Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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Thursday,
March 19, 2009
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In-Depth Issues:
Israeli Minister: "Two-Thirds of Freed Hamas Prisoners Returned to Terror and Murdered Israelis" (Voice of Israel Radio-Hebrew)
Israeli Minister Haim Ramon, a member of the Ministerial Committee on Security Prisoners, told Israel Radio Thursday that Hamas did not negotiate over the release of prisoners but rather presented an ultimatum for Israeli capitulation.
Ramon emphasized that two-thirds of Hamas prisoners released in the past had returned to terror and murdered many Israelis.
110 Yemenite Jews to Be Brought to U.S. - Haviv Rettig Gur (Jerusalem Post)
Fearing a spate of killings following threats to the Yemenite Jewish community, United Jewish Communities, the umbrella body of North American Jewish federations, will evacuate 110 of the remaining 280 Yemenite Jews to the U.S. over the next two weeks.
Yemen has refused to approve passports for Jews wishing to leave for Israel. The UJC will help those who wish to go to Israel from the U.S. to do so.
Israeli Drones Said Operating over Iraq and Afghanistan - Yossi Melman (Ha'aretz)
Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles have been operating in Iraq and Afghanistan in the service of the U.S.-led coalition for the last three years.
In Iraq, the U.S. Army has been operating Hunter model UAVs manufactured by Stark Aerospace, an Israel Aerospace Industries' subsidiary in Mississippi.
The Canadian air force has also operated Israeli-made Heron UAVs over Afghanistan.
UN Official Attacks Western Policies on Iran and Sudan - Neil MacFarquhar (New York Times)
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president of the UN General Assembly, lashed out at the West in general and the U.S. in particular on Tuesday, saying that Iran's president had been unfairly "demonized" and that the indictment of Sudan's president was racist.
D'Escoto denied ever having heard that Ahmadinejad had called for Israel to be erased.
Al-Qaeda's Terrorist Web in Africa - Anna Mulrine (U.S. News)
Al-Qaeda has increased its influence dramatically across northern and eastern Africa over the past three years, Gen. William Ward, the head of U.S. Africa Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Ward cited extremist groups on the rise, including East Africa Al Qaeda, al Shabaab, and Al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
He said that Somalia and Sudan, in particular, provide sanctuary for violent insurgents.
Businessman Convicted in Arms Plot - Benjamin Weiser (New York Times)
Palestinian-born businessman Tareq Mousa al-Ghazi, 62, was convicted in New York Tuesday on charges that he conspired with Syrian arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar to sell weapons, including 15 surface-to-air missiles, to Colombian FARC terrorists in order to kill American military officers.
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Fair Use News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
* Israel Rejects Revised Durban II Statement
Israel rejected a revised draft of the closing statement for the Durban II anti-racism conference. (JTA)
See also New Durban II Statement Still Singles Out Israel - Barak Ravid
While direct references to Israel have been removed - in an attempt to keep the EU from boycotting - the revised draft still implicitly singles out Israel. "The first clause in the new document reaffirms the declaration of 'Durban I,' which calls Israel a racist state, and the change is cosmetic only," a senior Israel Foreign Ministry source said. "This is a diplomatic ruse intended to blur matters and introduce criticism of Israel by the back door." The Foreign Ministry instructed its envoys to continue asking their host countries to boycott the conference. (Ha'aretz)
* U.S. Warns of Iran-Hizbullah Influence in Latin America - Al Pessin
The commander of U.S. forces in Latin America, Admiral James Stavridis, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that Hizbullah is involved in drug trafficking in Colombia, and that he is worried about increased Iranian and Hizbullah activities throughout the region. In January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran of engaging in "subversive" activity in several places in Latin America.
Stavridis noted "an increase in a wide level of activity by the Iranian government," including the opening of six new embassies in Latin America during the last five years, and "proselytizing and working with Islamic activities throughout the region." "That is of concern principally because of the connections between the government of Iran, which is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Hizbullah," he said. "We see a great deal of Hizbullah activity throughout South America, in particular. [The] tri-border of Brazil is a particular concern, as in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, as well as [other] parts of Brazil and in the Caribbean Basin." (VOA News)
* Netanyahu Aide Says U.S. Mistakenly Bars Him - Aron Heller
Uzi Arad, prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's choice for national security adviser, said Wednesday that he has been denied an entry visa to the U.S. for the past two years because U.S. authorities erroneously tied him to Lawrence A. Franklin, a former Defense Department official who pleaded guilty to providing classified defense information to two pro-Israel lobbyists. Arad confirmed that he had discussed Iran with Franklin in 2004, but insisted the meeting was "superficial" and had nothing to do with the charges against Franklin. "We had coffee and we talked about the agenda of the day - nothing classified, nothing secret, nothing related to espionage," Arad said Wednesday. "If I was not a Mossad employee in the past, they would not have noticed me."
Arad served in the Mossad for 25 years, becoming Director of Intelligence. He then became the founding head of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, where he established the annual Herzliya Conference on Israeli national security. (AP/Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
* IDF Arrests Hamas Leaders in West Bank
IDF troops arrested 10 Hamas officials in the West Bank overnight Wednesday including four members of the Legislative Council. "These men have been the leaders of the ongoing effort to restore the administrative branch of the Hamas terror organization in the region, while attempting to strengthen the power and influence of Hamas," the army said. (Jerusalem Post)
* PA Officials Welcome Failure of Hamas-Israel Prisoner Exchange Talks - Khaled Abu Toameh
Some Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah have welcomed the failure of the prisoner exchange negotiations between Israel and Hamas as good news. The release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners would have been seen as a major victory for Hamas. Over the past two years, the PA has worked hard to isolate Hamas both in the local and international arenas.
The PA was also worried the release of hundreds of Hamas operatives to the West Bank would have created a big headache for its security forces. Abbas' aides were concerned about the high probability the released men would rebuild their movement's military infrastructure in the West Bank and resume terror activities not only against Israel, but also against the PA. In the past year, the PA security forces, with the help of Israel and the U.S., have waged a massive campaign aimed at eliminating Hamas' political and military presence in the West Bank. The return of senior Hamas activists would certainly increase the chances of a coup against the PA in the West Bank. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
* What Israel Means When It Talks about Iran Nukes - Yossi Melman
The head of IDF Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, told a cabinet meeting two weeks ago that Iran "has crossed the technological threshold." The term "technological threshold" means that Iran already has the knowledge, the technology, the equipment and the materials with which to produce its first nuclear bomb, if it so desires. Israel believes Iran is no more than a few months, perhaps a little over a year, away from putting together its first nuclear device.
According to U.S. estimates, on the other hand, even if Iran takes the political decision to manufacture a bomb it would not be ready until 2013 or perhaps even 2015. In any case, the differences between the Israeli and the U.S. assessments are smaller than one might think and are based largely on geographical proximity. Israel, which feels itself threatened by Iran, has more reasons for concern than the U.S. (Ha'aretz)
* U.S.-Syria Relations Mired in Mistrust - Natalia Antelava
In his Beirut office, pro-Syrian Lebanese politician Weam Wahab explained why it would be hard for the U.S. and Syria to find a common language. The main problem, he said, is that Damascus is never in a hurry, while Washington always is. This fundamental difference in approach is the reason why Wahab is skeptical about President Obama's new attempt to engage with the Middle East. The U.S. wants Damascus to stop its support for the two anti-Israeli militant groups - Hamas and Hizbullah, play a more constructive role in Lebanon, and distance itself from Iran. Martin Indyk, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, believes that the plan is realistic. But Wahab laughs at this assumption. "Iran is the only country that stood with Syria through the hard times. It's an illusion to think that you can distance Syria from Iran," he says.
Some say the U.S. could win over Syria with the prospect of Israel returning the Golan Heights. However, Karim Makdisi, professor of international relations at the American University of Beirut, says it is not in Syria's interest to give up Hizbullah or Iran for the sake of the Golan Heights. (BBC News)
* Palestinian Decision to Cut Treatment in Israeli Hospitals Endangers Patients - Aron Heller and Dalia Nammari
The Palestinian government, angered by Israel's offensive against Gaza militants, decided in January to stop paying Israeli hospitals to treat Palestinian patients, a decision that has cut hundreds of people off from proper medical care. For years, Palestinians and patients from the wider Arab world have regularly been referred to hospitals in Israel for diseases their own hospitals could not treat. Israel promotes its treatment of Palestinians and employment of Arab doctors as a small beacon of coexistence.
Fathi Abu Moughli, the Palestinian minister of health, acknowledged that the edict aimed to deny Israel a "propaganda" campaign that improves its world image. But Palestinian patients and their Israeli doctors say the measure puts hundreds at risk. "There are kids who simply disappeared in the middle of chemotherapy," said Dr. Amos Toren, head of Sheba Medical Center's Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department. "As far as they are concerned, it's a death sentence." (AP)
Observations:
An Arab-Made Misery - Nonie Darwish (Wall Street Journal Europe)
* The media tend to attribute Gaza's decline solely to Israeli military and economic actions against Hamas. But such a myopic analysis ignores the problem's root cause: 60 years of Arab policy aimed at cementing the Palestinian people's status as stateless refugees in order to use their suffering as a weapon against Israel.
* I lived in Gaza as a child in the 1950s when Egypt, which then controlled the territory, conducted guerrilla-style operations against Israel from Gaza. My father commanded these operations.
* In those years the Arab League started its Palestinian refugee policy. Arab countries implemented special laws designed to make it impossible to integrate the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab war against Israel, forcing a Palestinian identity on these people for eternity and condemning them to a miserable life in a refugee camp.
* The Palestinians continue to endure hardships because Gaza continues to serve as the launching pad for terror attacks against Israeli citizens. Hamas missiles indiscriminately target Israeli kindergartens, homes and businesses. Hamas, an Iran proxy, has become a danger not only to Israel, but also to Palestinians as well.
* If the Arabs really loved their Palestinian brethren, they'd pressure Hamas to stop firing missiles at Israel. In the longer term, it's time for the 22 Arab countries to open their borders and absorb the Palestinians of Gaza who wish to start a new life.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Israeli basher resigns
Israel
basher and Chinese and Saudi lover Chas Freeman was withdrawn for
consideration for the lofty intelligence post for which he was
nominated? He was nominated to do the president's daily security briefings.
I found it wonderfully ironic that his nomination was thwarted on Purim
Day!
basher and Chinese and Saudi lover Chas Freeman was withdrawn for
consideration for the lofty intelligence post for which he was
nominated? He was nominated to do the president's daily security briefings.
I found it wonderfully ironic that his nomination was thwarted on Purim
Day!
daily alert
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
View this page at www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe RSS-XML
DAILY ALERT Wednesday,
March 11, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Alert Needs Your Support
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In-Depth Issues:
Obama Administration Rebukes UN Official for Attacks on U.S. and Israel - Colum Lynch (Washington Post)
The Obama administration scolded the president of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, saying that his frequent public attacks against the U.S. and Israel are undercutting the standing of the world body.
The rebuke comes one day after Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann lashed out at the U.S. during a visit to Tehran, where he defended Iran's nuclear program as peaceful.
Alejandro Wolff, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat at the UN, said d'Escoto, the former Nicaraguan Sandinista foreign minister, "has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly."
Mark Kornblau, a U.S. spokesman, said d'Escoto "seems like he is lost in some kind of time warp."
D'Escoto has said Israel should be targeted with a boycott because of its military offensive in Gaza.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another Key Politician to Run Against Ahmadinejad - Thomas Erdbrink (Washington Post)
Former Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi announced his presidential candidacy Tuesday to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in elections set for June 12.
Mousavi is a proponent of Iran's nuclear program and a strong backer of Iran's system of government in which Shiite Muslim clerics oversee policies of elected officials.
Mousavi was prime minister from 1981 to 1989, and the post of prime minister was abolished after his term ended.
Former president Mohammad Khatami and former head of parliament Mehdi Karrubi have also announced their candidacies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Seen as Target of Saudi Overtures to Syria - Alistair Lyon (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia is mending ties with Syria to nudge Damascus toward cooling its alliance with Tehran. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will visit Riyadh on Wednesday, along with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, the state Saudi Press Agency reported.
While open to Arab detente, Assad has shown no readiness to sever a bond with non-Arab Iran that has lasted 29 years.
