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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:
Peacekeeping with Hizbullah's Help - Nicholas Blanford
(TIME)
See also
Shi'ites in the Lebanese Army Are Helping Hizbullah - Eliel Shahar (Israel Army Radio-Hebrew)
Report: Arafat Died of AIDS (MEMRI)
Palestinian "Collaborator" Found Dead in Hamas Prison - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Useful Reference:
The Second Lebanon War - One Year Later (Israel Foreign Ministry) Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
A threat assessment compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center, titled "Al-Qaeda Better Positioned to Strike the West," concludes that the group has significantly rebuilt itself despite concerted U.S. attempts to smash the network. While asserting that al-Qaeda is still considerably weaker than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the report concludes that the group is stronger than it has been in years. The CIA's deputy director for intelligence, John A. Kringen, told a House committee Wednesday that al-Qaeda appears "to be fairly well settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan." Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, said, "sooner or later, you have to quit permitting them [al-Qaeda] to have a safe haven there," but warned that "there is some risk of turning a problem in northwest Pakistan into the problem of all of Pakistan." (Washington Post) See also Search for Bin Laden Continues - Bill Gertz Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence, told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has eluded a global manhunt for years by hiding in tribal areas of Pakistan under the protection of local leaders. (Washington Times) See also The Return of Al-Qaeda - Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball (Newsweek) Tony Blair, the international community's new Middle East envoy, is seeking a broader peacemaking role than first envisaged by the U.S. State Department. Blair wants a mandate that would include a political role in peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, beyond the more narrowly focused terms of reference set out by the Quartet which focused on the practicalities of helping the Palestinians build the institutions needed for a future state. However, the State Department on Tuesday reacted cautiously to suggestions that Blair would take on a wider political role. (Financial Times-UK) Muhammad Salah, 54, a onetime grocer from suburban Chicago who was convicted of lying in a civil lawsuit about his ties to the militant Palestinian organization Hamas, was sentenced on Wednesday in Federal District Court to 21 months in prison. Salah was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying about his involvement with Hamas in a civil case brought by the family of an American teenager, David Boim, who was shot and killed in Israel by Hamas militants in 1996. Judge Amy J. St. Eve said, "It is important to promote respect for the law....You cannot lie in a courtroom." She also imposed a $25,000 fine, 100 hours of community service, and three years of probation. (New York Times) Lebanese troops shelled the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Thursday after al-Qaeda-inspired militants killed two Lebanese soldiers. At least 207 people have been killed in eight weeks of fighting there. (Reuters) Beverly Hills' Iranian-born Mayor Jimmy Delshad has called for the city to eliminate its pension fund investments in foreign companies operating in Iran. The Beverly Hills proposal follows the Los Angeles City Council's passage of two related measures last month. Both efforts are meant to boost prospects for California's Divest Iran bill that passed the State Assembly unanimously last month. (Los Angeles Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed and two were wounded Thursday morning when a bomb exploded near them in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. An IDF spokeswoman said forces were operating in the area to "foil terrorist actions." (Ha'aretz) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Wednesday that the discussion of ownership of the Shaba Farms area on the Lebanese border is premature. He was responding to a Ha'aretz report that the UN had asked Israel to hand the land over to UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. UN officials later denied the report. (Ha'aretz) Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinsky said Wednesday, "We needn't expect a war with Syria this summer." He added, however, that "we cannot ignore what we are seeing: a growing Iranian involvement in promoting regional instability, Syrian involvement in the rearming of the Hizbullah following the war in Lebanon, and the preparatory measures being taken by the Syrian army." (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Hizbullah positions that were sometimes right across the border fence from Israel are no longer there. Instead, there are UN peacekeepers and Lebanese army posts. Yet Hizbullah is still there. Most southern Lebanese are Shiite-Muslims, like Hizbullah, and support that organization. In the past Israel waited until Hizbullah initiated a fight. Not any longer. Before the war there were border areas that soldiers did not enter in order to avoid friction with Hizbullah. The new operational concept provides that Israel would exercise its sovereignty up to the last inch of its territory. (UPI) Both Lebanon and the UN say that the 16 militant outposts held by pro-Syrian Palestinian factions, which lie outside the 12 established Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, are being reinforced with personnel and weapons smuggled in from Syria. Some of the very Fatah al-Islam militants that the Lebanese forces have been battling in Nahr al-Bared are believed to have received training at Palestinian bases in the Bekaa Valley before deploying to north Lebanon. The factions that look to Syria for support include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Fatah Intifada, and As-Saiqa - all of which have headquarters in Damascus. (Christian Science Monitor) Self-rule among Palestinians has led to a form of governance based largely on corruption, cronyism and brute force, that tends to produce regimes that are neither representative nor stable. "We, the Palestinians, have failed," says Bassem Eid, general director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. "I don't see a leader who can impose order upon the Palestinians." "In order to have a political party in Palestine, you need a militia," says Shlomo Avineri, former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry. "The rules are coming out of the barrel of a gun." (Toronto Star) Observations: Israeli Experts: Checkpoints Key to Airport Security - Avida Landau (Reuters)
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