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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:
U.S. Military Leaves Saudi Arabia for Qatar
In recent months, the U.S. military has quietly moved munitions, equipment and communications gear to the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, in the central Persian Gulf, from Saudi Arabia, the control center for American air operations in the Gulf for more than a decade.
As Arafat's day of reckoning gets closer, "Arafat is going to try and place all power in the hands of his most loyal subordinates and limit the power of those considered as rivals to the throne," according to Dr. Hillel Frisch of Bar-Ilan University's Began-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
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News Resources - USA and Europe:
A gunman opened fire at the El Al Israel Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, killing two and wounding four others before an airline security officer shot him dead. Authorities identified the gunman as 41-year-old Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, who came to the U.S. from Egypt in 1992 and was living in Irvine, California. Hadayet is not a U.S. citizen. When police arrived at his apartment, they found a note on the door saying, "Read the Koran." Witnesses said the gunman appeared to grow agitated while talking to 20-year-old El Al ticket agent Vicky Chen. He pulled out a gun and shot her, then began firing at people in line. "The El Al guys came over the top of the counter" and tackled the shooter, witnesses reported. According to Israel's consul general in Los Angeles, Yuval Rotem, El Al security chief Haim Sapir is "a hero. He and his colleagues were able to save many passengers." Richard Garcia, head of the FBI's Los Angeles office, also credited the quick response by the security personnel with preventing further injuries. The second victim was Jacob Aminov, 46, an Israeli father of 8 who lives in the Los Angeles area, who was dropping off a friend at the airport. Four others were injured, including Canadian Sarah Phillips, 61, a man who was pistol-whipped by the gunman, and the El Al security chief who was stabbed in the back. (CNN/LA Times) An American military planning document entitled "CentCom Courses of Action," prepared by planners at the Central Command in Tampa, Fla., calls for air, land, and sea-based forces to attack Iraq in a campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. The document envisions tens of thousands of marines and soldiers probably invading from Kuwait. Hundreds of warplanes based in as many as eight countries, possibly including Turkey and Qatar, would unleash a huge air assault against thousands of targets, including airfields, roadways, and fiber-optics communications sites. The concept for such a plan is now highly evolved and is apparently working its way through military channels. (New York Times) See also The Warpath: Pressures Build on Iraq - Patrick E. Tyler The emergence of a detailed concept for a military attack on Iraq suggests that Mr. Bush's new approach to solving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may be part of a shift in focus toward preparations for an Iraq campaign. Bush's speech stalled the American mediation effort in the Middle East, reflecting the view that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not present a strategic threat to American interests in the Middle East, but Iraq's interest in developing weapons of mass destruction does. (New York Times) The Lebanon-based Hizballah terrorist organization is teaming up with al Qaeda on logistics and training for terrorist operations, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials and terrorism experts. The new cooperation includes coordination on explosives and tactics training, money laundering, weapons smuggling, and acquiring forged documents. Tactical collaboration involving mid- and low-level operatives mutes years of rivalry between the primarily Shiite Hizballah and the predominantly Sunni al Qaeda. (Washington Post) Buses have become one of the suicide bombers' favorite targets because they hold large numbers of people confined in small spaces. "As I glide towards the bus stop I scan the faces. I look to see if someone seems suspicious, acts nervous, or in the summer time he's wearing a coat," said one driver. (Voice of America) A missile exploded near an El Al plane on its way from Tel Aviv to Moscow Thursday evening, the Foreign Ministry reported. The plane was traveling via a recognized international air route over Ukraine. In October 2001, a Siberian Airlines plane was hit by a missile mistakenly fired by the Ukrainian army, killing 66 Israeli passengers and 12 crew. (Yediot Ahronot) Prime Minister Sharon: In recent months a plan has been prepared in conjunction with the Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister, as well as the Americans, for an agreement that will enable Palestinian prosperity. Sharon expects the plan to bring an end to the terror. (Maariv) Since June 24, Fox News has been available in 310,000 households in Israel and it is in the midst of negotiations with the other Israeli cable companies. Is Fox really more pro-Israel than CNN? (Ha'aretz) Israeli President Moshe Katzav told a Bnai Brith International gathering in Jerusalem that as the Palestinian violence intensified, divisions in Israeli society blurred and the nation became more united. He called on Europe to follow the American example and to cut all ties with the Palestinian Authority until the violence stops. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis
(Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
In a recent interview, the liberal novelist Amos Oz confessed he's haunted by his father's observation that, before the Holocaust, European graffiti read, "JEWS TO PALESTINE," only to be transformed in our time into, "JEWS OUT OF PALESTINE." The message to Jews, noted Oz: "Don't be here and don't be there. That is, don't be." Israelis haven't felt so alone since the mid-'70s, when the United Nations declared that Zionism equaled racism. (New Republic) In spite of overwhelming evidence that the Saudis are not our friends, careerists at the State Department have doggedly maintained an infatuation with the House of Saud. One administration official says that State's Bureau of Near East Affairs (NEA) "would not let facts get in the way of their analysis." The al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which has claimed credit for more homicide bombings than any other terrorist group, was not added to the administration's "block-and-freeze" list until March 27, 2002 -- six months after the original executive order was signed. (National Review) Ordinary Arabs know that democratic change in the Arab world is long overdue. That's part of why they crowd the mosques on Fridays, listening to the sheiks ridicule their corrupt and sometimes despotic leaders. But the idea that people will rally alongside Uncle Sam once they see our troops on the ground just doesn't cut it. That's what the Israelis thought would happen in Lebanon in 1982 -- and it did, for about a week. After that, they were sitting ducks. (Washington Post) The latest mission impossible embraced by those who would resolve the Middle East conflict is the effort to "democratize" the Palestinian Authority, an organization that has thrived on repression, violence, and aggressive irredentism. Meanwhile, a far more promising route to peace--the path of economic cooperation and development--is being neglected. From the Six-Day War till the Oslo Accords, from 1967 to 1993, the Palestinian economy flourished, its GDP more than quadrupling. The Palestinian standard of living rose dramatically. Infant mortality fell, seven new colleges and universities were established (where none had existed under Jordanian rule), and the welfare of the people, especially of women and children, improved so much that the birth rate soared. (Weekly Standard) One more agreement like Oslo would be the end of us. It alone, for the first time after a century, turned Palestinian terrorism into a threat against Israel's very existence. Only the necessary evil of an IDF reconquest of Judea and Samaria has reduced the level of terrorist attacks. What is permissible for the U.S. in far-off Afghanistan is obligatory for Israel in the nearby West Bank. (Jerusalem Post)
Missile Testing and U.S. Middle East Policy
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