|
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with the Fairness Project by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
|
|||||
|
To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Commander of Moscow Operation Connected to Bin Laden
- Dimitri Prokofiev
The head of the operation in the Moscow theater is Movsar Barayev, known as the contact point between the Chechen rebels and their sources of funding in Saudi Arabia, and who was indirectly connected to the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden.
See also Behind the Moscow Theater Attack: The Chechen-al Qaeda
Connection
- Mark Riebling and R.P. Eddy
(National Review)
Former Prisoner of Zion Ida Nudel and activist attorney Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner have asked visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State
William Burns to intervene with the leaders of the Palestinian
Authority (PA) to save the lives of three Arabs who are facing firing
squads.
See also PA Court Orders Firing Squad for "Collaborator"
(AP/New York Times)
Hostility to Wahhabi extremism is prevalent throughout the Muslim world.
Electric Fuel Receives $1M U.S. Grant for Electric Bus Trials - Badih Chayban
Electric Fuel Corp. of Israel announced yesterday that the U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) granted new funding of $1 million for its phase III of its zinc-air electric transit bus program.
|
News Resources - North America and Europe:
The Bush administration is closely monitoring a private lawsuit accusing members of the Saudi royal family of ties to al Qaeda, and may move in federal court to dismiss or delay the suit which was brought by relatives of Sept. 11 victims, according to administration officials. Government lawyers are trying to determine whether the case threatens Saudi-American relations, which would give them reason to block the suit that seeks $1 trillion in damages and is being pursued by nearly 3,000 of the relatives. (New York Times) President Bush's Middle East envoy William Burns told Palestinian leaders Thursday that they had no hope of renewing negotiations for an independent state until they took decisive action to stop "terrorism and violence." Burns is in Israel on the last stop of a regional tour to promote the White House "road map" for negotiations designed to culminate in an independent Palestinian state within four years. (Guardian - UK) See also Draft Text: The "Road Map" to a Solution for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict With the backing of the UN, EU, and Russia, the U.S. has presented a three-stage, performance-based "road map to a permanent two-state solution." (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) A panel sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and chaired by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman has concluded that the task of protecting the nation is so complicated and expensive that the government's multibillion-dollar efforts will barely dent the problem. (Washington Post) "For every two to four al Qaeda members killed in a week, they are recruiting five to six more," says Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on al Qaeda at St. Andrews University in Scotland. "As long as people believe they are waging a jihad for God, many people will support it and join it." (Christian Science Monitor) A high-level Defense Department team is sifting through intelligence information, looking for links between Iraq and the al Qaeda terror network, Pentagon officials said Thursday. The team, created in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is using powerful computers and other methods to analyze information about Iraq gathered by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other spy agencies. (AP/WTOP Radio)
News Resources - Israel and Mideast:
IDF troops entered the West Bank city of Jenin Friday in a sweeping operation aimed at arresting wanted men and capturing munitions, in response to the homicide bus bombing Monday by an Islamic Jihad cell operating out of that city. "Recently we eased off Jenin and got the bombing in return," a senior Israeli commander said. "Given the new developments we have to go in massively despite the attendant discomforts to the locals." The operation is expected to last several days. (Ha'aretz) See also Talking Points: IDF Defensive Operations in Jenin Although the final list has not been published officially, it is already clear there aren't many innovations in Yasser Arafat's planned new cabinet. The one truly significant change is the appointment of Fatah veteran Hanni al Hassan as interior minister instead of Razak Abdel Yahya. The Palestinian interior minister is responsible for the Palestinian Authority's security forces, and up until a few months ago, Arafat held the position. But he was forced to hand it over to Yahya after he was pressed for reforms in the security apparatus. Yahya's appointment did not please Fatah party leaders, who wanted a Fatah man in the post and not the independent Yahya. (Ha'aretz) Recent violent incidents between Jewish and Palestinian villagers have occurred near Itamar in Samaria, where Palestinian gunmen have killed nine Israelis over the past two years [including a mother and her three sons inside their home, and three Israeli teenagers playing basketball]. Settlement movement leaders said, ''unfortunately in every group there are extremist people who take advantage of the situation. Those who are not keeping the law must be arrested and prosecuted.'' (Boston Globe) Appearing Tuesday before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Israeli army Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said the army will henceforth provide protection for the Palestinian farmers against harassment. (Washington Times) An army captain explained: "There are places where they can harvest the crop and places where they cannot. Those are army orders - not demands of settlers - in order to prevent them from approaching a settlement and perpetrating a terrorist attack....We are letting them harvest in most places. That is also in the army's interest. They are even guarded." (Ha'aretz) Iran has released three Jews convicted of spying for Israel and the U.S. 3 1/2 years ago. David Beit-Ya'akov and Farzad Kashi had been sentenced to six years in prison, and Shaharouk Faknahad, had been sentenced to five years. The three were among the 13 Jews of Shiraz arrested for spying. Four had been released previously, leaving five of the original group still