"Saudi Arabia's top priority is to confront Iran and its agenda in the Arab world. The Saudis want to weaken Tehran's cards in the Arab world, thus the new approach toward Syria," said an Arab official with close ties to the Saudis.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Egyptian Cleric: Starbucks Logo Is Jewish Queen Esther (MEMRI)
Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi said on Al-Nas TV on Jan. 25, 2009:
In the Starbucks logo, "have any of you ever wondered who this woman with a crown on her head is? Why do we boycott Starbucks?"
"The girl you see is Esther, the queen of the Jews in Persia."
"We want Starbucks to be shut down throughout the Arab and Islamic world."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
U.S., Israel Disagree on Iran Arms Threat - Peter Finn
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told Congress Tuesday: "The overall situation - and the intelligence community agrees on this - [is] that Iran has not decided to press forward...to have a nuclear weapon on top of a ballistic missile....Our current estimate is that the minimum time at which Iran could technically produce the amount of highly enriched uranium for a single weapon is 2010 to 2015."
On Sunday, Israel's chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, said: "Iran continues to stockpile hundreds of kilograms of low-level enriched uranium and hopes to use the dialogue with the West to buy the time it requires in order to move towards an ability to manufacture a nuclear bomb." Blair said Israel was working from the same facts but had drawn a different interpretation of their meaning. "The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things." (Washington Post)
U.S. Intelligence Pick Pulls Out after Objections - Randall Mikkelsen
Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles Freeman, named to head the National Intelligence Council which produces formal U.S. intelligence assessments of security issues, withdrew on Tuesday amid congressional objections over his past criticism of Israel and ties to China and Saudi Arabia. Freeman was president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington think tank that received funding from Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
See also What Was Behind the Freeman Fight? - Eric Fingerhut
Lawmakers who led the successful campaign against the selection of Charles Freeman said their concerns always had less to do with his criticisms of Israel than his financial ties to Saudi Arabia and a Chinese oil company with business dealings in Iran. Freeman had lashed out at his critics Tuesday, releasing a statement blaming "the Israel Lobby." Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) focused on Freeman's ties to the China National Offshore Oil Company and China's purchase of oil from Sudan throughout the Darfur genocide, as well as his use of the term "race riot" to describe a protest in Tibet. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a member of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel of the House Appropriations Committee, said Freeman is "entitled to be a strident critic of Israel and be a strident defender of China. He is not entitled to hold those opinions and make judgments on intelligence matters." (JTA)
UN Committee Accuses Iran of Violating Arms Embargo - Louis Charbonneau
Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, chairman of the Iran sanctions committee, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the Cyprus-flagged MV Monchegorsk, chartered by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line, was carrying banned items when it was seized by authorities in Cyprus, including bullet shells, high-explosive gun charges, items related to 125 mm armor-piercing guns and high explosive anti-tank propellant. Takasu said the shipment of weaponry constituted a "violation" of Security Council Resolution 1737, passed in 2006 to put pressure on Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said, "In light of Iran's continued failure to comply with its obligations, the Iran sanctions committee should redouble its efforts to ensure full and robust implementation of Security Council resolutions." Rice reiterated that President Obama was prepared for "principled engagement" with Iran but Tehran had to live up to its responsibilities. (Reuters)
Israeli Kids Near Gaza Get Rocket-Proof Indoor Playground - Aron Heller
A converted warehouse in Sderot, near Gaza, has brightly painted walls surrounding a mini-soccer field, a climbing wall and play areas. It also has a new thick concrete roof, a half dozen shelters and an alert system to give a 15-second warning of incoming rockets. Eight Sderot residents have been killed, hundreds wounded and nearly everyone in the town of 24,000 has been traumatized by the frequent explosions of the thousands of rockets that have hit over the past eight years. Now parents in this battered town have a secure place to take their children, thanks to funding by the Jewish National Fund. Devora Biton, who brought her daughter, said: "I'm glad the kids will have a place to go, but it means the kids will have to live under a reinforced roof, rather than play outside as they should." (AP)
See also For Israel, Sderot Symbolizes Conflict's Toll - Howard Schneider (Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Netanyahu: Weaken Iran to Help Mideast Peace
Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu believes that weakening Iran is key to ending the Middle East conflict as it would in turn weaken Hamas, a senior aide said on Tuesday. "Iran's growing power and intransigence give great advantage to the radical elements among Palestinians and in Lebanon," he said. "Any progress in the Middle East peace talks will require Hamas' weakening which can be achieved only if Iran is seen as weakened." Israel accuses Iran of supplying weapons to both the Islamist rulers of Gaza and Lebanon's Hizbullah. "It will be very difficult to stabilize the situation in Lebanon or to hold negotiations with the Palestinians as long as Iran's power is on the rise," the aide quoted Netanyahu as saying. (AFP)
Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues, Israel Responds - Efrat Weiss
Palestinians in Gaza fired four rockets at Israel on Tuesday. The Israel Air Force struck a rocket cell in northern Gaza, wounding two Palestinian gunmen, and later struck two arms-smuggling tunnels. (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Time to Drop Misguided Prosecution of Former AIPAC Officials - Editorial
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. should put an end to a criminal case that should never have been brought. Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, two former officials for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, were indicted in 2005 during the Bush administration and charged with conspiracy to disclose national security secrets to unauthorized individuals under the archaic Espionage Act. The government has the right to demand strict confidentiality from government officials who swear to protect its secrets. The Justice Department errs egregiously and risks profound damage to the First Amendment, however, when it insists that private citizens - academics, journalists, think tank analysts, and lobbyists - also are legally bound to keep the nation's secrets. The prosecution in effect criminalizes the exchange of information. (Washington Post)
Is Dealing with Hamas in the Cards? - Ron Kampeas
"The U.S. Congress will find it impossible to work constructively with any Palestinian national unity government that fails unequivocally to recognize Israel, to reject terrorism and all forms of violence, and to accept all previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements," said Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. "Diluting the existing preconditions for engagement with Hamas would elevate Hamas' stature and pollute any negotiations with a hateful ideology which sabotages the search for regional peace and security," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the committee's top GOP member. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House's Middle East subcommittee, noted, "Hamas is the odd man out....I don't know how you make peace with half of a want-to-be country. I don't know how you sign an agreement with an entity whose legal, political and administrative bona fides are all in question." (JTA)
See also How to Bypass Hamas in Getting Aid to Gaza - Ron Kampeas (JTA)
History's Oldest Hatred - Jeff Jacoby
Anti-Semitism is an ancient derangement, the oldest of hatreds. The misnomer "anti-Semitism" was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr, who wanted a euphemism for Judenhass, or Jew-hatred - though hostility to Jews has never had anything to do with being Semitic. In their classic study of anti-Semitism, Why the Jews?, Joseph Telushkin and Dennis Prager write: "Fascists have accused them of being Communists, and Communists have branded them capitalists. Jews who live in non-Jewish societies have been accused of having dual loyalties, while Jews who live in the Jewish state have been condemned as 'racists.' Poor Jews are bullied, and rich Jews are resented. Jews have been branded as both rootless cosmopolitans and ethnic chauvinists. Jews who assimilate have been called a 'fifth column,' while those who stay together spark hatred for remaining separate."
Many Jews are no saints, but the paranoid frenzy that is anti-Semitism is not explained by what Jews do, but by what they are. They are the object of anti-Semitism, not its cause. (Boston Globe)
Observations:
U.S. Cannot Ignore Secret Syrian Nuclear Facility - Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Joshua D. Goodman (Jewish Policy Center)
Israel's Sep. 6, 2007, attack on Syria's al-Kibar nuclear facility was reminiscent of its 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak reactor.
While few were aware of the extent of Syria's nuclear program, a 2004 report by the U.S. Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis stated that A.Q. Khan - the Pakistani nuclear scientist who ran a clandestine black market network - offered "nuclear technology and hardware to Syria" and expressed concern "that expertise or technology could have been transferred."
Syria's response in the wake of Israel's bombing was curious. The regime did not ask the UN Security Council to condemn the incident. Rather, satellite photos show Syria's efforts to scrub the site of any traces of the nuclear reactor that Syria denied having. Former UN weapons inspector David Albright told the New York Times, "It looks like Syria is trying to hide something and destroy the evidence of some activity. But it won't work. Syria has got to answer questions about what it was doing."
If Washington does attempt to engage Syria, it cannot simply ignore al-Kibar. Syria's apparent nuclear development and subsequent deception reinforce pre-existing concerns about the country's interest in regional peace and stability. Pretending that the al-Kibar incident did not occur would send the wrong signal to Syria and other potentially dangerous proliferators in the Middle East.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is director and Joshua D. Goodman is deputy director of the Center for Terrorism Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
View this page at www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe RSS-XML
DAILY ALERT Wednesday,
March 11, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Alert Needs Your Support
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In-Depth Issues:
Obama Administration Rebukes UN Official for Attacks on U.S. and Israel - Colum Lynch (Washington Post)
The Obama administration scolded the president of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, saying that his frequent public attacks against the U.S. and Israel are undercutting the standing of the world body.
The rebuke comes one day after Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann lashed out at the U.S. during a visit to Tehran, where he defended Iran's nuclear program as peaceful.
Alejandro Wolff, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat at the UN, said d'Escoto, the former Nicaraguan Sandinista foreign minister, "has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly."
Mark Kornblau, a U.S. spokesman, said d'Escoto "seems like he is lost in some kind of time warp."
D'Escoto has said Israel should be targeted with a boycott because of its military offensive in Gaza.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another Key Politician to Run Against Ahmadinejad - Thomas Erdbrink (Washington Post)
Former Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi announced his presidential candidacy Tuesday to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in elections set for June 12.
Mousavi is a proponent of Iran's nuclear program and a strong backer of Iran's system of government in which Shiite Muslim clerics oversee policies of elected officials.
Mousavi was prime minister from 1981 to 1989, and the post of prime minister was abolished after his term ended.
Former president Mohammad Khatami and former head of parliament Mehdi Karrubi have also announced their candidacies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Seen as Target of Saudi Overtures to Syria - Alistair Lyon (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia is mending ties with Syria to nudge Damascus toward cooling its alliance with Tehran. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will visit Riyadh on Wednesday, along with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, the state Saudi Press Agency reported.
While open to Arab detente, Assad has shown no readiness to sever a bond with non-Arab Iran that has lasted 29 years.
"Saudi Arabia's top priority is to confront Iran and its agenda in the Arab world. The Saudis want to weaken Tehran's cards in the Arab world, thus the new approach toward Syria," said an Arab official with close ties to the Saudis.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Egyptian Cleric: Starbucks Logo Is Jewish Queen Esther (MEMRI)
Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi said on Al-Nas TV on Jan. 25, 2009:
In the Starbucks logo, "have any of you ever wondered who this woman with a crown on her head is? Why do we boycott Starbucks?"
"The girl you see is Esther, the queen of the Jews in Persia."
"We want Starbucks to be shut down throughout the Arab and Islamic world."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search
Key Links
Media Contacts
Back Issues
Fair Use
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
U.S., Israel Disagree on Iran Arms Threat - Peter Finn
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told Congress Tuesday: "The overall situation - and the intelligence community agrees on this - [is] that Iran has not decided to press forward...to have a nuclear weapon on top of a ballistic missile....Our current estimate is that the minimum time at which Iran could technically produce the amount of highly enriched uranium for a single weapon is 2010 to 2015."
