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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:
Bin Laden Met KSM in Pakistan in February - Raymond Bonner with David Johnston (New York Times)
What the Arrest of KSM Means for the War on Terror - Mansoor Ijaz (National Review)
Islamic Fundamentalists and the Internet - Elaine Shannon and Michael Weisskopf (TIME)
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News Resources - North America and Europe:
The first Palestinian suicide bombing in two months tore apart a packed Israeli bus in Haifa on Wednesday, killing 15 people and wounding more than 50. The last suicide bombing was on January 5, when 23 people were killed in Tel Aviv. (Reuters/ABC News) Police said 9 or 10 of the dead were students at local high schools, ages 13 to 15, among them 14-year-old Avigail Leitner, a U.S. citizen. (Jerusalem Post) See also "Another Bus Blown Up, More Lives Shattered" (Ha'aretz); Israeli Arab Bus Driver Tells of Blast (Jerusalem Post) There are some 300,000 Iraqi illegals and refugees in Jordan, part of an Iraqi diaspora that totals 4 million, or one-sixth of the Iraq population. Yet these Iraqis consider themselves lucky - out of Iraq, away from Saddam Hussein. They all have horrid stories to tell, and they trust no one. Abas, 28, a Shiite, said, "We want Saddam removed, we want him defeated. I know what war will mean for Iraqis. But better to suffer once than to suffer all of your life, without end. If President George Bush is an enemy of Saddam Hussein, then he is a friend to me." (Toronto Star) Noha, a doctor, tells her children not to get upset when government-issued religion books tell them they are deviants. They are Shiites, who make up 10-15% of the population in the Saudi kingdom whose majority Sunnis follow a puritanical code that shuns not only other religions but also other Muslim sects. It's almost impossible for Shiites to get permission to build new mosques or community halls for weddings or funerals. Shiite publications are banned. Shiites say they are barred from sensitive positions in national and local government, security agencies, schools, and hospitals. (AP/Guardian-UK) Moonlighting from his job as a deputy sheriff, Sgt. Bob Fromme was working security at a tobacco wholesaler in Statesville, N.C., when he saw three Arabic-speaking men buying a huge stash of cigarettes. But what really caught Fromme's eye was how the men paid. They reached into shopping bags and pulled out wads of cash, bound in rubber bands. Over the next four years, Fromme worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in tracking the men and revealing a multimillion-dollar tobacco smuggling ring by a top U.S. cell of Hizballah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization. (U.S. News) News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
In the wake of the Haifa bus bombing, the political-security cabinet Wednesday approved a defense establishment request to carry out more operations against the terror infrastructure in the territories, Israel Radio reported. Security and government sources said there is no intention to launch a "showcase" retaliation, and gave the following reasons: Israel is interested in the convening of the Palestinian institutions over the weekend to elect a prime minister for the Palestinian Authority. A sharp reaction to the attack will give Arafat an excuse to put off the decision and blame Israel. Israel will not mount obstacles in the way of the U.S. attack on Iraq. "This is not the week to get in the Americans' way," a security source said. Finally, the existing security policy has been fairly successful in foiling terrorist attacks and is seen as the reason for the relative quiet of the past weeks. Jerusalem was not fazed by recent international denunciations of the IDF's actions in Gaza. Jerusalem sources noted the official American reaction was "by the book," repeated standard expressions, and remained at the level of a spokesman's statement. The scathing criticism came mainly from Britain and the American media. Israel and the Palestinians are far from the top of the American agenda today. (Ha'aretz) IDF spokeswoman Brigadier General Ruth Yaron said Wednesday that the time has come for the public to start stocking up on the supplies necessary for preparing a sealed room. "In order not to take chances and to be ready, we are saying...this is the time to make those purchases," Yaron said. Yaron stressed there was no need for special haste and that she was only giving general advice and not official directives. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Let's do the math. To get even a show of forward motion from Saddam, it has taken 17 failed UN resolutions, 12,000 pages of pointless documents from Baghdad, umpteen visits to Iraq by Mr. Blix, the concentrated attention for many months of the entire world, plus the deployment to the Persian Gulf of six U.S. aircraft carrier groups and 250,000 troops. And what have we got to show for it? Saddam has forked over one spare suspected biological bomb and bulldozed two dozen or so missiles he got caught lying about. Folks, this arithmetic is not going our way. (Wall Street Journal) On Nov. 21, 2002, an Israeli bus carrying students to school was blown up in Jerusalem. Eleven people were murdered, and tens of others seriously injured. That night, the terrorist's father went on TV and praised his son. The following day, the terrorist's father was brought to the very same emergency room with chest pains. He was cared for by the same medical staff who had labored over his son's victims the day before. On the same day, 70 physicians arrived in Israel from the U.S. to take part in a medical conference. The American experts listened as a cardiac thoracic surgeon explained how a young woman, 23, with a wristwatch lodged in her throat and both carotid arteries severed has survived the bus bombing. "We all realized that in our own medical centers, that patient would likely have died," explained Harvard Prof. Ben Sacks. "The Israelis have moved far ahead of us in preparedness." (Jerusalem Post) The al-Samoud could be incorporated into a two-stage missile with a 300-kilogram payload that could be delivered to a range in excess of 1,000 kilometers. The payload is not likely to be large enough for a nuclear device, but it is great enough for a chemical or biological warhead. If a 600-kilometer-range version of the missile were manufactured, it could strike targets at the same strategic depth as did Iraq's al-Hussein missiles during the Gulf War. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Meeting the "Depth Threat" from Iraq: The Origins of Israel's Arrow System - Uzi Rubin (Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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