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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DAILY ALERT

November 28, 2002
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In-Depth Issue:

3,000 Trained for Terror - Martin Chulov (The Australian)

    Terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah and radical Muslim organizations across Indonesia and Malaysia formed links with al Qaeda nine years ago, and have sent up to 3,000 followers to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan since the late 1970s, a new report by U.S. academic Zachary Abuza reveals.
    "Most southeast Asians returned and set about committing themselves to running jihads at home, recruiting followers in an attempt to create Islamic states governed by Sharia law," says the report, "Tentacles of Terror - al Qaeda's Southeast Asian Network."

Death Toll from 2 Years of Violence (Cleveland Plain Dealer/AP)

  • Total deaths: 678 on the Israeli side.
        This figure includes a Greek Orthodox monk shot by a Palestinian gunman while driving to a desert monastery in the West Bank, three Romanian and five Chinese migrant workers killed in Palestinian attacks, a Turkish man and a Swiss woman killed by Palestinian gunmen while serving as European monitors in Hebron, and a French tourist and Scottish student killed in a suicide attack.
  • Palestinian suicide bombers: 89.
  • Victims of suicide bombers: 309.
  • Israeli soldiers killed: 191.
  • Jewish settlers killed in the West Bank and Gaza: 131.
  • Suspected Palestinian "collaborators" killed: 56.
  • U.S. citizens killed: 32.

    International Energy Agency to Pump Oil if War Disrupts Supplies (SmartMoneyi.com/Dow Jones)

        The International Energy Agency, which controls huge inventories of oil for emergency use, has quietly prepared for the possibility of war in Iraq and a disruption in oil supplies from the Middle East, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.
        The IEA is now ready to pump large quantities of oil into world markets at short notice if members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are either unable or unwilling to prevent a supply shortfall.

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  • 3 Israeli Tourists Murdered in Kenya
    A car bomb exploded Thursday in the lobby of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, where many Israelis were staying. Among the dead were 3 Israeli tourists, including 2 children, as well as 6 Kenyans. More than 80 were reported wounded, including 17 Israelis.
        At about the same time, two missiles were fired toward an Israeli Arkia charter aircraft that had just taken off from Mombasa airport. The aircraft was slightly damaged but continued toward Israel where it landed safely. Israel suspects al Qaeda is behind the two attacks.
        Kenya was the scene of a terrorist attack on Aug. 7, 1998, when a car bomb blast outside the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi killed 219 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded 5,000. (CNN/Yediot Ahronot/Jerusalem Post)
  • Canada Outlaws Hamas, But Not Hizballah
    The Canadian government Wednesday named the Palestinian group Hamas an outlawed terror group, but failed to add Hizballah to the list. (Globe and Mail - Canada)
  • Germany to Give Israel Patriot Missiles
    Germany has a "moral duty'' to protect Israel and will provide Patriot anti-missile systems to help its defense against Iraq if war erupts in the Middle East, said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Tuesday in Die Zeit. The German air force has 30 Patriot missile systems in service, and Die Welt said Israel wants them to strengthen its defense against Iraqi missiles. (Guardian - UK/AP)
  • On Gaza's Front Lines with the Givati Brigade - Mitch Potter
    The Israeli army agreed to allow a foreign reporter in their midst. Tonight's action could involve Kalashnikov fire or attacks by 120mm mortar launchers or RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). It could even mean a Qassam III rocket, the latest and farthest-ranging device in the homemade Palestinian arsenal. But whatever the delivery system, something explosive will happen. It always does. (Toronto Star)
  • U.S. Woos Iraqi Shiites - Michael R. Gordon
    Bush administration officials have invited Ayatollah Muhammad Bakir al-Hakim, an Iraqi Shiite living in exile in Tehran, to send a representative to a Dec. 10 meeting of Iraqi opposition leaders in London. An estimated 55 percent of Iraqis are Shiites. (New York Times)

    • News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:

