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Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with the Fairness Project by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected] In-Depth Issue:
Terrorism Consortium: Al-Qaeda Cooperation with Hamas and Hizballah
How Many Christians Live in the Territories? Some 60,000 Christians remain in the West Bank and Gaza, constituting 1.5% of the Palestinian population. From the eruption of violence in Oct. 2000 until Nov. 2001, 2,766 Christian Palestinians emigrated from the West Bank, 1,640 from the Bethlehem area and 880 from Ramallah. Only 30,000 Christians remain in the Bethlehem area among 100,000 Muslims, where they had once been the majority. (Jerusalem Post)
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News Resources - USA and Europe:
Leaders of al-Qaeda met in a summit with leaders of Hamas and Hizballah, as well as a number of other groups linked to terrorism, in late March, according to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. FBI Director Robert Mueller also warned that he expected terrorists to mount "walk-in" suicide bombing attacks in the United States. (ABC News) Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said on the "Today" show that al-Qaeda is not the only enemy: "There are several international terrorist groups which have abilities, in some cases greater than al-Qaeda, and a similar desire to attack the United States." He specifically mentioned Hizballah and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. (Reuters) Yasser Arafat, for decades the very personification of Palestinian aspirations, is now in deep trouble with his own people, according to Palestinian political analysts and Israeli intelligence officials who see his authority challenged by a younger generation of street leaders. (New York Times) The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia has paid Qorvis Communications $3.8 million since it signed a one-year $200,000 a-month contract on Nov. 14 to position the Kingdom as a trusted ally of the U.S. (O'Dwyer's PR Daily)
News Resources - Israel and Mideast:
According to Brig. Gen. Yossi Kupperwasser, the IDF thwarted a Palestinian plan to detonate a one-ton bomb. Other sources have speculated that the bomb attack was intended for the parking lot beneath the twin 50-story Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv. (Jerusalem Post/IMRA) Since Operation Defensive Shield, Israel has foiled 7 bombing attempts in Tel Aviv and 3 in Jerusalem. Gaza Strip security chief Mohammad Dahlan appears to be emerging as the winner in the power struggle that has followed Israel�s recent counter-terrorism sweep. Dahlan, who heads the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip, enjoys Arafat�s trust and maintains good contacts with the Americans, the Egyptians, Hamas, and even the Israelis. (JTA)
Global Commentary and Think Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Jihad Jibril was one of the operations officers for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Behind this organization lies a wake of dead Israelis, including children, as well as Europeans and others the organization has killed. (Ha'aretz) Recent IDF operations conform to the modern concept of a "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA), a doctrine that implies the application of superiority in knowledge (and information technology) to the "domination of the battlespace" and the conduct of combined-arms operations. The Americans in Afghanistan came close to full application of this concept, with remarkable results; today the IDF replicates this effort in the PA areas. (Jerusalem Post) In her May 9 syndicated column, Georgie Anne Geyer claimed that Prime Minister Sharon told his cabinet recently, "I control America." We couldn't find any evidence anywhere that Sharon ever said this, but we found a similar quote attributed to Israel Radio from the Islamic Association for Palestine. The pro-Israel media-watchdog group Camera has called the quote a hoax and says Israel Radio has confirmed that no such broadcast exists.There's certainly room for a diversity of opinions on the Mideast conflict, but even opinion writers--and their editors--have a duty not to publish blatant falsehoods. (OpinionJournal.com) The demand for reform of Arafat's apparatus has been strongest among Palestinians themselves, and it has reached fever pitch since Israel's "Operation Defensive Shield." The legislature is demanding that the post of a prime minister be created to oversee the day-to-day running of the PA. (Time) Suddenly "reform" of the Palestinian Authority seems to be on the lips of all the Middle East players from Washington to Ramallah. If you believe this would have come about without the campaign of the Israeli army to root out terrorism from the West Bank, perhaps you're in the market for a bridge. (Boston Herald) Arafat has no intention of turning into a Palestinian Queen Mother; he is trying to bury the demands for reform in committees. (Jerusalem Report) The documents include a damning letter from the Saudis complaining that the Palestinians had exposed the secret financial ties by allowing the publication of a Feb. 19 report in the PA publication al-Hayat al-Jedida thanking Saudi Arabia for assisting the families of terrorists killed in attacks on Israelis. (Insight Magazine) CBS News reported that a videotape of Daniel Pearl's final hours was disseminated on the Internet from web sites originating in Saudi Arabia. Face it: Saudi Arabia has long been on the wrong side of anti-Western terrorism. Only now is the post-9/11 spotlight beginning to shine on Riyadh's complicity. (New York Post) Jews in the former Soviet Union are increasingly worried that they might become targets in the war with Islamic fundamentalists. (JTA)
Israel's Conditions for Syrian Participation in a Regional Peace Conference -
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