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Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with the Fairness Project by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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News Resources - USA and Europe:
The suicide bomber struck an outdoor cafe crowded with women and children, killing an 18-month-old girl along with her grandmother, and wounding more than 40. One eyewitness told Israel radio: "I saw children lying wounded on the ground asking for help. Bleeding mothers were lying on top of their children, protecting them and not caring about themselves, screaming, 'Save my child!'" Police officers combing the debris brought out three baby carriages. (New York Times) The internal debate in the U.S. administration no longer focuses on whether to press for the removal of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but on how to bridge differences between Israel and U.S. allies in the Arab world over the goals of upcoming negotiations. State Department officials in particular are urging the administration to detail a U.S. vision, while administration skeptics, notably in the Pentagon, prefer that the U.S. give Sharon latitude to wage his war on Palestinian militants. (Washington Post) (See In-Depth Issue discussion.) Israeli troops entered Bethlehem early Monday in a pinpoint, intelligence-driven operation. The city had been under Israeli control for nearly six weeks during the previous offensive. Israeli troops blocked access to Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity to prevent another standoff at the shrine with Palestinian gunmen. (Boston Globe/AP)
News Resources - Israel and Mideast:
Recent suicide strikes have put an end to delays in the construction of a fence around the West Bank. Some 20 contractors are to work on the fence, which will not be put up exactly along the Green Line but will follow the physical contours of the land. The separation fence will not provide total protection. IDF soldiers and weapons will have to supplement the fence, and IDF operations within Palestinian areas will continue. (Ha'aretz) The tiny sheikhdom of Qatar is now producing a commodity much in demand in the Arab world: freedom. Over the past three years, this remote desert peninsula has become a major exporter of powerful video signals that are gradually changing the cultural and political order in the Middle East. (Jerusalem Report) According to unofficial figures, at least 110 Israeli Arabs were detained last year on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities -- a record high, and about three times the number in the previous year. (JTA)
Global Commentary and Think Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Israel has made public documents that show Arafat's signature authorizing cash disbursements to members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a group the State Department designated this year as a foreign terrorist organization. Ambassador Francis Taylor, the Secretary of State's coordinator for counterterrorism, has declared: "We don't have any question about the authenticity of the documents provided by the Israeli government." (Weekly Standard) Granting Arafat virtual immunity runs against precedent. U.S. law stipulates that the PLO, with Arafat at its head, is a terrorist group with which the U.S. has relations only by dint of periodic presidential waiver. In June 1990, the U.S. cut ties with Arafat when he violated commitments to renounce terrorism. (Financial Times) Operation Defensive Shield seems to have been the catalyst that may yet produce profound changes in Palestinian society. More and more Palestinians are beginning to realize that Arafat's leadership has led to ruin and disaster. (Ha'aretz) There is an early Zionist military doctrine called "purity of arms" that still holds in Israel. It is a doctrine of self-constraint: Everything reasonable must be done to avoid harming civilians, even if that entails additional risks to Israeli soldiers. Richard Holbrooke recently observed that the Israeli military is probably more fastidious about moral constraints than is our own. (New Republic) Those who undermine our rights on the Temple Mount subvert the very existence of the state, because if we have no rights in a place like the Temple Mount, then we have no rights anywhere in the Land of Israel. (Ha'aretz) A veteran IDF reservist reports from the field. (Jewsweek.com) Dangerous Illusions: Reform of the Palestinian Authority - Shlomo Avineri There is no doubt that the Palestinian Authority in its present form cannot be a partner for peace negotiations. But in the quest for alternatives, some dangerous nonsense is being touted as new conventional wisdom. The most outlandish is the possibility of the PA becoming democratic and transparent.
(The author was Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the first government of Yitzhak Rabin. From the Jerusalem Post.)
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