On Sunday, Israel's chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, said: "Iran continues to stockpile hundreds of kilograms of low-level enriched uranium and hopes to use the dialogue with the West to buy the time it requires in order to move towards an ability to manufacture a nuclear bomb." Blair said Israel was working from the same facts but had drawn a different interpretation of their meaning. "The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things." (Washington Post)
U.S. Intelligence Pick Pulls Out after Objections - Randall Mikkelsen
Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles Freeman, named to head the National Intelligence Council which produces formal U.S. intelligence assessments of security issues, withdrew on Tuesday amid congressional objections over his past criticism of Israel and ties to China and Saudi Arabia. Freeman was president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington think tank that received funding from Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
See also What Was Behind the Freeman Fight? - Eric Fingerhut
Lawmakers who led the successful campaign against the selection of Charles Freeman said their concerns always had less to do with his criticisms of Israel than his financial ties to Saudi Arabia and a Chinese oil company with business dealings in Iran. Freeman had lashed out at his critics Tuesday, releasing a statement blaming "the Israel Lobby." Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) focused on Freeman's ties to the China National Offshore Oil Company and China's purchase of oil from Sudan throughout the Darfur genocide, as well as his use of the term "race riot" to describe a protest in Tibet. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a member of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel of the House Appropriations Committee, said Freeman is "entitled to be a strident critic of Israel and be a strident defender of China. He is not entitled to hold those opinions and make judgments on intelligence matters." (JTA)
UN Committee Accuses Iran of Violating Arms Embargo - Louis Charbonneau
Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, chairman of the Iran sanctions committee, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the Cyprus-flagged MV Monchegorsk, chartered by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line, was carrying banned items when it was seized by authorities in Cyprus, including bullet shells, high-explosive gun charges, items related to 125 mm armor-piercing guns and high explosive anti-tank propellant. Takasu said the shipment of weaponry constituted a "violation" of Security Council Resolution 1737, passed in 2006 to put pressure on Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said, "In light of Iran's continued failure to comply with its obligations, the Iran sanctions committee should redouble its efforts to ensure full and robust implementation of Security Council resolutions." Rice reiterated that President Obama was prepared for "principled engagement" with Iran but Tehran had to live up to its responsibilities. (Reuters)
Israeli Kids Near Gaza Get Rocket-Proof Indoor Playground - Aron Heller
A converted warehouse in Sderot, near Gaza, has brightly painted walls surrounding a mini-soccer field, a climbing wall and play areas. It also has a new thick concrete roof, a half dozen shelters and an alert system to give a 15-second warning of incoming rockets. Eight Sderot residents have been killed, hundreds wounded and nearly everyone in the town of 24,000 has been traumatized by the frequent explosions of the thousands of rockets that have hit over the past eight years. Now parents in this battered town have a secure place to take their children, thanks to funding by the Jewish National Fund. Devora Biton, who brought her daughter, said: "I'm glad the kids will have a place to go, but it means the kids will have to live under a reinforced roof, rather than play outside as they should." (AP)
See also For Israel, Sderot Symbolizes Conflict's Toll - Howard Schneider (Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Netanyahu: Weaken Iran to Help Mideast Peace
Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu believes that weakening Iran is key to ending the Middle East conflict as it would in turn weaken Hamas, a senior aide said on Tuesday. "Iran's growing power and intransigence give great advantage to the radical elements among Palestinians and in Lebanon," he said. "Any progress in the Middle East peace talks will require Hamas' weakening which can be achieved only if Iran is seen as weakened." Israel accuses Iran of supplying weapons to both the Islamist rulers of Gaza and Lebanon's Hizbullah. "It will be very difficult to stabilize the situation in Lebanon or to hold negotiations with the Palestinians as long as Iran's power is on the rise," the aide quoted Netanyahu as saying. (AFP)
Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues, Israel Responds - Efrat Weiss
Palestinians in Gaza fired four rockets at Israel on Tuesday. The Israel Air Force struck a rocket cell in northern Gaza, wounding two Palestinian gunmen, and later struck two arms-smuggling tunnels. (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Time to Drop Misguided Prosecution of Former AIPAC Officials - Editorial
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. should put an end to a criminal case that should never have been brought. Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, two former officials for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, were indicted in 2005 during the Bush administration and charged with conspiracy to disclose national security secrets to unauthorized individuals under the archaic Espionage Act. The government has the right to demand strict confidentiality from government officials who swear to protect its secrets. The Justice Department errs egregiously and risks profound damage to the First Amendment, however, when it insists that private citizens - academics, journalists, think tank analysts, and lobbyists - also are legally bound to keep the nation's secrets. The prosecution in effect criminalizes the exchange of information. (Washington Post)
Is Dealing with Hamas in the Cards? - Ron Kampeas
"The U.S. Congress will find it impossible to work constructively with any Palestinian national unity government that fails unequivocally to recognize Israel, to reject terrorism and all forms of violence, and to accept all previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements," said Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. "Diluting the existing preconditions for engagement with Hamas would elevate Hamas' stature and pollute any negotiations with a hateful ideology which sabotages the search for regional peace and security," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the committee's top GOP member. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House's Middle East subcommittee, noted, "Hamas is the odd man out....I don't know how you make peace with half of a want-to-be country. I don't know how you sign an agreement with an entity whose legal, political and administrative bona fides are all in question." (JTA)
See also How to Bypass Hamas in Getting Aid to Gaza - Ron Kampeas (JTA)
History's Oldest Hatred - Jeff Jacoby
Anti-Semitism is an ancient derangement, the oldest of hatreds. The misnomer "anti-Semitism" was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr, who wanted a euphemism for Judenhass, or Jew-hatred - though hostility to Jews has never had anything to do with being Semitic. In their classic study of anti-Semitism, Why the Jews?, Joseph Telushkin and Dennis Prager write: "Fascists have accused them of being Communists, and Communists have branded them capitalists. Jews who live in non-Jewish societies have been accused of having dual loyalties, while Jews who live in the Jewish state have been condemned as 'racists.' Poor Jews are bullied, and rich Jews are resented. Jews have been branded as both rootless cosmopolitans and ethnic chauvinists. Jews who assimilate have been called a 'fifth column,' while those who stay together spark hatred for remaining separate."
Many Jews are no saints, but the paranoid frenzy that is anti-Semitism is not explained by what Jews do, but by what they are. They are the object of anti-Semitism, not its cause. (Boston Globe)
Observations:
U.S. Cannot Ignore Secret Syrian Nuclear Facility - Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Joshua D. Goodman (Jewish Policy Center)
Israel's Sep. 6, 2007, attack on Syria's al-Kibar nuclear facility was reminiscent of its 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak reactor.
While few were aware of the extent of Syria's nuclear program, a 2004 report by the U.S. Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis stated that A.Q. Khan - the Pakistani nuclear scientist who ran a clandestine black market network - offered "nuclear technology and hardware to Syria" and expressed concern "that expertise or technology could have been transferred."
Syria's response in the wake of Israel's bombing was curious. The regime did not ask the UN Security Council to condemn the incident. Rather, satellite photos show Syria's efforts to scrub the site of any traces of the nuclear reactor that Syria denied having. Former UN weapons inspector David Albright told the New York Times, "It looks like Syria is trying to hide something and destroy the evidence of some activity. But it won't work. Syria has got to answer questions about what it was doing."
If Washington does attempt to engage Syria, it cannot simply ignore al-Kibar. Syria's apparent nuclear development and subsequent deception reinforce pre-existing concerns about the country's interest in regional peace and stability. Pretending that the al-Kibar incident did not occur would send the wrong signal to Syria and other potentially dangerous proliferators in the Middle East.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is director and Joshua D. Goodman is deputy director of the Center for Terrorism Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
daily alert
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
View this page at www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe
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DAILY ALERT
Tuesday,
March 10, 2009
Daily Alert Needs Your Support
In-Depth Issues:
PA Poll: Only 39% Believe Abbas Is Legitimate President - Khalil Shikaki (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research/IMRA)
According to a recent Palestinian poll, public perception of the end of Abbas' term in office is leading 27% to believe that the legitimate president of the PA today is the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and 24% believe that there is no legitimate president, while only 39% believe that the legitimate president is Abbas.
Despite an increase in the popularity of Hamas, 71% say that given the outcome of the Gaza war, conditions of the Palestinians today are worse than they were before the war.
Lebanese Army Hunts Rockets Set for Launch at Israel (Strategy Page)
The Lebanese army has moved another infantry brigade to the Israeli border, along with a company of commandos, to search for rockets.
In the last few weeks, Lebanese troops have found and destroyed several dozen rockets set up for remote launch.
More rockets have been found in hidden bunkers or inside homes.
Some of the rocket stockpiles uncovered were apparently Hizbullah property. It's difficult for anyone but Hizbullah to move rockets into the border area.
Iran Tests New Air-to-Surface Missile - Borzou Daragahi (Los Angeles Times)
Iran has test-fired a precision air-to-surface missile with a 70-mile range, a capability that could threaten ships in the Persian Gulf, Iran's semiofficial Fars New Agency reported Sunday.
The missile was said to include an "automatic guidance capability" and a "special warhead" for destroying large ships.
The U.S. Navy keeps dozens of warships off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf to escort oil tankers and serve as a check against Iran's ambitions.
Israeli Scientists Learn to "Declaw" Nuclear Fuel (UPI)
Engineers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel say they have developed a way to "declaw" nuclear fuel, ensuring only peaceful plutonium use.
The engineers said their technique "denatures" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms.
By adding Americium, a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors and industrial gauges, plutonium can only be used for peaceful purposes.
Canada Urged to Review Middle East Refugee Cases - John Ivison (National Post-Canada)
The Canadian government is being urged to re-examine all refugee cases heard by Khaled Mouammar, the current president of the Canadian Arab Federation.
Mouammar, an outspoken supporter of Hamas and Hizbullah, recorded an acceptance rate of 100% when it came to refugees from North Africa and the Middle East during his time with the Immigration and Refugee Board between 1995 and 2005.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
* Assad: No Full Peace with Syria without Resolution of Palestinian Conflict - Anna Fifield
Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, has warned that a peace settlement with Israel without a resolution to the Palestinian conflict would be largely symbolic. Assad told the United Arab Emirates newspaper al-Khaleej that a comprehensive peace deal will require significant concessions on the Israeli side. "We give [the Israelis] the choice between comprehensive peace and a peace agreement which does not have any real value on the ground," he said. "There is a difference between a peace agreement and peace itself. A peace agreement is a piece of paper you sign. This does not mean trade and normal relations."
The Syrian president is now suggesting that the Golan Heights would have to be returned as a precursor to a comprehensive treaty, which could not be forged without a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Our people will not accept that, especially since there are half a million Palestinians in our country whose position remains unresolved. It is impossible under these terms to have peace in the natural sense," Assad said.
"Assad is very clearly saying here that they have to return the Golan to get a cold peace, but that there will not be anything more than a cold peace unless they deal with the Palestinian issue," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Some policymakers in the U.S. consider negotiating with Syria an easier problem to resolve than the Palestinian conflict. However, "the Syrian track is actually very complicated because it does not involve just the Golan but it involves distancing itself from Iran, and that is going to be very hard," Tabler said. (Financial Times-UK)
* Palestinian Unity Talks Face Low Expectations - Nidal al-Mughrabi
Divided over policy toward Israel and control of Gaza reconstruction aid, rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah began unity talks in Cairo on Tuesday. Palestinian political analysts said Hamas agreed to the talks to try to overcome its isolation by the West over the group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals. Hamas official Ayman Taha said: "Gaza reconstruction is important but we are not required in return to cede our principles or recognize Israel, because that will never happen." (Reuters)
* Senators Question Intelligence Pick's Ties - Walter Pincus
All seven Republican members of the Senate intelligence committee Monday criticized the choice of a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia for a senior intelligence position, concerned about his views on Israel and his past relationships with Saudi and Chinese interests. Charles W. Freeman Jr. was picked by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair to lead the National Intelligence Council. In that position, he will oversee production of national intelligence estimates. Since 1997, Freeman has presided over the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based organization that is funded in part by Saudi money. In that role, Freeman has criticized the Israeli government's positions and U.S. support for those policies. (Washington Post)
See also Intelligence Appointment Questioned - Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
* Iran: Hostile Drones Disrupted Satellite Launch - Yoav Stern
Hostile unmanned aerial vehicles overflew Iran last month and disrupted the communications systems at the launch site of a missile carrying Iran's first satellite to space, according to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He said that the disruptions caused a delay of the launch for several hours as the drones flew at very high altitude and used sophisticated electronic equipment to jam ground-based systems. Meir Javedanfar, an expert on Iran, said Monday, "The intelligence war against Iran is intensifying and becoming more public. It seems that the aim is not only to foil Iran's military development but also to embarrass the leadership." (Ha'aretz)
* Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues - Shmulik Hadad
Palestinians in Gaza fired two Kassam rockets at Israel on Monday. One rocket landed near a kibbutz south of Ashkelon. (Ynet News)
* How to Contain the Iranian Threat - Brenda Gazzar
On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence head Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin warned that Iran had "crossed the threshold" in expertise and materials required to produce nuclear weapons. Menashe Amir, an Iranian affairs expert and chief editor of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Persian website, argues that the U.S. should drop the idea of negotiations with Iran and instead pursue a policy of serious international sanctions. Alternatively, if the U.S. decides to pursue negotiations, they should begin immediately in order to keep from giving Iran more time to achieve its nuclear aims. Amir said the Iranians were very experienced in drawing out negotiations in order to waste time and that the Americans had to move fast. "The Iranians are going on with their program without any disturbance and that's a very dangerous situation," Amir said.
