|
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:
Analysts: Saddam Might "Scorch" Iraq in Attack - Barbara Starr and Mike Mount (CNN)
Saddam Hussein is preparing a "scorched earth policy" in which he might torch oil wells, destroy power plants, and blow up food storage facilities if Iraq is invaded or his hold on power threatened, U.S. military officials believe.
Rapid Buildup in Gulf on Horizon
- Vernon Loeb and Bradley Graham (Washington Post)
The U.S. military is poised to begin a rapid and visible buildup of forces in the Persian Gulf early next month involving 50,000 combat troops, aircraft, armor, and tens of thousands of reservists, senior defense officials said.
"Not Free" Trend Cited in Islamic Nations - Tom Carter (Washington Times)
More than half of the nations governed by authoritarian rulers have Muslim majorities, according to a new report by the human rights group Freedom House.
|
News Resources - North America and Europe:
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that Iraq's declaration of its weapons of mass destruction programs "totally fails" to meet UN Security Council requirements for full disclosure and constitutes "another material breach" of UN resolutions. But he indicated that a final determination, and a decision on whether to disarm Iraq with military force, will not be made for several weeks. (Washington Post) Text of Powell's remarks (U.S. State Department) A massive British task force will be heading for Iraq within four weeks. More than 40,000 Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force personnel, as well as about 100 tanks, will contribute to a U.S.-led coalition army of more than 250,000, which could go into action as early as the end of next month. The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal will be in the Gulf next month for exercises, supported by a destroyer, a frigate, and two submarines. (Independent-UK) A leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, his wife, and five employees of a Texas computer company have been charged with breaking U.S. laws that ban dealing in terrorist funds, officials said on Wednesday. A 33-count indictment by a federal grand jury in Dallas named Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas political leader who was deported from the U.S. in 1997. The vice president of InfoCom Corp., Ghassan Elashi, and four of his brothers were also charged. Elashi is chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., which was shut down last year after being designated by the government as a terrorist group. (Reuters) U.S. intelligence believes that Iraq possessed some two dozen hidden Scuds when the previous team of UN inspectors left the country in 1998; missile experts say that with proper maintenance they should work fine. Since then, Baghdad may have bought or built more. The dangers posed by Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear capacities are multiplied if Iraq can arm missiles with these weapons and strike its neighbors at arm's length. (Time) A 20-minute television documentary describing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "bloody bulldozer who belongs to a racist military institution that has been spilling Arab blood since 1948" has been shown several times on Egyptian TV since April. Raanan Gissin, Sharon's aide, said, "In the past few months we are seeing an intensified campaign of anti-Semitism against Israel using the most vilifying sources." In apparent response to Israeli complaints, the director of Nile News Channel, Sameha Dahroug, posted a memo in the Cairo offices of the station on Dec. 2 saying any rebroadcast of the documentary was "completely prohibited." (San Francisco Chronicle/AP) Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has ruled in the case of a Palestinian woman with U.S. citizenship that a ban on land sales to Palestinians still applies to one who has taken another nationality, An-Nahar daily reported Tuesday. The Lebanese parliament angered human rights organizations when it passed a law a year ago banning Palestinians from acquiring property in Lebanon. The 376,000 Palestinian refugees living in a dozen camps across Lebanon are subject to severe discrimination by the authorities, for fear that if they settle in the country they will upset its delicate religious balance. (Middle East Online - London)
News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
Rabbi Yitzhak Arama, 40, the spiritual leader of the Gush Katif community of Netzer Hazani and father of 6, was murdered Friday morning in a Palestinian terrorist ambush while driving with his family on the Kissufim road in the Gaza district. (Ha'aretz) Hundreds of policemen and security services personnel evacuated settlers and their supporters Thursday from the outpost that was established at the site of the clash last month in Hebron in which terrorists killed 12 Israelis. Both sides showed restraint, and leaders of the settler movement were active in defusing tensions. The IDF had already set up a defensive position at the site, which is now reinforced following the evacuation, to provide more security to those who use the pathway leading from the Tomb of the Patriarchs to Kiryat Arba. (Ha'aretz) Yasser Arafat has taken over responsibility for the Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem portfolio by deposing prominent Palestinian peace activist Prof. Sari Nusseibeh. A senior Palestinian official said that Nusseibeh's removal appears to be part of a pattern of eccentric behavior exhibited by Arafat. The official mentioned, for example, Arafat's announcement that East Jerusalem publisher Hanna Siniora would be the PA's ambassador in Washington, but when the prospective envoy arrived in the U.S. capital, Arafat backed down from the