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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: click here In-Depth Issues:
U.S. Ambassador: "No Understandings" on Settlement Blocs (Yediot Ahronot-Ynet)
Poll: Palestinians See Hamas Winning PA Elections (Palestinian Information Center-UK)
Kaddafi "Idiot" Remark Riles Palestinians (Reuters/Yahoo)
Israeli Arab Appointed Interior Ministry Director-General - Yuval Yoaz (Ha'aretz)
As U.S. Deaths Decline in Iraq, New Fears Arise
- Tom Lasseter (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Terrorist Number Three Eliminated in Chechnya - Sergey Dyupin
(Kommersant-Russia)
Record $2.11b Foreign Investment in Jan-Feb - Zeev Klein (Globes)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
A toughly worded UN report into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri concluded Thursday that heavy-handed Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs had created the polarizing tensions that led to his death and that a deeply flawed local investigation had obstructed efforts to find his killers. At one point, the report said, Syria's leader personally threatened Hariri. The author, Patrick Fitzgerald, a deputy police commissioner of Ireland, called for an investigation by an independent commission as the only way of uncovering the truth behind Hariri's killing. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan endorsed the call for an international investigation. (New York Times) Israeli officials Wednesday rejected international criticism of their plans to build thousands of apartments in a hilly desert area east of Jerusalem, plugging a gap in Jewish settlements encircling the city. Plans for the 12-sq.-km. (4.6-sq.-mile) area, known as E-1, within the zoning boundaries of Maale Adumim, began about a decade ago. A well-placed government official explained, "Gush Etzion (southwest of Bethlehem), Ariel (between Jerusalem and Nablus), and Maale Adumim are located in areas very critical to Israel's security. To think that we would negotiate over an area where 30,000 people live, that we would stop all construction because there is a new (Palestinian) government (is unrealistic). We are building in an area where there are no Palestinians. Inside a city, in a municipal area." Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that in the different scenarios for the final status Israeli-Palestinian agreement, "there is a consensus in the international community that Maale Adumim will remain part of Israel. I fail to understand how building in an area that everybody understands will be part of Israel causes a severe political problem. In no way will this prevent the creation of a viable Palestinian state as laid out in the 'roadmap.'" (UPI/Washington Times) See also Rice Warns Israel Against Settlement Expansion - Paul Richter and Tyler Marshall Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Israel Thursday that its plan for a large expansion of an Israeli West Bank settlement was "at odds with American policy." Rice said Israel's explanation of its plans to expand Maale Adumim east of Jerusalem was "not really a satisfactory response." "We have noted our concerns to the Israelis," she added. (Los Angeles Times) See also Text of Interview with Secretary Rice (Los Angeles Times) See also U.S. Won't Confront Israel Over Housing Plan The Bush Administration does not plan to publicly confront the Israeli government over plans to build 3,500 new homes linking Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, Washington sources said Thursday. U.S. National Security Council official Elliott Abrams and David Welch, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, questioned Sharon about the plan during a visit to Jerusalem on Wednesday. (AP/Jerusalem Post) Two teachers at the Abraar Islamic school in Ottawa were suspended Wednesday pending an investigation into the encouragement or incitement of hatred against Jews expressed in a young student's violence-laden writing project. One teacher was apparently involved in the artistic production of the eight-page story, illustrated by a drawing of a burning Star of David beside a machine-gun and Palestinian flag atop the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The other teacher had written comments on the student's paper, praising the boy's story: "God bless you, your efforts are good." (Ottawa Citizen) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel is delaying handing over security responsibility for the West Bank town of Kalkilya to the PA, charging that it is not upholding its commitments with regard to the towns for which it has already assumed responsibility - Jericho and Tulkarm. The PA has yet to take action against wanted individuals in these towns. Israel's wanted list for Jericho includes the names of 17 members of terror organizations, with the Tulkarm list comprising a few dozen. Under its agreement with Israel, the PA undertook to require the wanted men to hand in their weapons to the Palestinian security