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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:
Al Qaeda Financing Documents Turn Up in Bosnia Raid:
Saudi Role Highlighted (AP/FOX News)
U.S. authorities recovered a list of 20 financiers they suspect funneled money to Osama bin Laden and other extremist Muslim causes among a cache of documents seized in March 2002 from the Bosnian offices of the Benevolence International Foundation, an Illinois-based Muslim charity, according to an unsealed court document.
Some Syrian Troops Begin Leaving Lebanon - Mariam Karouny (Reuters/Washington Post)
Syrian troops in the Tripoli region of
northern Lebanon began pulling out Wednesday, the first step in the planned redeployment of some 4,000 of its roughly 20,000
soldiers in the country that Syrian forces first entered early in the 1975-1990 civil war.
Germany Accused of Hiding Evidence of Smallpox Virus Arsenals in Iraq - Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim (Jerusalem Post)
The German government suppressed evidence of smallpox virus arsenals in Iraq for months, fearing such news could undermine Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder's re-election campaign, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
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News Resources - North America and Europe:
Here is why the attack might slip three weeks. First, the diplomatic game is only now shifting into high gear. Britain needs another UN resolution, and the U.S. needs Britain. The greater the consensus for going in, the easier the fight and postwar occupation will be. But if Washington feels the diplomatic momentum faltering, the President would elect to attack early, UN resolution or not. Secondly, much of the air power is in position, but deployments of additional squadrons and aircraft carriers may take another three weeks. The main problem, however, involves the logistics of ground forces. The full ground forces deployment, including the British elements and a couple of U.S. divisions, is probably at least a month from completion. The more complete the deployment, the lower the risks when the attack begins. (Gen. Clark led NATO forces during the Kosovo campaign.) (London Times) See also War's Start Pushed to Mid-March - Rowan Scarborough (Washington Times) With 30 Western volunteer "human shields" now in Baghdad and more on their way, Pentagon officials Wednesday warned that any Iraqi military personnel who put those civilians at risk would be violating international law and could face war crimes charges. Article 51 of the 1977 amendment to the 1949 Geneva Conventions specifically prohibits human shields: "The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objects from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations." (UPI/Washington Times) A week after President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt proposed that the Arab League hold a special summit meeting devoted to the Iraq crisis later this month, the prospects for an emergency meeting appeared all but doomed. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, said in remarks published Wednesday that he saw no need for an emergency summit meeting. (New York Times) Saudi Arabian authorities say 90 Saudi nationals are to stand trial accused of membership in the al Qaeda network. The interior minister, Prince Nayef Bin Abdulaziz, told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that more than 250 detainees were being investigated on similar charges. (BBC) News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
Four Qassam rockets were launched from Gaza at the Negev town of Sderot Wednesday, the tenth such barrage the town has endured since Hamas began using the rockets in April 2001. A Palestinian source said the latest rockets had been launched from central Gaza rather than northern Gaza. According to Major General Moshe Karadi, commander of the police's Southern District, about 50 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Sderot to date, with another five landing on neighboring towns. (Ha'aretz) Palestinian rockets fired at Israel last month fell short and hit a Palestinian-owned packing plant in the northern Gaza Strip, which caught fire and burned to the ground, leaving 30 Palestinians without work. (Israel Radio) The High Court of Justice has rejected a petition from Physicians for Human Rights that the IDF supply gas masks to all Palestinians in the territories. Justices accepted the state's argument that the Palestinian Authority is responsible for protecting people in Areas A and B, which are under all or partial PA jurisdiction, reconfirming a similar ruling they made in response to a similar petition filed by the same group during a crisis with Iraq in 1998. (Jerusalem Post) More than 80 percent of the results of the Israeli experiments conducted aboard the shuttle Columbia were relayed to Earth prior to the spacecraft's disintegration, according to a report published Tuesday by the Israel Space Agency. Researchers say the experiments yielded rare photographs of lightning formed at high altitudes and of dust movement in the Middle East region. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Yes, Saddam Hussein is evil, a monster in power, but is it for us to assume the power to crush every cruel tyrant in the world? Yes, Saddam is probably working on germs and poison gases and maybe even nukes, but he hasn't used them lately. Yes, Iraqi weapons could someday obliterate New York, but what's the use of stopping them when North Korean missiles could even sooner take out Los Angeles? (New York Times) Iraq is about more than the terrible weapons. It is about reconstituting a terrorized society. A de-Saddamized Iraq with a decent government could revolutionize the region. The administration plans an 18-month occupation for a civil and political reconstruction unlike any since postwar Germany and Japan. If we succeed, the effect on the region would be enormous, encouraging democrats and modernizers - and threatening despots and troglodytes - in neighboring Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and beyond. (Time) Last week Israel's second-class status at the UN was again demonstrated by the defeat of the Israeli candidate for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This follows the defeat of the Israeli candidate for the UN Human Rights Committee in September 2002; the defeat of the Israeli candidate for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in August 2002; and the defeat of the Israeli candidate for the UN Racial Discrimination Committee in January 2002. By contrast, Egypt has members on all six UN human rights treaty bodies. Israel was finally accepted into the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) in May 2000, but WEOG, driven by states such as France, refuses to admit Israel to its Geneva operations, meaning that Israel is the only UN member forced to sit out consultations on draft resolutions and UN Geneva-based business of all kinds. (National Post-Canada) Israel Seeks Changes to "Road Map" - Aluf Benn (Ha'aretz) Prime Minister Sharon gave the job of drafting an Israeli response to the proposed "road map" for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement to a team headed by his bureau chief, attorney Dov Weisglass, who was instructed to write a draft in keeping with President Bush's June 24, 2002 speech. The Israeli document will be presented to the new government before it is given to the Americans. The corrections proposed by Israel include:
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