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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 Report on Lebanon Urges Hizballah Disarming - Gerard Aziakou (AFP/Yahoo)
Nasrallah: Prisoner Swap Only for Terrorist Samir Qantar (Reuters/Ynet News)
Egyptian Electricity Begins Flowing to Gaza - Wisam Afifeh (Palestine News Network)
A Badly Needed Bag Check - Neal Sandler (Business Week)
Useful Reference:
Palestinian Charities Actively Promote Terrorism (Israel Defense Forces) Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Leaders of the radical Islamic Hamas and the rival Fatah faction announced this week that they were close to completing a deal they hoped would persuade the West to end an aid cutoff that had bankrupted the government and set off factional fighting. But U.S. officials noted Tuesday that the Palestinian proposal might not be enough to end the aid ban. An Israeli official said the deal seemed to be an effort to put a more presentable face on the government without making key changes or concessions, and that restoring aid would lift the pressure on Hamas just when the crunch was beginning to have an effect. "I think people in Washington are going to be pretty underwhelmed by it," said David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Palestinians are "playing with words and trying to get the world to give them as much money as possible without being bound to anything." (Los Angeles Times) Russia's President Vladimir Putin warned against hastily imposing sanctions on Iran, but in a rare note of criticism he has also deplored Iranian calls for the destruction of Israel, according to remarks released by the Kremlin on Tuesday. Putin said in remarks posted on the Kremlin Web site: "Neither Brazil, nor South Africa, are setting the goal to destroy another state and are writing about it in their constitutions," in an apparent reference to Iranian leaders' repeated threats to destroy Israel. "Regrettably, the Iranian leaders are talking publicly about it, and that doesn't help international security or the foreign policy of the Iranian state itself." (Pravda-Russia) U.S. officials praised Syrian security forces for thwarting Tuesday's attack on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. The Syrians killed four attackers after a car exploded near the walls of the American compound, the Syrian Information Ministry said. "I do think the Syrians reacted to the attack in a way that helped to secure our people, and we very much appreciate that," U.S. Secretary of State Rice said. (CNN) See also Syria Accuses U.S. of Fueling Terrorism after Embassy Attack (AFP/Yahoo) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
A statement issued by Hamas on Tuesday stated: "The political program of the [proposed Palestinian] unity government does not contain any explicit or implicit recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity." (Jerusalem Post) See also A Palestinian Unity Government Will Rescue Hamas - Avi Issacharoff In Gaza, it turns out that there is money - but only for Hamas members. Those who receive salaries are Hamas supporters. The new poor are Fatah members. Hamas' operational force, which numbers thousands of soldiers, receives the best equipment, regular supplies of food and drink, and, according to Fatah members, a sizable monthly allowance. This fact has ignited the anger of members of the other security services who have not received wages for nearly six months. A senior officer in one of the security services said Hamas has appointed 11,000 civil service employees, including 67 new directors and deputy directors to the government ministries, and another 300 assistants and advisers. "They are smuggling millions via the crossings and paying their people salaries." The officer claims that a Palestinian unity government will not serve Fatah, but will rescue Hamas. "They want a unity government because for them it's the last opportunity to remain in power." (Ha'aretz) With the opening of the UN General Assembly on September 12, 2006, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel has joined a group of Israeli legal scholars and public personalities who are calling for the expulsion of Iran from the UN due to the statements of Iranian President Ahmadinejad and other members of the Iranian national security establishment. Eytan Bentsur, former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, said, "It is inexplicable and inexcusable that the international community is not reacting vehemently to Ahmadinejad's Nazi-style utterances." (Ynet News) See also Jewish Heavy-Hitters Swing at Iran - Hilary Leila Krieger (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer in Pakistan who became a forensic psychiatrist, argues in his book, Understanding Terror Networks, that we are facing something closer to a cult network than an organized global adversary. Analyzing data on 400 jihadists, he found that they weren't poor, desperate sociopaths, but restless young men who found identity by joining the terrorist underground. The Sept. 11 hijackers weren't psychotic killers; none of the 19 had criminal records. In terms of their psychological profiles, says Sageman, they were as healthy as the general population. The implication of Sageman's analysis is that the Sunni jihadism of al-Qaeda and its spinoff groups is a generational phenomenon, a fire that will gradually burn itself out unless we keep pumping in more oxygen. Nothing in Sageman's analysis implies that America should be any less aggressive in defending itself against terrorism. But he does argue that we should choose our offensive battles wisely and avoid glamorizing the jihadist network further through our rhetoric or actions. (Washington Post) Here it is, five years late, an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it. Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large. The men who killed 3,000 of our citizens on 9/11 in all likelihood died saying prayers to Allah, and that by itself is one of the most horrific things to me about that day. It's time for all Arab-Americans, and Arabs around the world, to protest against Islamic fascism, to raise our voices - and, where necessary, our arms - until the plague of terror has been driven from the face of the earth forever. (New York Post) The Islamic regime in Iran presents a danger to Israel's existence. The regime's ideology uncompromisingly and publicly calls for Israel's destruction, fosters Palestinian terrorist organizations, and systematically strives to attain unconventional nuclear capabilities while thumbing its nose at the demands of the international community. It also clearly presents a threat to American and Western interests in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Much of the Arab/Muslim world is also apprehensive of an Iranian threat. Israel and the entire international community must make an effort to hamper the post-war rehabilitation of Hizballah's strategic capabilities as part of a general struggle against the threat of Iran and its stronghold in Lebanon. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies) Observations: Ahmadinejad in New York - Editorial (New York Sun)
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