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Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Shin Bet Says Terror Will Last to 2006 - Amir Oren (Ha'aretz)
U.S. Has Satellite Photographs of Iraqi Convoys to Syria (WorldNetDaily)
UN Adds Saudi Charity Branches to al-Qaeda List
(Forbes/Reuters)
Freed Syrian Officer Seeks Political Asylum in Germany - Yossi Melman (Ha'aretz)
The New Israel Air and Space Force - Arieh O'Sullivan (Jerusalem Post)
Legendary Israeli Tank Threatened with Extinction - Rand H. Fishbein (National Defense)
Israeli High-Tech Investment Booms Anew - Buzzy Gordon (JTA)
Upcoming Hearings and the International Court of Justice (Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israeli forces pushed into Bethlehem Friday for the first time in six months in a sweep for militants after a Palestinian policeman from the city killed 10 Israelis in a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus. "The operation was launched after we made clear the Palestinians had not fulfilled their obligations to stop terror, something which was made clear in Thursday's bombing,'' an army spokeswoman said. Troops pulled up to the family home of the bus bomber and told his parents and siblings to leave before engineers arrived to blow the house up. (Reuters/New York Times) Sharon's adviser Dore Gold said Thursday's suicide attack had been planned for weeks and was not in response to Israel's Gaza raid. Gold said the attack underscored the need for physical separation between Israel and the West Bank. "Only the completion of Israel's security fence - which some are trying to stop using the UN and the International Court of Justice - will finally provide security for Israelis against these kinds of attacks," he said. (CNN) Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday, "Once again, terrorists have killed innocent people, and at the same time they have struck a blow once more against the aspirations of the Palestinian people to have a homeland of their own. This kind of action has got to stop, and I once again implore the Palestinian leaders, and especially Prime Minister Abu Ala, to do everything in his power, everything in their power, to ostracize these terrorists, to go after them, and to deal with this terrorist activity....I condemn the action of these terrorist organizations and these horrible people who would do this on a civilian bus in the middle of the day." "Syria cannot be serious about wanting a better relationship with Israel, the U.S., or anyone else, as long as it serves as any kind of a transshipment point for weapons that are going to terrorists of the kind who killed innocent people this morning in Jerusalem." (State Department) Security Council envoys were deadlocked on Thursday in a bid to condemn Thursday's suicide bombing that killed 10 people in Jerusalem, deciding after three hours to drop the idea and say nothing. While the U.S. pressed for such a statement, Algeria argued for a statement denouncing Wednesday's Israeli raid that killed eight Palestinians in Gaza. Backing the U.S. were Britain, Germany, and Romania, while Pakistan, Brazil, and China lined up with Algeria, diplomats said. Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, scheduled a news conference for Friday to discuss "the UN's lack of response to terrorism" following the suicide bombing. (Reuters) The British government Friday will infuriate Arab opinion by supporting Israel in a legal challenge to the construction of its controversial barrier along the West Bank. The Foreign Office is to lodge an objection at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is scheduled to review the barrier's legality. Foreign Office minister Lady Symons, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle published Friday, says a hearing at the international court on the issue of the barrier would "serve to politicize the court in a way for which it was not designed." Part of the Foreign Office's fear - one only expressed in private - is that a precedent could be created of the General Assembly referring controversial issues to the court. Britain could be vulnerable if a majority of countries were to choose to refer the legality of the Iraq war to the court. The Foreign Office argues in the submission that normally the court only intervenes in boundary disputes if both parties agree - and in this case, Israel does not. The Foreign Office said Thursday: "Our concerns relate to the role of the court, not the legality of the route of the fence." The deadline for submissions is Friday. Australia is to oppose the hearing, and Germany is also likely to do so. An attempt to find a common European position on the hearing had to be abandoned. (Guardian-UK) Israel and Hizballah exchanged prisoners and war dead on Thursday, in a trade greeted in Israel by a spare ceremony for three fallen soldiers and in Lebanon by a day of national celebration. Israeli medical experts in Germany verified that all three