DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Israel Slams Iran Holocaust Conference - Etgar Lefkovits (Jerusalem Post)
    A two-day conference of prominent Holocaust deniers taking place in Tehran is an attempt by Iranian President Ahmadinejad "to pave the way psychologically" for the Western world to accept that another Holocaust is possible, Yosef Lapid, the chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, said Monday.
    Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, said Ahmadinejad was following in the footsteps of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who turned Jews into parasites worthy of being murdered.

Saudi Ambassador Abruptly Resigns, Leaves Washington - Robin Wright (Washington Post)
    Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S., resigned and left Washington Monday after only 15 months on the job.
    His abrupt departure is particularly striking because his predecessor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, served in the position for 22 years.
    Turki has increasingly been rumored as a possible replacement for his ailing older brother, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister.

Jews Remember Jeane Kirkpatrick as Friend of Israel, Moral Beacon - Ben Harris (JTA)
    Jeane Kirkpatrick, who died Friday at age 80, was an ardent defender of the State of Israel in one of the world's least hospitable environments.
    Kirkpatrick was a vocal supporter of Israel both at the UN - where she was America's first female envoy - and in other forums.
    "She was a great friend of Israel, of the Jewish people," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
    Hoenlein noted that Kirkpatrick never ran for public office and her positions emerged not from calculations of political expediency, but "purely out of her deep conviction and belief."

U.S. to Double Emergency Equipment Stored in Israel - Yitzhak Benhorin (Ynet News)
    The U.S. Congress has approved doubling the stockpiles of American military equipment stored in Israel in case of an emergency in the Middle East. Israel is also allowed to use the stockpiles in case of emergency, and much of the American equipment was used in the summer war in Lebanon.
    The value of the equipment now stored in Israel amounts to $100 million and the American government approved doubling its value to $200 million in the coming year.

Taliban and Allies Tighten Grip in North of Pakistan - Carlotta Gall and Ismail Khan (New York Times)
    Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with al-Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials say.
    The result is virtually a Taliban mini-state.
    The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters who are wresting control from local tribes and spreading their influence to neighboring areas.
    This year more than 100 local leaders, government sympathizers, or accused "American spies" have been killed, several of them by beheading.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

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

Observations:

The Big Lie About the Middle East: Arab Nations Don't Care about the Palestinians - Lisa Beyer (TIME)

• No sensible person is against peacemaking in the Holy Land. But in lumping the Iraq mess in with the Palestinian problem - and suggesting the first could not be fixed unless the second was too - the Baker-Hamilton commission lent credibility to a corrosive myth: that the fundamental problem in the Arab world is the plight of the Palestinians.
• It is a falsehood perpetuated not just by the likes of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, who came late to the slogan after their actual beefs -Saddam with his neighbors; bin Laden with the Saudi royals - gained insufficient traction in the Arab world. The mantra is also repeated in parts of the State Department, in various think tanks, by editorial writers and Sunday talk-show hosts.
• But the pan-Arabism that once made the Palestinian cause the region's cause is long dead. In a decade of reporting in the region, I found it rarely took more than the arching of an eyebrow to get the most candid of Arab thinkers to acknowledge that the tears shed for the Palestinians today outside the West Bank and Gaza are of the crocodile variety. Palestinians know this best of all.
• To promote the canard that the troubles of the Arab world are rooted in the Palestinians' misfortune does great harm. It encourages the Arabs to continue to avoid addressing their colossal societal and political ills by hiding behind their Great Excuse: it's all Israel's fault.
• One might argue that if the Arab dictators were deprived of the Great Excuse, they might begin to rule with greater concern for their constituents' needs. But why should they be allowed to wait - in the meantime cynically selling their people the Israel Myth - especially since the wait is apt to be long?
• The Baker commission report's airy prescription for frog-marching Israelis and Palestinians into new peace talks perpetuates another persistent fiction: that U.S. involvement is the key to a breakthrough. That contradicts the real-life story of all three of the major peace agreements Israel has signed, with the Egyptians, Palestinians, and Jordanians. Each was the result of bold initiatives not by Washington but by local leaders, when conditions were ripe. In all three cases, the accords were the product of negotiations begun in secret behind the backs of the Americans.