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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:
Al-Qaeda Targets Israeli Diplomats - Itamar Eichner (Ynet News)
Palestinians Demand Resumption in Funding - Raphael Minder (Financial Times-UK)
Letters from a U.S. Jihadist - Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch)
U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords Against Islamists in Somalia - Emily Wax and Karen DeYoung (Washington Post)
Saudi King Warns Newspapers: No Photos of Women (AP/New York Times)
Amnesty International Has Disproportionate Focus on Israel and the U.S. (NGO Monitor)
Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Iran insisted on Tuesday that it would continue to enrich uranium in defiance of UN demands to halt the sensitive nuclear work. "Iran's decision to preserve this right (to enrichment) is definite and irreversible," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. He said that any European proposal on its nuclear program should not violate this right. (Reuters/Washington Post) See also Help with Reactor Included in European Offer to Iran - Steven R. Weisman The leading nations of Europe, working with the U.S., are preparing to offer Iran new assistance in building a light-water nuclear reactor for civilian use in return for Iran's ending activities suspected of being a cover for a weapons program, European and American diplomats said Tuesday. The hope of the U.S., Britain, and France is that if the latest incentives are rejected by Iran, Russia might be more inclined to move a step toward possible sanctions. But that is a hope more than an expectation, European diplomats said. (New York Times) See also Ahmadinejad Scorns EU Atomic Incentives - Christian Oliver Accepting EU incentives that urge Iran to stop making atomic fuel would be like trading candy for gold, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday. "They say we want to give Iranians incentives but they think they are dealing with a four-year-old, telling him they will give him candies or walnuts and take gold from him in return." (Reuters) China on Tuesday urged Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, to recognize the Jewish state and return to peace talks. Zhai Jun, director-general of West Asian and North African Affairs of China's Foreign Ministry, told reporters: "Our minister Li (Zhaoxing) says democracy is a beautiful mother which gives birth to an ugly child. We don't necessarily agree with Hamas policies, but we respect the people's choice. On this basis, we can urge the Hamas government to respect agreements previously signed with Israel, to recognize Israel, and to return to talks." (Reuters) See also China Invites Hamas Foreign Minister China said Wednesday it will host the foreign minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Zahar is among 23 ministers from Arab states and entities invited to Beijing late this month for a conclave on China-Arab relations, said Zhai Jun of the Chinese foreign ministry. (China Post-Taiwan) The Arab economic boycott of Israel is losing steam as many Arab countries, especially the oil-rich Gulf states, are evading the embargo. A source close to the four-day conference of the Arab Boycott Bureau convening in Damascus said Tuesday, "the majority of Arab countries are evading the boycott, notably the Gulf states and especially Saudi Arabia." The source said "an important reason for not observing the boycott rules by the Arab countries is the growing U.S. pressure in the direction of normalization with the Jewish state." (UPI) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
President Bush is not expected to express his support of Prime Minister Olmert's convergence plan following their upcoming meeting in Washington, the prime minister's aides estimated Tuesday after meeting with Secretary of State Rice and senior White House staff. Yoram Turbowicz, the Prime Minister's Office chief of staff, and political advisors Dov Weisglass and Shalom Turgeman had discussed the key issues for the visit with the Americans. Israel is aware of the U.S.'s traditional stance, which supports setting permanent borders in an agreement and not unilaterally. European governments also back this stance. (Ynet News) Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed two Islamic Jihad terrorists in a gunbattle during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday. A third was moderately wounded and a fourth was arrested. A 20-kilogram bomb was found with the men, believed intended for a terror attack inside Israel. (Ha'aretz) Palestinian gunmen shot dead Mohammed Tatar, 25, a member of Hamas' military wing, in Gaza City on Tuesday. Masked gunmen in the Khan Yunis area of Gaza shot and wounded two more Hamas members. "People who are behind these incidents must be caught by security and executed in the public square," said Marwan Abu Ras, a Hamas official. (Ha'aretz) Palestinians in northern Gaza fired five Kassam rockets at Israel on Tuesday. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
By 2003, Libya was in possession of 4,000 advanced uranium centrifuges and sufficient quantities of highly enriched uranium to make a 10-kiloton bomb, or nearly the yield of the bomb on Hiroshima. This is vastly more advanced than what Iran is suspected of possessing. What changed Gadhafi's mind? A decade of international sanctions had an effect. A more proximate cause was Gadhafi's belief, following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in Oct. 2001, that he was next. The decisive factor was Gadhafi's belief that his best hope of escaping the American onslaught was to abandon his nuclear dreams. Normalizing ties with Libya does not require the U.S. to be friends with Libya or abandon imprisoned dissidents. But it does give the Administration a chance to show that it is willing to co-exist with cruel and unsightly regimes so long as they meet a threshold of global respectability: no WMD; no sponsorship of terrorism; no threatening of their neighbors. (Wall Street Journal, 17May06) The Associated Press story that brought us the news of the death of Daniel Wultz, the 16-year-old Florida high school student mortally wounded in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, reported, "According to the American Embassy, more than 200 American citizens have been killed or wounded in terrorist attacks in Israel since 1992." American courts have found Iran and its leaders liable for $6 billion in damages for more than a dozen Americans killed or wounded in Iranian-sponsored attacks. The State Department's Web site, rewardsforjustice.net, lists dozens of Americans killed or wounded in terrorist attacks in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby listed at least 51 Americans murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in a recent ten-year period. An attack of this magnitude on American soil would be a casus belli and trigger an American retaliation. As the death toll mounts, there's too much patience, and not enough justice. (New York Sun) Palestinians are already, by some measure, the largest per capita recipients of overseas aid in the world. Yet the level of violence in Gaza and the West Bank has risen in proportion to the amount of assistance received. When Hamas was elected earlier this year, the EU brushed aside American objections and handed over 120 million euros. Palestinians responded by ransacking EU diplomatic missions and kidnapping European citizens. The EU, as the largest overseas donor to the PA, has created a subsidy-based society, as sulky, lethargic and corrupt as any on earth. But it doesn't have to be this way. The EU, in its well-intentioned but doltish way, is fueling the conflict. The Jewish state represents the supreme vindication of the national principle: that is, the desire of every people to have their own country. The EU, by contrast, is founded in the belief that national loyalties are artificial, transient, and ultimately discreditable. Simply by existing, Israel challenges the main assumption on which European integration is based. (Telegraph-UK) Observations: The Popular Resistance Committees: Hamas' New Partners? - Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi (Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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