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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:
Egypt: Palestinians Trained Sinai Bombers in Gaza (UPI)
Egypt Proposes Stationing Troops in Gaza to Stop Clashes (DPA)
Top Al-Qaeda Militant Captured in Jordan (Reuters/Boston Globe)
Iran Tests Long-Range Missile - Mark Lavie (AP/Washington Post)
Owner of Detroit Restaurant Chain Tied to Terror, Prosecutors Say - Niraj Warikoo (Detroit Free Press) Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
The search for Middle East peace and the threat to regional security posed by Iran's nuclear intentions topped the agenda when President Bush met Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the White House. Prime Minister Olmert came to the White House hoping to win support for his plan to set new borders for the West Bank if negotiations with the Palestinians remain stalled. "We cannot be held hostage by a terrorist entity which refuses to change or to promote dialogue. If we come to the conclusion that no progress is possible, we will be compelled to try a different route," Olmert said. (Voice of America News) See also below Observations - Bush: We Seek Negotiated Agreement between Israel and Palestinians (White House) The U.S. House of Representatives voted 361-37 on Tuesday to impose broad restrictions on U.S. aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Backers of the bill said it was needed to keep any U.S. funds from supporting Hamas, a militant group pledged to the destruction of Israel and deemed a terrorist organization by Washington. The administration has cut off direct aid to the Hamas-led government, but the bill would put into law more sweeping bans. The bill calls for the Palestinian Authority to be designated a "terrorist sanctuary," and bans visas for entry into the U.S. of any official or member of the PA. It also recommends withholding U.S. contributions to the UN proportional to the amount the world body provides the PA. Under the bill, aid would be restored if Hamas recognizes Israel's right to exist, renounces terrorism, and disarms. Rep. Tom Lantos of California, top International Relations Committee Democrat and the bill's co-sponsor, said instead of punishing Palestinians, the bill was "carefully crafted and aimed at Hamas." "The United States must make it unambiguously clear that we will not support a terrorist regime," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican. (Reuters/Washington Post) As exiles, Abdel Halim Khaddam, Syria's former vice president, and Ali Sadreddin al-Bayanouni, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, are partners in a long-term plan to bring change to Syria. The men tied their fates together in March, forming the National Salvation Front, an unlikely political alliance with the dual goals of unifying Syria's fractious opposition and reassuring insiders fearful of change. That each claims a following and influence in different parts of Syrian society gives the alliance a unique potential that Syria's opposition has never had, many experts agree. (New York Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Ever since the Israeli pullout from Gush Katif and Gaza last summer, one-and-a-half tons of explosives have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip, a senior IDF Operations Branch officer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday. "Gaza is arming itself," the officer stated, adding that the army was aware of 12 Grad-type Katyusha rockets smuggled into Gaza, as well as dozens of RPGs and other rockets. (Ynet News) Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that he would not recommend conquering Gaza in response to the escalation in Kassam rocket attacks on Israeli communities. He said the defense establishment is making a great effort to find technological solutions to better contend with Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, 72% of which land within Israel. Halutz added that 50% of the 38 terrorists killed by the IDF in recent months were engaged in rocket launches on Israel. A senior Military Intelligence officer said that Islamic Jihad operatives are the only ones currently firing rockets at Israel and dispatching suicide missions out of the West Bank. Halutz confirmed that "Islamic Jihad is in distress because of the pressure the IDF is exerting on it." (Ha'aretz) PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar arrived Tuesday at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on his way to an Asian tour. According to one eyewitness, a PA policeman "went up to his [Zahar's] car and asked him whether he was traveling abroad to bring money. Zahar was deeply offended by the question, opened the window of the back door, and spat in the face of the policeman. It was a very embarrassing situation." Following the incident, scores of Hamas gunmen blocked the main entrance to the border crossing, preventing travelers from crossing into Egypt. They demanded that the policeman who had offended Zahar be handed over, but were turned down. Senior PA security officers at the terminal later apologized to Zahar and told him that the policeman had been suspended. Meanwhile, the director-general of Palestine TV, Muhammad Dahoudi, said he and his staff had received death threats after airing footage of Monday's clashes in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in which a Jordanian embassy driver was killed. Hamas leaders accused the Fatah-controlled Palestine TV of inciting against Hamas by reporting that the driver was killed by Hamas gunfire. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
From the moment the first U.S. warheads detonate over an Iranian nuclear installation, the U.S. will be at war with the Islamic Republic. The most likely theater of operations in the initial stages of a U.S.-Iranian conflict would be next door - in Iraq. Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iran has methodically built and strengthened its military, political, and religious influence in Iraq. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has extensively infiltrated Iraq's Ministry of the Interior and police force, both mainstays of Shiite power. (Washington Post) It wasn't a close vote Tuesday in the House of Representatives - 361-37 - but there is no reason it should have been, either, given the subject at hand: terrorists in charge of the Palestinian Authority. The House vote (and the Senate's when it comes) signals that U.S. refusal to deal with Hamas until it disarms and recognizes the existence of its neighbor is not a passing whim of a supposedly hard-line administration. It will remain permanent U.S. policy. (Denver Rocky Mountain News) Spanish-Syrian al-Qaeda strategist Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, one of the jihad movement's prime theorists for the post-Sept. 11, 2001, world who was arrested last October, published thousands of pages of Internet tracts on how small teams of Islamic extremists could wage a decentralized global war against the U.S. and its allies. Counterterrorism officials and analysts see Nasar's theories in action in major terrorist attacks in Casablanca in 2003, Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. In each case, the perpetrators organized themselves into local, self-sustaining cells that acted on their own but also likely accepted guidance from visiting emissaries of the global movement. Nasar's masterwork, a 1,600-page volume titled The Call for a Global Islamic Resistance, has been circulating on websites for 18 months. (Washington Post) Observations: Bush: We Seek Negotiated Agreement between Israel and Palestinians (White House) After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert at the White House Tuesday, President Bush said:
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