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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:
Istanbul Bombings Mastermind Thought to be Hiding in Syria - Jonathan Lis, Yossi Melman, and Zvi Barel (Ha'aretz)
PA Could Lose an Armed Confrontation with Hamas - Matthew Gutman (Jerusalem Post)
Israeli GDP Grows 2.7% - Moti Bassok (Ha'aretz)
Another West Bank "Honor" Killing -
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson (Knight Ridder/Arizona Republic) |
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
White House officials have held intense discussions with Israeli officials in recent weeks on ways to ease the plight of the Palestinians, lift roadblocks in the territories, and deal with other vexing issues that have created a chill in the generally warm relations between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, U.S. officials said Tuesday. A senior administration official, briefing reporters on Air Force One as Bush flew to Britain, said it was necessary for the Palestinians to build security forces that would fight terrorism. "But it's also still necessary for Israel to create conditions in which a partner can emerge, and that means not prejudging the outcome of a final status agreement with settlements or with the route of the fence," the official said. "It means trying to do something about the kind of daily difficulties that Palestinian people experience at any given checkpoint." (Washington Post) See below - Observations: Balancing IDF Checkpoints and International Law Europe will resist an American effort to bring the suspected Iranian development of nuclear weapons before the UN Security Council, hoping to lure Iran into compliance with negotiations and incentives, European officials said Tuesday. The stand was a rebuff to Secretary of State Powell, who met in Brussels with European foreign ministers and sought a forceful response to a UN report that Powell said had proved that Iran was defying its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. (New York Times) American soldiers have faced near daily attacks from guerrillas in the so-called Sunni triangle. Maj.-Gen. Charles Swannack said 90% of the attacks were carried out by remnants of Saddam's Baath party and Iraqi followers of Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi Islamic movement. (Reuters/MSNBC) See also U.S. Officers in Iraq Find Few Signs of Infiltration by Foreign Fighters The commanding general of the U.S. Army division that patrols much of Iraq's western borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that his men had encountered only a handful of foreign fighters trying to sneak into the country to attack American and allied forces. "I want to underscore that most of the attacks on our forces are by former regime loyalists and other Iraqis, not foreign forces," said Maj.-Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. (New York Times) The Ford Foundation has admitted it erred in funding anti-Israeli Palestinian groups and has vowed to establish tough new guidelines to stop its funds from being used for anti-Semitic action anywhere in the world. The foundation said it was "disgusted" by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic agitation at the 2001 UN Conference Against Racism at Durban, South Africa, which it helped finance. "We now recognize that we did not have a clear picture of the activities, organizations, and people involved," conceded Ford president Susan Berresford in a Nov. 17 letter to U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). In addition to establishing new funding guidelines, the foundation said it promises to cease financing pivotal anti-Israel groups and even recover funds where the grant's intent was violated. (JTA) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
A terrorist Wednesday opened fire in the Jordan border crossing terminal north of Eilat, wounding five South American tourists, one of them critically, before the terrorist was killed by Israeli security guards. (Ha'aretz/Yediot Ahronot) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ruled out American support for a new cease-fire between the PA and terrorist organizations on Tuesday, telling Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom in Brussels that the U.S. will insist on the PA fighting terror. "Another cease-fire cannot be the solution," Powell told Shalom. "We will judge the new Palestinian government only by its performance." Senior officials in Shalom's delegation denied reports that Powell issued heavy-handed criticism of Israeli policies in the settlements. "When the Americans want to bash us, they do it without any hesitation," Shalom's chief of staff Ron Prosor said. "Powell wasn't being confrontational. His language was very moderate, as if he was merely trying to go through the motions." (Jerusalem Post) Arafat decided Tuesday to release funds of Islamic charities frozen in August, a Palestinian official said. He said the decision was a goodwill gesture to the Islamic groups in advance of talks about a cease-fire. (Al Bawaba-Jordan) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Abu Ala's government is not a revamped version of Abu Mazen's. It represents a worrying step backwards, to a format dictated and directed by Arafat. What we are left with is a cabinet that in many respects is just another of the chairman's executive branches. Arafat has managed to turn the tables and lock the "reform government" into his service. Arafat and Abu Ala, two veteran comrades, have prepared a two-stage plan. The first is a cease-fire brokered by the PA, that does not include any promises regarding the dismantling of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, despite the fact that Phase One of the Road Map, at its core, calls for the elimination of the Palestinian terror infrastructure. Abu Ala intends to tell Sharon soon that this is the best he can offer, and that he doesn't have the power to take on Hamas. That the choice is to take quiet without a dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure, or to expect the terror attacks to go on. The Palestinian assumption is that under these circumstances, Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz will prefer calm. Then it will be time for the second act, to hold elections for the PA institutions in June 2004, which according to the Road Map should take place only after the terror infrastructure has been dismantled. What this means is the effective erasure of Phase One of the Road Map, skipping over the war on terror. (Jerusalem Report) On Tuesday morning, in a striking marriage of cultural symbols, each of the six coffins was embossed with the Star of David and draped in the crimson Turkish flag with its white Islamic crescent and star - an honor reserved for soldiers and government officials or civilians who die as martyrs in the eyes of this predominantly Muslim nation. (Washington Post) See also In Turkey, a History Lesson in Peace - Seyla Benhabib The presence of about 30,000 Jews in Turkey is a testament to the peaceful coexistence of Jews and Muslims throughout the old Levant. This is something the murderous forces of Islamic terrorism would like to obliterate. The Jews of Turkey are also proof of the foresight and sound judgment of secular Turkey's republican founders. A thorn in the flesh of Islamic terrorists is the peaceful coexistence of Jews and Muslims since the 15th century in a Muslim country that respects the democratic equality of citizens of different faiths and ethnicities. (New York Times) Why would the jihadists be so careless to have also killed a fair number of non-Jewish Turkish passersby? Those who think this even semiconsciously have already forgotten what jihadists were doing in Algeria, Egypt, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, long before the assault on the World Trade Center (which also killed a substantial number of Muslims). It's pretty safe to say that the large majority of those murdered by Islamic holy warriors have not been Europeans or Americans. The worshippers at Neve Shalom were members of a very old and honorable community who were murdered for being Jews. Their Turkish neighbors were casually murdered as "collateral damage." This is in the nature and essence of the foe that we face. (Slate) Observations: Balancing IDF Checkpoints and International Law: Teaching the IDF Code of Conduct - Lt. Col. Amos Guiora, Commander of the IDF School of Military Law (Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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