forces, which would monitor the terror activists' movements and prevent them from leaving town. Senior members of the defense establishment charged that the PA had not lifted a finger with regard to the wanted men in Jericho, handed over 10 days ago, or in Tulkarm. Defense Minister Mofaz instructed the IDF to continue planning the handover of Kalkilya but to delay the move until the PA implemented the steps it was required to take. (Ha'aretz) Jerusalem is still deliberating how much to ask the U.S. for covering security expenses related to the disengagement plan, with the figure currently estimated at $500-700 million. The special U.S. aid is meant to cover "infrastructure support" investment items for new communities in the Negev and Galilee. Israel will not ask the U.S. to cover the cost of compensation for evacuees. Senior officials said Israel's request should be based solely on actual defense needs and expenditures, and will also include funds for upgrading the security fence around the Gaza Strip. It was reported Wednesday that the cost of the civilian evacuation and military redeployment under the disengagement plan would reach NIS 7 billion. (Globes) "The painful and qualitative blows which the Palestinian resistance dealt to the Jews and their soldiers over the past four-and-a-half years led to the decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip," Ahmed al-Bahar, a top Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters. Bahar said the disengagement plan should be seen as a major and strategic victory for the Palestinians. "The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that the resistance is the only way to pressure the Jews," he said. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
I have long been convinced that the war against the Jewish state can only be ended by those who have been waging it since 1948, and that the Arab/Muslim world will make peace with Israel only after it makes peace with itself over the existence of a sovereign Jewish state in its midst, wherever its boundaries might be drawn. Until, that is, the day comes when the peoples of the greater Middle East, and their Muslim brethren elsewhere, can find it in their hearts to acknowledge the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own in the land of their forefathers, any peace treaty will amount to nothing more than a temporary cease-fire in an ongoing campaign to wipe Israel off the map. Do the Palestinians really want statehood if it means giving up the dream they have always dreamed of eliminating a Jewish state from the Middle East? Arafat showed that he wanted no part of statehood on such terms when he rejected the offer of it made to him by Barak and Clinton. (Commentary) What are the chances of quick and steady progress toward real political change in authoritarian and centralized Arab regimes? It would be nice to hope that the Palestinian and Iraqi models will serve as launching pads for rising democracies; but for the foreseeable future, the odds are against it. Arabs may be excited and fascinated by political ferment in Iraq; but they are also alarmed by the absence of public order, the cacophony of Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish voices, and the seemingly irrepressible and violent insurgency. Despite genuine desire among millions of Arabs for greater openness, there will be no rush toward democracy. Nor should we be surprised by the formidable capacity of these authoritarian regimes to quash meaningful reform. Short of invading another Arab country (and that's not a recommendation), what can the U.S. do to promote real progress toward democracy? Not much that will produce quick or significant change. This is a long movie. Above all, let's keep our expectations low and realistic. The democratic club is a small one - only a couple of dozen countries have managed to remain democracies over the past half-century. (International Herald Tribune) According to sources inside the "Cedar Revolution," the grassroots pro-democratic movement that has sprouted in Lebanon in recent weeks, Syria has no intention of relinquishing power. Working in concert with its counterparts in Iran, Syria has developed a plan that entails deploying terror and intelligence networks inside Lebanon to orchestrate a series of subversive activities to prove that Syria is needed to maintain security. Already in existence is a coordinated network of pro-Syrian groups under the direct command of the Syrian intelligence service in Damascus. This network includes the Syrian Social-Nationalist Party (SSNP), the intelligence services of the Lebanese and Syrian regimes, and the intelligence network of the Republican Guard, headed by Col. Moustafa Hamdane. The writer is a professor of Middle East studies and Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. (FrontPageMagazine) What the Palestinians need now are partners. In their conflict with Israel, their natural and historical partner has always been Jordan. The writer, brother of the late King Hussein