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Monday, February 16, 2009
JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS / Jewish Political Studies Review: The purpose of this article is to analyze and confute some of the arguments recently put forward by important Italian intellectuals against Jews and against Israel. Neo anti-Semitism camouflaged as anti-Zionism is spreading in Italy today. Three main examples of this phenomenon are given: Sergio Romano, Alberto Asor Rosa, and Barbara Spinelli. Romano claims that the memory of the Shoah has become an insurance policy and is used by Israel as a diplomatic weapon, while Israel itself is "a war-mongering, imperialist, arrogant nation" and "an unscrupulous liar."
Asor Rosa claims that Israel "developed a marvelous army" but at the same time "the tradition and thinking melted away," while Israel affirms, he writes, "the racial superiority of the Jewish people." For Barbara Spinelli: "Israel constitutes a scandal" for the way in which Moses' religion validates "rights which are often meta-historical" and "linked to sacred texts." Spinelli thinks that Israel should express its culpability to Palestinians and Islam. She goes as far as stating that some Israelis dream "of a sort of second holocaust." She also attacks the "double and contradictory loyalty" of the Jews.
There is a short analysis of the Italian press and of the stand of the Catholic Church. The lynch in Ramallah is discussed, as well as the declarations of Ambassador Vento. The author also raises the question of school textbooks, the boycott against Israeli universities, and the existence of other voices, very different from the ones mentioned above.
Italy had always been considered a country immune to anti-Semitism, which is why the racial laws imposed by the fascists in 1938 and the ensuing atrocities of the republic of Salò had such a traumatic effect upon the Jews. One could hope that a similar phenomenon would never recur after the liberation. However anti-Semitism has come back even if there are no racial laws these days, and it is often hidden behind attacks against Sharon's politics. Anti-Semitic accusations blame all the Jews for crimes they never committed.1
Such signs of anti-Semitism are not new. At times anti-Semitism is camouflaged as anti-Zionism, as Gianni Scipione Rossi writes in his recent book: "Anti-Zionism interprets the role of a 'presentable' mask of a much more profound aversion."2 A strong worsening of this situation was noted during the period of the war in Lebanon in 1982-3, and the results were immediately felt. The PLO took advantage of an atmosphere favorable to it and organized a terrorist attack against the main synagogue on the Lungotevere in Rome on the day of the blessing of the children (9 October 1982), that murdered Stefano, aged two.
A few years later, in 1988, the chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, voiced a serious warning following anti-Semitic occurrences in the capital:
The threats, the anonymous letters, the revolting graffiti, and the outrageous deeds which have taken place these days could be the prelude to more shameful actions, not only against the Jews. I feel I am reliving the climate of fifty years ago, which preceded the approval of the racial laws by the fascist regime.>>> Sergio I. Minerbi | Fall 2003
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TIMES ONLINE: World depressions lead to a rise in anti-Semitism. All over Europe, the evidence is around us
The periodic crises that have shaken world capitalism in the century and a half since Marx wrote Das Kapital are marked by a common political phenomenon. It is the rise of political anti-Semitism. Attacks on Jews and Jewishness constitute the canary in the coal mine that tells us something is going seriously wrong.
Last month a 32-year-old IT worker, Michael Booksatz, was beaten up in the streets of north London by two hooded men shouting about Palestinians. Jewish students at the London School of Economics - home to many brilliant Jews who fled Hitler's Germany - are now frightened by anti-Jewish abuse from Islamist students. Graffiti such as “Kill the Jews” or “Jihad 4 Israel” appear close to synagogues in London.
The Metropolitan Police report four times as many anti-Jewish incidents in recent weeks as Islamaphobic events. The respected Community Security Trust, which records anti-Jewish attacks with scrupulous rigour, reports as many attacks on Jews - verbal, vandalism and some violent - in the first weeks of 2009 as in the first six months of last year.
