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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:
Hamas Executes Fatah Men as Their Wives and Children Watch (AP/Washington Times)
See also
Hamas Gunmen Hunt Down Fatah Rivals in Gaza - Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters) Israel HighWay - June 14, 2007 Issue of the Week: What Israeli Teens Are Doing this Summer
Explosive-Filled Tunnels Targeting Abbas Found in Gaza (Maan News-PA)
As Gaza Unravels, Palestinians Flee - Ilene R. Prusher (Christian Science Monitor)
House Ties Military Aid to Egypt to Human Rights Progress (AFP/Yahoo)
See also
Egypt Vote Shows Unease with Democracy - Dan Murphy (Christian Science Monitor)
Al-Qaeda Targets France - Bruce Riedel (Los Angeles Times)
Collaborators Face Death in Town Where They Hoped to Find Safety - Sonia Verma (Times-UK)
Survey Shows Most Israelis Are Happy - Ruth Eglash (Jerusalem Post)
Israeli Kibbutz to Provide Armor Protection for U.S. Forces - Navit Zomer (Ynet News)
Rise of 225 Percent in High-Tech Deals in Israel - Asaf Malichi (Ynet News)
Sheriff Returns from Training in Israel - Stephen Gurr (Gainesville [GA] Times)
Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Bush administration officials said Thursday they had been discussing the idea of largely acquiescing in the takeover of Gaza by Hamas and trying instead to help Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas retain control in the West Bank. The U.S. had quietly encouraged Abbas to dissolve the Palestinian government and dismiss Prime Minister Haniyeh, steps that Abbas announced Thursday. Before the announcement, Secretary of State Rice telephoned Abbas to reiterate American support for the move. (New York Times) See also Abbas Dissolves Palestinian Unity Government - Glenn Kessler After Abbas, whose bouts of vacillation have irritated U.S. officials, dissolved the Palestinian government in response to Hamas' takeover of Gaza, U.S. officials signaled that they will move quickly to persuade the Quartet to lift aid restrictions on the Palestinian government, allowing direct aid to flow to the West Bank-based emergency government that Abbas will lead. "There is no more Hamas-led government. It is gone," said a senior administration official. He said that humanitarian aid will continue to Gaza, but that the dissolution of the Palestinian government will allow the U.S. and its allies to create a "new model of engagement." The evolving U.S. strategy would let Hamas-run Gaza fend for itself while attempting to bolster Abbas as a moderate leader who can actually govern and deliver peace with Israel. (Washington Post) Arab governments have been stunned by a battle that is rapidly creating a dramatically new reality on their doorsteps. Egypt sent police to beef up security on the border with Gaza, deploying armored vehicles and water cannons to prevent any potential mass flight of Palestinians out of Gaza. There are fears that if the fighting spreads to the West Bank, it will further weaken Abbas and ultimately stir up trouble for Jordan, said a Jordanian government official. The fighting is a major blow - if not a death knell - to months of attempts by U.S. Arab allies Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to unify the Palestinians and allow a resumption of the peace process with Israel. "Gaza is steadily turning into a failed mini-state," wrote Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi. "And in failed states, small or large, extremism breeds and spreads." Arab states fear a Hamas-run Gaza could become a power center for the group's allies Iran and Syria. (AP/Washington Post) The European Union suspended its humanitarian aid projects in Gaza on Thursday as the stridently anti-Israel Islamic Hamas movement took control of the area. EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel announced a halt to 16 EU relief projects in Gaza, citing a "lack of security." (AP/Washington Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Hamas fighters seized control of the Palestinian presidential compound in Gaza City on Thursday, the last of four key Fatah-run security compounds in the city which are now all under Hamas control. Hamas gunmen broke into the homes of Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan in Gaza and looted them. 99 Palestinian policemen loyal to Fatah who were border guards at Rafah fled to Egypt. (Ha'aretz) Fatah gunmen and PA policemen rounded up more than 30 Hamas officials and supporters in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm on Thursday in an attempt to consolidate Fatah's grip on the West Bank. Hamas does not have security bases in the West Bank, nor does it have armed groups that roam the streets openly. Yet Hamas remains popular in several cities. In the last municipal elections, Hamas candidates scored major victories in Ramallah, el-Bireh, Bethlehem, Nablus and Kalkilya. It's true that many West Bankers are unhappy with what Hamas has done in Gaza. But there are still many Palestinians who are fed up with the scores of Fatah armed gangs that have long been running wild in the West Bank. Fatah gunmen may control the streets of the West Bank, but this does not mean they enjoy the support of the majority of the Palestinian public. In