of Jordan, is the president of the Club of Rome. (Daily Star-Lebanon) America's National Public Radio has earned a reputation for both the quality of its programs and for a long-standing bias against Israel. NPR's Peter Kenyon declared on March 9 that "most observers believe under international law all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal." Who these "observers" are and how Kenyon tallied their views in order to conclude that "most" consider settlements illegal is unclear. (Jerusalem Post) See also BBC's Reality-Free TV - Carol Gould On March 13, UK BBC news broadcast images of a large crowd of Palestinian men in a fierce street fight, pitching large objects at one another. The commentator, James Reynolds, said the students in Hebron were fighting in the streets, their anger and frustration exacerbated by seeing an Israeli presence on their streets. The next shot showed an Israeli flag flying on a wall outside what seemed to be a military outpost. Then along came Fox News, reporting, without fanfare, that Hamas and Fatah factions were fighting it out on the streets of Hebron. Their footage was identical to that shown on the BBC but no mention was made of Israeli oppression having caused the men's anger. (FrontPageMagazine) Daniel Sibony, born into a modest Jewish family in Marrakech, Morocco, came to Paris at the age of 14 as a mathematical whiz kid, and went on to become a respected mathematician, philosopher, practicing psychoanalyst...and insightful commentator on current events in general and the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular. Sibony explores anti-Semitism in his latest work, L'enigme antisemite, where we learn volumes about the sources and mechanisms of anti-Semitism generated by Christianity and Islam, an anti-Semitism that is inextricably connected to Muslim scripture. (FrontPageMagazine) Weekend Features:
Former U.S. Rep. William Lehman, a legendary figure of South Florida politics considered a visionary on racial issues and public transit, died on March 16 at age 91. He was an Alabama-born Jew who opened a business in a black neighborhood in Miami and once traveled to Cuba to rescue political prisoners. Other favorite causes included support for Israel and the resettlement of Soviet Jews. When the Democrats held sway in Congress, with an unpolished speaking style and quiet strength, he controlled billions of dollars for transportation as chairman for ten years of a House Appropriations Committee subcommittee. He financed cars for black customers in the '40s and '50s, when few other white car dealers would. ''He would look at a man's arms and if they had salt on them, from sweating, he would know that was a working man,'' said Thomas Lehman. "That was his credit check.'' (Miami Herald) See also (Washington Post) Sol M. Linowitz, a diplomat, lawyer, and businessman who played key roles in Middle East peace negotiations and the Panama Canal treaty during the Carter administration, died Friday at age 91. "Sol Linowitz was a dedicated public servant with great political courage, encyclopedic knowledge of foreign affairs, and unexcelled diplomatic skills," former President Carter said. Linowtiz, a former chairman of Xerox Corp., represented Carter in Middle East peace negotiations that followed the 1978 Camp David accords. (AP/ABC News) Hadassah Hospitals in Jerusalem have been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize by several academicians and senior government officials from the U.S., Britain, Australia, and Israel. They said Hadassah deserves to be awarded the prize for maintaining equality in providing medical treatment, despite the need to treat more terror victims than any other medical center. Hadassah serves as an exemplary model of cooperation and co-existence, as reflected in the ethnic and religious diversity of its medical staff and patients. The hospitals have persevered in building bridges for peace through their medical activities despite the intifada. (Yediot Ahronot-Ynet) See also Hadassah Dedicates New Emergency Room - Judy Siegel Hadassah Hospital can now treat three times as many victims at a time in a new $50 million emergency care unit dedicated Thursday. (AP/Jerusalem Post) According to historian Arnold Paucker, more than 13,000 Germans fought for Britain against the country of their birth. Some were political dissidents, others were Roman Catholics, but most were Jews. (Times-UK) The U.S. television network HBO has purchased the rights to Dani Menkin's documentary, "18 Kilos of Love." It tells the story of Eli Ankilevich, 34, who weighs just 18 kilos and is paralyzed in all his limbs, due to a rare neurological condition he was born with. Although he can only move one finger, he has managed to make a career as an animator. (Jerusalem Post) Observations: Defeating Arafat's War: The IDF's Success Against Asymmetric Warfare - Gerald M. Steinberg (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies/Bar-Ilan University)
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