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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:
British General's Interpreter Spied for Iran - Michael Evans
(Times-UK)
Syrian TV: Fatah al-Islam Men Confess to Damascus Bombing (AFP)
France Jails Four Members of Jihad Network (AP/International Herald Tribune)
Saudis on Hunger Strike to Demand Reform - Donna Abu-Nasr
(AP)
China Resurgent in the Middle East - Chris Zambelis (Asia Times-Hong Kong)
Indonesia, Israel Sign Medical Agreement - Muhammad Nafik
(Jakarta Post-Indonesia)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Olmert called U.S. President-elect Obama on Thursday, Olmert's office said. A statement said the prime minister and Obama "both spoke about the need to continue to advance the peace process, and this, while safeguarding the security of Israel." Obama and Olmert also "spoke about the long friendship between the United States and Israel and the need to preserve and strengthen this friendship." (Reuters) See also Obama Speaks with Nine World Leaders - Christina Bellantoni President-elect Obama spoke to nine world leaders Thursday, returning their congratulatory calls. (Washington Times) Iranian President Ahmadinejad congratulated U.S. President-elect Obama on Thursday and called for changes to U.S. policies in the region, Iran's official IRNA news agency said. (Reuters) See also Ahmadinejad's Letter to Obama Iranian President Ahmadinejad wrote to President-elect Obama: "The nations of the world expect an end to policies based on warmongering, invasion, bullying, trickery, the humiliation of other countries by the imposition of biased and unfair requirements, and a diplomatic approach that has bred hatred for America's leaders and undermined respect for its people....They want the American government to keep its interventions within its own country's borders. In the sensitive Middle East region, in particular, the expectation is that the unjust actions of the past 60 years will give way to a policy encouraging full rights for all nations, especially the oppressed nations of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan." (Washington Post) The White House made it official Thursday: There will be no Middle East peace pact on President Bush's watch. "We do not think that it's likely that it would happen before the end of the year," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Rice made nearly monthly trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories to encourage the two sides in their efforts, though she never appeared to be a hands-on negotiator. But the results were fairly opaque. Israeli and Palestinian officials said the talks were frank and open, but a written outline of an agreement never emerged. The process was hampered by the fact that chief Palestinian negotiator Mahmoud Abbas did not control the territory of Gaza, where nearly half of Palestinians live. (Washington Post) See also Rice Says Mideast Deal Unlikely Soon - Isabel Kershner Winding up a year of intensive peace efforts, Secretary of State Rice arrived in Israel on Thursday with a somewhat diminished vision of trying to keep Israeli-Palestinian negotiations alive. This will be her eighth visit to the region since an American-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis last November. But the political transitions and upheavals affecting politics in both the U.S. and Israel have already effectively put the talks on hold. "Obviously, Israel is in the midst of elections and that is a constraint on the ability of any government to conclude what is the core conflict," she said. "It is our expectation that the Annapolis process has laid groundwork which should make possible the establishment of a Palestinian state when the political circumstances permit," Rice said. (New York Times) The U.S. Treasury on Thursday revoked Iran's license for "U-turn" bank transfers, which briefly enter the U.S. before being sent to offshore banks. "This regulatory action will close the last general entry point for Iran to the U.S. financial system," the Treasury said in a statement. It said the action was aimed at increasing financial pressure on Tehran to end support of terrorist groups as well as nuclear and missile proliferation. (Reuters) Dozens of pro-government protesters stormed the Cairo headquarters of the opposition al-Ghad party, led by jailed Egyptian dissident Ayman Nour, and set it on fire Thursday, injuring seven people. About 200 protesters first pelted the building with stones and bottles, said a witness. Nour's wife, Gamila Ismail, who was inside the headquarters during the rioting, accused the police of siding with the rioters. (AP/Washington Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Palestinian terrorists fired five Kassam rockets at Gaza-region communities Friday morning. Two rockets landed in the Sderot area. Since Tuesday, Palestinians have fired more than 50 rockets at Israel. (Ynet News) See also Gaza-Region Parents: Rocket Fears Are Back - Ilana Curiel (Ynet News) The Israel Defense Forces Northern Command concluded a large-scale exercise Thursday which simulated a two-front war with Syria and Lebanon. The exercise drilled the Israel Air Force and the Home Front Command in dealing with the simulated firing of thousands of rockets and missiles into the heart of Israel's population centers. The exercise entailed the deployment of troops on the ground, comprising mainly reservists. During the drill, the striking aircraft were under orders to focus on long and medium-range missile launchers. The responsibility for knocking out shorter-range rockets lay on ground troops that were ordered to carry out an on-paper invasion into Syrian and Lebanese territory. (Ha'aretz) Palestinians on Thursday evening threw two Molotov cocktails at an Israeli bus traveling by Beit Omar, south of Bethlehem. There were no wounded but the bus sustained damage. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Palestinian pollster Jamil Rabah cautioned against reading too much into Palestinian support for Obama. "They like this guy because he's black, because he's not the typical blue-eyed white Westerner. But they don't know anything about what he stands for." "They're investing so much in what they think he promises, because he's not George Bush," Rabah said. "They see in him what they want to see, but they're setting themselves up for disappointment." Barry Rubin, at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, believes the U.S.