fact, Fatah's humiliating defeat in Gaza is likely to undermine its standing in the West Bank. (Jerusalem Post) Israel and the U.S. have reached an "accommodation" regarding the proposed sale of state-of-the-art weaponry to Saudi Arabia, and the issue is not expected to be a source of friction when Prime Minister Olmert goes to Washington for talks next week. (Jerusalem Post) Israel's successful launch of the Ofek 7 on Monday proves again that it has the ability to independently develop, manufacture and launch satellites into space. Israel is one of seven countries in the world with independent satellite launch capabilities. (Jerusalem Post) See also New Satellite Gives Israel Intelligence Edge - Rachelle Kliger The Ofek 7 satellite is equipped with a sophisticated camera that can identify objects as small as 70 cm. in size. Israel already has two satellites in space with high-quality imagery capabilities - the Ofeq-5 and the Eros B. However, they are constantly orbiting the earth and are not always available to film a desired site at a given time. An extra satellite provides a wider scope of coverage, said Yiftah Shapir, a researcher at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. (Media Line) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Hamas Takes Control in Gaza
The consequences of Western failure in Gaza could be dire, according to Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Every brand of radical Islamist will be there - from al-Qaeda to Hizbullah joining Hamas," he said. If radical Islamists are able to establish a heavily armed state of their own in Gaza, it will be another sign to their adherents that this group is on the march and that the West is in retreat. "If they're expanding their presence there and they believe that time is on their side and they're winning, then in fact they will focus more and more on us," Ross said. And the challenges go beyond Gaza and the Arab-Israeli dispute, as the Taliban is back in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Al-Qaeda is also flexing its muscles in Lebanon, and Hizbullah is resurgent. (ABC News) All Palestinian leaders will continue to declare the indivisibility of the Palestinian homeland. But in private, Abbas and other Fatah leaders may take solace from the dilemma Hamas will now have to confront. Gaza's water, electricity and basic goods are imported from Israel, whose destruction Hamas has declared as its fundamental objective. Egypt turned a blind eye to the importation of weapons and money that helped ensure Hamas' takeover. But would Egypt allow on its border a failed terrorist state run by an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood with links to Iran and Hizbullah? Or will it insist on the maintenance of certain standards of order in return for its cooperation? In the West Bank, Abbas can depend on the Israel Defense Forces to suppress challenges from Hamas, and on Jordan and the U.S. to help rebuild his security forces. A failed terrorist state in Gaza is hardly what Secretary of State Rice had in mind for a legacy. Some will argue that it's time she talked to Hamas. But its thuggish, extraconstitutional behavior in Gaza and its commitment to the destruction of Israel make it an unlikely partner. The writer is director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. (Washington Post) According to past experience, international force deployments have been extremely problematic in areas still afflicted by active combat operations. Such forces spend most of their energies seeking to protect themselves from attacks by the more aggressive party and, as a result, these forces inevitably decide to appease the party that threatens them more. For example, UNIFIL established intimate ties with Hizbullah over the years, in order to protect itself. It failed to address serious cease-fire violations by Hizbullah and even refused to take any effective action when the organization kidnapped Israeli soldiers in broad daylight. Many times UNIFIL was more preoccupied with Israel Air Force surveillance flights than with the flow of new Iranian weaponry to Hizbullah through Syria. Israeli diplomacy should focus right now on the role of Egypt. Cairo has no interest in the emergence of a state belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas defines itself as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) along its northeastern border. Prime Minister Olmert should focus in his meeting with Bush on obtaining a firm commitment from Egypt to at long last seal the Philadelphi route. European monitors deployed on the Egypt-Gaza border have not blocked the massive flow of arms and trained terrorist personnel that have been flowing into Gaza without interruption. Israel should not support any initiative involving international forces that could block the freedom of movement of the Israel Defense Forces in the event that the security situation in Gaza deteriorates even further. (Ynet News) Hamas makes no secret of the fact that it now receives most of its financial and military support from Iran. The Iranian government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hamas leadership in June last year in which it agreed to fund the militant group to the tune of £400 million. In