DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Europe Tries to Prevent the Next Attack - Paul Haven (AP/Washington Post)
    European intelligence networks have thrown a blanket of surveillance over a small but fiercely violent cast of Islamic militants, many homegrown with no direct links to al-Qaeda, whose fingerprints they expect to find on the Continent's next big terrorist attack.
    Senior security officials across Europe in interviews painted a picture of militants motivated by bin Laden's call for worldwide jihad.
    In Spain, authorities have tripled the number of agents concentrating on terrorism and are watching some 250 suspected radicals.
    In London, senior police officers say they are concerned about 40 to 60 people living in Britain who have received training at camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Another 400 are believed to be sympathizers.
    In Italy, authorities are watching 74 people on suspicion of financing terrorism. In Germany, about 170 potentially violent radicals are under surveillance in Hamburg.
    Tore Bjoergo, a terrorism expert at the Norwegian Police University College, put the number of thwarted attacks throughout Europe at 30 to 40 since 9/11.

Saudi Fighters Leading Surge in Attacks on British Troops in Iraq - Thomas Harding (Telegraph-UK)
    Foreign terrorists, led by fighters from Saudi Arabia, are behind an upsurge in attacks against British troops in Basra, military sources said Tuesday.
    The Saudi influence on terrorism in Basra has caused concern among military commanders because of their training, technology, and finance.
    There is also a strong belief, particularly among the Americans, that Iran is continuing to ferry bombs to Baghdad via Basra.

Iraq Says It Has Captured Key Militant (AP/Los Angeles Times)
    The Iraqi government said Tuesday it has captured Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi, a key terror suspect who allegedly confessed to hundreds of beheadings of Iraqis.

Gunmen Attack Palestinian Stock Exchange (Palestinian Center for Human Rights-Gaza)
    On May 26, unknown gunmen fired shots at the Palestinian Stock Exchange in Nablus, causing material damage.
    Sources from the stock exchange indicated that the attack was motivated by losses incurred by some individuals due to the decline in stocks of some companies.

Lebanon Parliament Rejects Syria Bid to Arrest Jumblatt (AFP/Yahoo)
    Lebanon's parliament overwhelmingly rejected Syria's arrest warrants against prominent MP and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt who has called for regime change in Damascus.
    On May 3, Jumblatt, who has parliamentary immunity in Lebanon, was summoned by a Syrian military court to appear within seven days on charges of "inciting against Syria."

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

Observations:

The Justice of the Zionist Cause - Amnon Rubinstein (Jerusalem Post)

• From the moment the decision in favor of partition was made, the Palestinian Arabs and Arab nations rose up against the Palestinian Jews. Instead of accepting the compromise decided upon by the supreme international organization, which also had the authority to decide on the future of the areas under the Mandate of the League of Nations, the Arab countries made a declaration of war and began to plan their invasion of the Jewish state by regular Arab armies and a Palestinian Arab army led by the mufti. Yet the small, barely armed Jewish population succeeded in repelling the invading armies at a terrible cost in human life.
• Where justice is concerned, we must not forget that if the Palestinian Arab leadership and Arab countries had accepted the UN's compromise resolution, the Palestinian people would have been saved much suffering, and justice could have been done to both peoples. Similarly, we must remember that if the Arab countries had treated the Palestinian refugees who came to their countries as human beings rather than as bargaining chips, the refugees would have been saved considerable suffering and deprivation.
• The majority in the UN General Assembly became convinced of the justice of the Zionist claim: that a persecuted nation was entitled to a homeland, that the establishment of a Jewish state would prevent further Jewish suffering, that the Palestinians could enjoy self-determination in a state of their own where they would be protected from becoming a minority, and that there was no other place in the world for Jewish independence than the Land of Israel. That is the justice of the Zionist cause. It remains far stronger than any pro-Arab claim.

  The writer is president of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.