soldiers had been killed in an explosion while they were being captured along the Lebanese border in October 2000. Prime Minister Sharon said at the ceremony: "There is relief because the three dear families, whose souls knew no rest for the past 40 months, will now be able to unite with their sorrow over a modest grave, and composure as a promise was kept, and a right and moral decision was made despite its heavy price." In exchange for Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the remains of the three soldiers, Israel released 429 prisoners, including 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, 5 other Arabs, and one German accused of spying for Hizballah in Israel. Israel also returned the remains of 59 Lebanese. A second stage of the negotiations calls for Hizballah to provide information on the fate of Capt. Ron Arad, an Israeli Air Force navigator shot down in 1986 over southern Lebanon and captured. In exchange, Israel says it will consider releasing the longest held Lebanese prisoner, Samir Qantar, sentenced to life in prison for an attack in 1979 that killed an Israeli man and his 4-year-old daughter. In an effort to obtain information about Arad, Israeli commandos kidnapped Lebanese guerrilla leaders Abdel Karim Obeid in 1989 and Mustafa Dirani in 1994. The two men were released Thursday. (New York Times) Hundreds of former Palestinian prisoners received a joyous welcome in the West Bank town of Ramallah after being freed as part of Israel's deal with the Lebanese Shiite group Hizballah. Sixty of the former detainees headed straight for a meeting with Arafat, who broke off a meeting with the visiting Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to salute them. "We thank Hizballah for having insisted on the liberation of our Palestinian brothers," Arafat said. "We sacrifice our blood and our souls to you, Abu Amar [Arafat]," the prisoner's chanted in unison with family members who were also present. A joyful crowd staged a spontaneous demonstration, urging Hizballah to kidnap additional Israeli soldiers to allow the release of more Palestinian prisoners. (AFP) See also Hizballah Chief Threatens More Israeli Abductions "Next time I promise you we will capture them alive," Hizballah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a rally in Beirut's southern suburbs attended by Arab prisoners freed earlier in the day in a swap deal with Israel. (Reuters) While much of the U.S. military is currently focused on stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan, extremists in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia pose a longer-term strategic challenge to American interests, the senior U.S. military commander in the region, Gen. John Abizaid, said Thursday. For a high-ranking U.S. official to voice such worries about Saudi Arabia was unusual. Abizaid's remarks reflect a quiet concern in the Bush administration about the strength of Saudi rule and the future stability of the desert kingdom. The country is battling a rise in deadly violence linked to al-Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, is a Saudi exile. Abizaid, an expert in Arab affairs, dismissed reports of large numbers of Islamic militants flowing into Iraq from outside the country. "The foreign fighter flow is almost always overestimated," he said, describing the number killed or captured in Iraq as "in the hundreds." (Washington Post ) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Graphic pictures of the latest terror attack that killed 10 is the best way to show why Israel needs a security fence to stop bombers, said the Foreign Ministry on Thursday, as it posted a video of victims being evacuated from the bombed out bus in Jerusalem on its web site. "All those who criticize Israel for building the fence should take a good look at these pictures from Jerusalem," said the Foreign Ministry. "The sheer absurdity cannot be ignored. While Palestinian terrorists continue to murder Israelis, the pro-Arab majority at the UN is forcing Israel into the dock at the International Court of Justice over the fence." (Jerusalem Post) See also below Commentary: Jerusalem, 8:48 A.M. - Bret Stephens Canadian-born Yechezkel "Chezi" Goldberg, 42, father of seven, a social worker in Jerusalem and Betar Illit who specialized in helping American immigrant children, was killed in the terrorist attack on the No. 19 bus in Jerusalem Thursday. (Jerusalem Post) See also Because, If You Don't Cry, Who Will? - Chezi Goldberg Written after a terrorist attack in Jerusalem two years ago. (Jewish World Review) Jerusalem Post military correspondent Erik Schechter suffered moderate wounds in Thursday's bombing. "Moderate" wounds are a broken left knee and a severed vein in the calf below it; puncture wounds in his right leg and back, from slices of metal packed into the explosives; a broken shoulder; and lungs and spleen contused by the force of the explosion. (Jerusalem Post) Munir Ja'arah, the