News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Holocaust Remembrance Day Marks Nazi Auschwitz Death Camp's Liberation
On Monday, survivors and Israeli officials marked 69 years since the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.
The UN established International Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of some 6 million Holocaust victims, and some 1.5 million victims of Auschwitz, who were mostly Jews.
Speaking at the European parliament ceremony in Brussels, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said: Anti-Semitism is "not an opinion - it's a crime." (AP)
- Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Denied Holocaust, Praised French Holocaust Denier
In a Sept. 29, 2013, interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif claimed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is not a Holocaust denier. However, a MEMRI investigation reveals that Zarif's claim is false; in Khamenei's original statements, which can be accessed on his official Persian-language website, Khamenei indeed called the Holocaust a "myth."
Furthermore, in Dec. 2013, Khamenei's office re-released his 1998 statements of praise for the work of the late convicted French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.
(MEMRI)
- Egyptian Army Chief Sisi Poised for Presidential Run - Laura King
On Monday, Egypt's top generals gave their blessing to a presidential run by army chief Abdel Fattah Sisi, 59, hours after he was promoted from general to field marshal. Sisi engineered the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July, after huge demonstrations demanded his removal.
Seven months later, a cult of personality has taken hold
among large swaths of Egyptian society. Sisi's image is emblazoned on everything from cupcakes to lingerie; songs and poems celebrate him. State media routinely run adoring columns praising his wisdom.
Official commemorations Saturday of the third anniversary of the uprising against Mubarak were transformed into rallies lionizing Sisi, with light shows, military flyovers and song-and-dance spectacles. In Cairo's Tahrir Square, a woman dabbed at her eyes as she brandished a poster of the general. Asked why she was weeping, she said: "For joy. Because Sisi is here to save us." (Los Angeles Times)
- Assad's Future Blocks Progress in Syria Peace Talks
The key issue of a transitional government to replace President Bashar Assad blocked any progress Monday in Syrian peace talks, described by one delegate as "a dialogue of the deaf." The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition wants an interim replacement for Assad.
But Assad, whose troops have a tenuous upper hand in Syria, has said he has no intention of stepping down and may run again for president later this year.
(AP-Washington Post)
- Congress Secretly Approves U.S. Weapons Flow to "Moderate" Syrian Rebels - Mark Hosenball
Light arms supplied by the U.S. are flowing to "moderate" Syrian rebel factions in the south of the country and U.S. funding of further deliveries has been approved by Congress, according to U.S. and European security officials. The weapons, most of which are moving through Jordan, include a variety of small arms, as well as some more powerful weapons, such as anti-tank rockets. A U.S. official said national security officials are more confident that these weapons will remain in the hands of moderate rebels rather than go to militant jihadist factions.
(Reuters-Chicago Tribune)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israel Security Agency: Terror Attacks in West Bank Doubled in 2013 - Elior Levy
The Israel Security Agency reported that there were 1,271 attacks in the West Bank in 2013, compared to 578 attacks in 2012. Firearms were used in 201 attacks in 2013, compared to 37 such attacks in 2012.
In 2013, a total of 190 serious terror attacks were foiled, including 16 suicide attacks, compared to 112 attacks in 2012. (Ynet News)
- Escalation of West Bank Terrorism Linked to Palestinian Authority's Failing Governance - Ron Ben-Yishai
Israeli defense sources believe that the departure of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has triggered a downward spiral in security due to an erosion of the capabilities of the Palestinian security forces. A lack of governance is one of the central factors in the rise in terror attacks in the West Bank last year. 45% of terror attacks in the West Bank were initiated or inspired by Hamas.
According to knowledgeable sources: "If the PA holds elections today, there is no certainty that Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the PLO would win. There is definitely a chance that Hamas would garner the majority of the Palestinian street's votes." (Ynet News)
- Ya'alon: Palestinians See Destruction of Jews as Realistic Possibility
Speaking at an event to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Monday:
"In the Palestinian Authority, whose leadership presents itself as one that is striving to reach an agreement with us, the brutal, insufferable incitement against the State of Israel and the Jewish people continues."
"This incitement is manifest in the education system and the media, where the hatred and poison ought to be an affront to any human. It is creating another generation of Palestinian children who are taught to look at the expulsion and destruction of the Jews as a realistic possibility instead of educating them toward a culture of peace and co-existence alongside Israel." (Jerusalem Post)
- U.S. Congressmen Slam Academic Boycott of Israel - Shlomo Cesana
A bipartisan group of 134 members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter criticizing the American Studies Association (ASA) for its decision last month to boycott Israel.
