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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:
Palestinians Still Using Children for Terror - Felix Frisch (Yediot Ahronot)
Despite Hamas statements that children are not to be used in attacks against Israelis, three 15-year-old boys armed with knives attempted to sneak into the Jewish village of Alei Sinai in the Gaza district on Wednesday night to murder local residents, but were killed by IDF forces instead.
Israel Fights Palestinian Mosquitoes (AFP/Borneo Bulletin-Brunei)
The Israeli environment ministry has given its green light to a program designed to rid southern Israeli cities from mosquitoes breeding in the nearby autonomous Palestinian city of Hebron, Maariv reported Wednesday.
Poll: Palestinians See No Difference between Likud and Labor (JMCC)
According to a Palestinian opinion poll conducted in early December:
Useful Reference:
Hi-Tech Crisis Hurts Israeli Economy More than Terrorism - Zeev Klein (Globes)
The decline on U.S. stock exchanges, especially Nasdaq, and the global high tech crisis have affected the Israeli economy more than the conflict with the Palestinians.
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News Resources - North America and Europe:
Arab governments keen to avert another Gulf war will try to convince Saddam Hussein to step down if a U.S.-led military campaign becomes imminent. Prince Saud al-Feisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said last week that if war becomes imminent, "we hope that there would be an opportunity given to the Arab countries to mitigate the situation." "One option is for [Mr. Hussein] to depart," said an Arab official. "He's not thinking about it now, but it could be different when the Americans are serious about the alternative of war." (New York Times/Financial Times) The two countries will conduct joint exercises next week to test Israel's new Arrow anti-missile system teamed with upgraded U.S. Patriot missile batteries. On New Year's Day, the two nations teamed up with Turkey for an annual naval training exercise. Such an exercise featuring the flags of three nations sends a political message. "There is a political symbol for the region that says we are working together and the noose around Iraq is closing," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University. (CNN-Europe) According to a study by the Pew Research Center for the Public and the Press, Israel's war was "one of the most closely followed international stories in Pew's 16-year history of measuring news attentiveness." Additionally, the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) found that between the end of March and the end of June 2002 -- corresponding to the mass murder at the Netanya seder and Israel's retaliatory actions -- Israel's war was the subject of more cumulative airtime on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news than the next nine stories combined. Interest peaked in the spring, said Pew, when more than 44 percent of Americans said they tracked Israel's war "very closely," and another 33 percent "fairly closely," but in December the most intense interest slipped to 29 percent, still unusually high. The Oslo peace agreement had only 23 percent of Americans paying very close attention, and interest in the first intifada ranged only between 11-18 percent, according to surveys at the time. (New York Jewish Week) "Arabs need to learn the lesson from the Korean example to mobilize in order to stop an attack on Iraq and prevent a U.S.-Zionist crusade in the Arab world," said the daily Babel, owned by Saddam Hussein's son Uday. (AFP/Queensland Courier-Mail-Australia) Warplanes taking part in U.S.-British patrols dropped 480,000 leaflets on the cities of Basra and Nasiriyah in the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq Thursday, pressing Iraqi troops and citizens to listen to U.S. Special Forces radio broadcasts to the area. It was the 12th such mass drop of leaflets in the last three months. The U.S. Central Command said last month that modified C-130 cargo planes were being used to broadcast messages to the Iraqi people. More recently, the broadcasts have been directed to the area by Special Operations ground stations outside Iraq. (Reuters/Washington Post) After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran is now the world's only theocracy. And experts say citizens are feeling increasingly oppressed by an Islam imposed from above. In many quarters, worship is no longer considered an appropriate arena for politics. (Newsweek)
News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
The body of Massoud Mahlouf Allon, 72, of Moshav Menahemya, was found Thursday in a burned-out car in the northern Jordan Valley following a widescale police search. Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the murder. Members of his family told police that Moroccan-born Allon used to collect used clothing and blankets to give to Bedouin and Palestinians in the Arab villages in the Jordan Valley. (Ha'aretz) The Syrian army has held joint maneuvers with Hizballah along with units of the Iranian revolutionary guards in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told visiting U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Specter has had close contacts with Damascus over the past 20 years since the time when he participated in negotiations for the release of American hostages in Lebanon. Sharon said he was prepared to renew negotiations with Syria without prior conditions. "I'd be happy to visit Damascus and I'd be happy for [Assad] to come to Jerusalem," Sharon added. (Ha'aretz) Roland and Patricia Mori's house in Moshav Maor borders on an open field. At 1 a.m. Thursday, Patricia, 51, was watching television as Roland, 53, slept in their bedroom when an armed terrorist walked into their living room. "I heard the front door open and got up because I thought Roland needed help. Then I saw the terrorist right in front of me; he was young and thin and carried a Kalashnikov. I thought my time to die had come." (Jerusalem Post) Prosecutor Devorah Chen read a brief outline of what was called "a mountain of evidence" against West Bank Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti in Tel Aviv District Court Thursday. The prosecution intends to present evidence from testimony of militants affiliated with Barghouti; Barghouti's own statements made during interrogation; Israeli, Arab, and Western media reports; documents captured by the IDF; and the expert testimony of Shin Bet and military intelligence officials. Even if Barghouti did not pull the trigger or set the bomb's timer in each terrorist attack, as head of several militant organizations he presided over a systematic effort to murder Israeli civilians and soldiers. Among the