As the world enters a new era of crisis, anti-Semitism is back. History, as ever, begins to repeat itself. The slumps and stock market fever expressed in Zola's novel, L'Argent, or the populist anger against Wall Street at the end of the 19th century gave rise to the virulent anti-Semitic politics witnessed in France in connection with the Dreyfus case or the takeover of Vienna by openly anti-Semitic politicians. The Great Depression gave rise to the worst expressions of anti-Semitism ever seen, namely the politics that led to the Holocaust. But even in Britain the Duke of Wellington of the time was leader of a secret anti-Jewish organisation which had the initials PJ - Perish Judah - on its letterhead. >>> Denis MacShane* | Monday, February 16, 2009
*Denis MacShane, MP, is a former Minister for Europe and the author of Globalising Hatred: the New Anti-Semitism (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
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In Nigeria ist Babyhandel ein einträgliches Geschäft. Brutale Menschenhändler scheuen nicht davor zurück, Schwangere einzusperren, um ihnen die Neugeborenen wegnehmen zu können. Der Verkauf der Babys an Sklaven- und Adoptionshändler bringt gutes Geld. Manche Kinder werden gar Opfer von Ritualmorden.
Es ist heiß. Heiß und still. Irgendwie gehört das zusammen. Je heißer es wird, desto stiller ist es in den Außenbezirken der südnigerianischen Provinzstadt Enugu. Grace läuft langsam. "Komm", sagt sie und zeigt auf den Eingang ihres einfachen Hauses. Die Holztür quietscht. Drinnen ist es dunkel, das einzige Fenster wird mit einem blauen Tuch notdürftig abgehängt. Die Dunkelheit bringt Abkühlung und die Enge des Raumes Nähe. Letztere braucht man, wenn man mit einer Frau darüber redet, wie sie ihr eigenes Baby an einen Menschenhändler verkauft hat. "Ich wurde vergewaltigt und dann schwanger", sagt Grace Ejird leise.
Sie ist 22 Jahre alt und Absolventin eines Wirtschaftsstudiums. Eine schlanke Frau mit herbem Gesicht und breitem Lächeln, das sie fast hübsch aussehen lässt. Grace lebt bei ihren Eltern, ist unverheiratet. "An meine Eltern konnte ich mich nicht wenden, also bin ich zu einem Arzt gegangen", erzählt sie aus der Zeit, als sie die Schwangerschaft entdeckte. "Hier in Nigeria ist das nämlich so: Wenn man eine junge Frau mit einem Baby sieht und sie nicht verheiratet ist, dann geht man ihr aus dem Weg. Alleinerziehende Mütter sind eine Schande. Sie sind nichts mehr wert, weil kein Mann sie je heiraten wird." >>> Von Nicole Macheroux-Denault | Montag, 16. Februar 2009
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LIBÉRATION.fr: Le gouvernement local et un leader religieux proche des talibans ont signé un accord en ce sens ce lundi. Un accord qui doit permettre de prolonger le cessez-le-feu actuel.
La charia sera la loi dans la vallée du Swat, dans le nord-ouest du Pakistan. C’est le résultat des négociations entre le gouvernement local et des leaders islamistes, en conflit depuis plusieurs mois. Ce dimanche, les talibans pakistanais de la zone avaient annoncé un cessez-le-feu unilatéral de dix jours… qui pouvait être prolongé en cas d’application de la loi islamique.
«Un accord a été signé entre le gouvernement de la province de la Frontière du Nord-Ouest (NWFP) et le maulana Soofi Mohammed», un leader religieux proche des talibans, a déclaré à la presse à Peshawar le ministre provincial de l’Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain. «Toutes les lois contraires à la charia seront abolies et la justice sera appliquée en vertu de la charia.»
Cet accord est applicable au district de Malakand, dans lequel est située la vallée de Swat, autrefois le site touristique le plus prisé du Pakistan, avant de tomber aux mains des talibans pakistanais, que l’armée tente de repousser depuis l’été. La vallée de Swat est tombée sous le contrôle des talibans du maulana Fazlullah, le gendre de Soofi Mohammed, à l’automne 2007. >>> AFP | Lundi 16 Février 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Sharia Imposed on Northwest Pakistan in Deal with Taleban
The Pakistan Government has agreed to impose Islamic law across much of northwest Pakistan in an attempt to pacify a spreading Taleban insurgency.
The decision was announced after talks with a banned pro-Taleban group from the Swat Valley, a former tourist haven in the northwest where extremists have gained sway through beheadings and burning girls' schools.
Government officials said that laws that do not comply with Islamic texts have been suspended in Malakand region, which includes Swat, effective from today. >>> Jenny Booth | Monday, February 16, 2009
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NZZ am Sonntag: Die grossen Volksverführer der Geschichte haben es vorgemacht. Usama bin Ladin ist einer von ihnen. Jetzt wird sein Tonarchiv aus Afghanistan in Kalifornien untersucht.