(Israel Hayom)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
- Negotiating with Ourselves - Reuel Marc Gerecht
Ayatollah Khamenei and the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard Corps have never been taciturn in describing how attached they are to their nuclear program and how much they loathe the U.S. The U.S. government knows - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that the clerical regime has been importing and building the means to construct nuclear weapons for more than 20 years.
It knows that newly elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are lying through their teeth when they say that the Islamic Republic has never had any design to build atomic weapons.
It is inconceivable that Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards, and Rouhani would allow foreigners to destroy centrifuges, downgrade the heavy-water reactor at
Arak, and have access to the classified paperwork of the nuclear program. In all probability, Khamenei will walk as soon as the Western powers insist that Tehran actually make concessions that enfeeble the nuclear program. The writer is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
(Weekly Standard)
- Iran's Message at Davos Has Eerie Echo - Mark Landler
When President Hassan Rouhani of Iran commandeered the spotlight in Davos, Switzerland, with a message of peaceful intentions and a desire for dialogue, it was an eerie echo of 10 years ago, when Iran's last would-be change agent, Mohammad Khatami, delivered the very same message at the World Economic Forum. Then, as now, Iran agreed to halt some enrichment of uranium and submit to UN inspections, as part of an effort to negotiate a nuclear deal. But the nuclear diplomacy collapsed and Iran switched its centrifuges back on.
(New York Times)
- Israelis Rally Against U.S. Plan for Securing Jordan Valley - Barbara Opall-Rome
After months of shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State Kerry and thousands of hours of strategic dialogue led by retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, Israeli leaders are as resistant as ever to trading the Jordan Valley for technology, U.S. security assurances, and joint force patrols which they insist fall short of Israel's fundamental right to defensible borders.
"There's no way to provide security by way of foreign forces or any combination of advanced technology. If there is a crisis, history has shown us that foreign forces are the first to vanish....Satellites, drones and all the other goodies cannot compensate for IDF control of the ground and airspace of this vital sector," said retired Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, a former national security adviser who commanded the theater that includes the Jordan Valley.
Dayan said relinquishment of the Jordan Valley "is a sure recipe for another war." He added, "We don't know what will be in Iraq or Syria, and we worry very much about what might happen in Jordan. So we must maintain this minimal strategic depth to combat external threats and terror if we don't want this place to become another South Lebanon or Gaza." (Defense News)
- Scarlett Johansson Hits Back at Critics over Deal with Israel's SodaStream - Scarlett Johansson
While I never intended on being the face of any social or political movement as part of my affiliation with SodaStream, given the amount of noise surrounding that decision, I'd like to clear the air. I remain a supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine. SodaStream is a company that is committed to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights.
That is what is happening in their Ma'ale Adumim factory every working day. I stand behind the SodaStream product and am happy that light is being shed on this issue in hopes that a greater number of voices will contribute to the conversation of a peaceful two-state solution in the near future.
(Huffington Post)
Observations:
Israeli Ambassador Addresses UN on International Holocaust Remembrance Day - Ron Prosor (Mission of Israel to the United Nations)
- I, Ron Prosor, the son of Uri Prosor who fled Nazi Germany, stand before you tall and proud as a representative of the Jewish nation in the Family of Nations. My father was one of the lucky few who were able to escape. In the years that followed, European Jewry was decimated.
- Approximately 1.5 million Jews fought in the allied forces during World War II. Others organized resistance movements that took up arms in the ghettos and concentration camps, in the villages and in the forests. They retaliated with major uprisings in Warsaw and Bialystok. They resisted with underground activities in Dachau, Maidanek and Buchenwald.
- The Jewish people survived because courageous men and women stood up for what was right and risked their own lives to save others. We are here today because of those people who did the right thing; the Jews and Gentiles who fought for our future; who proved that even in the darkest hours of human history, the human spirit prevailed.
- The Jewish people want peace, but history has shown that we cannot rely on others to defend us. It has been almost 70 years since the end of the Holocaust and the world is still plagued by prejudice and anti-Semitism is being sponsored and spread by governments, teachers, and religious leaders.
- The State of Israel is the only guarantee that the future fate of the Jewish people will be held in our own hands. It is our hope for the future and the assurance of our survival for generations to come. Am Yisrael Chai!
See also Prime Minister Netanyahu on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
"Even today, when there is broad agreement that the Holocaust should have been prevented, the world is not crying out in the face of a regime that calls for our destruction and even receives with open arms the man who represents it. In the face of a state that openly calls for the destruction of the state of the Jews, everyone clears their throat in the face of the smiles."
"The attitude toward the State of Israel is not proportionate to the issues that are on the agenda. It also shows us that in the harassment of Jews there is thousands of years of continuity to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism." (Prime Minister's Office)
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