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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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To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Saudis Abhor the Term "Wahhabism"
Oliver North: Israeli Agent Amiram Nir "the Bravest Man I Ever Knew"
Useful Reference:
In a special series of reports, Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ehud Barak discuss their visions for Israel's future. (JTA)
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News Resources - USA and Europe:
Arafat sent a long letter to Secretary of State Powell on Tuesday, insisting that the Palestinian Authority had embarked on major restructuring efforts, an administration official said. American Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday to urge him to "create an atmosphere" in which Palestinian reform could proceed, one official said. There were some signs that European and Arab leaders were adjusting their own policies in light of Mr. Bush's stance. One Middle Eastern diplomat said, "There are a lot of bureaucrats in the United States and Europe working on different ideas for Palestinian reform." (New York Times) Saddam Hussein has made important progress in developing weapons of mass destruction capable of killing millions of people, senior Iraqi defectors say. Terence Taylor, a UN weapons inspector in Iraq for four years up to 1997, believes Saddam's biological arsenal posed the greatest immediate threat. According to Taylor, president of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, Iraq has failed to account for 17 tons of growth media used for culturing anthrax and other biological agents, 4,000 tons of chemicals which could be used in the manufacture of VX nerve gas, and thousands of tons of chemical weapons munitions. (Times - UK) Three Lebanese soldiers from the intelligence service came under fire from armed Palestinians and were killed on Thursday while attempting to arrest a wanted Palestinian in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon. Ein el-Hilweh, with 75,000 people, is controlled by Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and other rival groups. (Washington Post/AP) "Before Sept. 11, it was just an opinion, 'I think we should hate the others,'" said Khaled M. Batarfi, managing editor of the Saudi daily Al Madina. "After Sept. 11, we found out ourselves that some of those thoughts brought actions that hurt us, that put all Muslims on trial." After scores of Saudi religious scholars and academics issued a manifesto this spring suggesting that Muslims might find common ground with the West, they were subjected to withering rebuke by those who accept the Wahhabi notion that Islam thrives on hostility toward infidels. (New York Times) Roa Salameh is a 12-year-old girl living in Bethlehem, and she wants to become a homicide bomber. The airwaves are filled with songs dedicated to martyrdom, and Palestinian television regularly runs music videos that pay tribute to martyrs. Itamar Marcus, of Palestinian Media Watch, says they tell Palestinian children what's expected of them. "What's expected of you is to write a farewell letter to your parents where you say how sweet martyrdom is and then go off and die for Allah." (FOX News) Forgotten amid all the excitement about the arrival of the largest contingent of American immigrants to Israel in years is the fact that many of the newcomers received grants from U.S. evangelical Christians, who regard the return of Jews to the Holy Land as part of an apocalyptic prophecy foretold in the Bible. Religious experts believe that some 30 million Christians have some Zionist beliefs. In addition, financial support to the settlements has doubled during the past 21 months, said Sondra Oster Baras, director of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, which runs an "Adopt-a-Settlement Program" with 40 pairings. (San Francisco Chronicle) Amjad Radwan was born in 1983 in Houston to an American mother and Saudi father who had met at the University of Dallas. When she was taken to Saudi Arabia as an infant, along with her older brother, Rasheed, her mother was shocked to learn that her husband Nizar already had a wife and family. When Ajmad's mother, Monica Stowers, said she wanted to return home, an Islamic court awarded Nizar custody because she was a Christian. In 1990 Stowers went back to Saudi Arabia, and Rasheed met her at the airport. They picked up Amjad at school and fled to the American Embassy, believing they would find refuge. In testimony to the House Government Reform Committee, Stowers says that Karla Reed, a State Department officer, coldly informed her that the American Embassy was "not a hotel," and brought in the Marines to eject her and her children. (Wall Street Journal) In an interview with Israeli Channel 2 news, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the Bush administration had concluded that the entire Palestinian Authority leadership should be replaced, and not just Yasser Arafat. "It's not just a question of one man," said Rice, "it's an entire political regime that needs to be changed, so that one man does not control the lives of the entire population." (Ha'aretz) A prisoner swap with Hizballah, including the return of businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers abducted in October 2000, is near, Israeli sources said on Friday. According to the Lebanese daily al-Mustakbal, West Bank Fatah head Marwan Barghouti will be exiled from the area as part of the exchange. Some 100 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners, together with the bodies of dozens of terrorists will be released to Hizballah as part of the deal. (Jerusalem Post) The IDF knows of at least 15 would-be homicide bombers who are ready and waiting to carry out attacks inside Israel, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Labor Party ministers Thursday. Palestinian terror organizations have also prepared several car bombs, he said - and if the IDF were not in the territories, these suicide bombers and car bombs would already have made their way into Israel. (Ha'aretz) In less than two decades, all of the countries in the "third" concentric circle threatening Israel's survival - Iran, Iraq, and Libya - will possess long-range, surface-to-surface missiles, and some will have chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons. In the future the Israel Air force may have to conduct long-range operations to deal with this threat. (Ha'aretz) Pups for Peace is a project by American Jews to train and provide sniffer dogs to Israel to help find Palestinian suicide bombers and attack them before they kill, Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said Thursday. The Los Angeles-based group has offered to buy the dogs and set up a school in the Golan Heights to train them and their Israeli handlers. The prevention of bombings like the one on Seder night at a Netanya hotel, where 29 people were killed, "would have been an easy one for a dog" stationed at the entrance with the task of sniffing out explosives, said the group's founder, Glenn Yago. (Jerusalem Post) "How, with our own hands, did we bring Lebanon to within 20 kilometers of my house?" asks Lieutenant Colonel Amir Baram, commander of paratroop battalion 890. Baram views the fighting in the territories as "satisfying work, with daily rewards for the sweat." "You don't have to work too hard to persuade a soldier of the justness of an operation when he sees bags of explosives that could have blown up outside his house." (Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
There is an urgent need to establish a border between Israel and the Palestinians, with defensive and barrier devices, open only at crossings established by mutual consent. Such a border will protect the two sides from each other, help stabilize their relations, and require them to internalize the concept of a border. Yet to establish such a border fence right now, without a peace agreement, would give the Israeli public only a temporary illusion of security. Yasir Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian information minister, tells Israelis from the peace camp that if Israel withdraws behind a fence, Palestinians will spend a day celebrating that most of the occupation has ended, and the next day will continue the intifada, in order to obtain the rest of their demands. (New York Times) Why is the U.S. government in so much denial about the motives and label to apply to Hesham Mohamed Hadayet? As Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes pointed out, Hadayet's crime "fits a well-established pattern." Rashid Baz, a Lebanese, opened fire on a van of Hassidic Jews in New York City in 1994. Ali Hasan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian professor from Gaza City, shot seven tourists--killing one--on top of the Empire State Building. Gamil El Batouty, an Egypt Air copilot, crashed a plane full of passengers leaving Kennedy Airport in 1999. (The author is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank set up after Sept. 11 to study terrorism.) (Los Angeles Times) "The hatred for Israel and for America's unwavering support of the Jewish state was so palpable it felt at times like hands around my throat," concludes the author after a visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia with the National Conference of Editorial Writers. (Detroit Free Press) The Coming Saudi Showdown - Simon Henderson (Weekly Standard)
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