DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Swiss Hold Seven Suspected of Planning El Al Attack (Reuters)
    Seven people of North African origin are being held on suspicion of plotting to attack an Israeli El Al airliner in Switzerland, the Swiss Attorney General's office said on Thursday.
    "This cell had very seriously envisaged committing an attack in our country on an airliner belonging to the El Al airline," said a statement.
    Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported last month that Swiss and French intelligence agents had foiled a plot to shoot down an El Al plane over Geneva in December using a rocket-propelled grenade.

Hamas, Abbas Rivalry Spurs Palestinian Arms Race - Adam Entous and Haitham Tamimi (Reuters)
    PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' forces and their Hamas rivals are expanding their arsenals.
    New weapons and equipment can be seen on the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, and black market gun and ammunition prices have soared.
    Western security officials in Gaza said members of one of Abbas' elite bodyguard units had shown them that they were now carrying anti-tank rockets concealed in backpacks.
    In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas' guard recently acquired four new U.S.-made armored vehicles worth an estimated $100,000 each.
    Palestinian security sources say Hamas is buying weapons and training fighters in the West Bank, where Fatah forces have long been dominant.
    In Gaza, where it has enough guns, Hamas has been buying up bullets.

Notes from the West Bank and Gaza - Amir Oren (Ha'aretz)
    Since Israel's evacuation from the northern West Bank and Hamas' rise to power, terrorism has surged and economic growth in Nablus has been curbed.
    The jesting slogan of the Palestinians, who have gone back to relying on Israel, is "Not Abu Mazen (Abbas) and not Haniyeh - we want only Idra al-Madaniyah" - the Civil Administration of the Israeli Military Government.
    The vast arsenal of weapons and explosives that has entered Gaza is frightening, and not only as an infrastructure for the export of terrorist attacks on the Israeli rear.

Palestinian Al Aksa Brigades Kills Suspected Collaborator (AP/Jerusalem Post)
    Nihad Hashash, a Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel, was found dead on Thursday, shot seven times, on a street in the West Bank city of Nablus.
    The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades of Fatah claimed responsibility.

Arabs Urged to Invest $50 Million in Image-Building in U.S. (Gulf News-UAE)
    Parvez Ahmad, chairman of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), urged Arab businesses to invest in image-building in the U.S. to secure their long-term interests.
    A CAIR delegation held discussions with Al Habtoor group chairman Khalaf al-Habtoor and other businessmen in Dubai about a $50 million public relations campaign that the group has launched in the U.S. to change negative public perceptions about Islam.

Black Anti-Semites Storm Paris's Old Jewish Quarter - Nidra Poller (City Journal)
    On the last Sunday of May, 30 men in paramilitary formation, some wearing leather gloves with brass knuckles, stormed into the heart of the old Jewish quarter, terrorizing residents, shopkeepers, and Sunday strollers.
    The self-styled militia of the Ka Tribe, a black separatist group originally connected to the no-longer funny black comic Dieudonne' M'Bala M'Bala, embodied the worst fears of a Jewish community exposed to a new rise in anti-Semitic attacks.
    The police did not come until the militia had left.

Israel and Europe: An Expanding Abyss? - Manfred Gerstenfeld (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
    The relationship between Europe and Israel is complex, tense, and historically loaded. Over the years a gap has developed between their political perspectives.
    Because Israel can much less afford the frequent hostility in European-Israeli relations than Europe can, it should take the initiative to see how the damage can be limited.
    Yet it should do so without endangering vital interests or remaining silent about the injustice Europe is causing it.

Birthright Welcomes 100,000th Participant - Shimshon Shoshani (Jerusalem Post)
    This week, Israel welcomed Taglit-Birthright Israel's 100,000th participant.
    Birthright Israel's free trips to Israel are open to young Jews who have not previously visited Israel in an organized peer tour, as opposed, say, to visiting with family.

Useful Reference:

19 Reports on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - 2004-2006 (MEMRI)

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

Observations:

As Islamists Grow Confident, It's Time for the West To Stand Firm
- Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe Yaalon (Forward)

• In Europe I observed a widespread refusal to consider Hamas' January electoral victory beyond the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In reality, Hamas' rise to power has global ramifications. It opens a new front for radical Islamism in its confrontation with the West and provides encouragement to Islamists worldwide.
• In a February 3 speech in a Damascus mosque, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal redefined Hamas' ambitions from the goal of destroying Israel to the much broader goal of defeating the West. He also revealed the growing confidence of Islamists in pursuing more ambitious goals.
• Hamas' electoral victory is only the latest in a series of strategic successes that have given radical Islamists every reason to believe that God is on their side. They include international terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda and its supporters in the U.S., Spain, and Britain; the insurgency's perceived victories against coalition forces in Iraq; Muslim Brotherhood electoral successes in Egypt; and Hizballah's attainment of a cabinet seat in Lebanon.
• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leading terrorist in Iraq, recently declared that America "is breathing its final breath," while Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas branded the U.S. an "enemy of Islam."
• Conceptually, the West should be wary of any diplomatic, economic, or military move that might serve to reinforce the Islamists' notion that they are winning. The current Hamas-led government must be made to fail, Hizballah should be disarmed in accordance with UN Resolution 1559, and the Iranian regime must be stopped in its pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for terrorist groups throughout the region. A unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank would undermine any attempt to confront the advance of the global jihad movement; to the contrary, it would encourage and energize radical Islamists worldwide.
• Confronting the advance of radical Islamist elements requires, first and foremost, striking at the confidence that has motivated their progress. This requires uniting behind a policy that refuses further concessions to terrorism, acts aggressively against future transgressions, and appropriately engages the next generation in the Muslim world.

  The writer, who served as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2002 to 2005, is a distinguished military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.