Meir Javedanfar, another Iranian affairs expert, feels that Obama should try to negotiate with the Iranians and show the international community that Iran is not that interested in stopping its nuclear program. Javedanfar and Amir both agree a "military option" should only be used as a last resort since Israel would be vulnerable to any type of Iranian response. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
* International Aid for Gaza: Repeating the Failure of 2005? - Yossi Alpher
The effort to galvanize financial aid to Gaza without compromising Washington's refusal to deal with Hamas has little chance of succeeding. Plenty of new aid money was pledged to Gaza reconstruction at the Sharm al-Sheikh conference, but it will be forthcoming only if Hamas can be induced to enter a new unity government based on its acceptance of the three Quartet conditions concerning recognition of Israel's right to exist, renunciation of violence, and acceptance of past agreements.
The $4.4 billion pledged at Sharm al-Sheikh is reminiscent of the $3 billion that Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn recruited for Gaza in the summer of 2005, when Israel withdrew both its settlements and its army from Gaza. That money had far fewer strings attached to it: all the PA had to do was administer Gaza in a reasonable manner. But it failed. That means it is extremely problematic to base American hopes and intentions on repeat exercises like donors' conferences and unity governments that proved abortive in the past. (bitterlemons.org)
* Espionage Act Overreach in AIPAC Case - Editorial
There was good news for the First Amendment last month when a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee can use evidence from classified documents in their defense at their trial on espionage charges. The ruling provides a golden opportunity for President Obama's Justice Department to drop this misbegotten case. The prosecution should never have been brought in the first place, for reasons of law and damage to free speech. Attorney General Eric Holder can do the country a favor by dropping it. (Wall Street Journal)
* Obama Facing Human Rights Challenge in Syria - David Schenker
Syria's leading dissident is on his deathbed. Riad Seif, 62 and suffering from cancer, has spent the last year in Adra prison as punishment for attending a meeting of pro-democracy groups in Damascus. Seif is the most respected member of Syria's dwindling secular, democratic opposition to the iron-fisted rule of Assad and his Alawite clan. A former member of parliament, Seif devoted much of the last two decades to criticizing the Assad regime. As the Obama administration prepares to resume diplomatic engagement with Damascus, his plight is a poignant reminder of the abysmal state of human rights in Syria. The writer is director of the program on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Los Angeles Times)
Observations:
A Middle East Reality Check Revisited - Uriel Heilman (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
* There's no denying Hizbullah and Hamas are "entrenched political and social movements," as New York Times columnist Roger Cohen writes. So is al-Qaeda in parts of southeast Asia and northern Africa and, in past eras, the apartheid regime in South Africa and the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S. Does this mean the civilized peoples of the world - that is, those of us who don't make a goal of killing innocent civilians, women and children - ought to engage and compromise with them?
* On Hamas, Cohen gets some of the facts wrong. For starters, Hamas has not offered Israel a decades-long truce. More importantly, why must we assume the best of Hamas and the worst of Israel? Cohen suggests that we should not take Hamas at its word when it comes to pledges to destroy Israel, but we should also not take Israel at its word when it says it wants a Palestinian state.
* The "sporadic Hamas rockets" to which Cohen refers fall daily in southern Israel in an ever-expanding radius that already has reached Ashdod and Beersheva and soon will threaten metropolitan Tel Aviv.
* As for the Gaza blockade - Gaza is enemy territory controlled by a radical Islamist group that represses its own population and is bent on Israel's destruction. Why should Israel open its borders to Gaza or encourage Egypt, Gaza's other neighbor, to do so?
* Cohen may be right that the Western approach over the last few years toward Hamas and Hizbullah have not worked well. Both groups have gained strength, and held their respective populations hostage in one form or another. But ignoring the reality of what those groups stand for and undertake will only get us further into the muck in the Middle East, not lift us out of it.
See also Middle East Reality Check - Roger Cohen (New York Times)
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
View this page at www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe
RSS-XML
DAILY ALERT
Tuesday,
March 10, 2009
Daily Alert Needs Your Support
In-Depth Issues:
PA Poll: Only 39% Believe Abbas Is Legitimate President - Khalil Shikaki (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research/IMRA)
According to a recent Palestinian poll, public perception of the end of Abbas' term in office is leading 27% to believe that the legitimate president of the PA today is the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and 24% believe that there is no legitimate president, while only 39% believe that the legitimate president is Abbas.
Despite an increase in the popularity of Hamas, 71% say that given the outcome of the Gaza war, conditions of the Palestinians today are worse than they were before the war.
Lebanese Army Hunts Rockets Set for Launch at Israel (Strategy Page)
The Lebanese army has moved another infantry brigade to the Israeli border, along with a company of commandos, to search for rockets.
In the last few weeks, Lebanese troops have found and destroyed several dozen rockets set up for remote launch.
More rockets have been found in hidden bunkers or inside homes.
Some of the rocket stockpiles uncovered were apparently Hizbullah property. It's difficult for anyone but Hizbullah to move rockets into the border area.
Iran Tests New Air-to-Surface Missile - Borzou Daragahi (Los Angeles Times)
Iran has test-fired a precision air-to-surface missile with a 70-mile range, a capability that could threaten ships in the Persian Gulf, Iran's semiofficial Fars New Agency reported Sunday.
The missile was said to include an "automatic guidance capability" and a "special warhead" for destroying large ships.
The U.S. Navy keeps dozens of warships off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf to escort oil tankers and serve as a check against Iran's ambitions.
Israeli Scientists Learn to "Declaw" Nuclear Fuel (UPI)
Engineers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel say they have developed a way to "declaw" nuclear fuel, ensuring only peaceful plutonium use.
The engineers said their technique "denatures" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms.
By adding Americium, a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors and industrial gauges, plutonium can only be used for peaceful purposes.
Canada Urged to Review Middle East Refugee Cases - John Ivison (National Post-Canada)
The Canadian government is being urged to re-examine all refugee cases heard by Khaled Mouammar, the current president of the Canadian Arab Federation.
Mouammar, an outspoken supporter of Hamas and Hizbullah, recorded an acceptance rate of 100% when it came to refugees from North Africa and the Middle East during his time with the Immigration and Refugee Board between 1995 and 2005.
Search
Key Links
Media Contacts
Back Issues
Fair Use
We wish our readers a Happy Purim holiday!
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
* Assad: No Full Peace with Syria without Resolution of Palestinian Conflict - Anna Fifield
Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, has warned that a peace settlement with Israel without a resolution to the Palestinian conflict would be largely symbolic. Assad told the United Arab Emirates newspaper al-Khaleej that a comprehensive peace deal will require significant concessions on the Israeli side. "We give [the Israelis] the choice between comprehensive peace and a peace agreement which does not have any real value on the ground," he said. "There is a difference between a peace agreement and peace itself. A peace agreement is a piece of paper you sign. This does not mean trade and normal relations."
The Syrian president is now suggesting that the Golan Heights would have to be returned as a precursor to a comprehensive treaty, which could not be forged without a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Our people will not accept that, especially since there are half a million Palestinians in our country whose position remains unresolved. It is impossible under these terms to have peace in the natural sense," Assad said.
"Assad is very clearly saying here that they have to return the Golan to get a cold peace, but that there will not be anything more than a cold peace unless they deal with the Palestinian issue," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Some policymakers in the U.S. consider negotiating with Syria an easier problem to resolve than the Palestinian conflict. However, "the Syrian track is actually very complicated because it does not involve just the Golan but it involves distancing itself from Iran, and that is going to be very hard," Tabler said. (Financial Times-UK)
* Palestinian Unity Talks Face Low Expectations - Nidal al-Mughrabi
Divided over policy toward Israel and control of Gaza reconstruction aid, rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah began unity talks in Cairo on Tuesday. Palestinian political analysts said Hamas agreed to the talks to try to overcome its isolation by the West over the group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals. Hamas official Ayman Taha said: "Gaza reconstruction is important but we are not required in return to cede our principles or recognize Israel, because that will never happen." (Reuters)
* Senators Question Intelligence Pick's Ties - Walter Pincus
All seven Republican members of the Senate intelligence committee Monday criticized the choice of a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia for a senior intelligence position, concerned about his views on Israel and his past relationships with Saudi and Chinese interests. Charles W. Freeman Jr. was picked by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair to lead the National Intelligence Council. In that position, he will oversee production of national intelligence estimates. Since 1997, Freeman has presided over the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based organization that is funded in part by Saudi money. In that role, Freeman has criticized the Israeli government's positions and U.S. support for those policies. (Washington Post)
See also Intelligence Appointment Questioned - Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
* Iran: Hostile Drones Disrupted Satellite Launch - Yoav Stern
Hostile unmanned aerial vehicles overflew Iran last month and disrupted the communications systems at the launch site of a missile carrying Iran's first satellite to space, according to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He said that the disruptions caused a delay of the launch for several hours as the drones flew at very high altitude and used sophisticated electronic equipment to jam ground-based systems. Meir Javedanfar, an expert on Iran, said Monday, "The intelligence war against Iran is intensifying and becoming more public. It seems that the aim is not only to foil Iran's military development but also to embarrass the leadership." (Ha'aretz)
* Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues - Shmulik Hadad
Palestinians in Gaza fired two Kassam rockets at Israel on Monday. One rocket landed near a kibbutz south of Ashkelon. (Ynet News)
* How to Contain the Iranian Threat - Brenda Gazzar
On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence head Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin warned that Iran had "crossed the threshold" in expertise and materials required to produce nuclear weapons. Menashe Amir, an Iranian affairs expert and chief editor of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Persian website, argues that the U.S. should drop the idea of negotiations with Iran and instead pursue a policy of serious international sanctions. Alternatively, if the U.S. decides to pursue negotiations, they should begin immediately in order to keep from giving Iran more time to achieve its nuclear aims. Amir said the Iranians were very experienced in drawing out negotiations in order to waste time and that the Americans had to move fast. "The Iranians are going on with their program without any disturbance and that's a very dangerous situation," Amir said.
Meir Javedanfar, another Iranian affairs expert, feels that Obama should try to negotiate with the Iranians and show the international community that Iran is not that interested in stopping its nuclear program. Javedanfar and Amir both agree a "military option" should only be used as a last resort since Israel would be vulnerable to any type of Iranian response. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
* International Aid for Gaza: Repeating the Failure of 2005? - Yossi Alpher
The effort to galvanize financial aid to Gaza without compromising Washington's refusal to deal with Hamas has little chance of succeeding. Plenty of new aid money was pledged to Gaza reconstruction at the Sharm al-Sheikh conference, but it will be forthcoming only if Hamas can be induced to enter a new unity government based on its acceptance of the three Quartet conditions concerning recognition of Israel's right to exist, renunciation of violence, and acceptance of past agreements.
The $4.4 billion pledged at Sharm al-Sheikh is reminiscent of the $3 billion that Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn recruited for Gaza in the summer of 2005, when Israel withdrew both its settlements and its army from Gaza. That money had far fewer strings attached to it: all the PA had to do was administer Gaza in a reasonable manner. But it failed. That means it is extremely problematic to base American hopes and intentions on repeat exercises like donors' conferences and unity governments that proved abortive in the past. (bitterlemons.org)
* Espionage Act Overreach in AIPAC Case - Editorial
There was good news for the First Amendment last month when a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee can use evidence from classified documents in their defense at their trial on espionage charges. The ruling provides a golden opportunity for President Obama's Justice Department to drop this misbegotten case. The prosecution should never have been brought in the first place, for reasons of law and damage to free speech. Attorney General Eric Holder can do the country a favor by dropping it. (Wall Street Journal)
* Obama Facing Human Rights Challenge in Syria - David Schenker
Syria's leading dissident is on his deathbed. Riad Seif, 62 and suffering from cancer, has spent the last year in Adra prison as punishment for attending a meeting of pro-democracy groups in Damascus. Seif is the most respected member of Syria's dwindling secular, democratic opposition to the iron-fisted rule of Assad and his Alawite clan. A former member of parliament, Seif devoted much of the last two decades to criticizing the Assad regime. As the Obama administration prepares to resume diplomatic engagement with Damascus, his plight is a poignant reminder of the abysmal state of human rights in Syria. The writer is director of the program on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Los Angeles Times)
Observations:
A Middle East Reality Check Revisited - Uriel Heilman (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
* There's no denying Hizbullah and Hamas are "entrenched political and social movements," as New York Times columnist Roger Cohen writes. So is al-Qaeda in parts of southeast Asia and northern Africa and, in past eras, the apartheid regime in South Africa and the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S. Does this mean the civilized peoples of the world - that is, those of us who don't make a goal of killing innocent civilians, women and children - ought to engage and compromise with them?