Fünf Jahre hört Flagg Miller schon seine Stimme. Immer wieder dieser sonore Klang, Wiederholungen ohne Höhen und Tiefen, wie sie um Vertrauen wirbt, wie sie einlullt, anzieht. Wüsste Usama bin Ladin, dass dieser Amerikaner seine Tonbänder nummeriert und analysiert, wäre der Kaida-Chef vielleicht gerührt.
«Ein Junge stürzt sich in den Rauch des Kriegs, lächelnd, er lehnt sich vor, färbt die Klingen der Lanzen rot, auf dass Gott meine Augen davor bewahre, die wichtigsten Menschen aus dem Blick zu verlieren», dichtet bin Ladin. Arabische Poesie über die Kämpfe des Propheten Mohammed verknüpft er mit Ereignissen der Gegenwart. Mekka und Medina werden mit Jalalabad und Kandahar verbunden, der Krieg in Afghanistan im 20. Jahrhundert mit der Befreiung der Arabischen Halbinsel von christlichen Invasoren aus Äthiopien im 6. Jahrhundert verglichen.
1459 Tonbänder
Wenn er sich nicht mit bin Ladin befasst, steht Flagg Miller in einem fensterlosen Seminarraum der University of California in Davis. Er spricht über Al Qutb, den Begründer des islamistischen Fundamentalismus, und über Sufismus. Gegenüber, im Frauenzentrum, werden «Die Vagina-Monologe» aufgeführt, um die Ecke bietet ein «lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender resource center» seine Dienste an. Im neunten Stock der Sproul Hall, die an einen Getreidesilo erinnert, sitzt Miller am Tonband, mit dem Fuss bedient er die Pausentaste und hackt Transkriptionen in sein MacBook. Draussen sind Getreidefelder zu sehen, Plantagen mit biologisch gezogenen Mandarinenbäumen, Pferdeweiden, dort, wo früher Prärie war und die Goldsucher nach Sacramento zogen. Ein Amtrak-Zug schnauft auf dem Weg nach San Francisco durch die Stadt.
In Davis leben 60 000 Einwohner, die Hälfte sind Studenten. Zigarettenstummel liegen hier nicht unnötig lange auf der Strasse herum. Zweimal pro Woche treffen sich die «overeaters anonymous». Wenn Flagg Miller in der verkehrsberuhigten Stadt Velo fährt, trägt er einen Helm.
Meist ist der Blonde aber mit bin Ladin allein. Der 41-Jährige aus Kansas lebte als Austauschschüler in Tunesien, lernte Arabisch in Syrien und in Jemen. Er liebt Arabisch. >>> Von Christoph Plate | Sonntag, 15. Februar 2009
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THE TELEGRAPH: President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has won the right to stand for re-election indefinitely after a vote to scrap term limits on elected posts was passed.
Chavez, a flamboyant Socialist and former paratrooper, celebrated victory with crowds of red-clad supporters and said he intended to stand for a third term in 2012.
Previously, the president was allowed only two consecutive terms, which would have forced Chavez to step down at the end of his second mandate in 2013.
Speaking to cheering supporters on Sunday from the balcony of his Miraflores palace, he said: "The doors of the future are wide open.
"In 2012 there will be presidential elections for the 2013-2019 period and, unless God has planned something else, unless the people have planned something else, this soldier is now a pre-candidate for the Republic's presidency."
Chavez - who is popular with the country's poor for his oil-funded health care and education programs - has ruled for 10 years.
He is blamed by a vocal opposition for rising crime, corruption and inflation and will now have to tackle the effects of the global downturn on Venezuela's oil-based economy. >>> | Monday, February 16, 2009
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THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: With her good looks and glossy aura, Fatima Bhutto, the bright new star of a revered political dynasty is causing quite a stir in both Hollywood and her own troubled country.
Fresh from an ill-fated entanglement with a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, George Clooney, Hollywood’s Armani-suited Renaissance Man-on-call, is reported to have fallen for 26-year-old Fatima Bhutto, the new star of Pakistan’s greatest political dynasty. Across the sub-continent the excitement spread like Valentine’s Weekend wildfire. And why not? George is radical, Fatima is chic. It has to work out this time.
