|
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with Access/Middle East by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
| |||||
|
To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Israel Wiretaps Conversations Between Israeli Islamic Leader and Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradhawi - Spiritual Head of the Muslim Brotherhood and Advocate of Suicide Bombings (Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew)
UK Likely to Ban Hamas Political Wing - Paul Reynolds (BBC)
Arafat's 800 Directors-General - Martin Asser (BBC)
Yamam - Israel's SWAT Team - Dan Baron (JTA)
University of Indianapolis Opening Campus in Israel (Indianapolis Star)
Israel Chosen as Intel Research Hub - Oded Hermoni
(Ha'aretz)
Useful Reference:
A Closer Look at Nine Islamic Charities in Gaza (AP/San Francisco Chronicle) |
News Resources - North America and Europe:
A rocket fired by Hamas on Thursday landed in a major Israeli city for the first time, causing no casualties or damage. The Kassam rocket slammed into an industrial zone in the coastal city of Ashkelon, 5.5 miles from the Gaza Strip, the army said. It was the furthest a Kassam had been fired into Israel. "It's clear the Palestinians are now upping the ante," said an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Israel cannot tolerate the use of rockets against its major cities." (Reuters) See also Sharon to IDF: Take "All Necessary Steps" In wake of the rocket fire, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had ordered the IDF to take "all necessary steps" against Palestinian militants. "Today (brought) another escalation in the terrorist activity of the Hamas movement when, for the first time, they launched a rocket into a town in the southern part of the country, Ashkelon, making an effort to hit a strategic target that is one of our largest power stations," Sharon said. (Ha'aretz) When the U.S. pushed Arafat to appoint a prime minister three months ago, American and Israeli officials hoped that Arafat would recede from the scene, profile diminished and power diluted. But recent events have shown that Arafat remains at the center of Palestinian politics, presenting a serious problem for Israeli and American officials. "One reason that Yasser Arafat has remained and re-emerged as so strong is because the Americans and the Israelis were talking and acting like Abu Mazen was perfect and Arafat was all mad. This moved people closer to Arafat," said Palestinian legislator Qadoura Fares. (New York Times) The U.S. has strongly criticized the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television network for broadcasting video footage on Tuesday showing masked men who threatened to kill members of the American-appointed governing council in Iraq. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said, "We find al-Arabiya's decision to air the remarks of these masked terrorists to be irresponsible in the extreme." "We have to question why an organization claiming to be a legitimate news service would effectively provide this conduit for terrorists to communicate plans, tactics, and incitement to murder and to attempt to disrupt the peaceful aspirations of the Iraqi people." Reeker said the U.S. government was instructing its embassies to convey the Bush administration's outrage to those who supported or had invested in al-Arabiya. (BBC) News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
Shalom [Shuli] Har-Melech, 25, was killed and his pregnant wife, Limor, suffered gunshot wounds to the face and the left arm in a shooting attack Friday east of Ramallah near Kochav Hashachar. The couple was from the West Bank town of Homesh. Har-Melech comes from one of the founding families of Kochav Hashachar, was a volunteer Magen David Adom ambulance driver, and a teacher at a school in Kedumim. Police found 25 bullet casings from a Kalashnikov rifle at the site of the ambush. (Jerusalem Post) The U.S. should pressure the Palestinians financially in order to make the PA dismantle the terror infrastructure, Israel Radio on Friday quoted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as saying. Speaking to visiting U.S. congressmen Thursday night, Sharon, said that the U.S. should also pressure Syria to stop transferring aid to terrorists. He added that Europe needs to declare Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terror organizations in order to stop the flow of funds to these groups. "I am committed to the road map and want to proceed, but unless the Palestinians meet their obligations - a war on terror and the dismantling of the terror infrastructure - it is impossible to make progress," Sharon said. In a message to Jerusalem from high-ranking administration officials, the Americans said that Israel need not desist from its policy of targeting terror operatives, but Israel should also