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Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with Access/Middle East by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Israeli Casualties Since the Proclamation of the Hudna (Israel Defense Forces)
Documents Reveal How Saddam Paid Off Journalists, Politicians, and Demonstrators - Amir Taheri (New York Post)
Iraqi Leader Says No Ties with Israel (Gulf Daily News-Bahrain)
Israel to Buy Natural Gas from Egypt - David Hayoun (Globes) |
News Resources - North America and Europe:
Six children were killed on Tuesday and about 40 children were wounded when a Palestinian blew himself apart aboard a Jerusalem city bus crowded with devout families returning from Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall. (New York Times) The Bush administration called on the PA Wednesday to act immediately to dismantle terrorist organizations that claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing. "There's funding, there's support, there's munitions, there's organization, and all that needs to be taken apart," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We have reached the moment of truth a lot earlier than most people wanted to face it," said Dennis Ross, a former U.S. peace envoy. A senior State Department official said the ball was now effectively in the court of the Palestinians, and the U.S. and Israeli governments were waiting to see what kind of action Abbas will take. U.S. officials made clear that they were looking for specific actions that will prevent terrorist attacks. (Washington Post) Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the Bush administration needs to be more forceful in its call for the Palestinian Authority to dismantle terrorist groups immediately. "The administration has to get its message out," Hoenlein said. "There have to be serious consequences." He suggested withholding aid or reconsidering U.S. support for a Palestinian state. Hoenlein and others are concerned that PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas shows either no ability or no interest in dismantling groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Sources said that, privately, the White House shares those concerns. In a press release, the Conference of Presidents said that Abbas should either "declare war against Palestinian terrorist groups" or "declare the road map and the prospect for peace to be dead." It called on the Quartet to "move decisively" to pressure the Palestinians and raise pressure on Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria to cut their links to terrorist groups. In an obvious sign of the administration's frustration, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Israel had a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, a marked contrast to the frequent call for Israeli restraint. (JTA) Who Struck at the UN in Baghdad? Two Views:
U.S. officials suspect that loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein's government and not Islamic militants from abroad detonated more than 1,000 pounds of Soviet-made explosives outside the UN compound in Baghdad on Tuesday. (Washington Post) Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and a leading member of Iraq's Governing Council, on Thursday ruled out supporters of Saddam Hussein as responsible for Tuesday's suicide truck bombing, saying it was more likely the work of extremist Muslims from Saudi Arabia, members of al Qaeda, and other militant groups that were gathering in Iraq, coming across the country's southern and western borders. (Reuters/MSNBC) News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
Israel's security cabinet met Wednesday to approve Israel's response to Tuesday's Jerusalem terror attack. The IDF began anti-terrorist operations in Nablus and Jenin. The IDF is also preparing to renew its "targeted killings" of terrorist leaders in the militant Islamic organizations. According to political sources in Jerusalem, the U.S. is demanding that the PA take action against the terror organizations operating in areas under its control, and told the Palestinians that if they don't act against the terror infrastructure, Israel will. The sources added that the U.S. has not asked Israel to restrain its response to the suicide bombing. President Bush told Prime Minister Sharon Wednesday that there could be no compromising on the issue of terrorism, and that the killers of women and children must be hunted down. "There is a need to wipe out those organizations that deal in the murder of the innocent and are destroying the peace process," Bush said. (Ha'aretz) Americans murdered in Tuesday's Jerusalem bombing included Goldie Taubenfeld, 43, from New Square, New York. Her five-month-old baby, Shmuel, was also killed. Her 15-year-old daughter, Batsheva, was wounded. Other American victims included three-year-old Tehilla Nathanson of Monsey, New York, and Mordechai Reinitz, 47, and his nine-year-old son, Yitzhak, residents of Netanya. (Jerusalem Post) See also New York Town Mourns a Generous Friend (New York Times) Israel and Muslim religious officials have reached an informal agreement allowing non-Muslims to visit the Temple Mount from 9 to 11 a.m., an arrangement in effect since the 1920s and only suspended three years ago. Police sources say the relative ease with which the site was opened was linked to the arrests of leaders from the Islamic Movement in Israel, which has essentially paralyzed their activities on the mount. (Ha'aretz) See also Secrecy is Key on the Temple Mount - Nadav Shragai Behind the scenes, the Waqf has long been seeking a way to solve the issue, sorely missing the revenues that came from the tourist tickets sold to gain entry to the site, while facing pressure from both the PA and Jordan, as well as Old City businessmen who want to see the tourists return. (Ha'aretz) See also Arafat Sought to Block Temple Mount Agreement - Amit Cohen When Muslim Waqf leaders sought to convince Arafat two weeks ago to allow access to the Temple Mount by non-Muslim tourists, Arafat spit on them and kicked them out of his office, screaming: "I, and not Sharon, will decide." (Maariv-Hebrew) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Palestinian leaders have been promoting the illusion that Islamic radical groups will ultimately transform themselves into peaceful political parties. That fantasy was shattered on Tuesday along with 20 innocent lives when a Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem bus. If anything positive is to come from this latest atrocity, it will be a conclusive realization by Mr. Abbas that organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have no genuine interest in cease-fire agreements or two-state solutions and must be forcibly put out of the terrorism business. Only then will the American-sponsored road map for peace have a chance of delivering Palestinian statehood. (New York Times) About a week ago, Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip parked a bicycle bomb near the headquarters of PA Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan in Jebaliya, where it exploded prematurely causing little damage. Dahlan quickly dispatched masked officers from his Preventative Security Service who stormed the house of the Islamic Jihad men, killing two on the spot and carting off three others to prison. This shows that Dahlan knows how to act and lends credence to those in the defense establishment who believe that Dahlan could if he wanted to, but doesn't want to. (Jerusalem Post) Former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft writes in the Aug. 20 Washington Post that the Israelis and Palestinians must take steps "in parallel, rather than sequentially, in order to increase the prospects for building and sustaining momentum." Otherwise, he says, there will be "renewed violence." Whatever is he talking about? Violence as an instrument of policy by the Palestinian side has not stopped. It has ebbed and flowed as a strategy for extracting the maximum possible concessions from the Israeli and American sides before the coming all-out war to eliminate Israel. Any "cessations" are pauses that the terrorists use to rearm. A strong case can be made that all of the pressure on Israel for "goodwill gestures" and "confidence-building measures" has contributed to terrorism, not diminished it. American policy is to get the terrorists before they get us. That policy ought to be the parallel track for Israel. (Modesto Bee) Observations: Unholy Terror - Editorial (Daily Telegraph-UK)
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