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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:
Abd Rabbo Discloses: "Geneva Agreement" Places Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway Section Under Full Palestinian Sovereignty - Merav Levi (NewsFirstClass-Hebrew)
Fatah Delegation Invited by Washington Institute - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
PA Has Anti-Aircraft Missiles (Middle East Newsline) |
News Resources - North America and Europe:
"As part of Israel's preventive activity against Hamas and other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, Israeli air force planes targeted a Hamas workshop used to produce Kassam rockets and other weapons in the Sajaiya neighborhood of Gaza City," an IDF spokesman said. "This weaponry served Hamas to carry out attacks against Israel, among them Kassam rocket and mortar shell attacks, and attacks with anti-tank missiles and explosive devices." The airstrikes came a day after Palestinians in northern Gaza fired eight Kassam rockets toward Sderot in southern Israel. (CNN) See also IAF Hits Arms Workshop, Car in Gaza City (Ha'aretz) The Saudi government has spent more than $1 million to pay for lawyers, and in some cases for bond, for hundreds of its citizens who have been detained, prosecuted, or questioned inside the U.S. during the crackdown on terrorism. The FBI openly calls the practice tantamount to buying off witnesses. John Pistole, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, recently told the Senate the FBI has raised concerns with the Saudi government that paying legal bills and bond for Saudis could influence what they say in their testimony. The U.S. does not provide its citizens with lawyers and bail money when they are detained in foreign countries. (AP/Newsday) A secretive group of tightly connected Muslim charities, think tanks, and businesses based in Northern Virginia were used to funnel millions of dollars to terrorists and launder millions more, according to court records unsealed Friday. An affidavit from Homeland Security agent David Kane said that the Safa Group, also known as the SAAR network, in Herndon had sent more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas and that leaders of the organization "have committed and conspired to...provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations." The unsealing of Kane's report marks the first time the government has alleged that the main purpose of the Virginia organizations, set up primarily with donations from a wealthy Saudi family, was to fund terrorism and hide millions of dollars. (Washington Post) See also U.S. Prosecutors Probing Saudi Billionaire Family Federal prosecutors are looking into the financial dealings of a Saudi billionaire family for possible tax fraud and ties to terrorism. The Wall Street Journal says the probe of the Al-Rajhi family began after it funneled large sums of cash into and out of the U.S. through offshore banks. U.S. Customs Service agent David Kane stated in a federal search warrant affidavit that a group of Virginia financiers working with the Al-Rajhi family "obstructed or attempted to obstruct" a federal tax audit of the transactions in 2000. Kane said the financiers, a group of prominent U.S. Islamic leaders, "maintained a financial and ideological relationship" with associates of the terrorist groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. (UPI/Washington Times) A suspected Islamic militant confessed Sunday to being part of a conspiracy to attack Americans in Jordan, as well as the U.S. Embassy and Jordanian bases where the plotters believed U.S. troops were stationed. Three Saudi men charged in the plot remain at large. Military prosecutor Lt. Col. Mahmoud Obeidat accused the Jordanians of receiving funds from Saudi Arabia via two of the Saudi fugitives. (AP/San Francisco Chronicle) News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
Three soldiers were killed and another seriously wounded Sunday in a shooting attack on an IDF patrol guarding the main highway north of Jerusalem, between Ofra and the Arab village of Ein Yabrud. The area has been the scene of repeated Palestinian gunfire attacks on Israeli vehicles. The soldiers were ambushed from the rear by three gunmen hiding behind a low concrete wall who fired at close range with M-16 and Kalashnikov assault rifles. The soldiers killed were Sgt. Elad Polak, 19, from Kiryat Motzkin, Sgt. Roi Ya'acov Solomon, 21, from Tel Aviv, and Sgt. Erez Idan, 20, from Rishon Letzion [Photos - (IDF)]. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an off-shoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. (Ha'aretz) After the initial attack, the terrorists came up to three of the soldiers lying on the ground, shot them again to ensure they were dead, stole their weapons, and escaped in a waiting car. The wounded soldier who survived escaped only because he was hidden by bushes. Head of Central Command Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky said if the patrol had not been in the area, the terrorists would have reached the highway and opened fire on innocent Israeli civilians. (Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew) See also Snipers' Alley Around Ramallah - Nadav Shragai Ein Yabrud is contiguous to Ramallah. Since October 2000, hundreds of shooting attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers have taken place in the immediate area around Ramallah, with 25 lethal attacks killing 28 soldiers, including the three killed Sunday, and 20 civilians. In many cases, the gunmen escaped into Ramallah, sometimes directly to Arafat's headquarters where they found shelter in the PA offices. (Ha'aretz) Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet Sunday that Arafat is trying to undermine the new government headed by Ahmed Qurei. Unless Qurei gains the authority to make the appointments he seeks, his government will be disbanded on November 4. "Much to our regret, there is no Palestinian partner with whom we might move forward. As things stand, until the Palestinians produce an alternative leadership that is prepared to wage war on terror, we will have to do ourselves all that is needed to stifle terror attacks, and to bring an end to terror," he said. (Ha'aretz) The U.S. has informed Israel that special envoy John Wolf will not be returning to the region for now. Wolf is in charge of overseeing the implementation of the U.S.-backed road map for Middle East peace. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
It is hard to know what is more alarming - a toxic statement of hatred of Jews by the Malaysian prime minister at an Islamic summit meeting this week or the unanimous applause it engendered from the kings, presidents, and emirs in the audience. The words uttered by the prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, in a speech to the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference on Thursday were sadly familiar: Jews, he asserted, may be few in number, but they seek to run the world. Sympathy for the Muslims' plight must not be confused with the acceptance of racism. Most Muslims have indeed been shoddily treated - by their own leaders, who gather at feckless summit meetings instead of offering their people what they most need: human rights, education, and democracy. The European Union was asked to include a condemnation of Mr. Mahathir's speech in its statement ending its own summit. It chose not to, adding a worry that displays of anti-Semitism are being met with inexcusable nonchalance. (New York Times) News accounts of the bombed convoy in Gaza immediately described the attack as a first - "an unprecedented deadly attack on a U.S. target in the Palestinian territories," to quote the Associated Press. But Branchizio, Parson, and Linde were not the first Americans to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists. They were the 49th, 50th, and 51st in the past 10 years alone. The families of the many previous U.S. victims of Palestinian terror might reasonably wonder why there was no such presidential concern when their loved ones were massacred. (Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava; Cleveland native Alan Beer; Marla Bennett of California, David Gritz of Massachusetts, Benjamin Blutstein of Pennsylvania, and Janis Coulter of New York at the Hebrew University cafeteria; Shoshana Greenbaum, a New Jersey tourist at Sbarro pizzeria; 14-year-old Kobi Mandell of Silver Spring, Md.; Brandeis University student Alisa Flatow.) Americans have been dying at the hands of Palestinian terrorists for decades, yet the U.S. government and media rarely if ever portray Yasser Arafat and his lieutenants as avowed enemies of the United States. The State Department does not demand the extradition of Palestinian killers of Americans, not even when the killers' identities and whereabouts are known. There is only one rational response to the murder of Branchizio, Parson, and Linde last week: the destruction of the Palestinian Authority, a network of killers posing as a government. (Boston Globe) Observations: Understanding the War on Terrorism: The Role of Yasser Arafat and the Syrian Regime - Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad (Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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