-Israel relationship will hold, "but I'm extremely worried about the unintended consequences of what might be Obama's approach to the region." "My concern is that the Islamists will see Obama as weak, and feel able to do what they want. Iran won't be afraid to develop nuclear weapons, Hizbullah won't be afraid to attack Israel and Hamas will be the same." In that event, he said, "I worry that pro-Western Arab leaders won't feel they're getting the support they need from Washington and that, then, they'll try to appease Iran. In the end, Islamists everywhere will feel bolder." (Globe and Mail-Canada) There are some quite extraordinary notions circulating about what sort of president Barack Obama will be, particularly in this part of the world - for example, that he is going to turn years of American Middle East policy on its head. This is a willful, and ultimately destructive, fantasy. There will be attempts at dialogue, even at finding peace in the Middle East, but no one should imagine that they would be radical or pursued with all his energy and determination. A president whose deputy is Joe Biden, a man who last year said that Israel is "the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East" and who is proud to call himself a Zionist, is not going to turn his back on the Israelis. Far from challenging Israel, the new team may turn out to be as pro-Israeli as the one it is replacing. If only because he is the first African-American president, he will want to carry as wide a section of American public opinion with him as possible in his decisions. If he wants a second term, he is going to be very cautious at best. (Arab News-Saudi Arabia) It is suspected that if Iran's Westernized youths were given the choice of Barack Obama or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a free election, an overwhelming majority would back the American. When Tehran's leaders claim that America is leading a "crusade" to wipe out the Muslim faith, young Iranians will know that Obama's father was a Muslim and the new president spent some of his childhood in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country. When Tehran condemns America as a country riddled with racial prejudice, Obama's presence in the White House will be the most eloquent rebuttal. (Telegraph-UK) The resumption of peace talks between Syria and Israel has triggered questions about a shift in the regional balance of power and the likelihood of producing a new Middle Eastern order. Why should Syria give up its relations with Tehran and at what price? From a Syrian perspective the marriage with Iran was a matter of necessity more than a choice. Iran compensated for the loss of Egypt in the Arab-Israeli balance of power after the Camp David Accord. It also compensated for the lack of Arab economic handouts. A shared animosity towards the Saddam Hussein regime provided one more reason to consolidate this alliance. The support of the religiously-oriented Iranian regime in the confrontation between the Syrian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s was also vital. Iran also proved useful in Lebanon, especially after the establishment of Hizbullah and the revival of the Shiite community in Lebanon. The writer is a lecturer in media and international relations at the Center for Strategic Studies and Research, Damascus University. (Gulf News-UAE) Weekend Features
Israeli-Arab lawyer Khaled Kasab Mahameed's mission is to educate Palestinians about the Jewish Holocaust. Many Palestinians have never heard that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during World War II - it doesn't rate a mention in their school history books. Yet the key to the Palestinians achieving their own goals, Mahameed says, is to understand the Holocaust. In Edna village in the Hebron Hills, where seven middle-aged men sit beside me drinking tea, Mahameed passes around a death-camp photo of a Jewish inmate standing over a mass grave full of naked corpses. The room of Palestinians falls silent. "That man, that survivor, in the photograph came to Israel. Can you imagine the nightmares, the horrors that he brought with him? It's a suffering that nobody, even us Palestinians, can begin to comprehend," he says. Finally, a retired Palestinian general, Abdul Latah Solimia, says: "As a militant, I know the cost of war and hatred. For 60 years, we have tried to eliminate each other, and neither has won. Israelis and Palestinians should share this land." (TIME) Research on anti-Semitism must be vigilant to develop new strategies to fight a new brand of Jew-hatred, secondary anti-Semitism. Its core principle is the refusal or rejection of remembrance of the unprecedented crime which Germans committed during the Second World War, namely the Shoah. Secondary anti-Semitism has a specific dimension in Germany where it is widespread and basically reflects the country's unique political culture. Three categories of soft-core denial are: distortion, universalization and projection of guilt-relativization-trivialization. People who generate such a soft-core denial do not often refer to the Holocaust as a lie or fabrication by Jews or their sympathizers, but are much more subtle. Dr. Clemens Heni is a post-doctoral associate at the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism at Yale University. (Jewish Political Studies Review) A growing number of diaspora Jews are choosing to come to Israel, usually Jerusalem, to marry, and then head back home. According to Rabbi David Banino, head of the Jerusalem rabbinate's marriage registration department, about 300 Jewish couples from the diaspora have come to the Holy City in the past year to tie the knot. Until about five years ago, Jewish tourists who wished to get married in Jerusalem had to run a gauntlet of bureaucracy. But thanks to Rabbi Shaul Farber, head of ITIM, a non-profit organization that specializes in helping Jews navigate the bureaucracy of the Israeli Rabbinate, marriage registration for tourists has become more user-friendly. (Jerusalem Post) Observations: For Israel, No News Is Good News - Michael Oren (Ha'aretz)
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