jailed. (Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The "road map" outlined by President Bush in his negotiations with Prime Minister Sharon was primarily intended to accomplish the tactical, short-term goal of making it easier for central Arab powers to cooperate with the U.S. against Iraq. The new American map, unlike the Mitchell Report, did not specifically call on Israel to stop all settlement activity as soon as an effective cease-fire was implemented. (Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies - Tel Aviv University) So long as Abu Mazen and his like avoid engaging Arafat or Hamas in a real test of strength, and make do with grumbling, threats, and position papers, there won't be any serious change in the situation and all the attempts at de-escalation will be overtaken by the war in Iraq (or whatever last minute formula is found to replace it). Arafat thinks that another Gulf War will lead to an international conference a la Madrid. He is hoping to hold on until then. His rivals in the Fatah leadership, however, argue that that is a dangerous gamble, and that Sharon will exploit the coming period to hasten the implosion of the Palestinian Authority. (Jerusalem Report) Arab leaders have become adept at coping with the Arab street, which is why not a single one of them has ever been toppled by it. The Arab basement, though, is a new and much more dangerous phenomenon. These are small groups of super-empowered angry men who have slipped away from the street into underground cells, but with global reach and ambitions. Unlike the Arab street, no diplomacy can defuse the Arab basement. It doesn't want a smaller Israel, it wants no Israel; it doesn't want a reformed Saudi monarchy; it wants no Saudi monarchy. (New York Times) At least 17 relatively major Iraqi opposition parties have base or satellite operations in Damascus, as do many lesser parties. The overwhelming America-related sentiment of every Iraqi I interviewed was gratitude. But even now, even from the people who are the most eager for the United States to get in there, one hears clear notes of apprehension about how long America plans to stay. (National Journal) Islamic extremism, anti-American incitement, and willing and unwilling support for terrorist organizations have fastened themselves deep into the societies and cultures of the Middle East. Osama bin Laden's terrorism is not the work only of a few sociopathic killers: it is the product of a wide and deep complicity throughout the Arab world. Many Europeans with an interest in the Arab world and its oil have urged America to learn to live with terror: to be realistic, to adjust, to accommodate - as they have had to do. And it is America's refusal to be realistic in this way that, more than anything else, has puzzled, vexed, and even enraged so many in Europe and in Britain. (Telegraph - UK) Weekend Features:
For the past two years, Israel's bus drivers have been thrust onto the front lines as their vehicles become the ideal target for suicide bombers determined to wreak havoc and instill fear across Israeli society. (NBC News) The Islamic world is engaged in a cultural war with the West and the worst is still to come, Italian author Oriana Fallaci told a receptive audience at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington Tuesday. (Washington Times) Five professors who helped launch a national movement to pressure colleges to divest from Israel defended their cause in the face of emotional protests from an audience of 400 students and others - many of them pro-Israel - at Harvard Law School. The student group that organized the forum, Justice for Palestine, chose not to invite an antidivestment speaker, and permitted critics of divestment to ask questions only after the speeches concluded. Some audience members belittled the professors as ivory-tower academics who were simplifying the conflict in the Middle East by placing blame on Israel. Suzanne Gershowitz, a Harvard junior who helped organize a pro-Israel rally with students from MIT, Boston University, Brandeis, and other schools, criticized the forum as an ''attempted teach-in'' with the five professors controlling the discussion and slanting it in favor of divestment. (Boston Globe) UNESCO and the Permanent Delegation of Israel to the Organization in Paris are celebrating the inscription of two Israeli sites of "outstanding universal value" - the fortress of Masada and the Old City of Acco - on the World Heritage List. A reception was held at the organization's Paris headquarters on Oct. 24, in partnership with the Consistoire de Paris. (UNESCO) 41 Reform rabbis are arriving in Israel on Sunday for a week-long solidarity mission to Jerusalem, Haifa, and Ariel. "This is a non-ideological mission to express our solidarity with the people of Israel during this most difficult time," said the executive director of ARZA-World Union, North America, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, who is heading the mission. For the upcoming mission, Hirsch said he substituted meetings with politicians and Palestinian groups with visits to victims of terrorism and a briefing in Ariel on Israel's security situation. Hirsch said that the rabbis have a humanitarian purpose for visiting West Bank communities: "We want to go there because we want to identify with the suffering of our people wherever they may live, and [show] our refusal to go along with the distinction our enemies make between a baby in Ariel and a baby in Tel Aviv." The mission is arriving just days after 120 Reform rabbis signed a statement condemning Palestinian terrorism unconditionally, and rejecting the idea that a solution to the conflict can be imposed - an effort initiated by Rabbi Michael Boyden of Hod Hasharon in Israel. (Jerusalem Post) 209 Cleveland-area Jews arrived on a weeklong mission to Israel, including seven rabbis representing the three principal streams of Judaism - Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Also arriving in Israel this week are missions from cities in California, Tennessee, and Alabama. Murray Kudroff, 59, said "Drop everything and just go. Just being here means saying, 'They're trying to scare us off, but it won't work.' We have to be here and to take the time and effort to show what's important." (Cleveland Plain Dealer) IDF Defensive Operations in Jenin - (Israel Defense Forces)
To subscribe to the Daily Alert, please send a blank email message to: [email protected] To unsubscribe to the Daily Alert, please send a blank email message to: [email protected] |
||||