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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:
Ahmadinejad: God Told Me We Would Win - Dudi Cohen (Ynet News)
Leader of a Georgia Mosque Pleads Guilty to Aiding Hamas - Brenda Goodman (New York Times)
Israel Marks 20 Years Since Air Force Officer Was Captured in Lebanon - (AP/Boston Herald)
Israel to Support NATO Counter-Terrorism Patrols (Reuters)
UK Eurofighters to Use Israeli Pod (Middle East Newsline)
Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert laid out his agenda for the coming year in a policy speech to parliament Monday, but he made no mention of the key issue that brought him to power: a unilateral pullback from the West Bank. (AP/MSNBC) See also below Observations: Prime Minister Outlines Policy at Opening of Knesset Session (Prime Minister's Office) The European Union will acknowledge Tuesday at a foreign ministers' meeting that nuclear talks with Iran have failed and support a return to the UN Security Council to prepare sanctions. (AFP/Yahoo) Even though the Western boycott has rendered the Hamas government impotent, it hasn't stopped foreign money from reaching the militant group's network of social welfare affiliates such as schools, hospitals, and alms societies. Islamist charities continue to get money from Muslim groups in the Persian Gulf, Europe, and the U.S., filling the vacuum of government services and preserving a core of support for political Islam. But domestic critics charge that Hamas is using the charities to protect its own during the crisis. "There is a lot of money in Hamas," says Abdel Nasser Najjar, a columnist for Al Ayyam, a newspaper of the opposition Fatah party. "The problem now is that Hamas is only giving to their own people." (Christian Science Monitor) Anti-Semitic incidents have proliferated in France in recent times, but the news seldom makes it across the Atlantic. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse attacked with Molotov cocktails; in Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish soccer team with metal bars and sticks; a bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers attacked three times in the last 14 months; synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles and a Jewish school in Creteil firebombed in recent weeks; in Toulouse, a gunman opened fire - all ignored in mainstream U.S. media. The metropolitan Paris police tabulated 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day in the last 30 days throughout the country. (Washington Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Commanders of the French contingent of the UN force in Lebanon have warned that they might have to open fire if Israel Air Force planes continue their overflights in Lebanon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. He said Israel would continue to patrol the skies over Lebanon as long as UN Security Council Resolution 1701 remained unfulfilled, adding that such operations were critical for the country's security. Israel had gathered clear evidence that Syria was transferring arms and ammunition to Lebanon, he added. (Ha'aretz) Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least two Kassam rockets at Israel Monday, one of which landed next to a home in the town of Sderot, wounding a woman in the leg. Another rocket landed near Kibbutz Nir-Am. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
If there is to be any hope of salvaging the Palestinian political system now, a bold political initiative is required to end the current state of paralysis and restore direction and capability to the PA. If Abbas seeks to change Palestinian political prospects through legal and democratic means, his only effective option may be to resign and call for an early presidential election. Abbas has no legal authority to call for a national referendum that would enable the public to ratify a particular political program. If Abbas wants to challenge Hamas' authority, his options range from declaring a state of emergency to disbanding the Hamas government. But Palestinian law is clear that such measures require legislative consent, giving Hamas an effective veto on Abbas unless he is willing to act beyond the legal limits of his authority. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Michael Ignatieff, current candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, characterized "what happened in Qana" during Hizballah's recent war against Israel as "a war crime." It is possible that he believes that even if the Israeli killing of Lebanese civilians was an unintended consequence of its efforts to prevent rocket attacks against its own civilians, it was still a war crime. Such a view would reflect a perverse and dangerous approach to international law that would make it nearly impossible for democracies to protect their civilians from terrorists who launch rockets from civilian population centers. It would also encourage other terrorist groups to emulate the tactic employed by Hizballah: to use local civilians as human shields behind whom the terrorists fire their rockets at enemy civilians. (National Post) As a public institution that encourages learning, free expression, and the exchange of ideas, Wayne State University recently was the site of a speech and protest by individuals opposed to the university's investment in Israel. Wayne State opposes divestiture and has no intention of divesting itself of stocks in companies doing business with Israel or any other legitimate state. We encourage our students to use their right to free speech, but accusations, acrimony, and demands such as divestiture are counter to the intelligent dialogue and free discourse for which this university stands. In a complex, international economy, divestiture is by no means a responsible approach to influence political or economic policy. Rather, it is my obligation to pursue legal, rational, and productive investments on behalf of the institution. The writer is president of Wayne State University. (Detroit Free Press) The European Union has for many years announced its ambition to be a global political actor - to act as a counterweight to the U.S. on the world scene. The summer war in Lebanon could have been a major opportunity for the EU to show that it could move rapidly to stop a conflict in its tracks by offering a solution in which it would make a major contribution. Yet the discrepancy in the EU's pretensions and its capability to play a major role gradually became clear during the war. Israel's policy-makers should understand that many Europeans will always support the Arabs against it. They have long since lost the ability to discern between criminals and victims, democrats and terrorists. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Observations:
Prime Minister Outlines Policy at Opening of Knesset Session The Prime Minister of Israel addressed the opening of the Knesset winter session on Monday:
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