addition, Iran provides military training to Hamas members by sending them to camps in Lebanon and Iran run by the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards. Earlier this year, the Iranians sought to establish new supply lines to Gaza. On February 24, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' supreme leader, traveled to Khartoum where he met senior Quds Force officials and Sudanese politicians who are broadly sympathetic to Hamas' political objectives. The main topic of conversation was setting up a supply route that would enable Iran to smuggle rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, guns and explosives through the porous border between Gaza and Egypt. Ordinary Palestinians, it is true, in both Gaza and the West Bank, are suffering hardship. But this is not because of a lack of funds entering the Palestinian territories: it is because successive Palestinian administrations have made no effort to distribute the resources available equably among the population. By forcing the majority of Palestinians to exist in dire poverty, Hamas succeeds in attracting widespread sympathy from international do-gooders who do not understand the sadistic economic manipulation that is taking place. Hamas is trying to replicate Hizbullah's success in Gaza, not a pleasing prospect for Israel, which now faces the threat of having two Iranian-backed, Islamic fundamentalist organizations dedicated to its destruction camped on its northern and southern borders. (Telegraph-UK) Some Israeli defense officials said there was reason to be thankful for Hamas' takeover of Gaza. Prior to this, Israel had to distinguish between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in Gaza and make sure that Abbas loyalists were not targeted. Now, all gunmen are Hamas and therefore fair game. "The bank of targets has grown tremendously with Hamas' takeover," explained one official involved in planning policy in Gaza. "Hamas is a clear and defined enemy, and that means that when we decide to respond it will be easier than before, since all their buildings are now targets, as is anyone walking around with a weapon." Hamas operatives man roadblocks throughout Gaza with laptops that contain lists of Fatah officials, supporters and families. Anyone found on the list is either executed or severely beaten. Hamas' brutality was demonstrated on Wednesday when it raided Shati in central Gaza and rounded up female members of the Baker clan, known Fatah supporters. Hamas gunmen executed three of them, aged 13, 19 and 75. Regarding proposals to send a multinational force into Gaza, the assumption in Israel's defense establishment is that no European country would be willing to send troops unless Hamas supported the idea. (Jerusalem Post) Fatah's lack of leadership, petty quarreling, and corruption contributed to its dismal showing in the fight against Hamas in Gaza. While the disciplined Hamas systematically built and hoarded weapons, Fatah failed to prepare in time for the inevitable showdown with the Islamic militants. In this week's fighting, disorganized Fatah fighters were outgunned and overrun by the smaller Hamas. Left without a central command or plan, Fatah forces quickly disintegrated. Many angry West Bankers, watching the fall of Gaza on their TV screens, pinned the blame on Fatah's leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who was seen as far too indecisive and detached to lead a countercharge against Hamas. In recent days, Hamas also gained a definite advantage by seizing weapons and ammunition from captured Fatah positions. Yet in the end, it came down to mind-set, not hardware. "Hamas has leadership, a goal, an ideology and funding," said Gaza analyst Talal Okal. "Fatah has neither leadership, nor a goal, a vision or money." (AP/San Francisco Chronicle) How can it be that the Fatah and Hamas leaderships have been so incompetent and brutal as to allow their followers to stoop to this level of political imbecility and human irresponsibility? Some gunmen may find it fulfilling to capture the headquarters of a rival group in Gaza. Most of the Palestinian people and all their many Arab supporters find this an act of juvenile political immaturity at best, and depraved criminality at worst. Whether these gunmen think they are acting in the name of God or a nationalist revolution is beyond any reasonable credibility, because their actions in recent months have deeply scarred the powerful authenticity and legitimacy of the Palestinian cause. (Daily Star-Lebanon) After Ariel Sharon pulled Israel out of Gaza two years ago, Israel didn't get the security it wished for; the daily shelling of Israeli towns continued and even intensified. However, he did succeed in transforming Gaza from an Israeli headache into a Palestinian problem. "The American strategy has totally collapsed," Israeli officials said this week. First, they carried out an exercise in democracy, and that led to the election of Hamas. Then they abandoned democracy and tried to arm Fatah operatives in Gaza so they would fight Hamas. This approach didn't work out very well, either. The next step will be to isolate Gaza and hope to prevent the internal struggle from spilling into the West Bank. The one idea no one in his right mind is taking seriously this week is the old formula of the two-state solution that will solve, once and for all, the "Palestinian problem." (Slate) Other Issues