father of the Palestinian suicide bomber who carried out Thursday's attack in Jerusalem, said, "My son is a hero and we are proud of what he did," speaking as scores of Palestinians arrived at his home to "congratulate" him on the "martyrdom" of his son, Ali. Neighbors said that as soon as the bomber's identity was announced, many local residents took to the streets to express their joy. The bomber's uncle, Jihad Ja'arah, one of 13 Palestinian gunmen deported after being holed up inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 for several weeks, told relatives by phone from Ireland that he fully supported the attack. (Jerusalem Post) The fact that Thursday's suicide bomber in Jerusalem was a traffic policeman from Bethlehem and a member of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade says something about the state of that movement, which has long been considered the ruling party of the Palestinians. In some parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Brigades operate as gangs of local hoodlums who have almost completely severed ties with the senior members of the movement crowded into Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Some young activists from Fatah in Ramallah spoke of mounting dissatisfaction with Gen. Haj Ismail Jaber, head of Palestinian General Security, for his agreement two days ago, on behalf of Arafat, with IDF Brig. Gen. Gadi Eisencott, to allow Palestinian police to resume their role of imposing law and order in Palestinian towns. (Ha'aretz) An IDF soldier was lightly wounded when a Kassam rocket landed near the Kissufim Crossing in the central part of the Gaza Strip Thursday. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
We were in the bedroom of our Jerusalem apartment when we heard a loud boom. My wife look out the window and saw a large, flat, rectangular scrap of metal fly up above the rooftops of three-story houses and tall palm trees, followed by a plume of black smoke. Once downstairs, I noticed the quiet, which was unusual for rush hour. I got to the bus perhaps three minutes after the blast. Survivors lay on the pavement. Inside the wreckage, I could see three very still corpses and one body that rocked back and forth convulsively. Outside the bus, another three corpses were strewn on the ground, one face-up, two face-down. I doubt many reporters have actually witnessed a suicide bombing up close - indeed, not many Israelis have. After today, I know there is a basic difference between what one sees in the first five or ten minutes and what one sees in the next 20 or 30 minutes. If you haven't seen it before, you cannot imagine it. You don't have a clue. Nobody should see the scene I witnessed this morning. Then again, maybe everyone should see it, at least everyone in the news media. The writer is editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post. (Jerusalem Post) What goodwill did Israel generate Thursday by freeing 400 Palestinian detainees in a lopsided prisoner swap for one Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers? Not much. A suicide bomber left a Jerusalem bus a smoking ruin, killing 10 and injuring 50. This is madness. It undermines progressive Israelis who continue to lobby for a resolution of the Mideast conflict on fair terms, meaning security for Israel and a state for Palestinians. Who in Israel has the stomach for peace talks when peoples' remains soak the streets? Moreover, the bomber was one of Arafat's police officers. If the Palestinian Authority cannot control its own police, what faith can Israelis put in its pledges to rein in violence generally? The longer Palestinians embrace terror, the more friends they will alienate, not only in Israel but also abroad. (Toronto Star) The Israeli defense brass went into a midnight session Thursday night with Prime Minister Sharon to decide how to make terrorists pay for the latest massacre. There is no doubt the bombing is ultimately the responsibility of Arafat, but the Palestinian president may again be spared. First, Sharon doesn't want to break the promise he made to President Bush in early 2001 that Arafat will not be killed. Second, Sharon knows any "removal" of Arafat would create problems for Bush in a re-election year. Third, Sharon doesn't want to strain relations with Washington before he visits Bush next month to get his approval for his plan to "disengage" Israel from the Palestinians. (New York Post) Palestinians have a long history of preying on Israel's humanity. Palestinians have often used Red Crescent ambulances to transport terrorists past Israeli checkpoints. Palestinian terror groups have hidden explosive suicide belts under gurneys carrying sick children and in the garments of pregnant women. Palestinian complaints about what happens at checkpoints should cause us to think of the story of the child who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the judge because he is an orphan. Palestinian atrocities are why checkpoints