For while George has been the subject of more Random Couple Alerts than almost anyone else in showbusiness, the signs are unmistakable that, at 47, greying, childless and possibly losing his vogue, he is ready to settle down. He has done all the liberal cause-mongering an actor of his stature could reasonably do, and with his hero Obama safely in the White House (“the best candidate there has ever been,” he said), it was time to turn his attention to international affairs.
Nowhere could they be stickier than in Pakistan, where Fatima, niece of the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, enjoys a reputation as the smartest and most glamorous of her extended, perma-feuding clan. The pair are said to have met last year at a conference (George goes to them in his capacity as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, Fatima as a journalist) and agreed to keep in touch. When he broke up with shapely waitress Sarah Larson, 30, late last summer, his interest in Fatima apparently began to grow.
“He’s still out there with his usual assortment of Hollywood eye-candy hanging from his arm,” claimed the American magazine which first reported the romance, “but George insists those days could be coming to an end if Fatima wants to take their relationship to the next level and spend some serious time with him in the US.” >>> By William Langley | Sunday, February 15, 2009
YOUTUBE: Fatima Bhutto Speaks
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HAARETZ: In response to his expulsion from Britain, Dutch legislator Geert Wilders announced yesterday he is taking his controversial film on Islam on "a world tour" - beginning next week with Rome.
On Thursday, British immigration officers detained Wilders at Heathrow Airport and put him on a plane back to the Netherlands. This was done under orders from the Home Office, whose officials said Wilders' presence would disrupt public order.
"This event [in Rome] is part of the 'Facing Jihad' world tour that will serve to expose Islam for what it is, an ideology that preaches terrorism, anti-Semitism and the oppression of women, homosexuals and non-Muslims," Wilders said.
Wilders - who heads the Party for Freedom, a rightist movement of nine seats in parliament - had been invited to show his 17-minute film "Fitna," which he released last year, at the House of Lords in London before being turned back.
In the text of a speech he had intended to deliver at the House of Lords, obtained by Haaretz, Wilders wrote: "Britannia rules the waves, and Islam will never rule Britain, so I was confident the Border Agency would let me through. After all, you have invited stranger creatures than me. Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda.
"If you let in this man, then an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too. By letting me speak today you show that Winston Churchill's spirit is still very much alive," he added. >>> By Cnaan Liphshitz | Friday, February 13, 2009
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MAIL Online: 19, Peaches Geldof has already packed a lot into her brief life.
But if she goes on recording every twist and turn on her body she may soon run out of space.
Bob Geldof's wild child daughter has already notched up a 20-odd collection of tattoos on her fresh frame - many of them references to friends and lovers.
Last week, they were on full display as she enjoyed the sun and sea on a holiday in South America.
Among the pieces of 'art' is a daisy chain which stretches from her knee to her chest. But other works are dedicated to ex-boyfriends and the teenager's estranged husband Max Drummey.
The words 'Ex Valentine' around the top of her left arm are understood to be a reference to old flame Faris Badwan, frontman with The Horrors. Body Image: Peaches Cavorts Topless on Beach to Reveal More Than 20 Bizarre Tattoos >>> By Jo Clements | Sunday, February 15, 2009
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Sunday, February 15, 2009
Banning any discussion about the nature of the Koran just plays into the hands of bigots and demagogues, argues Janet Daley.
I had just taken part in a television discussion on the coverage of the Gaza conflict and was now paired up with the driver provided by BBC Transport to take me home. Clearly identifiable from his beard and clothing as a practising Muslim, he led me courteously to his car. On the way back, we chatted about the traffic and the weather, before we got onto the problems of minicab drivers in the recession. I sympathised with the fact that he was finding it harder and harder to make a living: even coming into central London from where he lived (he mentioned a town well known for its fundamentalist Islamic community) was no solution because it used so much petrol. Cab drivers were, I said, always among the first to suffer in financial hard times.
At various points in our exchanges, he expressed curiosity about what I had been debating on the programme and I avoided answering, sensing that the subject might be inflammatory. But finally there was a direct question: what subject had I been discussing? So I told him. And what had I said about it, he asked.
So, as tactfully as I could, I told him. Which opened the floodgates. The problem could never be resolved, he said, because it was a battle between Muslims and Jews which meant that it was between, as he put it, "good and evil". The Jews in Israel, he said, did not follow the faith of Judaism, but of another religion called "Zionism". At this point, I intervened to point out, very gently, that I was Jewish and to suggest that Judaism and Zionism were not actually mutually exclusive. The More We Discuss Religious Differences the Safer We Will Be >>> Janet Daley | Sunday, February 15, 2009
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Israeli player Shahar Peer has been refused a visa to take part in the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Peer was scheduled to play 15th seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia in the $2m event on Monday.