It's impossible to talk about Hamas without talking about Iran. Iran has been arming Hamas terrorists via smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. A Hamas takeover of Gaza would create immense new security problems for Israel and potentially carve out a terrorist haven in the region. It's impossible to talk about the murder of another prominent anti-Syrian lawmaker in Lebanon without talking about Iran and its partner, Syria. Tehran is funding and arming Hizbullah terrorists via Syria, and has rearmed them since Hizbullah's war against Israel last summer. It's impossible to talk about the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan without noting that Iran is now apparently helping to arm its erstwhile arch foes. In short, it's impossible to view the serious violence across the Middle East without tracing the significant and rising influence of Iran. Now imagine a Tehran with nuclear weapons - and the ability to spread nuclear expertise to its terrorist clients throughout the region. (Chicago Tribune) Wednesday's car bombing in Beirut, which killed Future Party parliamentarian Walid Eido, underscores the Syrian-backed multifront campaign to undermine stability in Lebanon. One front is the Palestinian refugee camps, particularly Nahr al-Bared, where the Lebanese Armed Forces are currently fighting Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affiliate with ties to Syria. A second front is Beirut itself. The blast that killed Eido was the sixth such attack in the past month. For Washington, this latest assault on the Lebanese government is cause for great concern, particularly because al-Qaeda and Syria appear committed to destabilizing Lebanon. To help the Lebanese government weather what is sure to be a long war with Syria, Washington should pursue a second UN Security Council resolution to secure Lebanon's border with Syria. It may be time for Lebanon to request, with U.S. support, deployment of UN forces on this border. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) See also Sinister Strategy Behind an MP's Murder - Robert Fisk A phone call came through on my mobile from a Lebanese MP when the carbonized skeleton of Walid Eido was still hot in his bombed car. "They only need to kill three more and Siniora has no parliamentary majority." True. The first words of L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper's lead story Thursday began: "70...69...68." If the MPs supporting the government of Fouad Siniora fall to 65, there is no more "majority" support in parliament. (Independent-UK) Academic boycotts violate two important principles - the principle known as "the universality of science and learning" and freedom of expression. The first principle is that academics do not discriminate against colleagues on the basis of factors that are irrelevant to their academic work. Beyond formulaic denunciations of Israel, the boycotters rarely offer a rational account of why it is right to shun Israel's academic institutions. The boycotters are not just adopting bad politics derived from faulty thinking. There is an edge of malice to their campaign. Their desire to hurt, to punish, outstrips their ability even to identify with any precision their targets. Does this malice have a name? Is it anti-Semitic? The history of anti-Semitism is in part the history of boycotts of Jews. Each boycott derives from a principle of exclusion: Jews and/or the Jewish state are to be excluded from public life, from the community of nations. The boycott has indeed been an essential tool of anti-Semites for at least a thousand years. The boycotters would deny to Jews the rights that they uphold for other peoples. They adhere to the principle of national self-determination, except in the Jews' case. They affirm international law, except in Israel's case. They are outraged by the Jewish nature of the State of Israel, but are untroubled (say) by the Islamic nature of Iran or of Saudi Arabia. (Times-UK) Israel at present has a center-left government that proposes a two-state solution for the Palestine conflict. The Palestinians have voted into office an Islamist government under the Hamas movement that says it aims to end the existence of the Jewish state by a policy of armed struggle. By general consent, moreover, Israel's universities enjoy far greater academic freedom than any in the Middle East. Why, in these circumstances, should Israeli academics be shunned while those from the other side are welcomed? (Economist-UK) U.S. officials say they have found evidence that Iran has supplied weapons to Taliban rebels operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Some experts say there are a number of reasons why a strengthened Taliban would serve Iran's interests, particularly in keeping U.S. forces off balance, as well as potentially deflecting pressure over its nuclear program. (Council on Foreign Relations/ New York Times) The strengthened UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is likely to face a range of security threats that could undermine its peacekeeping duties and endanger its personnel. Among the more serious threats, underscored by intelligence reports that indicate a growing al-Qaeda presence in Lebanon, is a catastrophic terrorist attack against UNIFIL by local salafist jihadist entities. (Brookings Institution) Weekend Features
