro-Israel, anti-terrorist rally in recent years, an estimated 20,000 gathered in India on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Israel. Protesters holding pro-Israel banners marched through the streets of Kolkata, while community heads delivered speeches proclaiming Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. “The destiny of both India and Israel as thriving democracies are intertwined. We both share the same values,” said rally organizer Tapan Ghosh. The August 16 event was organized by a political movement known as Hindu Samhati in memory of Gopal Mukhopadhyay, who, according to press material, is “a local hero who saved many innocent lives during the Great Calcutta Killing in 1946.” Click here to read the full article.