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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:
PA Demands Further Gaza Withdrawal from Territory in Israel Proper - Nina Gilbert (Jerusalem Post)
Palestinian Gunmen Shoot at West Bank Rock Concert (AP/Ha'aretz)
50 Terror Groups Believed to Be in Canada - Beth Duff-Brown (AP/Yahoo)
Islamic Radicals Storm Temple Complex in India - John Lancaster (Washington Post)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
The United Church of Christ voted Tuesday to use "economic leverage" to promote peace between Israel and Palestinians and to call for the dismantling of the Jewish state's security fence. A last-minute compromise was reached whereby no mention of divestment would be made. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called the resolutions "functionally anti-Semitic." He accused the UCC, which has 1.3 million members, of holding Israel to a different moral standard. David Elcott, the American Jewish Committee's U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs, said, "We understand Christian concerns about a wall, but we believe that saving human lives is more significant than property." (AP/San Francisco Chronicle) The EU will never accept a resumption of any nuclear arms activity by Iran, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Tuesday after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington. (AFP/Yahoo) The king of Jordan told Islamic scholars and clergy Monday that Muslim extremists are to blame for "malicious" attacks against their religion by non-Muslims. Terrorists "give justification to non-Muslims to judge Islam according to acts that Islam disavows, and subsequently interfere in Muslims' affairs," King Abdullah II told 180 religious leaders from 40 countries meeting in Amman. (AP/Washington Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The director of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi Farkash, warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that Palestinian terror organizations are planning to increase attacks in the West Bank if their strategic goals are not achieved in the near future, Army Radio reported. Farkash said the standing of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had weakened, and that the possibility that he would succeed in changing the current trend of terror is very slim. (Jerusalem Post) Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi Farkash told the Knesset committee Tuesday that Egypt sees the stationing of 750 border guards as the first step in a more widespread deployment along the Egyptian-Israeli border. He said the agreement would allow them to be equipped with light arms and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. A security source said Monday he expects the agreement with Egypt to be signed within two weeks. He said the Israel Defense Forces would not withdraw from the Philadelphi route before it assesses the effectiveness of the Egyptian force after it has been stationed there for "at least a few months." The source said Israel would continue to insist that Egypt take full responsibility for preventing smuggling between Egypt and Gaza. (Ha'aretz) See also Israel Permits Egyptian Military Port in Sinai to Combat Smuggling - Aluf Benn Israel has agreed to allow Egypt to place a movable military port on the El Arish coast in the northern Sinai for the use of guard boats meant to prevent weapons smuggling. (Ha'aretz) Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said in an interview Tuesday that Hamas has lost confidence in Abu Mazen, "who failed to implement what we have agreed upon." Al-Zahar asserted that "Hamas will keep its weapons in its hands and will defend any part of the homeland." Hamas, he said, sees the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem [al-Quds] as one geographical unity and it will not be silent in Gaza if the West Bank is under attack by Israel. "Our national problem is not related only to the West Bank, Gaza, and al-Quds...but to Palestine, all [the territory of] Palestine." (Trans. Jonathan D. Halevi) (al-Hayat al-Jadida-PA, 5 Jul05) Eight mortar shells were fired at Gaza settlements on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, Israel Radio reported. (Jerusalem Post) Some Fatah leaders in the West Bank have strongly criticized the postponement of Fatah internal elections until after the legislative elections, as decided in a Fatah executive committee meeting in Amman. Hani al-Masri, a columnist affiliated with Fatah, wrote on Tuesday of the senior Fatah leadership: "They are clinging to their chairs, they realize that Fatah's rank and file and grass-root supporters will not elect them." Masri argued that the executive committee wanted the Fatah primaries to involve only hundreds of carefully-selected local leaders. He said the Fatah old guard are worried that their chances of getting elected will diminish drastically if thousands of young Fatah members are allowed to choose Fatah's candidates for the legislative elections. (Palestinian Information Center-UK) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The Palestine Securities Exchange, located in the West Bank town of Nablus, has skyrocketed since the Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire went into effect in February. And check out Paltel, the Palestinian phone company. It's almost as hot as Google. Palestinian restaurants in Ramallah are full again. Israel is again awash in tourists. Even Hamas cannot ignore how much people want this calm to hold. Ghazi Hamad, editor of the Hamas newspaper Al Risalat, said to me, "One reason Hamas agreed to the cease-fire was to give people a chance to breathe and rest." Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, has not put his security forces in order. I spent a day in Gaza and did not see one Palestinian policeman, but I saw green Hamas flags everywhere. (New York Times) The winner in Iran's recent presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, makes no secret that he is a professional revolutionary, having spent all his adult years in the service of the Khomeinist movement. But it is almost certain that he was not directly involved in the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979-80. Ahmadinejad's presence at the killing of three Kurdish dissident leaders in Vienna on July 13, 1989, however, is an established fact. He was wounded in the shoot-out and spent a day in a Vienna hospital before being whisked out of Austria with a diplomatic passport. (New York Post) The Syrian economy is stagnating even as the population (now at 18.4 million) is expanding rapidly. Petroleum, long the leading resource, is being depleted at such a rate that Syria will be a net importer of oil in only a few years. And when oil income dwindles, so, too, may the government subsidies with which the regime has curried public favor. The most charitable assessment of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, 39, is that he is the Syrian everyman's fellow inmate. Syria today remains a garrisoned state. Human rights organizations estimate that thousands remain in Syrian jails, and there have been many reports of systematic torture. A Western diplomat in Damascus told me that Syria is playing poker when everyone else is playing chess. It is an apt characterization of a regime that is too insular and backward-looking to realize it is waging a war abandoned long ago by its allies, peddling the remains of the pan-Arab dream. (Smithsonian Magazine) With benchmarks for oil rising fast, Middle East economies grew 5.6% last year, recording the highest per capita growth rate in a generation and triggering an unexpected golden era that shows no sign of ending soon. Last year Saudi Arabia based its budget on a forecast of $19 a barrel; the average price over the year was $35, giving Riyadh the biggest surplus in Saudi history. (Newsweek) Observations: Disengage from the Rhetoric - Hillel Halkin (New York Sun)
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