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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DAILY ALERT
 May 22, 2002

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In-Depth Issue:

UNRWA Camps Used as Terrorist Strongholds
    When the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) began operation in 1950, its director expected Arab governments to assume responsibility for relief operations by July 1952. By 1958, former UNRWA director Ralph Galloway had realized that "The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, and as a weapon against Israel. "
    UNRWA camps have become the main operating centers for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and PFLP terrorist groups. 23 suicide bombers, responsible for killing 57 Israelis and injuring 1,000, came from the UNRWA camp in Jenin alone.
    During recent searches of UNRWA camps, Israel uncovered illegal arms caches, bomb factories, and a factory manufacturing the new Qassam-2 rocket, designed to reach Israeli population centers.
    UNWRA runs schools that teach hatred toward Israel, using textbooks with maps of the Middle East that omit Israel, and that delegitimize Israel, Judaism, and Jews.
    The United States funds 30 percent of UNRWA's budget, while Saudi Arabia has given less than one percent, Syria just $37,209, and Egypt only $10,000. (AIPAC)
    See also Lantos Calls for Probe of UNRWA (Ha'aretz)


Useful Reference:

The Arafat Accountability Act
    Text of proposed legislation to hold accountable the PLO and the Palestinian Authority

Congress votes to support Israel in its fight against terrorism.

  • Text of May 2 Senate debate (206k).
  • Text of House debate (105k).


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    		• News Resources - USA and Europe:
  • Terror Report Released
    The State Department's annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report has ignored clear links between Arafat and terrorist organizations. (See Talking Points below.) The report found no evidence linking Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat personally to attacks on Israel last year. (JTA/Washington Times)
        See Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001
    (U.S. State Department)
  • Arafat Critic Planning a Run
    Abdul Sattar Qassem, a political science professor at Nablus' An-Najah University, is considering a run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. Qassem, who has been jailed three times by Arafat's police, supports suicide bombings and is even less likely than Arafat to make peace on Israel's terms. (Newsday)
  • Saddam's New Mosque
    The huge blue-and-white Umm al-Ma'arik (Mother of All Battles) mosque in Baghdad is replete with references to the war and Saddam Hussein. Inside, glass cases contain 605 pages of a Koran written in Saddam's blood. According to a custodian at the mosque, Saddam "dedicated 24 litres of blood over three years." (Guardian-UK)

    • News Resources - Israel and Mideast:

  • PA Court Orders Shubaki Released
    The Palestinian High Court in Ramallah ordered the release of Fuad Shubaki, the man believed responsible for the Karine A arms shipment. Shubaki's detention in Jericho under British and American supervision was one of the conditions for Israel's lifting its siege of Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. (Jerusalem Post)
  • Bush: By Failing to Lead, Arafat has Let Palestinians Down
    President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he has never respected Yasser Arafat because the Palestinian leader had let his own people down. "He's had a chance to lead. He had a chance to get a peace agreement with my predecessor. He's had chance after chance. And by failing to lead, he has really let the Palestinians down," Bush said. (Ha'aretz/Reuters)
  • Arafat's Support Falters
    According to a May survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Arafat has the support of 35 percent of Palestinians, down from around 70 percent six years ago, and 46 percent in July 2000, before the outbreak of fighting with Israel. (Bethlehem News/AP)
  • Libya's Nuclear Aims Worry U.S., Israel
    Libya's efforts to attain nuclear weapons were discussed in strategic talks between Israeli and American officials last week in Washington. (Ha'aretz)

    • Global Commentary and Think Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

  • The Hizballah Model - James Kitfield
    According to Dennis Ross, former Middle East envoy for both the first Bush and the Clinton administrations, "Now we have Hizballah perceived as this great champion, with this phony model and its implied message that the Arabs don't have to negotiate or concede anything to Israel, but rather they can prevail by simply embracing violence. One of the reasons we have to fight this war on terror is to demonstrate that the 'Hizballah model' doesn't work. All it does is produce pain, loss, and ultimately defeat. That's why I think our day of reckoning is still coming with Hizballah." (National Journal)
  • How a Palestinian Defeat Makes Compromise Possible - Daniel Pipes
    Palestinians really do believe they are battering Israel into submission. They seem to have convinced themselves that Israel is reeling and divided. This is nonsense. The escalating terror attacks have united and galvanized the Israeli public. Unless Palestinians have a sense of moving toward their goal of eliminating Israel, they will find their predicament intolerable and change course. (Slate.msn)
  • The Abuse of History - Victor Davis Hanson
    The Palestinians claim their land is "occupied." Reflect on the long American presence in "occupied Okinawa" or in "occupied Berlin," a situation that went on for decades until Americans could be sure that Germans and Japanese would follow the protocols of the armistice. Was the West Bank occupied in 1947? Or only after 1967 -- when the ethnicity of the "occupiers" changed? (National Review)
    • Talking Points:

    State Department Terrorism Report: Some Serious Questions
        Some questions about the State Department's just-released annual report on Patterns of Global Terrorism:

    • The report stated: "PA counterterrorism activities remained sporadic throughout the year. Israel's destruction of the PA's security infrastructure contributed to the ineffectiveness of the PA."
          � Question: Palestinian terror attacks began well before Israeli actions against the PA's facilities. Moreover, Israeli attacks were often directed at empty PA buildings, not the PA's personnel. In Operation Defensive Shield, no action was taken against PA facilities in Gaza, but terror attacks continue in Gaza. With close to 40,000 armed police, the Palestinian Authority chooses not to quash terror. Isn't the failure to act against terror a question of the PA's will to act, and not a question of its apparatus and facilities?

    • The report includes a table of terrorist incidents around the world in 2001. India leads with 45 "incidents" such as grenade attacks or shootings of civilians. The State Department report lists only 6-8 incidents in Israel and 6-8 incidents in the West Bank.
          � Question: Why does the report list a drive-by shooting that killed an American citizen in the West Bank, but not dozens of similar attacks? Why is the brutal murder of 14-year-old American citizen Koby Mandell recorded, but not the sniper death of baby Shalhevet Paz? There were scores of bombings and shooting attacks on buses, shopping malls, stores, and markets that killed or wounded large numbers of Israelis in 2001, but only a few are cited by the report. (See IDF table of attacks resulting in 493 Israeli deaths.) What is the State Department criteria in choosing its incidents? If the State Department were to apply the same criteria as it did for India, the attacks on Israeli civilians would number in the hundreds. (See Ministry of Foreign Affairs list of attacks and Israeli victims.)

    • The Report minimizes the role of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization and the activities of senior PA officials.
          Question: Israel has presented the U.S. with incontrovertible documentary evidence of the involvement of the PA's highest leadership in approving and paying for terrorist activities, including suicide bombings. The 100-page Naveh Report is replete with such documents. The captured leader of the Tanzim, Marwan Barghouti, has admitted to high-level coordination with Fatah and PA leaders. The 2002 capture of the weapons-laden Karine A - cited by the report - was accompanied by the capture of documents signed by PA treasurer Fuad Shubaki. Why is the State Department still "studying" the Israeli documents and unable to draw conclusions? �����

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