But the WTA Tour said Peer was denied entry into the United Arab Emirates for the tournament, which features all the world's top-10 ranked women's players.
UAE officials have not given a reason for the move, but the country does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The only Israelis usually allowed into the UAE do so under dual nationality, and the player's brother and spokesman Shlomi Peer confirmed she had been denied a visa. >>> | Sunday, February 15, 2009
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CORRIERE DELLA SERA: La leader di Kadima lo ha scritto in un biglietto a Olmert al Consiglio dei ministri: «Basta fare la numero due»
GERUSALEMME - «Non ho alcuna intenzione di entrare in un governo di unità nazionale guidato da Bibi», vale a dire Benyamin Netanyahu. Tzipi Livni, leader di Kadima, non usa mezzi termini. Durante il Consiglio dei ministri, ha scritto un bigliettino al premier Ehud Olmert. Il foglio è stato inquadrato da una cinepresa: «Non accennare a quella idea» ha aggiunto la vincitrice (per pochissimo) delle elezioni legislative di tre giorni fa, allontanando così l'ipotesi di un governo di unità nazionale. Quindi ha messo in guardia il premier dal dar voce a idee che «non rappresentano le posizioni di Kadima». >>> | Domenica 15 febbraio 2009
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David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has said that there should be no bonuses this year for senior staff at banks in which the Government holds a stake.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: He was speaking after The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Lloyds Banking Group has drawn up plans to pay about £120 million in bonuses to staff even as it teeters on the brink of majority state ownership.
Sources close to Lloyds said the bank had drafted the bonus proposals and was "in consultation" about them with UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the Treasury body that owns a 43 per cent stake in the bank.
The revelations follow the disclosure last week that Royal Bank of Scotland, almost 70 per cent of which is owned by the taxpayer, was looking to pay staff as much as £1 billion in bonuses this year.
Mr Cameron said bonuses in future years should be paid in shares in the banks which can be cashed in only when it has entirely repaid the support it has received from the taxpayer.
He said he had no objection to bonuses of £1,000-£2,000 to low-ranking employees who have met targets and do not share the blame for the current financial crisis.
But the Tory leader told BBC1's The Politics Show: "For these banks that are owned by the taxpayer, or where the taxpayer has a large stake, it is completely wrong to be paying bonuses."
Mr Cameron said he raised the issue with Gordon Brown at the time of the banking bail-out in October, but the Prime Minister had been "asleep on the job". >>> By Duncan Gardham and Mark Kleinman | Sunday, February 15, 2009
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Gordon Brown Must Go, Says HBOS Whistleblower Paul Moore
Paul Moore, the bank whistleblower whose revelations forced the resignation of a senior Government adviser, has called for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to go for his part in creating the financial crisis.
Mr Moore, who was sacked after raising concerns over excessive risk-taking at HBOS, said Mr Brown should be "held accountable for his failure to oversee the stability of the country".
Following his explosive evidence to the Commons Treasury Committee last week, Mr Moore said he is planning to send the MPs a further dossier of 30 documents which will point the finger of blame for the bust at Mr Brown.
After Mr Moore's revelations forced the resignation of the deputy chairman of the Financial Services Authority Sir James Crosby, Mr Brown told another parliamentary committee that HBOS's massive losses - estimated at more than £10 billion - were caused not by Government policy but by the bank's flawed business model.
But Mr Moore, who was head of risk at HBOS from 2002 to 2005, today told the Independent on Sunday: "The failure goes right to the heart of the system - to the internal supervisory system and right to the top of government.
"Brown must go. He cannot remain in office. >>> | Sunday, February 15, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Ministers Take Tougher Line on Bank Bonuses
Ministers and the Opposition hardened their line against bank bonuses today amid suggestions that Lloyds intended to go ahead with payouts worth £120m this year.
Tony McNulty, Employment Minister, said that any bank employee who had responsibility for the disastrous business model adopted by the banks should "not get a penny". Junior staff should be able to get between £1,000 and £2,000, he said, but anyone with a significant involvement in the business model should be paid nothing extra at all. >>> Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Jenny Booth | Sunday, February 15, 2009
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