take steps that prove its good intentions toward the Palestinians. (Ha'aretz) Hamzi Kalah, 35, the head of the Khan Yunis cell of Izzadin Kassam, the Hamas military wing, and responsible for mortar attacks on Israeli villages in Gush Katif in Gaza, was killed Thursday by an IAF helicopter gunship. The strike followed intelligence information that Kalah's cell was preparing to launch a mortar attack. Israel declared it would continue pinpoint attacks on terrorist leaders, as this has proven to be the most effective measure against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the week, Hamas cells fired 14 Kassam rockets at communities in the Gaza Strip and inside the "green line." Since the so-called cease-fire, 24 Kassam rockets have been fired at Israeli towns. (Jerusalem Post) Three Israeli F-15 fighter jets, some piloted by sons and grandsons of Holocaust survivors, took off Thursday for a fly-past over the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Proudly displaying the blue Star of David, on September 4 the most lethal aircraft in the IAF's arsenal will swoop down low over the train platform where the Nazis held their selections that sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in gas chambers. Leading the group is Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel, whose mother's family was wiped out by the Nazis in Poland. The grandparents of another pilot both survived Auschwitz and moved to Israel. Another pilot is the son of partisans who fought the Nazis. In 1992, then IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak led a delegation to Auschwitz where he declared, "We got here 50 years too late." (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
In Afghanistan today, with minimal help from the U.S., a central government is gradually extending its political and financial control to the rest of the country and dealing more and more effectively with the problem of the maintenance of order; in Iraq, after an easy and almost unresisted conquest, the situation seems to grow worse from day to day. Why this contrast? The main difference is that in Afghanistan there is an Afghan government, while in Iraq there is an American administration, and the cry of "American imperialism" is being repeated on many sides. But America has neither the desire nor the skill nor the need to play an imperial role in Iraq. The anti-American forces fall basically into two groups. The first, and in the long run the more important, come from the camp of al Qaeda and related religious movements. In the writings and speeches of Osama bin Laden and of his allies and disciples, hatred of America is less significant than contempt - the perception that America is a "paper tiger," that its people have become soft and pampered - "hit them and they will run." This perception was bolstered by frequent references to Vietnam, Beirut, and Somalia, as well as to the feeble response to subsequent terrorist attacks in the 1990s, notably on the USS Cole and on the embassies in East Africa. It was this perception which undoubtedly underlay the events of Sept. 11, clearly intended to be the opening barrage of a new war against the Americans on their home ground. The other factor of anti-Americanism originates in the fear that democracy will succeed in Iraq, and this could become a mortal threat to the tyrants who rule most of the Middle East. The best course surely is the one that is working in Afghanistan - to hand over, as soon as possible, to a genuine Iraqi government. The Iraqis certainly have the capacity to develop democratic institutions, but they must do so in their own way, at their own pace. This can only be done by an Iraqi government. Fortunately, the nucleus of such a government is already available, in the Iraqi National Congress, headed by Ahmad Chalabi. It took years, not months, to create democracies in the former Axis countries, and this was achieved in the final analysis not by Americans but by people in those countries, with American encouragement, help, and support. (Wall Street Journal) The UN bombing in Baghdad has all the markings of a professional terrorist attack, the same expertise we saw in Lebanon during the '80s, even the same delivery system that was used to kill 241 U.S. servicemen in their Beirut barracks on Oct. 23, 1983 - the strike that brought U.S. policy in Lebanon to a halt and altered the course of Middle East politics. Combine this with the Aug. 7 car bombing of the Jordanian embassy, which killed 17, and it is starting to look as if we are up against a lot more than the "remnants" of Saddam Hussein's regime. One bomb is an outrage. Two bombs are a campaign. No matter how tough things get, we cannot leave Iraq until it is mended. (Washington Post) Col. Ralph Baker, who oversees two Baghdad districts, and his officers have been conducting informal