most damning documents are IDF-intercepted faxes written and signed by Barghouti, showing him actively funding terrorists such as Tulkarm's Ra'ed Karmi. Other evidence shows Barghouti recruiting Palestinians for terrorist attacks, asking them whether they have a gun or an explosive device. (Jerusalem Post) U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday that the U.S. wanted to see broad participation in this month's Israeli elections, implicitly criticizing the preliminary disqualification by the Central Elections Committee of Israeli Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara and Bishara's Balad party. "We're of course interested in broad participation in the political process in Israel, as we are elsewhere....I'm not commenting on the particular individuals or the parties or the political aspects of this. I'm commenting on the question of the broadest possible participation in the political process," Boucher said. (Reuters/Ha'aretz) Israel is unable to procure engines following an extension of the British government's embargo on arms sales to Israel. All of Israel's recent efforts to convince the British government to cancel the embargo have failed. The ban on engines comes on top of a ban on sales of components used in catapult propulsion systems for Israel Air Force Phantom plane ejection seats. (Globes) See also Files Reveal British-Israel Tank Secrets Previously secret files released by the Public Record Office tell how Britain blocked the sale of Chieftain tanks to Israel in 1969, even though it had agreed to the sale the previous year. Israel was furious because at the same time, Britain sold Chieftain tanks to Libya. (BBC) Authorities in Denmark have seized money belonging to a Palestinian charity on suspicion the group was allegedly sending financial aid to Middle East terrorists, media reports said Thursday. It was the first known instance when Danish authorities invoked the anti-terrorism measures enacted by the parliament last summer. (DPA/Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Recently published satellite photos showed two sites in Iran that might house a civilian energy program and/or a nuclear weapons program. What are the chances that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the organization responsible for verifying compliance to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), will detect clandestine nuclear activities in these two sites or elsewhere in Iran? (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Osama Bin Laden's appeal, with its anti-Western message, is gaining in popularity among African Muslims, not only because of its religious content, but also, and perhaps mostly, because it expresses the grievances of so many about the general condition of Muslims in Africa. (Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies-Tel Aviv University) This time, even if the likelihood of missiles being launched against Israel is low and their number small, Israel, if attacked - certainly if non-conventional warheads are involved - should by no means stand by. Israel must not repeat its non-reaction to an attack on its non-combative population and become a punching bag in a war that is not its own. The very fact that an Arab leader dared cross every red line and set new and terrible "rules of the game," and Israel failed to respond in equal measure or more, is intolerable for the future. Likewise, it is intolerable for the relatives of Jews exterminated in gas chambers to again be the victims of biochemical weapons. (Jerusalem Post) Weekend Features:
For an hour today in Sarah Efrati's fourth-grade class, math, science, and Hebrew stood aside for lessons about poison gas. "To be a child in Israel you lose something," said Bilha Noy, director of psychological and counseling services for the Education Ministry. "You are not so innocent. As a child you know there are bad people in the world and that you cannot afford to be so optimistic. So you've got to be ready." Every Israeli is issued a gas mask. (New York Times) They are Iraqi and Jewish, and they came to Israel half a century ago to escape violent attacks and killings targeting Jews. Now, many eagerly await an American war. If Saddam Hussein is ousted from power, they say, they could visit their childhood homes once more. (Baltimore Sun) "The land absorbs our blood and tears...but the SOB has yet to be born who can stop the state of Israel," raps a local hip hop star. Hip hop, rooted in the urban ghettos of the United States, has become the voice of defiant Israeli youngsters whose social life has been jolted by suicide bombings in cafes, pubs, and discos. (Reuters) Medical researchers at Haifa's Technion have succeeded in producing heart tissue using stem cells from a human being. Following testing, the heart tissue appears to be beating like a normal human heart, according to Dr. Lior Epstein, head of the research team at the Technion's Rappoport Institute. The findings were recently published in the journal Circulation Research. (Ha'aretz) U.S. police departments are using advanced communications technology developed in Israel to improve their law enforcement and public safety capabilities. Two new Los Angeles Police Department 911 dispatch centers will be using digital voice recording technology developed by NICE systems, headquartered in Ra'anana. (Israel21c) People-to-People:
The Kiryat Bialik Youth Ensemble came to Boca Raton as part of the United Jewish Communities' Partnership 2000 program. (Boca Raton, FL News) Caroline McKnight, director of the Mainsteam Coalition, and Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, represented the city on a seminar in Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange. (Kansas City Jewish Chronicle) Donald Lachman, 76, past president of the Frederick County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, is back after a month working at an Israeli military base 6 miles from the Gaza Strip. (The [Montgomery Co., MD] Gazette) Ariel Hantin, 24, of Glencoe, fixed broken tank parts on an armor base south of Tel Aviv. "On a day-to-day basis, I felt safer there than I do here," she says. "I know that sounds strange from everything we see and hear in the news. But they make you feel very secure." (Skokie Review) Mike Harris, general manager of Riggs Ambulance Service, recently returned from Israel where he helped refine emergency medical services in the town of Beit Shemesh. (Modesto Bee) With hundreds of other Birthright Israel participants looking on, Megan Seltz and Ian Brandt exchanged vows at Neve Ilan, a hilly town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (Stamford [CT] Advocate) Israeli Arabs Penetrated by Terrorist Organizations - Ze'ev Schiff (Ha'aretz)
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