were created. As soon as Israel removes checkpoints and withdraws from Palestinian population centers, terrorist organizations use their freedom of movement to enter Israeli cities and slaughter innocent civilians. Clearly, if Israel removed all checkpoints tomorrow, Palestinian terrorism would surge. Sadly, Palestinians continue to misdirect their rage at Israelis instead of the Palestinian terrorists within their midst who are the sole cause of their suffering. The writer is a Palestinian-American poet and activist living in Phoenix. (Arizona Republic) The Palestinian leadership's main strategy is based on Israel's population being vulnerable to terrorism. Thus, Israel's most urgent strategic need today is the completion of a comprehensive security fence along the edge of the West Bank. Those opposing this project are denying Israel the most elementary right of defense for its citizens while ensuring that the current conflict will be longer and bloodier. Controversies about the precise route of the fence are a needless distraction from this urgent task. Any other country in the world faced with suicide bombers who could easily walk or be driven across what was actually an open border would build a barrier and no one would challenge that right. (National Post-Canada) Widespread terrorism and political demonstrations are not organized solely, or even primarily, by the shattered remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime, nor by the splintered pieces of al-Qaeda. The war against us in Iraq and Afghanistan is an existential struggle guided, funded, and armed by tyrannical regimes in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, because they are convinced - rightly enough - that if we succeed, they are doomed to fall in a regional democratic revolution. In short, while Iraq is the current battlefield, the real war extends far beyond its borders, and we will remain under attack in Iraq so long as the tyrannical regimes in Damascus, Riyadh, and Tehran are left free to kill us and the embattled Iraqis. (National Review) Militants from some 40 countries were trekking to Tehran for a 10-day "revolutionary jamboree" starting Feb. 1. Most of the groups attending the event are branded by the U.S. and some EU members as terrorist outfits, including 17 branches of Hizballah, a worldwide militant Shi'ite movement created by Tehran in 1983. Tehran is the only capital where all the Palestinian militant movements have offices; some have training and financial facilities there, too. (New York Post) Extremist Islamist circles brand both Jews and Christians - that is, all the West - as infidels and believe that these infidels must be fought by means of Jihad. This study examines contemporary Arab Islamist sources advocating this approach to non-Muslims. It should be stressed that these views are held only by extremist groups, and that the majority of Muslims adhere to mainstream Islamic thought which views Jews and Christians as having special protected status. (MEMRI) Weekend Features:
Every Thursday, supporters of Palestinians and Israelis take their fight to London's main shopping district, converging on department store Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street to bombard passers-by with chants, drums, and politically-charged leaflets. For more than two years, Palestinian supporters have been staging a weekly picket outside M&S, urging consumers to boycott the store for what they say is its support for the Jewish state - a charge Marks and Spencer denies. But in recent months Jewish protesters have set up a counter stall to tell their side of the story. (Reuters) "There is a strong sentiment that the focus should be on soldiers and settlers, because that would show the futility of the Israeli fence," said West Bank journalist Hafez Barghouti, editor of the daily al-Hayat al-Jadida, an unofficial mouthpiece of the Palestinian Authority. Barghouti wrote an editorial last week in which he criticized the decision to have a 22-year-old mother blow herself up at a border crossing in Gaza. He also questioned the rationale behind recruiting a 17-year-old less than a week after his cousin and 14-year-old brother were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Nablus. "Maintaining our humanity, which the occupation is trying to destroy," Barghouti wrote, "is more important than achieving petty successes." (Forward) When analyzing Judeophobia, one finds an archive of words to be used against the Jew, which aims to criminalize all forms of Jewish identity. From the point of view of language, anti-Zionism has become an ideology. A number of key equations dominate its discourse. The master one is "Zionism equals Nazism." (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Observations:
War on Terror: Time to Get Tough - David Frum and Richard Perle
Excerpt courtesy of BICOM - British Israel Communications and Research Centre
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