* On Hamas, Cohen gets some of the facts wrong. For starters, Hamas has not offered Israel a decades-long truce. More importantly, why must we assume the best of Hamas and the worst of Israel? Cohen suggests that we should not take Hamas at its word when it comes to pledges to destroy Israel, but we should also not take Israel at its word when it says it wants a Palestinian state.
* The "sporadic Hamas rockets" to which Cohen refers fall daily in southern Israel in an ever-expanding radius that already has reached Ashdod and Beersheva and soon will threaten metropolitan Tel Aviv.
* As for the Gaza blockade - Gaza is enemy territory controlled by a radical Islamist group that represses its own population and is bent on Israel's destruction. Why should Israel open its borders to Gaza or encourage Egypt, Gaza's other neighbor, to do so?
* Cohen may be right that the Western approach over the last few years toward Hamas and Hizbullah have not worked well. Both groups have gained strength, and held their respective populations hostage in one form or another. But ignoring the reality of what those groups stand for and undertake will only get us further into the muck in the Middle East, not lift us out of it.
See also Middle East Reality Check - Roger Cohen (New York Times)
Monday, March 9, 2009
Daily alert
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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DAILY ALERT Monday,
March 9, 2009
Daily Alert Needs Your SupportDaily Alert is the work of a team of expert analysts who find the most important and timely articles from around the world on Israel, the Middle East and U.S. policy.
No wonder it is read by heads of government, leading journalists, and thousands of people who want to stay on top of the news.
To continue to provide this service, Daily Alert requires your support. Please take a moment to click here and make your contribution through the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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In-Depth Issues:
Diaspora Jews Learn in Israel How to Protect Community Institutions - Eli Bardenstein (Maariv-Hebrew)
Representatives of Jewish communities throughout the world are coming to Israel for courses in security to learn how to protect synagogues and schools, in the wake of a rise in anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews in many places.
Another course in public institution security concluded two weeks ago, attended by tens of representatives of Jewish communities.
A European Jewish official explained that the course did not involve self-defense or weapons training, but rather the internal security of institutions, checking identification papers, and learning about types of threats.
The principal problem is not with embassies or organizations such as the Jewish Agency and the JDC, which have advanced security systems, but with the smaller organizations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
British Muslim Leader Urged Attack on Foreign Navies Seeking to Halt Gaza Arms Smuggling - Jamie Doward (Observer-UK)
Dr. Daud Abdullah, deputy director-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, is facing calls for his resignation after it emerged that he signed a public declaration in support of Hamas and military action.
He is accused of advocating attacks on the Royal Navy if it tries to stop arms for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza.
Abdullah also led the MCB's boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buenos Aires Bombing Investigator Kidnapped, Tortured (Jerusalem Post)
Argentinean Jewish community leaders were demanding an immediate probe Sunday into the kidnapping and torture of a senior investigator in the 1994 Iranian-Hizbullah bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.
Claudio Lifschitz said masked attackers nabbed him at his home on Friday, threw him into the trunk of a van and violently interrogated him for several hours.
"They put a plastic bag over my head and with a blowtorch, they burnt the letters AMIA on my arm and my back," Lifschitz said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israel: Iran Using Nuclear Talks to Buy Time for Bomb
Iran is trying to use the talks with Western powers on its nuclear ambitions to buy time to produce an atomic bomb, Israel's military intelligence chief said on Sunday. "Iran has crossed the technological threshold. Reaching a military-grade nuclear capability is a question of synchronizing its strategy with the production of a nuclear bomb," Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told cabinet ministers. "Iran continues to stockpile hundreds of kilograms of low-level enriched uranium and hopes to use the dialogue with the West to buy the time it requires in order to move towards an ability to manufacture a nuclear bomb," a senior official quoted Yadlin as saying. (AFP)
See also Military Intelligence: Iran Capable of Creating Nuclear Bomb - Roni Sofer
According to figures released by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has enriched 1,010 kilograms of low quality uranium. The amount of low quality enriched uranium needed for the creation of one nuclear bomb is 1,500 kilograms. (Ynet News)
Senior U.S. Envoys Hold Talks in Syria - Raed Rafei and Borzou Daragahi
The Obama administration dispatched two senior U.S. diplomats to meet top officials in Damascus on Saturday. Jeffrey Feltman, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, called discussions with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem "very constructive." (Los Angeles Times)
Iran, Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria Back Sudan's President Over Darfur
Officials from Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah joined Syria's parliament speaker and the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad for talks in Khartoum on Friday to express support for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The visit comes days after the International Criminal Court at The Hague issued a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region. Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, said the ICC arrest warrant is an "insult directed at Muslims." Meanwhile, the Khartoum government shut down 13 foreign and local aid agencies after accusing them of passing information to war crimes prosecutors. (Al-Jazeera-Qatar)
Protestors Riot at Sweden-Israel Tennis Match
More than 100 demonstrators clashed Saturday with Swedish police outside a sports arena in Malmo at a Davis Cup tennis match between Sweden and Israel. Youths clad in black, their faces covered with masks, threw bottles of paint, stones and firecrackers at police. (AFP)
See also Israel Beats Sweden 3-2 in Davis Cup and Advances to Quarterfinals (AP/Jerusalem Post)
Israel Closes Embassy in Mauritania - Isabel Kershner
Israel closed its embassy in Mauritania on Friday at Mauritania's request, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The military junta that took over Mauritania last summer is said to have been growing closer to Iran and Libya, countries hostile to Israel, after being refused assistance by the West. (New York Times)
Morocco Severs Relations with Iran - Alfred de Montesquiou
Morocco cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Friday, accusing Tehran of trying to spread Shia Islam in this Sunni Arab kingdom. Morocco's Foreign Ministry accused Iran's Embassy in Rabat of trying to "alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom" and threaten Morocco's religious unity. The Moroccan press has repeatedly accused the Iranian Embassy of proselytism in recent years. (AP)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
U.S. Warns It Won't Recognize PA Unity Government without PM Fayyad - Akiva Eldar and Avi Issacharoff
The U.S. will only recognize a future Palestinian unity government if Salem Fayyad is reappointed prime minister, according to a message relayed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to European and Arab leaders at last week's donor meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh. Fayyad announced his resignation over the weekend, but Palestinian sources believe that the American threat, which is likely to be backed by the EU and Egypt, will lead to Hamas changing its opposition to Fayyad, enabling him to rescind his resignation. Support for the U.S.-educated Fayyad, a former senior staffer at the World Bank, translated into massive amounts of foreign aid for the Palestinians. (Ha'aretz)
See also Hamas: PA Unity Government Would Not Recognize Israel
Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told the UAE-based Al-Khalij newspaper that any PA national unity government would not recognize the Zionist entity. He added that Hamas would not recognize the agreements signed between the PLO and the Zionist entity. (Hamas-Gaza)
Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues - Ilana Curiel
Palestinians in Gaza fired four Kassam rockets that exploded in southern Israel on Sunday morning. (Ynet News)
Jerusalem Police Officers Describe Tractor Attack - Efrat Weiss
Two Israel Police officers who survived a tractor attack by a Palestinian in Jerusalem on Thursday described the event. "We were sent to deal with a routine traffic incident," said Staff-Sergeant Major Camal Zahaika. When we were finished, "we got into the car and then I felt a strong thump. I saw a tractor and understood immediately that this was a terror attack...we were flipped over to the left and the tractor kept pushing us."
Sergeant Hila Shmuel, a mere week on the force, said that at first she thought a car had accidentally crashed into the police cruiser. "Then I heard the tractor's noise....You feel it dragging you and you think that somehow you're in this crazy action film. I was sure we were going to be slammed into the bus and that it was all going to end very badly. My life just flashed before my eyes. I didn't think anyone could save us. We're both grateful to the other police officers and the taxi driver who were there." (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Modest Hopes for Direct Diplomacy with Iran and Syria - Editorial
During her first tour of the Middle East as secretary of state, Ms. Clinton got an earful from Arab rulers alarmed both by Iran's continued belligerence across the region and by the notion that a deal between Washington and Tehran might be in the works. "There's a great deal of concern about Iran in the entire region," she said after three days of talks; a senior State Department official said that Ms. Clinton had expressed doubt in one of her private meetings that Iran would respond to a U.S. offer of engagement.
There are also big and probably insurmountable obstacles to any breakthrough with Syria. Mr. Assad heads a murderous regime; a UN tribunal was established last week to consider political murders in Lebanon that most likely were authored in Damascus. Mr. Assad continues to seek hegemony over Lebanon, something the U.S. should not countenance. (Washington Post)
See also U.S. Seeks to Woo Syria, But Price Could Be Steep - Jay Solomon and Dada Raad (Wall Street Journal)
Talk with Iran? Then Move Fast - David Ignatius
There's wide support, in principle, for a process of "engagement" between the U.S. and its adversaries in the Middle East. Does Iran really imagine that it can engage the U.S. when its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week that Barack Obama was following the "crooked ways" of his predecessor and that Israel was a "cancerous tumor"? That's a recipe for stopping dialogue rather than starting it.
The first challenge in Iran is what might be called the "two clocks" problem. Administration officials want a slow clock, in the sense that they favor a careful process of sustained, direct dialogue. But they also realize that a fast clock is ticking on the Iranian nuclear program and that by next year the Iranians could have enough fuel to make a bomb. Efraim Halevy, a former chief of Mossad, the Israeli spy service, highlighted this problem in a recent e-mail to me. "The strategy of engagement will succeed only if the Iranians realize they do not have all the time in the world to negotiate." He argued that the U.S. should "limit the dialogue to a very few months." (Washington Post)
Observations:
Islam Should Prove It's a Religion of Peace - Tawfik Hamid (Wall Street Journal)
Many Muslims seem to believe that it is acceptable to teach hatred and violence in the name of their religion - while at the same time expecting the world to respect Islam as a religion of peace, love and harmony.
Scholars in the most prestigious Islamic institutes and universities continue to teach things like Jews are "pigs and monkeys," that women and men must be stoned to death for adultery, or that Muslims must fight the world to spread their religion.
The stoning of women exists in both the Old Testament and in Islamic tradition. The difference, though, is that leading Jewish scholars agreed to discontinue these practices centuries ago, while Muslim scholars have yet to do so. Hence we do not see the stoning of women practiced or promoted in Israel, the "Jewish" state, but we see it practiced and promoted in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the "Islamic" states.
So, Islamic scholars and clerics, it is up to you to produce a Sharia book that will be accepted in the Islamic world and that teaches that Jews are not pigs and monkeys, that declaring war to spread Islam is unacceptable, and that killing apostates is a crime. Such a book would prove that Islam is a religion of peace.
The writer, a former member of an Egyptian Islamist terrorist group, is an Islamic reformer and senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
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March 9, 2009
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No wonder it is read by heads of government, leading journalists, and thousands of people who want to stay on top of the news.
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In-Depth Issues:
Diaspora Jews Learn in Israel How to Protect Community Institutions - Eli Bardenstein (Maariv-Hebrew)
Representatives of Jewish communities throughout the world are coming to Israel for courses in security to learn how to protect synagogues and schools, in the wake of a rise in anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews in many places.
Another course in public institution security concluded two weeks ago, attended by tens of representatives of Jewish communities.
A European Jewish official explained that the course did not involve self-defense or weapons training, but rather the internal security of institutions, checking identification papers, and learning about types of threats.
The principal problem is not with embassies or organizations such as the Jewish Agency and the JDC, which have advanced security systems, but with the smaller organizations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
British Muslim Leader Urged Attack on Foreign Navies Seeking to Halt Gaza Arms Smuggling - Jamie Doward (Observer-UK)
Dr. Daud Abdullah, deputy director-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, is facing calls for his resignation after it emerged that he signed a public declaration in support of Hamas and military action.
