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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:
Government Reform in the Palestinian Authority - Mu'awiya Al-Masri
Challenges for the New PA Finance Minister
Useful Reference:
607 People Murdered by Palestinian Terrorists since September 2000
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News Resources - USA and Europe:
According to a British government dossier containing a detailed assessment of Saddam Hussein�s weapons of mass destruction program, which has been circulated to the Prime Minister and other senior Cabinet ministers, Saddam Hussein is planning to arm a Palestinian terrorist group with biological weapons to attack either American or Israeli targets. (Times - UK) Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said, "The terrorists in the Palestinian community have taken over leadership of the Palestinian movement and their goal is not to have a Palestinian state and an Israeli state. Their goal is to destroy Israel." There's very ample evidence that money was sent from Saudi Arabia to Hamas and other terrorists groups claiming credit for bombings such as those that occurred last week killing five Americans, he said. (FOX News) According to a 700-page report by Spanish authorities, the product of several years of wiretaps of Islamic militants, the Al Qaeda cell that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, along with several others in Europe, made up a network that relied on clusters of religiously motivated Muslims from North Africa who had settled in Spain in the mid-1990s. To this day, Europe remains Al Qaeda's forward position for logistics, financing, and recruitment. An 11-month dragnet across Europe has resulted in the arrests and questioning of more than 200 people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda, in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, England, and the Netherlands. (Boston Globe)
News Resources - Israel and Mideast: A Palestinian homicide bomber blew up a bus packed with soldiers returning to their bases Sunday morning near Mt. Meron in northern Israel, murdering or wounding nearly all of the passengers. As soldiers congregated by the back door as the bus approached their stop, one of the passengers suddenly stood up, approached the soldiers, and set off his explosives. The driver, Ronen Shmuel, 31, had survived a previous bombing of his bus in Jerusalem in 1995 and had moved to the north to escape the danger. (Jerusalem Post/Maariv) Avi Volanski, 29, and his pregnant wife Avital, 27, of Eli, were murdered, and one of their two children in the back seat, aged 2, was injured moderately when Palestinian terrorists opened fire on their car with automatic weapons near their home late Sunday night. (Ha'aretz) A Palestinian terrorist murdered a telephone company guard near Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday. In the ensuing gunbattle, another person was killed and 16 wounded. Ten more Israelis were wounded in 3 additional bombing and shooting attacks on Sunday. (Jerusalem Post) The Bush administration has acquired evidence that Jordan's King Abdullah II, once a cornerstone of U.S. policy against Iraq, is in fact working closely with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, according to senior political sources in London. In addition to Abdullah's relationship with Saddam, the sources said he also has a long-standing friendship with Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusai, with whom he spent most of his vacations during the 1990s before becoming king. (Jerusalem Post) For an editorial critique of this issue, see Who Lost Jordan? (New York Sun) The IDF will ask the Supreme Court to reject requirements that the army give terrorists' relatives prior warning before demolishing their houses, since this would make IDF soldiers vulnerable to attack. The IDF demolished the houses of two suicide terrorists on Friday and nine more on Sunday. A special military committee has been set up to debate the expulsion of relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers to Gaza. On Thursday, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein told senior security officials that it was legal to expel to Gaza suicide bombers' relatives who have been proven to be involved in terror activities. (Ha'aretz) Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has asked Israel's embassy in Paris to investigate launching a libel claim against the French weekly L'Express, which published a quote suggesting that Peres had stated "Arafat needs to die from gunfire, though not from our bullets." Peres said, "There's no basis for the report, which entirely contradicts my view." (Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel): An attack on Hebrew University, where a vocal minority of professors have led in championing the Palestinian cause, is like an attack on a meeting of Peace Now. The attack is yet another revolting example of the complete moral depravity of the popular leaders of the Palestinian national movement. Every resource that comes into Palestinian hands is somehow channeled into this life-destroying effort. Gaining control over significant areas of the West Bank was a great bonanza for these criminals, and a great step forward on the path to exterminating the Jewish inhabitants of Israel. (Jerusalem Post) Given its genocidal intentions and actions, distinguishing between the "political," "spiritual," and "military" leaders of Hamas is ludicrous and offensive. Would it have mattered if Nazi brown shirts also ran food kitchens? How does calling Yassin a "spiritual" leader show respect for religion in general and Islam in particular? (Jerusalem Post) While outside pressure forced Arafat to undertake some visible steps, it also gave him the pretext to fortify his position. For example, he dismissed some of the security chiefs who had built up independent power bases and replaced them with personal loyalists more dependent on him. (Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies) When an Egyptian president we give $2 billion a year to jails a pro-American democracy advocate, I'm "outraged" and expect America to do something about it. (New York Times) Talking Points:
The IDF's Working Plan
- Amir Oren (Ha'aretz)
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