The scenes flashed across the TV screens: tens of thousands of Arab troops massing on Israel's borders, frenzied demonstrations in every Arab capital demanding the demise of the Jewish state, the leaders of the Soviet bloc proclaiming unqualified support for Arab war aims while the French - Israel's only ally - abruptly changed sides. Egyptian President Nasser, who ousted UN peacekeepers from the Egypt-Israel border and blockaded Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran, foresaw a "total war...aimed at Israel's destruction." "We shall destroy Israel and prepare boats to deport the survivors," the Palestine Liberation Organization pledged, "if there are any." Tom Segev's 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East aims at overturning what Segev deems the most hallowed of Israeli myths - namely, that the Six-Day War was a just and existential struggle that Israel, isolated and outgunned, had no choice but to wage. Substantiating these claims requires Segev to engage in rhetorical acrobatics, not only contradicting himself but also committing glaring oversights. But the most telling omission relates to the Arabs. Segev's book is all but devoid of Arab calls for Israel's destruction and the slaughter of its citizens. There is no mention of pro-war demonstrations, of Egypt's willingness to use poison gas against its enemies, or of the detailed Arab plans for conquering Israel. The writer is a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and the author of Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. (Washington Post) I had come to Beeston in September 2005 on assignment with the BBC to help put together a factual drama based on the lives of the four 7/7 bombers - three of whom came from Beeston. Although poverty and exclusion are themes that wound their way through the lives of the Beeston bombers, it is the internal frictions within a traditional Pakistani community in Britain that best explain the radicalization that led to the deaths of 56 people. Ariel Merari, a Tel Aviv University psychologist, has profiled 50 suicide bombers and concluded that the only factor linking all forms of suicide terrorism was the way bombers were recruited and trained. It is the psychology of the group, not the individual, that is key. I asked Gultasab Khan, brother of British jihadi Mohammad Sidique Khan, whether he thought 7/7 was halal (permitted) or haram (forbidden) in Islam. After a brief pause, he replied. "No comment." Everyday morality told him that his brother had committed a cold-blooded act of terror, while his own Islamic theology told him that maybe his brother was a hero. How many thousands of young British Muslims are similarly conflicted? (Prospect) "There are 12 million Christians in the Middle East. If the current trend continues, there will be fewer than 6 million by 2025," says Hilal Khashan, political science chair at the American University of Beirut. Christians have been a traditional bridge between the mainly Muslim Middle East and the largely Christian West. Without them, says Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Center for Religious Freedom, "we'll see greater Islamization of the people who stay behind." Throughout the Middle East, Christians complain that they are in the worst of all worlds - viewed as outsiders by Islamists but held in suspicion as Arabs by the West. In the Palestinian territories, Christians who once made up more than 7% of the Arab population now account for less than 2%, according to a recent survey. Ray Mouawad, a Lebanese historian, says growing fundamentalism is a threat not just to Christians but to all religious minorities, as well as to secular Muslims. For Islamic fundamentalists, he says, "no building of churches is allowed, no display of the cross, no processions, no equality in the law, no participation in the political process and, of course, no freedom of conscience. These are just some ideas that are prevalent in fundamentalist circles from Iran to Morocco." (Toronto Star) Italy presently has a left-wing government. Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema was one of the strongest opponents of Israel when he was prime minister in 1998-2000. A few decades ago the Italian Left started to use the conflict as a strategic instrument to build domestic political alliances. It is not by chance that the radical shift in the EU's stance toward Israel occurred in a declaration at a 1980 conference in an Italian city, Venice, which demanded the creation of a Palestinian state. It was issued when the PLO still explicitly said that it wanted to destroy Israel. The new Italian Right led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has to a large extent relegitimized pro-Israel positions in Italy. Yet almost the entire Left and large parts of the Catholic world retain their anti-Israel views. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Observations: Hamastan - Barry Rubin (Wall Street Journal, 15Jun07)
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