He is accused of advocating attacks on the Royal Navy if it tries to stop arms for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza.
Abdullah also led the MCB's boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buenos Aires Bombing Investigator Kidnapped, Tortured (Jerusalem Post)
Argentinean Jewish community leaders were demanding an immediate probe Sunday into the kidnapping and torture of a senior investigator in the 1994 Iranian-Hizbullah bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.
Claudio Lifschitz said masked attackers nabbed him at his home on Friday, threw him into the trunk of a van and violently interrogated him for several hours.
"They put a plastic bag over my head and with a blowtorch, they burnt the letters AMIA on my arm and my back," Lifschitz said.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israel: Iran Using Nuclear Talks to Buy Time for Bomb
Iran is trying to use the talks with Western powers on its nuclear ambitions to buy time to produce an atomic bomb, Israel's military intelligence chief said on Sunday. "Iran has crossed the technological threshold. Reaching a military-grade nuclear capability is a question of synchronizing its strategy with the production of a nuclear bomb," Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told cabinet ministers. "Iran continues to stockpile hundreds of kilograms of low-level enriched uranium and hopes to use the dialogue with the West to buy the time it requires in order to move towards an ability to manufacture a nuclear bomb," a senior official quoted Yadlin as saying. (AFP)
See also Military Intelligence: Iran Capable of Creating Nuclear Bomb - Roni Sofer
According to figures released by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has enriched 1,010 kilograms of low quality uranium. The amount of low quality enriched uranium needed for the creation of one nuclear bomb is 1,500 kilograms. (Ynet News)
Senior U.S. Envoys Hold Talks in Syria - Raed Rafei and Borzou Daragahi
The Obama administration dispatched two senior U.S. diplomats to meet top officials in Damascus on Saturday. Jeffrey Feltman, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, called discussions with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem "very constructive." (Los Angeles Times)
Iran, Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria Back Sudan's President Over Darfur
Officials from Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah joined Syria's parliament speaker and the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad for talks in Khartoum on Friday to express support for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The visit comes days after the International Criminal Court at The Hague issued a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region. Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, said the ICC arrest warrant is an "insult directed at Muslims." Meanwhile, the Khartoum government shut down 13 foreign and local aid agencies after accusing them of passing information to war crimes prosecutors. (Al-Jazeera-Qatar)
Protestors Riot at Sweden-Israel Tennis Match
More than 100 demonstrators clashed Saturday with Swedish police outside a sports arena in Malmo at a Davis Cup tennis match between Sweden and Israel. Youths clad in black, their faces covered with masks, threw bottles of paint, stones and firecrackers at police. (AFP)
See also Israel Beats Sweden 3-2 in Davis Cup and Advances to Quarterfinals (AP/Jerusalem Post)
Israel Closes Embassy in Mauritania - Isabel Kershner
Israel closed its embassy in Mauritania on Friday at Mauritania's request, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The military junta that took over Mauritania last summer is said to have been growing closer to Iran and Libya, countries hostile to Israel, after being refused assistance by the West. (New York Times)
Morocco Severs Relations with Iran - Alfred de Montesquiou
Morocco cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Friday, accusing Tehran of trying to spread Shia Islam in this Sunni Arab kingdom. Morocco's Foreign Ministry accused Iran's Embassy in Rabat of trying to "alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom" and threaten Morocco's religious unity. The Moroccan press has repeatedly accused the Iranian Embassy of proselytism in recent years. (AP)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
U.S. Warns It Won't Recognize PA Unity Government without PM Fayyad - Akiva Eldar and Avi Issacharoff
The U.S. will only recognize a future Palestinian unity government if Salem Fayyad is reappointed prime minister, according to a message relayed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to European and Arab leaders at last week's donor meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh. Fayyad announced his resignation over the weekend, but Palestinian sources believe that the American threat, which is likely to be backed by the EU and Egypt, will lead to Hamas changing its opposition to Fayyad, enabling him to rescind his resignation. Support for the U.S.-educated Fayyad, a former senior staffer at the World Bank, translated into massive amounts of foreign aid for the Palestinians. (Ha'aretz)
See also Hamas: PA Unity Government Would Not Recognize Israel
Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told the UAE-based Al-Khalij newspaper that any PA national unity government would not recognize the Zionist entity. He added that Hamas would not recognize the agreements signed between the PLO and the Zionist entity. (Hamas-Gaza)
Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues - Ilana Curiel
Palestinians in Gaza fired four Kassam rockets that exploded in southern Israel on Sunday morning. (Ynet News)
Jerusalem Police Officers Describe Tractor Attack - Efrat Weiss
Two Israel Police officers who survived a tractor attack by a Palestinian in Jerusalem on Thursday described the event. "We were sent to deal with a routine traffic incident," said Staff-Sergeant Major Camal Zahaika. When we were finished, "we got into the car and then I felt a strong thump. I saw a tractor and understood immediately that this was a terror attack...we were flipped over to the left and the tractor kept pushing us."
Sergeant Hila Shmuel, a mere week on the force, said that at first she thought a car had accidentally crashed into the police cruiser. "Then I heard the tractor's noise....You feel it dragging you and you think that somehow you're in this crazy action film. I was sure we were going to be slammed into the bus and that it was all going to end very badly. My life just flashed before my eyes. I didn't think anyone could save us. We're both grateful to the other police officers and the taxi driver who were there." (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Modest Hopes for Direct Diplomacy with Iran and Syria - Editorial
During her first tour of the Middle East as secretary of state, Ms. Clinton got an earful from Arab rulers alarmed both by Iran's continued belligerence across the region and by the notion that a deal between Washington and Tehran might be in the works. "There's a great deal of concern about Iran in the entire region," she said after three days of talks; a senior State Department official said that Ms. Clinton had expressed doubt in one of her private meetings that Iran would respond to a U.S. offer of engagement.
There are also big and probably insurmountable obstacles to any breakthrough with Syria. Mr. Assad heads a murderous regime; a UN tribunal was established last week to consider political murders in Lebanon that most likely were authored in Damascus. Mr. Assad continues to seek hegemony over Lebanon, something the U.S. should not countenance. (Washington Post)
See also U.S. Seeks to Woo Syria, But Price Could Be Steep - Jay Solomon and Dada Raad (Wall Street Journal)
Talk with Iran? Then Move Fast - David Ignatius
There's wide support, in principle, for a process of "engagement" between the U.S. and its adversaries in the Middle East. Does Iran really imagine that it can engage the U.S. when its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week that Barack Obama was following the "crooked ways" of his predecessor and that Israel was a "cancerous tumor"? That's a recipe for stopping dialogue rather than starting it.
The first challenge in Iran is what might be called the "two clocks" problem. Administration officials want a slow clock, in the sense that they favor a careful process of sustained, direct dialogue. But they also realize that a fast clock is ticking on the Iranian nuclear program and that by next year the Iranians could have enough fuel to make a bomb. Efraim Halevy, a former chief of Mossad, the Israeli spy service, highlighted this problem in a recent e-mail to me. "The strategy of engagement will succeed only if the Iranians realize they do not have all the time in the world to negotiate." He argued that the U.S. should "limit the dialogue to a very few months." (Washington Post)
Observations:
Islam Should Prove It's a Religion of Peace - Tawfik Hamid (Wall Street Journal)
Many Muslims seem to believe that it is acceptable to teach hatred and violence in the name of their religion - while at the same time expecting the world to respect Islam as a religion of peace, love and harmony.
Scholars in the most prestigious Islamic institutes and universities continue to teach things like Jews are "pigs and monkeys," that women and men must be stoned to death for adultery, or that Muslims must fight the world to spread their religion.
The stoning of women exists in both the Old Testament and in Islamic tradition. The difference, though, is that leading Jewish scholars agreed to discontinue these practices centuries ago, while Muslim scholars have yet to do so. Hence we do not see the stoning of women practiced or promoted in Israel, the "Jewish" state, but we see it practiced and promoted in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the "Islamic" states.
So, Islamic scholars and clerics, it is up to you to produce a Sharia book that will be accepted in the Islamic world and that teaches that Jews are not pigs and monkeys, that declaring war to spread Islam is unacceptable, and that killing apostates is a crime. Such a book would prove that Islam is a religion of peace.
The writer, a former member of an Egyptian Islamist terrorist group, is an Islamic reformer and senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Daily alert
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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DAILY ALERT Tuesday,
March 3, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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In-Depth Issues:
Clinton Offers Handshake of Friendship to Syria - James Hider (Times-UK)
At the Gaza donor's conference in Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shook hands and exchanged a few words Monday with Walid Mouallem, her Syrian counterpart.
The brief encounter was seen as a sign that Washington was prepared to mend fences with Syria, whose leader, Bashar Assad, was treated as a pariah by the Bush administration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Seeks Arrest of 15 Israeli Leaders for Gaza Operation (AP/Washington Post)
Iran's judiciary has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for 15 Israelis in connection with the Gaza offensive, Iranian state TV reported Monday. Interpol denied receiving such a request.
Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was quoted as saying Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak and top military officers were all on the list.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Puzzled in Gaza - Yvonne Green (Jerusalem Post)
Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Israel's Gaza operation, I felt I had to see for myself and crossed into Gaza on Jan. 28.
What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas' infrastructure.
Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.
The UNRWA school in Al-Fakhora was visibly intact, making it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that it had been hit by Israeli shells.
I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby the school, and when I met Mona al-Ashkor, one of the people injured running toward Al-Fakhora, I was told that Israel had warned people not to take shelter in the school because Hamas was operating in the area.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report: Russia to Send 50 Armored Vehicles to PA (AP/International Herald Tribune)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Russia would provide the Palestinian Authority with 50 armored vehicles "in the very near future," the Interfax news agency reported.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of the Turkish-Israeli Honeymoon? - Haymi Behar (Ynet News)
Following Turkey's harsh criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, angry Israelis canceled more than 70% of travel bookings to Turkey.
In any case, they wouldn't feel so welcomed in many Turkish shops, which displayed signs expressing anti-Israeli sentiments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Obama Seeks Russian Help to Stop Iranian Weapons Development - Peter Baker
President Obama sent a secret letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday. The letter, hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago, said the U.S. would not need to proceed with the interceptor system if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. U.S. officials said that while the letter did not offer a direct quid pro quo, it was intended to give Moscow an incentive to join the U.S. in a common front against Iran. (New York Times)
Clinton "Troubled" by Continued Rocket Attacks on Israel
After the Gaza donors conference in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters: "I am troubled by the continuing rocket attacks coming out of Gaza, 15 to 18 rockets in the last several days. We call upon all parties to move toward a durable ceasefire, but it is very difficult for any country to just sit and take rockets falling on its people. That is the crux of the Israeli problem. How are they supposed to respond when they continue to have that kind of attack?"
Q: Will the U.S. Administration consider engaging with Hamas, the same way you're reaching out to Iran?
Clinton: "Hamas is not a country. It is an entity that has to understand what the principles for any engagement are, not just from the United States. The Quartet...as well as the Arab League are in agreement that there are certain principles that Hamas would have to adopt in order for any of us to engage with Hamas: recognize Israel, renounce violence, and agree to abide by the prior PLO agreements....Everyone knows what Hamas must do, and it is up to Hamas." (State Department)
See also Clinton Reiterates Need for Two-State Solution - Roni Sofer (Ynet News)
See also Clinton Says U.S. Diplomacy Unlikely to End Iran Nuclear Program - Paul Richter
The Obama administration has already concluded that a diplomatic overture to Iran is unlikely to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Secretary of State Clinton told the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Abdullah ibn Zayed al Nuhayyan, in a private meeting Monday that it is "very doubtful" a U.S. approach will persuade Iran to relent, said a senior State Department official. But Clinton said an Iranian rebuff could strengthen America's diplomatic position. She said that Iran's "worst nightmare is an international community that is united and an American government willing to engage Iran." (Los Angeles Times)
Donors Pledge $4.5B for Palestinians - Heba Saleh
International donors at a conference in Egypt pledged $4.48 billion over two years to support the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza, but made clear none of the funds should end up in the hands of Hamas. (Financial Times-UK)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel Files UN Complaint Over Gaza Rockets - Yitzhak Benhorin
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, filed an official complaint with the UN Security Council Monday regarding the rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli towns. "Since Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire on 18 January 2009, there have been nearly 100 rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip," Shalev wrote. "These ongoing attacks not only hinder efforts to reach a stable and durable cease-fire, but they represent an ongoing threat to the peace and security of Israel, as well as the people of Gaza." "In response to these ongoing attacks, Israel has the inherent duty to exercise its right to self-defense enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter." (Ynet News)
See also Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues - Shmulik Hadad
Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket that landed south of Ashkelon late Monday evening. (Ynet News)
Illegal Palestinian Construction in David's Garden - Nadav Shragai
For hundreds of years floodwaters drained into the garden of the kings of Judea, east of the Shiloah Pool in Jerusalem, which is described in the Books of Nechemiah and Ecclesiastes. The Turks and the British took care to preserve the open green area for hundreds of years as a public area, intended for preservation and development of parks and tourism. About 20 years ago, the Jerusalem municipality shored up the water runoff there, and an illegal Palestinian outpost arose. Within 18 years 88 buildings went up, causing significant and irreversible damage to antiquities, according to the director general of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman.
