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: info@prescon.org In-Depth Issue:
Official Heading AIPAC Probe
Linked to Anti-Semitism Case - Edwin Black (JTA)
DVD of American's Beheading is Hot Item in Gaza - Lamia Lahoud (Jerusalem Post)
Cat Stevens Was Guest of Canadian Hamas Front - Stewart Bell (National Post-Canada)
"Sukkah of Light" in Jerusalem (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Two Israelis Freed in New Zealand (Ha'aretz)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
CNN producer Riad Ali was released Tuesday, almost 24 hours after he was abducted in Gaza by Palestinian gunmen. Ali said he was held by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement. (CNN) See also Italians Abducted in Iraq Freed, Frenchmen to be Released (CNN); Report: Italian Women Freed for $1m Ransom (Telegraph-UK) Hamas published newspaper ads urging supporters to vote in upcoming municipal elections, saying "it's time for change." And top Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar indicated the group might try to unseat Arafat in presidential elections, which have not yet been scheduled. Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. In a sign of Palestinian weariness, a recent opinion poll by An-Najah University found that two-thirds of Palestinians support a cease-fire with Israel. "The uprising has not been defeated, but it has not brought victory. Frankly, it is now closer to defeat than victory," commentator Hani al-Masri wrote in the Palestinian daily Al Ayyam. (AP/Newsday) The heads of several major U.S. Jewish organizations condemned the Presbyterian Church's decision to begin selective divestiture in companies operating in Israel, after a polite but tense meeting in New York Tuesday with church officials. "Holding something over the head of Israel to change its conduct, while holding nothing over the heads of the Palestinians to change their conduct...has caused utter dismay in the Jewish community," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. "It is unbalanced, it is unwieldy, it will not work." The Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington reported this week that mainline Protestant denominations devoted 37% of their human rights declarations over the past four years to criticism of Israel, far more than any other foreign country. (Washington Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The IDF entered the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday in an effort to reduce Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns. (Ha'aretz) At least four Kassam rockets were fired at the Israeli town of Sderot and kibbutzim in the western Negev on Tuesday. Ten Israelis were treated for shock. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Sderot residents Monday that it is the government's responsibility to provide security for its citizens. Fifteen rockets have hit Sderot since the beginning of this week alone, causing damage, injuries, and intense fear. (Jerusalem Post) See also Rockets Take Toll in Sderot - Tovah Lazaroff Residents of Rambam St. in Sderot felt they had survived one rocket too many. "It's like living in a game of Russian roulette. You never know where it will hit," said Meir Zigzag. His two sons, serving in the IDF in Gaza, called him on Tuesday, concerned that he is the one who lives in the midst of a battleground. The attacks, which used to be a once-in-a-while occurrence, are more frequent and more accurate, said David Azaran. It's a situation he fears will only worsen as the date for disengagement nears. Two-year-old Lior Cohen knows what a Kassam is. "Boom, boom," he said at the mention of the rocket. (Jerusalem Post) Members of the Fatah faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council asked Arafat Tuesday to fire the government of Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Alla, and threatened that if he did not, they would vote no-confidence in the Abu Alla government. In the background to the current crisis is an additional chill in relations between Arafat and Abu Alla. Palestinian sources said that in recent weeks Abu Alla has boycotted meetings of the Fatah central committee and the national security council in connection with Arafat's refusal to reform the security services in response to Egyptian requests. (Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew) See also Palestinian Premier Urges Both Sides in Uprising to Rethink Tactics (New York Times) Major General Aharon Ze'evi, the head of Military Intelligence, discussed ten potential threats to Israel's security with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday, including the Iranian nuclear threat, Syrian armament with ground-to-ground missiles, the strengthening of the Egyptian military, and the smuggling of arms into Gaza via Sinai. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Four years after the eruption of the al-Aqsa intifada, the dominant mood among Palestinians is one of defeat. This is registered not only in enormous human and material losses. It is seen in the progressive collapse of the Palestinian Authority as a central governing body, replaced on the ground by local and increasingly unaccountable militias. The violence continues, but there is a question of whether the intifada any longer exists as a genuinely national uprising. (BBC) The Oslo accord, signed eleven years ago this month, was predicated on the proposition that providing international financial support to the newly created Palestinian Authority would help build its debilitated public infrastructure and attract private investment, so that by the end of a five-year transitional period the Palestinian economy would be on its way to prosperity. Yet today the Palestinian economy is virtually bankrupt and the population has been largely reduced to welfare status. An overly optimistic and simplistic economic vision overlooked whether the PLO, which had no previous tangible experience in managing economic affairs at the level of a state, was capable of undertaking Oslo's economic endeavors, and whether foreign aid, provided in a grossly inadequate political and institutional setting, would be effective in achieving the anticipated economic transformation. Any future attempt to revive the Palestinian economy will have to address and eventually fundamentally alter the institutional and political-territorial setting that has helped cause the economy's near collapse. The writer is a senior economic advisor to the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs. (Beirut Daily Star) Observations: Why are Palestinian Refugees Different? - Yossi Alpher (Media Monitors Network)
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