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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:
Arafat Accused of Stashing Millions
"We have recently identified the transfer abroad of tremendous sums by Palestinian leaders who are preparing nest eggs for the future," a senior Israeli political figure told Yediot Ahronot.
Population Trends in Jerusalem's Old City
According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, the proportion of Jews in Jerusalem's Old City increased from 8.6% (2,802) in 1995 to 11.3% (3,800) in 2002.
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News Resources - USA and Europe:
Secretary of State Powell is encouraging a plan that would give the Palestinians a state while moving Arafat into a figurehead presidency with limited powers. Washington badly wants to avoid the embarrassment of having Arafat run for election and win handily. (Newsweek) The last time I was in Jerusalem was in 1986 when I was working with the Israeli government on a secret initiative that came to be called "Iran-Contra." The much maligned people of this nation have made the Negev bloom, the skyline of Tel Aviv and the hills around the New City of Jerusalem bristle with high-rise businesses and condos in a building boom that rivals that of any nation on Earth. And they have done it all with one hand holding a weapon to protect themselves from angry, resentful, and bitter neighbors. (Washington Times) When a fire broke out at a girls' school in Mecca, a member of the muttawa - morality vigilantes - prevented firefighters from entering the building because some of the fleeing girls had left their headscarves behind, and their would-be rescuers were men. Fifteen girls died and more than 40 were injured. All women in Saudi Arabia live in a kind of gender apartheid, separate and unequal. In a confidential poll of men age 25-41 conducted by the Saudi intelligence agency in October 2001, 95% approved of Osama bin Laden�s cause. (Newsweek) American Jews are emigrating to Israel in larger numbers, spurred by a growth in anti-Semitism and a belief that they might as well face terrorism in their ancestral homeland as in the United States. Last year 1,378 American Jews emigrated to Israel, while this year almost 1,800 have arrived so far. The new arrivals are mostly young professionals, and many said the events surrounding September 11 triggered their move. A recent planeload with 400 new arrivals from America and Canada was supported by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, with which U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other leading American figures are associated. (Daily Telegraph - UK) What little is left of 25 suicide bombers and snipers has been piling up for weeks in the steel refrigerators of a Jaffa forensic lab. Lab director Dr. Yehuda Hiss can pick out the bomber at a glance from among the scraps of flesh and bone spread across the metal tables. The bombs are cinched about the waist, and the explosion tends to send the killer's feet and head flying out of fire's range. When the smoke clears, that's usually all that's left. "You know how many of these I've done?" Hiss says. "I can tell in a second." (Los Angeles Times) One of the most prominent commentators on the war against terrorism, and particularly on the role of the Saudis, has been dismissed from his post as an editorial writer at the Voice of America. [See commentary by Stephen Schwartz below.] (FrontPage Magazine) See also State Out of Step by William Safire (New York Times). Arafat is being personally blamed by his own people, as never before, for, as one Palestinian businessman puts it, "all of their miseries." PA financial corruption, Arafat's marked lack of leadership, and the absence of any clear direction or gains from almost two years of the intifada have caused widespread resentment. (Jerusalem Report) When Palestinian firefighters in Kalkilya were unable to extinguish a burning four-story building on Monday, two Israeli fire stations in the territories - in Ariel and Karnei Shomron - sent help. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Barak suggested at Camp David that the U.S. and Israel conclude a formal mutual defense treaty. Barak also asked for a $35 billion financial aid package - $10 billion to compensate Palestinian refugees, $10 billion for water desalination plants, and $15 billion for Israel. Of this sum, $3-5 billion would be used to upgrade and modernize the IDF, $2.5 billion to redeploy inside the green line, $1 billion to construct new training facilities, $2 billion to construct new roads and fences, and $3 billion for the expenses of removing Israeli settlers. (The author served for 8 years as a White House advisor on Middle East issues.) (bitterlemons.org) A steady diet of violent rhetoric is served up by the American Muslim community media - periodicals with names like The Minaret, Islamic Horizons, the Weekly Mirror International, and the Muslim Observer,which toe the anti-American, anti-Israel line of Saudi Arabia's Islamofascist Wahhabi sect. (Weekly Standard) Europeans expend an awful lot of energy explaining why nothing can change, but after the Bush speech, Arafat is toast. Israel knows it, the Arabs know it, Hamas knows it, his Fatah cronies know it. The only folks who haven't figured it out are senior British civil servants, European foreign ministers, and the Danish prime minister. (Chicago Sun-Times) Agreement to a right of return by Palestinians to Israel means an end to the Zionist vision, meaning the vision of a Jewish, democratic state. Yet, accepting a limited number of Palestinian refugees, agreed upon in negotiations, does not contradict Israel's rejection of the principle of the right of return. (Ha'aretz) Whether provisional or permanent, an independent Palestinian state will be a danger to Israel and the rest of the Middle East so long as its citizens believe, as the majority does now, that their ultimate goal is the destruction of Israel. (Washington Times) Israeli Defense Minister Meets Egyptian President - Amos Harel (Ha'aretz) Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the following during their meeting in Alexandria on Monday:
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