Construction was finally halted after the Jerusalem municipality confiscated tractors and heavy machinery from the lawbreakers, and the existing buildings are being dealt with legally by means of demolition orders and indictments. After a plan for laundering the construction was initiated by the inhabitants and human rights organizations, the planning commission rejected the plan. In response, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement in Israel have begun demonstrations and initiated an outcry to protest "the intention to carry out the demolition orders in the King's Garden."
While carrying out the demolition orders as written, nearly 20 years after the violation was committed, may be just, it is not wise. A more fair solution, suggested by municipal council member Yakir Segev, is to evacuate the lawbreakers and to give them compensation and land elsewhere. (Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The Need to Reconstruct Gaza Is Gaza's Own Doing - Editorial
The need to reconstruct Gaza is Gaza's own doing - the direct consequence of the penchant for terror displayed by the governing Hamas and other like-minded groups, of their insistent practice of targeting Israeli civilians for over eight years with assorted rocketry. Misguided efforts at assistance will prop up the very regime that is the root cause of Gaza's woes. Hamas will benefit from resources bestowed even on ostensibly non-belligerent organizations. Those funds will free Hamas from responsibility for public welfare and free up money for rearmament.
Gaza would have faced far less hardship had it not invested its energies in gun-running, rocket-manufacture and bunker and tunnel construction. Israel cannot, and will not, allow materials into Gaza that are likely to be misused. The transfer of funds must be made contingent on a proven commitment to cease rocket attacks, demonstrated by several months of uninterrupted calm. Without this, reconstruction contributions will wind up boosting Hamas' war-chest.
As long as Israelis are fired upon, no Gazan reconstruction can last. Sooner or later Israel will again have to protect its citizens - as would every donor nation were its people similarly threatened. The prerequisite for sustainable reconstruction is an end to the abuse of Gaza as a base for attacking Israel. (Jerusalem Post)
Urge Damascus to Come Clean on Nuclear Activity - Michael Singh
The International Atomic Energy Agency's recent report on its investigation into Syria's nuclear activities reinforces concerns that the Assad regime was secretly building a nuclear reactor until it was destroyed in late 2007. According to the U.S. intelligence community's publicly released 2009 threat assessment, the Assad regime, despite its professed desire for better relations with Washington, has maintained its interference in Lebanon, support for Palestinian terrorist groups, and close ties with Iran; further, it has "increased substantially" its military support for Hizbullah.
The extent to which the U.S. can persuade Syria to change its attitude toward the IAEA investigation from one of recalcitrance to one of voluntary cooperation will serve as a concrete test of Damascus' willingness to change its ways and mend fences with the international community. The writer, an associate fellow of The Washington Institute, is former senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Observations:
Don't Push Israel to Give Territory to Terrorists - Tom Gross (Wall Street Journal Europe)
A small miracle occurred in Israel on Nov. 5. Kinneret Chaya Boosany gave birth to her first child. Six years earlier, Kinneret, then 23, was blown up as she worked as a waitress in a coffee shop in Tel Aviv. She suffered burns over 85% of her body, her doctors gave her a 2% chance of survival, and she remained in a coma for 88 days.
She is just one of the thousands of Israelis - both Jews and Arabs - injured by Palestinian suicide bombers sent on their deadly missions by either the Islamist Hamas movement or the Fatah faction headed by "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat. The number of Israelis killed in terror attacks has been greatly reduced in recent years after the government built a security fence to make it harder for bombers to get through.
Her story is worth reflecting on as Hillary Clinton arrives in Israel. Barely a day goes by way without Jimmy Carter and assorted European politicians calling on Mr. Obama to coerce Israel into hastily withdrawing from more land no matter the security risks.
Like most Israelis, Kinneret Chaya desperately wants peace with the Palestinians. It is my experience of covering the region as a reporter for many years that no one wants the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to be peaceably resolved more than Israelis do.
But Israelis are also very aware of the dangers of naively handing over territory to terrorists, as was done during the presidency of Secretary of State Clinton's husband in the 1990s.
The writer is former Jerusalem correspondent of the London Sunday Telegraph.
See also Kinneret Boosany Interview - Kevin Sites (Hot Zone-Yahoo News); Video: Kinneret - A Suicide Bombing Survivor
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
View this page at www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe RSS-XML
DAILY ALERT Tuesday,
March 3, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Alert Needs Your Support
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In-Depth Issues:
Clinton Offers Handshake of Friendship to Syria - James Hider (Times-UK)
At the Gaza donor's conference in Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shook hands and exchanged a few words Monday with Walid Mouallem, her Syrian counterpart.
The brief encounter was seen as a sign that Washington was prepared to mend fences with Syria, whose leader, Bashar Assad, was treated as a pariah by the Bush administration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Seeks Arrest of 15 Israeli Leaders for Gaza Operation (AP/Washington Post)
Iran's judiciary has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for 15 Israelis in connection with the Gaza offensive, Iranian state TV reported Monday. Interpol denied receiving such a request.
Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was quoted as saying Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak and top military officers were all on the list.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Puzzled in Gaza - Yvonne Green (Jerusalem Post)
Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Israel's Gaza operation, I felt I had to see for myself and crossed into Gaza on Jan. 28.
What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas' infrastructure.
Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.
The UNRWA school in Al-Fakhora was visibly intact, making it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that it had been hit by Israeli shells.
I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby the school, and when I met Mona al-Ashkor, one of the people injured running toward Al-Fakhora, I was told that Israel had warned people not to take shelter in the school because Hamas was operating in the area.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report: Russia to Send 50 Armored Vehicles to PA (AP/International Herald Tribune)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Russia would provide the Palestinian Authority with 50 armored vehicles "in the very near future," the Interfax news agency reported.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of the Turkish-Israeli Honeymoon? - Haymi Behar (Ynet News)
Following Turkey's harsh criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, angry Israelis canceled more than 70% of travel bookings to Turkey.
In any case, they wouldn't feel so welcomed in many Turkish shops, which displayed signs expressing anti-Israeli sentiments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search
Key Links
Media Contacts
Back Issues
Fair Use
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Obama Seeks Russian Help to Stop Iranian Weapons Development - Peter Baker
President Obama sent a secret letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday. The letter, hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago, said the U.S. would not need to proceed with the interceptor system if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. U.S. officials said that while the letter did not offer a direct quid pro quo, it was intended to give Moscow an incentive to join the U.S. in a common front against Iran. (New York Times)
Clinton "Troubled" by Continued Rocket Attacks on Israel
After the Gaza donors conference in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters: "I am troubled by the continuing rocket attacks coming out of Gaza, 15 to 18 rockets in the last several days. We call upon all parties to move toward a durable ceasefire, but it is very difficult for any country to just sit and take rockets falling on its people. That is the crux of the Israeli problem. How are they supposed to respond when they continue to have that kind of attack?"
Q: Will the U.S. Administration consider engaging with Hamas, the same way you're reaching out to Iran?
Clinton: "Hamas is not a country. It is an entity that has to understand what the principles for any engagement are, not just from the United States. The Quartet...as well as the Arab League are in agreement that there are certain principles that Hamas would have to adopt in order for any of us to engage with Hamas: recognize Israel, renounce violence, and agree to abide by the prior PLO agreements....Everyone knows what Hamas must do, and it is up to Hamas." (State Department)
See also Clinton Reiterates Need for Two-State Solution - Roni Sofer (Ynet News)
See also Clinton Says U.S. Diplomacy Unlikely to End Iran Nuclear Program - Paul Richter
The Obama administration has already concluded that a diplomatic overture to Iran is unlikely to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Secretary of State Clinton told the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Abdullah ibn Zayed al Nuhayyan, in a private meeting Monday that it is "very doubtful" a U.S. approach will persuade Iran to relent, said a senior State Department official. But Clinton said an Iranian rebuff could strengthen America's diplomatic position. She said that Iran's "worst nightmare is an international community that is united and an American government willing to engage Iran." (Los Angeles Times)
Donors Pledge $4.5B for Palestinians - Heba Saleh
International donors at a conference in Egypt pledged $4.48 billion over two years to support the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza, but made clear none of the funds should end up in the hands of Hamas. (Financial Times-UK)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel Files UN Complaint Over Gaza Rockets - Yitzhak Benhorin
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, filed an official complaint with the UN Security Council Monday regarding the rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli towns. "Since Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire on 18 January 2009, there have been nearly 100 rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip," Shalev wrote. "These ongoing attacks not only hinder efforts to reach a stable and durable cease-fire, but they represent an ongoing threat to the peace and security of Israel, as well as the people of Gaza." "In response to these ongoing attacks, Israel has the inherent duty to exercise its right to self-defense enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter." (Ynet News)
See also Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues - Shmulik Hadad
Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket that landed south of Ashkelon late Monday evening. (Ynet News)
Illegal Palestinian Construction in David's Garden - Nadav Shragai
For hundreds of years floodwaters drained into the garden of the kings of Judea, east of the Shiloah Pool in Jerusalem, which is described in the Books of Nechemiah and Ecclesiastes. The Turks and the British took care to preserve the open green area for hundreds of years as a public area, intended for preservation and development of parks and tourism. About 20 years ago, the Jerusalem municipality shored up the water runoff there, and an illegal Palestinian outpost arose. Within 18 years 88 buildings went up, causing significant and irreversible damage to antiquities, according to the director general of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman.
Construction was finally halted after the Jerusalem municipality confiscated tractors and heavy machinery from the lawbreakers, and the existing buildings are being dealt with legally by means of demolition orders and indictments. After a plan for laundering the construction was initiated by the inhabitants and human rights organizations, the planning commission rejected the plan. In response, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement in Israel have begun demonstrations and initiated an outcry to protest "the intention to carry out the demolition orders in the King's Garden."
While carrying out the demolition orders as written, nearly 20 years after the violation was committed, may be just, it is not wise. A more fair solution, suggested by municipal council member Yakir Segev, is to evacuate the lawbreakers and to give them compensation and land elsewhere. (Ha'aretz)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The Need to Reconstruct Gaza Is Gaza's Own Doing - Editorial
The need to reconstruct Gaza is Gaza's own doing - the direct consequence of the penchant for terror displayed by the governing Hamas and other like-minded groups, of their insistent practice of targeting Israeli civilians for over eight years with assorted rocketry. Misguided efforts at assistance will prop up the very regime that is the root cause of Gaza's woes. Hamas will benefit from resources bestowed even on ostensibly non-belligerent organizations. Those funds will free Hamas from responsibility for public welfare and free up money for rearmament.
Gaza would have faced far less hardship had it not invested its energies in gun-running, rocket-manufacture and bunker and tunnel construction. Israel cannot, and will not, allow materials into Gaza that are likely to be misused. The transfer of funds must be made contingent on a proven commitment to cease rocket attacks, demonstrated by several months of uninterrupted calm. Without this, reconstruction contributions will wind up boosting Hamas' war-chest.
As long as Israelis are fired upon, no Gazan reconstruction can last. Sooner or later Israel will again have to protect its citizens - as would every donor nation were its people similarly threatened. The prerequisite for sustainable reconstruction is an end to the abuse of Gaza as a base for attacking Israel. (Jerusalem Post)
Urge Damascus to Come Clean on Nuclear Activity - Michael Singh
The International Atomic Energy Agency's recent report on its investigation into Syria's nuclear activities reinforces concerns that the Assad regime was secretly building a nuclear reactor until it was destroyed in late 2007. According to the U.S. intelligence community's publicly released 2009 threat assessment, the Assad regime, despite its professed desire for better relations with Washington, has maintained its interference in Lebanon, support for Palestinian terrorist groups, and close ties with Iran; further, it has "increased substantially" its military support for Hizbullah.
