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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:
Bin Laden is Alive:
Saudi Ex-Chief of Intelligence: Bin Laden Alive
U.S. Spy Satellite Reveals Bin Laden Still Alive
Bin Laden Alive Says "Ex-Taliban Diplomat"
Voice on Tape Said to be Bin Laden's |
News Resources - North America and Europe:
Israel expects to receive a 72-hour notice from the U.S. in advance of any military action against Iraq, according to a report in Yediot Ahronot on Sunday. The Americans are also to provide up-to-the-minute satellite information that should detect the launch of any Iraqi Scud missiles headed toward Israel. (Toronto Star/AP) A huge explosion Sunday left a French supertanker blazing off the Yemeni coast. "The crew saw a high-speed vessel approaching on the starboard side - an explosion followed," said Jacques Moizan, director of Euronav, which owns the tanker. The blast occurred two years after a small boat loaded with explosives rammed the U.S. Navy warship Cole in the harbor at Aden, killing 17 American sailors, in an attack U.S. officials attribute to al Qaeda. (Guardian - UK) Mr. Blair made two public calls for a revival of negotiations aimed at securing a final Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But the Guardian has learned that Mr. Bush has blocked the initiative and has made it clear to Mr. Blair that he does not want such talks to be held in the near future. (Guardian - UK) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the military brass see Gaza as the next front in the Israeli drive to smash ''terrorist infrastructure.'' The past six months have seen more than 1,500 attacks against Israeli military positions or Jewish settlements in Gaza, including 682 gun battles, 320 grenade ambushes, 284 mortar assaults, and 23 rocket attacks. Some 141 Palestinian combatants have been killed and 400 wounded since April. (Boston Globe) Israel has deployed an operational missile defense and is ready to use it to protect Tel Aviv and other major population centers if they come under fire from Iraq's arsenal of Scud missiles. Known as the Arrow, the system is designed to avoid the pitfalls of the American Patriot system, which Israelis say had little success in stopping Iraq's Scud missile attacks during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. (New York Times) Six months after they raided the SAAR Foundation - a tight-knit cluster of prominent Muslim groups funded by wealthy Saudis - federal agents say they are pursuing the alleged transfer of millions of dollars to two overseas bankers designated by the U.S. government as terrorist financiers. (Washington Post) Richard Perle, Chairman of the Defense Policy Board of the Department of Defense, told Meet the Press on Sunday that Iraq has been involved with al Qaeda over a long period of time. "The more we look, the more we�re finding about the relationship between Saddam Hussein and elements of al Qaeda....There is convincing evidence that not only Mohammed Atta, but others among the hijackers met with the Iraqi intelligence," said Perle. (MSNBC) More than 300 university and college presidents have signed a statement calling for "intimidation-free" campuses. "In the past few months, students who are Jewish or supporters of Israel's right to exist - Zionists - have received death threats and threats of violence," said the statement, distributed by the American Jewish Committee. (New York Times)
News Resources - Israel and Mideast:
In response to a growing number of Kassem rocket firings and mortar attacks on Israeli communities, IDF soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters raided a Hamas stronghold in Khan Yunis in Gaza Monday morning, killing 12 Palestinians and wounding 110. Brig. Gen. Israel Ziff said that during the operation, troops met heavy resistance from Palestinian gunmen. As troops were beginning to withdraw, many armed men gathered in the streets. "They fired a lot and threw grenades. There was a battle there," Ziff said. "The helicopter aimed at this armed group and hit them." (Jerusalem Post) Lebanon's Wazzani water diversion plan is an example of the Arab world's perception that the U.S. has tied Israel's hands before its impending attack on Iraq, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said Sunday. Lebanon is set to start experimental pumping from the river today, and to inaugurate the facility next week. The issue is expected to be discussed when Sharon meets Bush in Washington on October 16. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Is President Bush's purpose in Iraq limited to the destruction of all its present and potential weapons of mass destruction? Or is the goal "regime change" - to overthrow Saddam Hussein, liberate the Iraqi people, and remove the threat of terrorism planned against the U.S.? The answer I hope Bush will give is that the two purposes are inseparable; one cannot be achieved without the other. (New York Times) One wonders what Ben-Gurion - who probably could have engineered a comprehensive rather than a partial transfer in 1948, but refrained - would have made of all this, were he somehow resurrected. Perhaps he would now regret his restraint. Perhaps, had he gone the whole hog, today's Middle East would be a healthier, less violent place, with a Jewish state between Jordan and the Mediterranean and a Palestinian Arab state in Transjordan. (Guardian - UK) How many times have we heard: "The United States is partly to blame for world terrorism because it has abused and exploited the Muslim world"? This is an enormous lie and one that should be stopped dead in its tracks. The real reason that many Muslims hate America is that it supports and defends Israel. America is protecting millions of Jews from another mass homicide as sure as Yasser Arafat is a corrupt incompetent. (Nashville City Paper) IDF: No Missiles in Western Iraq Interview with Major General Aharon Ze'evi, head of IDF Intelligence:
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