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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:
UN Faults Lebanon for Rocket Attack that Set Off Border Clash with Israel - Leila Hatoum (Daily Star-Lebanon)
See also Katyusha Fire Boomerangs on Hizballah - Orly Halpern (Jerusalem Post)
British National Arrested for Assisting Hamas (Prime Minister's Office/Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Iranian Dissident Tells of Assaults in Jail Run by Iran's Clerical Regime - Philip Sherwell (Telegraph-UK)
Egypt to Purchase Gaza Offshore Gas (AFP/Gulf Times-Qatar)
Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
To Iran's west lies a natural ally and perhaps its most potent weapon in the international fray over its nuclear program. All signs point to an increasingly robust relationship with Iraq now that Shiites have achieved a dominant role in the leadership. Iran and Iraq share a Shiite Muslim majority and deep cultural and historic ties, and Tehran's influence over its neighbor is growing. Iran will likely try to use Iraq as a battleground if the U.S. punishes Tehran economically or militarily, analysts say. Many key positions in the Iraqi government now are occupied by men who took refuge in Iran to avoid oppression by Saddam's Baathist regime. Iraq's powerful militias, meanwhile, have strong ties to Iran and have deeply infiltrated Iraqi security forces. They can be expected to side with Iran if the West should attack, said Paul Ingram of the British American Security Information Council. (AP/Washington Post) See also Iranian-Backed Militia Groups Take Control in Southern Iraq - Tom Lasseter Southern Iraq is now dominated by Shiite Muslim warlords and militiamen who are laying the groundwork for an Islamic fundamentalist government, say senior British and Iraqi officials in the area. The militias appear to be supported by Iranian intelligence or military units that are shipping weapons to the militias in Iraq and providing training for them in Iran. "People are training on the other side of the border and then coming back," said Lt. Col. David Labouchere, who commands British units in the province of Maysan, north of Basra. "Saudi Arabia is trying to counter the rising power of Iran in Basra by giving money and weapons to fanatical Sunni groups operating there," said a senior Iraqi Ministry of Defense official in the city. (Knight Ridder) Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on Monday rejected as a waste of time and money the referendum Mahmoud Abbas has said he will call unless Hamas changes its policy toward Israel. "This process needs money, we have no money. Nobody will recognize Israel, there is no need for a referendum," Zahar said during a visit to Malaysia. (Reuters) Britain's National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe) voted Monday in favor of a boycott of Israeli lecturers and academic institutions. (Guardian-UK) See also American Association for the Advancement of Science Condemns Academic Boycott of Israel The AAAS, the world's largest general science society, urged the British teachers association to withdraw its motion. "Free scientific inquiry and associated international collaborations should not be compromised in order to advance a political agenda unrelated to scientific and scholarly matters," the group declared. (Medical News Today) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
IDF special forces backed by a helicopter gunship ambushed an Islamic Jihad rocket crew in the ruins of the evacuated settlement of Dugit inside Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least three terrorists. On Monday, Palestinians fired a mortar shell into an army base in the western Negev, and fired two Kassam rockets that struck near Moshav Nativ Haasera, south of Ashkelon. (Ha'aretz) Holah Haniyeh, daughter of PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, was released from custody Monday after being arrested for attempting to sneak into an Israeli prison to visit one of the prisoners, who she claimed was her fiance. Police plan to charge her with impersonating the prisoner's sister. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Mahmoud Abbas' announcement of a national referendum was wrongly interpreted as a peace plan. The actual text of the document Abbas threatened to put to a popular vote much more closely resembles Hamas' own political program. There is no explicit statement that establishing a state within the pre-1967 borders would end Palestinian claims over Israeli territory. In fact, the document can be viewed as another iteration of the PLO's 1974 phased plan that declared a willingness to accept the establishment of a national authority in any part of historic Palestine as a step toward "completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory." (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) During the last week of May, thousands of Iranians demonstrated in the northwestern city of Tabriz, and the previous week there were protests at universities in five cities. The protests were triggered by the official government newspaper - the Islamic Republic News Agency's Iran - publishing a cartoon which depicts a boy repeating "cockroach" in Persian before a giant bug in front of him that asks "What?" in Azeri. Azeri-Iranians - who make up approximately one-quarter of the country's population - were particularly offended by the cartoon. Ethnic Persians make up a little more than half the total population of 69 million, but there are sizable minorities including Azeris, ethnic Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds. (Christian Science Monitor) See also Domestic Threats to Iranian Stability: Khuzistan and Baluchistan - Michael Rubin (ICA/JCPA) This month, in Cairo, pro-democracy activists such as 39-year-old Ahmed Salah of the Egyptian Movement for Change and dozens of his colleagues were beaten, arrested, and detained - ostensibly for congregating publicly in groups larger than five. Ayman Nour, the imprisoned liberal politician who ran second to Mubarak in last September's rigged presidential election, lost his final appeal against a five-year prison sentence on forgery charges. Speak to opposition figures in Egypt and the sense of American betrayal is palpable. According to Gameela Ismail, a prominent journalist and Nour's wife, the culprit here is Gamal Mubarak, who despite avowals to the contrary is setting himself up as his father's successor. She also notes that despite the billions the U.S. provides Egypt, the Mubarak regime continues to stoke anti-American sentiment in its press campaigns against Nour. "They call my husband, 'Nour, the spy of the U.S.'" The regime needs to destroy liberal opponents such as Nour so that Hosni Mubarak, and eventually his son, can present themselves to the U.S. as the only viable bulwark against the Muslim Brotherhood. The regime and the Brotherhood depend on one another to exclude any decent middle way. (Wall Street Journal, 30May06) Observations: Palestine on the Brink - Mortimer B. Zuckerman (New York Daily News)
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