The extent to which the U.S. can persuade Syria to change its attitude toward the IAEA investigation from one of recalcitrance to one of voluntary cooperation will serve as a concrete test of Damascus' willingness to change its ways and mend fences with the international community. The writer, an associate fellow of The Washington Institute, is former senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Observations:
Don't Push Israel to Give Territory to Terrorists - Tom Gross (Wall Street Journal Europe)
A small miracle occurred in Israel on Nov. 5. Kinneret Chaya Boosany gave birth to her first child. Six years earlier, Kinneret, then 23, was blown up as she worked as a waitress in a coffee shop in Tel Aviv. She suffered burns over 85% of her body, her doctors gave her a 2% chance of survival, and she remained in a coma for 88 days.
She is just one of the thousands of Israelis - both Jews and Arabs - injured by Palestinian suicide bombers sent on their deadly missions by either the Islamist Hamas movement or the Fatah faction headed by "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat. The number of Israelis killed in terror attacks has been greatly reduced in recent years after the government built a security fence to make it harder for bombers to get through.
Her story is worth reflecting on as Hillary Clinton arrives in Israel. Barely a day goes by way without Jimmy Carter and assorted European politicians calling on Mr. Obama to coerce Israel into hastily withdrawing from more land no matter the security risks.
Like most Israelis, Kinneret Chaya desperately wants peace with the Palestinians. It is my experience of covering the region as a reporter for many years that no one wants the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to be peaceably resolved more than Israelis do.
But Israelis are also very aware of the dangers of naively handing over territory to terrorists, as was done during the presidency of Secretary of State Clinton's husband in the 1990s.
The writer is former Jerusalem correspondent of the London Sunday Telegraph.
See also Kinneret Boosany Interview - Kevin Sites (Hot Zone-Yahoo News); Video: Kinneret - A Suicide Bombing Survivor
Sunday, March 1, 2009
From the Israel consulate
Elections in Israel Livni says won't join Netanyahu-led government
(YnetNews)
A week after Netanyahu was nominated to form the government, Livni has decided not to join the coalition. Kadima chairwoman ends meeting with prime minister-designate after Likud leader refuses to commit to two-state solution. 'This is a matter of principle,' Livni says, vowing to act as 'a responsible opposition'.
Iran
Iran is the Real Issue for Israel and America in Middle East
Mortimer Zuckerman (Ynet News)
The Middle East conflict is no longer one just between Israelies and Palestinians. Iran is at the core of a wider, unfolding struggle between radical Islamists and moderate national entities. Today, most Sunni Arab governments, including those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and even Fatah-although not Syria and Qatar-are far more worried about Iranian regional dominance than they are about Israel. They know that Israel is not going to undermine or overthrow them, while radical, Iranian-sponsored Islamists just might. Given the threat from Hamas, which has stated and restated that the Palestinians will continue their jihad until the face of the Zionist state disappears, who can think that Israel would get peace in return for yielding land? Israel's abandonment of Gaza was wholly voluntary, a gesture for peace, but Hamas and many Palestinians chose to see it as a sign of weakness. Withdrawal from the West Bank, once negotiable, now seems to many Israelis to make Israel more vulnerable to yet another generation of Palestinians promising to push the Jews into the sea.
Iran's Clenched Fist Chicago Tribune More recently Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stowed the bombast and responded to President Barack Obama's oft-repeated desire for direct talks between Washington and Tehran. Ahmadinejad promised that if the U.S. is serious about changing the icy relations between the countries, Iran would respond. "It is clear that change should be fundamental, not tactical, and our people welcome real changes," he said. "Our nation is ready to hold talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere." Is Iran unclenching its fist, responding to Obama's inaugural address? Or just posturing to buy more time for its nuclear ambitions? We'd bet on the latter.
Palestinians Economic Recovery in the West Bank Meron Benvenisti (Ha'aretz)The West Bank is undergoing a period of economic recovery. There has been an increase in more than a third in commercial activity, and the rise in the standard of living is continuing. The West Bank remained calm during the Fighting in Gaza and was not dragged into reactions of protest.In view of this improvement, it is perhaps possible that Benjamin Netanyahu is correct in claiming that we should concentrate on "economic peace" and that in view of the lack of a chance for a permanent solution, attempts must be made to continue the economic development in the territories. Read the full story at this link. "Re-education" for West Bank Mosque Preachers Ali Waked (ynet news)Ever since Hamas took control of Gaza, PA officials in the West Bank have been waging an all-out war against anyone suspected of belonging to Hamas, taking action against Hamas' control of orphanages, community centers, health clinics, and groups for religious learning, among others. In the mosques, sermons are now given by moderate imams assosiated with Fatah.Read the full story at this link.
Israeli Skaters Win Gold Medal in China for Ice Skating The Siblings Alexandra Zaretski and Roman Zaretski - Photo: AFP
Xinhua - China
Israeli skaters Alexandra Zaretski and Roman Zaretski were crowned ice dance title at the Harbin Winter Universiade figure skating. "We did everything we can for the competition, and we are very satisfied with the gold medal," said the brother Zaretski.
"We performed to our personal best in the three events of the ice dance," he added. "It is not easy to fly to China. We really appreciate the great efforts of the organization committee and appreciate all the athletes for competing with us."
From Art to Heart - A photo exhibit comes to Detroit (March 7-March 31)
A photo exhibition illustrating the images of children from all over the world, whose lives have been saved by Israeli doctors, nurses and staff, is on its way to Beuamont Hospital in Michigan after being displayed at the University of Chicago Medical School. The exhibit has been brought to the United States by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Save a Child's Heart (SACH).
The photographs show how healing, humanity and cooperation can save lives. More than 2,000 children from over 30 developing countries have been treated by SACH, an Israeli-based international humanitarian project providing life-saving heart surgeries and follow-up care for children .
SACH patients, whose ages range from infants to teenagers, have come from Ecuador, China, Vietnam, Russia, Ethiopia, Jordan, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority. Frequently, some inspired photographers have joined these missions. All of the photographers have been touched by the children they have met and the faces that have greeted them. The photographs in this exhibition are their impressions.
Employment OpportunityIntern Wanted The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest seeks creative, ambitious and responsible undergraduate and graduate students, including those studying law, business, international affairs, public policy and journalism. We evaluate candidates' knowledge of the Middle East, their professional, academic and extra-curricular history, writing and computer skills, and enthusiasm for international affairs and interpersonal skills. Click here for more details.
Get Involved
To get involved become a fan of the Midwest Consulate General of Israel on Facebook.
Go to www.twitter.com/israelconsulate for more updates. Visit Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website for a list of facts and talking points at www.mfa.gov.il. Visit the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest at www.chicago.mfa.gov.il.
Check out the blog www.IsraelPolitik.org. ******************************** Please forward this publication to anyone who shares your interest in Israel. The articles in this newsletter (with the exception of Israeli Government statements) reflect the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest. Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - Click for the latest news, official statements, videos, and presentations.
Israeli Blog Don't forget to check out the Israeli Blog:www
(YnetNews)
A week after Netanyahu was nominated to form the government, Livni has decided not to join the coalition. Kadima chairwoman ends meeting with prime minister-designate after Likud leader refuses to commit to two-state solution. 'This is a matter of principle,' Livni says, vowing to act as 'a responsible opposition'.
Iran
Iran is the Real Issue for Israel and America in Middle East
Mortimer Zuckerman (Ynet News)
The Middle East conflict is no longer one just between Israelies and Palestinians. Iran is at the core of a wider, unfolding struggle between radical Islamists and moderate national entities. Today, most Sunni Arab governments, including those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and even Fatah-although not Syria and Qatar-are far more worried about Iranian regional dominance than they are about Israel. They know that Israel is not going to undermine or overthrow them, while radical, Iranian-sponsored Islamists just might. Given the threat from Hamas, which has stated and restated that the Palestinians will continue their jihad until the face of the Zionist state disappears, who can think that Israel would get peace in return for yielding land? Israel's abandonment of Gaza was wholly voluntary, a gesture for peace, but Hamas and many Palestinians chose to see it as a sign of weakness. Withdrawal from the West Bank, once negotiable, now seems to many Israelis to make Israel more vulnerable to yet another generation of Palestinians promising to push the Jews into the sea.
Iran's Clenched Fist Chicago Tribune More recently Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stowed the bombast and responded to President Barack Obama's oft-repeated desire for direct talks between Washington and Tehran. Ahmadinejad promised that if the U.S. is serious about changing the icy relations between the countries, Iran would respond. "It is clear that change should be fundamental, not tactical, and our people welcome real changes," he said. "Our nation is ready to hold talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere." Is Iran unclenching its fist, responding to Obama's inaugural address? Or just posturing to buy more time for its nuclear ambitions? We'd bet on the latter.
Palestinians Economic Recovery in the West Bank Meron Benvenisti (Ha'aretz)The West Bank is undergoing a period of economic recovery. There has been an increase in more than a third in commercial activity, and the rise in the standard of living is continuing. The West Bank remained calm during the Fighting in Gaza and was not dragged into reactions of protest.In view of this improvement, it is perhaps possible that Benjamin Netanyahu is correct in claiming that we should concentrate on "economic peace" and that in view of the lack of a chance for a permanent solution, attempts must be made to continue the economic development in the territories. Read the full story at this link. "Re-education" for West Bank Mosque Preachers Ali Waked (ynet news)Ever since Hamas took control of Gaza, PA officials in the West Bank have been waging an all-out war against anyone suspected of belonging to Hamas, taking action against Hamas' control of orphanages, community centers, health clinics, and groups for religious learning, among others. In the mosques, sermons are now given by moderate imams assosiated with Fatah.Read the full story at this link.
Israeli Skaters Win Gold Medal in China for Ice Skating The Siblings Alexandra Zaretski and Roman Zaretski - Photo: AFP
Xinhua - China
Israeli skaters Alexandra Zaretski and Roman Zaretski were crowned ice dance title at the Harbin Winter Universiade figure skating. "We did everything we can for the competition, and we are very satisfied with the gold medal," said the brother Zaretski.
"We performed to our personal best in the three events of the ice dance," he added. "It is not easy to fly to China. We really appreciate the great efforts of the organization committee and appreciate all the athletes for competing with us."
From Art to Heart - A photo exhibit comes to Detroit (March 7-March 31)
A photo exhibition illustrating the images of children from all over the world, whose lives have been saved by Israeli doctors, nurses and staff, is on its way to Beuamont Hospital in Michigan after being displayed at the University of Chicago Medical School. The exhibit has been brought to the United States by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Save a Child's Heart (SACH).
The photographs show how healing, humanity and cooperation can save lives. More than 2,000 children from over 30 developing countries have been treated by SACH, an Israeli-based international humanitarian project providing life-saving heart surgeries and follow-up care for children .
SACH patients, whose ages range from infants to teenagers, have come from Ecuador, China, Vietnam, Russia, Ethiopia, Jordan, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority. Frequently, some inspired photographers have joined these missions. All of the photographers have been touched by the children they have met and the faces that have greeted them. The photographs in this exhibition are their impressions.
Employment OpportunityIntern Wanted The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest seeks creative, ambitious and responsible undergraduate and graduate students, including those studying law, business, international affairs, public policy and journalism. We evaluate candidates' knowledge of the Middle East, their professional, academic and extra-curricular history, writing and computer skills, and enthusiasm for international affairs and interpersonal skills. Click here for more details.
Get Involved
To get involved become a fan of the Midwest Consulate General of Israel on Facebook.
Go to www.twitter.com/israelconsulate for more updates. Visit Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website for a list of facts and talking points at www.mfa.gov.il. Visit the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest at www.chicago.mfa.gov.il.
Check out the blog www.IsraelPolitik.org. ******************************** Please forward this publication to anyone who shares your interest in Israel. The articles in this newsletter (with the exception of Israeli Government statements) reflect the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest. Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - Click for the latest news, official statements, videos, and presentations.
Israeli Blog Don't forget to check out the Israeli Blog:www
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