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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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In-Depth Issues:
IDF: Only 3 - Not 40 - Noncombatants Killed Near UN School During Gaza War - David Horovitz (Jerusalem Post)
Suspect Gaza Arms Ship Had Munitions Supplies - Menelaos Hadjicostis
(AP)
Israeli Tennis Player Denied Entry into Dubai - Sa'ar Haas (Ynet News)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
The Obama administration said Saturday it would participate in planning for the World Conference Against Racism, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in April. The U.S. and Israel walked out the first UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 over efforts to pass a resolution comparing Zionism - the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state - to racism. Israel has already decided to boycott the "Durban II" conference, while Canada has also said it will not participate, maintaining the meeting will promote racism and not combat it. (AP) A number of Obama officials reportedly pressed Secretary of State Clinton to announce the U.S. would participate in the conference, including U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, and Samantha Power, an adviser at the National Security Council. (Ha'aretz) See also Israel Trusts U.S. "Durban II" Involvement - Abe Selig Eitan Levon, the Israel Foreign Ministry's coordinator for the conference, said: "I think that we see eye to eye with the Americans on the subject of Durban II, and...it doesn't appear that they would continue taking part in the conference if they see outright anti-Semitism or the singling out of Israel by other members of the forum....If you look at the State Department's official statement, it says that their intent is to try to 'change the direction in which the review conference is heading,' and that their involvement now does not indicate that they will participate in April in the World Conference Against Racism itself, so I think that it's quite clear that they will walk away if they see the same kind of hate-fest developing as was the case in the previous forum." (Jerusalem Post) The U.S. Department of Commerce has approved a license allowing Boeing to go ahead with major overhauls of two 747 jetliners belonging to Syria's state-owned Syrian Arab Airlines. This aircraft repair looks like the leading edge of a U.S. diplomatic overhaul to try to wean Syria away from Iran and create a new atmosphere of "mutual respect" between Washington and Damascus. There is talk that Obama will soon be sending an ambassador to Syria to fill the spot left empty since George W. Bush pulled out the previous ambassador in 2005. The fundamental problem with Syria is the terror-based character of the Syrian regime. Assad runs a dynastic, tyrannical system, which has survived for decades not by making peace, but by making trouble. One under-reported aspect of Syria's current regime is its busy partnership with North Korea. Assad's government enlisted the help of North Korea to build a secret, illicit plutonium factory on the Euphrates (the nearly completed nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli air strike in September 2007). (Forbes) See also Are We Helping Syria to Fly the Terrorist Skies? - Michael Singh (Foreign Policy) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The Israel Defense Forces' annual work plan for 2009 officially defines Iran as "a threat to Israel's existence." This is the first time in years that the defense establishment has declared that the State of Israel is under an "existential threat." The plan defines the Iranian peril as "the No. 1 threat the IDF is now preparing for." (Ynet News) Yuval Diskin, head of the Israel Security Agency, told cabinet ministers on Sunday: "We see a great effort on the part of Hamas in trying to re-dig its tunnels, and since the ceasefire, we've identified a number of arms shipments....The Egyptians are acting in a way which suggests that they are combating smuggling. This is a positive trend, but their actions are relatively slow." Officials in Jerusalem have insisted that any long-term truce agreement include provisions to prevent Hamas from rearming. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told the cabinet: "When Hamas speaks about rehabilitating Gaza, they are talking about rehabilitating their supply of rockets which will be fired into Israel." (Jerusalem Post) Palestinians in Gaza fired two Kassam rockets that struck Israel on Monday morning. One landed in a kibbutz, where residents woke up to the sounds of the Color Red rocket alert system and to a loud explosion, not far from the houses. The rockets were launched as some of the children were making their way to school, and local officials said this was no coincidence. In several other incidents in the past few days, Palestinian gunmen fired rockets shortly before the schools and kindergartens opened. On Sunday evening, a rocket was also fired at Israel. (Ynet News) See also Palestinians Fire Grad Rocket at Israel - Hanan Greenberg A Grad rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza struck the Yavne region in Israel Friday evening, the farthest-reaching rocket fired at Israel since the end of the IDF's Gaza operation. In another incident, an explosive device planted near the security fence along the Gaza border was detonated just as an IDF patrol vehicle was passing on Saturday. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
"It is not correct for Americans and American Jewish organizations to interfere in Israeli domestic politics," said Alan Solow, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, at a Jerusalem press conference Sunday. "We are confident that whatever government emerges here, the relations between Israel and the U.S. will remain strong," he said. "It is not appropriate for American Jews to tell Israel what government to form any more than it is for Israelis to tell us who to vote for in America," concurred Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents. The American Jewish leaders, in Israel after a tension-soothing meeting with the Pope in the Vatican, also called upon the U.S. administration to boycott the upcoming Durban II UN conference on racism. (Jerusalem Post) One of the interesting aspects to the fighting in Gaza was the behavior of the Palestinian population in the West Bank. While there were expressions of public protest, they were on a relatively small scale. The relatively low participation reflected the mood of the Palestinians who have tired of the ongoing failing struggle, and understand that terrible damage was suffered by the Palestinian people as a result of the recklessness on the part of Hamas, which did not correctly assess the Israeli response. It also reflected the serious weakening of Hamas' political infrastructure in the West Bank where a significant number of Hamas political activists were arrested. The PA succeeded in taking control of a large number of mosques where Hamas operated, and the organization's financial assets were impounded. An indication of Hamas' weakness in the West Bank was its failure to launch even one single significant terrorist attack from the area during the fighting. The writer is a Senior Research Fellow and Director, Program on Israel-Palestinian Relations at the INSS. (Strategic Assessment-Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Hampshire College has become the first college in the U.S. to divest from Israel. This divestment campaign has absolutely nothing to do with human rights. It is motivated purely by hatred for the Jewish state. Hampshire President Hexter acknowledged that "it was the good work of SJP" - the virulently anti-Israel group called Students for Justice in Palestine - "that brought this issue to the attention of the committee." It may well be that the anti-Israel student group has hijacked the voice of the college, but if so, the hijacking has not been strongly resisted. Until and unless the Hampshire administration makes it unequivocally clear that it rejects any and all efforts to single out Israel for divestment, contributions to that otherwise fine school should be placed on hold. (Hudson Institute-New York) Observations: Beyond "Evenhandedness" - Abraham Foxman (Forward)
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