appointment. Recent visitors to Arafat's office in the Muqata said his behavior has become strange. They said he was not focused, spoke in a confused manner, and his lips are shaking again, the result of neurological damage that followed an airplane crash in the Libyan desert that Arafat survived. (Ha'aretz) Former U.S. Congressman and Middle East peace activist Wayne Owens, 65, died Wednesday night during a walk along the beach in Tel Aviv, apparently of a heart attack. Owens was president of the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, and met regularly with Middle East leaders in an attempt to foster peace. (Ha'aretz) The navies of Israel, the U.S., and Turkey will hold joint maneuvers in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel on January 1, 2003. The joint exercise will concentrate on search-and-rescue operations for sailors and vessels in distress. The exercise, whose aim is to improve cooperation among the three navies, has taken place every year since 1998. (Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The U.S. military is not quite ready for war, nor has U.S. diplomacy nailed down support from all the countries that should be part of a coalition. The administration could take the time it needs to "study" the Iraqi declaration, discussing its falsehoods and fabrications with allied governments until it has lined up all the necessary political and military ducks. Once the best case has been made and the preparations completed (probably in a few weeks), President Bush could announce that, in accordance with UN Resolution 1441, we and our allies have concluded that Iraq is in material breach of the 1991 cease-fire resolution and therefore the U.S. will lead a coalition to disarm Iraq by force. (Los Angeles Times) During his visit to Washington, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz got sympathetic receptions from the Pentagon, State Department, and White House. The meetings went longer than planned, the atmosphere was hearty, and there was plenty of readiness to help. He now has a direct line to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. It wasn't Mofaz's charm, of course, behind much of that warmth. The Americans want to make sure they keep Israel happy in the coming months so it doesn't get in the way of their plans for Iraq. As a result, they reiterated promises to act during the initial stages of the war against any missile launchers in western Iraq, as well as offer help to the home front. (Ha'aretz) The Palestinian uprising has failed. More than two years after its outbreak, the Palestinians cannot point to one significant achievement. No Arab country came to their rescue. Neither Egypt nor Jordan cut ties with Israel. The Palestinian Authority has all but collapsed, its leadership discredited. Efforts to internationalize the conflict have so far failed, as have attempts to decisively isolate Israel. (Guardian-UK) PBS's grasp of Islam far exceeds that of Muslim sheiks who call for holy war. If PBS's Islamic theology is correct, then Islam stands as one of the greatest misunderstandings in history. For a religion not of the sword, as PBS insists, Muhammad's followers wielded it quite frequently, spreading Islam by force of arms and conquering parts of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Russia, the Balkans, North Africa, the Middle East, Persia, Christian Byzantium, and India. (AmericanProwler) Weekend Features:
Pro-Arab and pro-Israeli web surfers have launched an online battle as they cast hundreds of thousands of votes for Yasser Arafat or Ariel Sharon in Time magazine's Person of the Year poll. When Arafat suddenly jumped to first place with more than 30% of the ballots cast, supporters of Sharon countered with more than 200,000 votes. (vnunet.com-UK) A young Kuwaiti computer hacker has been praised for causing the collapse of the Iraqi information ministry website after loading it with viruses. The 19-year-old, known as Koko, had previously been involved in sabotage against Israeli government websites and American and British business interests. (Telegraph-UK) Oriana Fallaci's The Rage and the Pride has made her the new Salman Rushdie, a female counterpart to the British author who satirized Islam in The Satanic Verses and then went into hiding. Mostly the threats come by phone, she says - flat, Arabic-accented voices whispering, "You hide yourself in your house, but we will find you all the same." "I cannot be intimidated," she says. "Each time they try to scare me, I will write something more ferocious." (Washington Times) Mazin Assi, who threw a firebomb at a Bronx synagogue two years ago on Yom Kippur eve, has been convicted of attempted arson and weapons possession. Under a new law, his attack was classified as a hate crime, and he now faces up to 22 years in prison. (Jerusalem Post) Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg has pledged $1 million to aid Israeli victims of terrorism. Named as the initial recipients of "significant donations" from his Righteous Persons Foundation are: the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for its Jews in Crisis program; American Friends of the Hebrew University for scholarships in memory of the nine Israelis and Americans killed in the July 31 bombing on the Mount Scopus campus; Selah-Israel Crisis Management Center; Natal-Israel Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War; and Eran, which operates a multi-lingual 24-hour help line. Spielberg established the foundation in 1994 and has financed it through his entire profits from Schindler's List. (Jerusalem Post) Illegal Construction in Jerusalem - Justus Reid Weiner (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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] |
||||