elections for local councils and getting neighborhoods to nominate their own trusted police. "First we taught them how to run a meeting," he told me. "We had to teach them how to have an agenda. So instead of having this sort of group dialogue with no form, which they were used to, you now see them in council meetings raising their hands to speak. They get five minutes per member. It's basic P.T.A. stuff. We've taught them how to motion ideas and vote on them....There is a big education process going on here that is democratically founded. The faster we get Iraqis taking responsibility, the faster we get out of here." (New York Times) Wednesday, on the streets of London, there was a jarring poster, extolling the 9/11 hijackers as the "Magnificent 19." The work of the radical Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun, it features a picture of each of the 19 hijackers, the smoking World Trade Center towers, and Osama bin Laden. The group's spiritual leader, Sheik Omar Bakri, told NBC News that the hijackers deserve to be honored. Al-Muhajiroun is hosting a conference in London next month commemorating the second anniversary of the attack, saying "many Muslims worldwide will be celebrating the comeuppance of the U.S.A." (FrontPageMagazine/MSNBC) Etiquette called on me not to talk about my nomination to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace while it was in process. I have learned the Arabic language, traveled the Muslim world, lived three years in Cairo, taught courses on the region at Harvard, and specialized on it at the State and Defense Departments. My career has been devoted to bridging differences and bringing peace. I believe the Islam versus militant Islam distinction stands at the heart of the war on terror. Giving voice to the Muslim victims of Islamist totalitarianism sounds like the sort of activity that the USIP might wish to consider undertaking as part of its mission to "promote the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts." (National Post-Canada) See also Peace Pipes - Editorial President Bush did the right thing in bypassing Congress and using a so-called recess appointment to name Daniel Pipes to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace. (New York Post) Palestinians do not possess any legal right to return to Israel. When speaking about their right of return, the Palestinians point to UN Resolution 194 (III) of December 11, 1948, but whatever is provided in the resolution is not legally binding. UN resolutions are neither treaties nor international customs. They are considered to be recommendations only. In addition, in 1948 when the resolution was adopted, neither Israel nor the Palestinians agreed to abide by it and neither party saw themselves as obliged to adhere to its recommendations. Consequently, it seems bizarre to refer to it today as a binding legal obligation. In 1945 millions of Germans who lived in Eastern Europe were transferred to Germany, and in 1947 when Britain left India, British India was divided into two states: India and Pakistan, and the split caused a mass transfer of populations. Concurrently with the flight of the Arab population from Israel, Jews were fleeing neighboring Arab states and many of these refugee Jews found safe haven in Israel. What took place in 1948 was a transfer of populations spurred by the political changes in the region and the war, a process that was not contradictory to international law applying at that date. (Jerusalem Post) Arafat's leadership brought the Palestinians to this terrible situation of chronic occupation, violence, dependence, suffering, and pauperization. His consistent failure to achieve breakthroughs with the Israelis, the U.S., his own people, the Arab world, and global public opinion is a shocking display of autocratic incompetence, corruption, and self-serving mismanagement. (Beirut Daily Star) The suicide operation in Jerusalem crossed the red line and drove Israel to take the decision to kill each and every Hamas leader. The death of a leader creates a vacuum, because it is much harder to find a person of the same caliber to replace him. The Jerusalem operation aborted an extremely important Israeli offer that was raised during the last meeting between Shaul Mofaz and Dahlan, when the Israelis offered to withdraw from four cities including Ramallah. They also offered to stop hunting down the Palestinian wanted men and turn their case over to the Palestinian government, as well as grant more work permits and licenses to Palestinian businessmen and traders. It is no longer enough to restore the truce, as new terms must be added, like the fact that the Palestinian weapons should be in the hands of one party, the way it goes in every other country of the world. (Dar Al-Hayat-Lebanon) Weekend Features:
In traditional Jewish sources, "true benevolence" (chesed shel emet in Hebrew) refers to the act of caring for the dead. In Israel, about eight years ago, a special volunteer organization - ZAKA - was established in the Orthodox Jewish community to carry out acts of "true benevolence" for victims of accidents, terrorism, or other forms of sudden death. They pick up the pieces - more often than not, quite literally. In a way, the volunteers of ZAKA and the Arab suicide bombers epitomize the true clash of cultures underway in Israel and around the world. One culture produces people willing to wade into a crowd of children, look them in the eyes, and murder them; the other produces people willing to do whatever is necessary to protect human dignity, even in death. It is true cruelty, contrasted with true benevolence. (National Review) Nabil Hilmi, the dean of a law school in Cairo, is planning to sue "every Jew in the world" for the "theft" of 1,125 trillion tons of Egyptian gold during the Exodus 3,000 years ago, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported this week. Hilmi graciously offered to spread the repayment term over the next 1,000 years - with interest, of course. That the Jews were slaves - to a pharaoh whom the Koran itself calls evil - is irrelevant to Hilmi. The good news is that Hilmi is acknowledging that Jews are the legitimate descendants of the children of Israel, contradicting the anti-Jewish discourse in much of the Arab world which holds that the Jews have no roots in the Land of Israel. If Jews are in fact the descendants of the children of Israel, that means they have the right to the Land of Israel - according to the Koran itself. In Sura 5, verses 20 and 21 declare: "Remember when Moses said to his people: O my people, remember the favors that God bestowed on you when he appointed apostles from among you, and made you kings and gave you what had never been given to anyone in the world. Enter then, my people, the Holy Land that God has ordained for you." There are brave - admittedly isolated - Muslim voices who insist that the Koran does indeed recognize the Jewish right to the Holy Land. Khaleel Mohammed, an Islamic scholar who taught at Brandeis University and is now at San Diego University, told a group at Brandeis's adult education summer institute, "As a Muslim, I have no choice but to believe that God gave the land to the Jews." (Jerusalem Post) "Now we're in front of the Holy of Holies," announced Tsvi Rogin, 51, a rabbi, gesturing toward the Dome of the Rock but not referring to it. He was referring to the Jewish Temple that once stood on this plaza, and particularly to its holiest part, which he believes occupied precisely the same spot as the dome 2,000 years ago. Mr. Sharon and other Israeli authorities feared that the Waqf was establishing new rules barring Jews and Christians from the plateau, upsetting the status quo that existed since the 1967 war. (New York Times) Almost two years and approximately $2.5 billion later, America's airports are practically as vulnerable as they were on September 11. El Al Israel Airlines is thought to have the best security in the air-carrier industry, developed over four decades of dealing with a constant, growing, and changing threat. The secret of El Al's success is not the technology it uses; rather, it's due mainly to the quality of security agents it employs and the methods they use. Each employee is carefully screened, thoroughly trained, tested continuously, and paid well. It's the human factor that makes the difference. El Al screeners have been specifically trained to profile passengers; that same system should be adopted in the U.S. (National Review) Why did John Matz, 25, who has been admitted to the Metropolitan Opera's development program, spend a month in Israel at opera boot camp? "I came here to learn a new role in a safe environment," Matz said, a day after singing Rodolfo in "La Boheme." "My teacher is here, and there's great coaching. And, yeah, there is a lesson in being in Israel: You can't stop being who you are and trying to do what you want to do no matter what's happening around you." (New York Times) Fashion Television (FTV) has decided to move offices from Paris to the southern Israeli city of Beersheva. Started in 1997, the round-the-clock channel is broadcast in 130 countries and has about 600 million viewers - including 15 million in North America. "Fashion TV is popular all over the world, but it is extremely popular in Asia and the Middle East," said a FTV spokeswoman. "The technology in Israel is advanced and so [CEO Michel] Adam chose Israel as the best place from which to broadcast to the rest of Asia." (Israel21c) Observations: Arab Leaders Must Act - Dennis Ross (Washington Post)
To subscribe to the Daily Alert, click here to send a blank email message. To unsubscribe, click here to send a blank email message. |
||||