  • IDF Strives to Avoid Harming Civilians in Nablus - Amos Harel
    For the first time in the West Bank, Nablus has displayed a phenomenon which had been seen only at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Children are not content with stone throwing; they also use Molotov cocktails, makeshift hand grenades, and even small bombs. The soldiers refrain from opening fire against young Palestinians. (Ha'aretz/AP)
  • Israel Rejects New Technology Proliferation Code - Aluf Benn
    Israel announced Monday that it would not join a new International Code of Conduct aimed at blocking proliferation of ballistic missile technology. The ICOC calls on member countries to behave transparently in matters of missiles and satellite launches, but Israel argues that transparency would harm its national security. In the political reality of the Middle East, reporting on missile launches would only escalate the arms race instead of reducing proliferation. "The code does not include practical steps for halting proliferation, and the member states do not provide guarantees in the form of arrangements for oversight regarding the export of missiles to problematic users," said the Foreign Ministry. (Ha'aretz)
  • King Names Jew, Women to Bahrain's Upper Chamber
    Bahrain's King Hamad named the kingdom's 40-member Consultative Council on Saturday, including a Jew and six women. The Jew, Ibrahim Dawood Ibrahim Nonoo, was also on the previous council formed back in September 2000. Nonoo, whose family hails from Iraq but has lived in the kingdom for around a century, runs Bahrain Financing, one of the kingdom's most important foreign currency operations, according to AFP. (Al Bawaba)

    • Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

  • No More Fanaticism as Usual - Salman Rushdie
    As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art, and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics, and violence junkies, why are Muslims not screaming? You can't keep people's minds, feelings, and needs in jail forever, no matter how brutal your inquisitions. The Islamic world today is being held prisoner, not by Western but by Islamic captors, who are fighting to keep closed a world that a badly outnumbered few are trying to open. As long as the majority remains silent, this will be a tough war to win. (New York Times)
  • Saddam Conceals Weapons Well - Khidhir Hamza
    As the former head of Saddam's nuclear-weapons program, I am often asked what the UN inspectors should be looking for. In 1980, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a massive report by the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) group which explains the telltale signs of nuclear-weapons programs. The volume was translated into Arabic and became must-reading for all Iraqi department heads, offering a handy how-to guide for throwing inspectors off course. (USA Today)
  • The Cold Peace - Ashraf Khalil and Issandr El Amrani
    Twenty-five years ago on 19 November 1977, the late President Anwar Sadat shocked the world by flying to Jerusalem, addressing the Israeli Knesset, and calling for peace with a country that Egypt had confronted in four wars, paving the way for the Camp David Peace Accords and effectively inventing the concept of a Middle East peace process. A quarter of a century later, the treaty that his trip spawned still stands, and a nervy, but lasting, peace between the peoples endures.
        But relations between Egypt and Israeli are considered by many on both sides to be at an all-time post-Camp David low. In August, when President Bush threatened to withhold future U.S. aid (but not the $2 billion in annual Camp David funds) over the jailing of activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, many in Egypt called for the government to simply walk away from its Camp David obligations. (Cairo Times)

    • Talking Points:

    Checkpoints Really Do Save Lives - David Ratner (Ha'aretz)

    • If the soldiers manning a busy checkpoint south of Nablus are not alert, they might let through a car carrying a bomb or a Palestinian on his way to a terror attack. The soldiers in this reserve unit are from the armored corps, and the checkpoint commanders are actually tank commanders.
    • Three times in the last month, according to battalion commander Lt. Col. Shlomo, his soldiers prevented a terrorist attack.
      • On November 2, a van with Israeli license plates carrying boxes of jeans pulled up at the checkpoint. Comparing the ID cards of the people in the van with the list of wanted men provided to troops at every checkpoint revealed that one of the passengers was wanted. The van was unloaded. When they got to the very last box, it was heavier than the rest. Inside was an explosive belt that one of the passengers was taking to a suicide bomber.
      • On November 16, a taxi with a Israeli license plate pulled up to the checkpoint. The soldiers found two computers in the trunk that seemed very heavy. Opening the boxes, they found two explosive belts.
      • Last Thursday, a patrol from the battalion stopped a Palestinian jeep and found two men suspected of planning a suicide bombing and two assault rifles with ammunition.

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