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Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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To contact the Presidents Conference: click here In-Depth Issues:
Head of IDF Military Intelligence: Assad's Chair is Shaky - Itamar Eichner (Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew, 24Jun05)
Hamas Gathers Several Thousand Gaza Fighters and Arsenal of Kassam Rockets - Matthew Gutman (Jerusalem Post)
Radical Palestinian Groups in Lebanon and Syria Plan to Move to Gaza - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Israel Apologizes to New Zealand over Spy Case, Normal Relations Resume (DPA/Ha'aretz)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
After weeks of delicate negotiation involving a former Iraqi minister and senior tribal leaders, a small group of insurgent commanders came face to face with American officials on June 3 and June 13 in the hope of negotiating an eventual breakthrough that might reduce the violence in Iraq. Washington seems to be gingerly probing for ways of defusing home-grown Iraqi opposition and of isolating the foreign Islamic militants who have flooded into Iraq to wage holy war against America. (Times-UK) See also Rumsfeld Confirms U.S. Talks with Iraqi Insurgents - Dana Priest (Washington Post) Syria is the final point of departure for thousands of young men, drawn from across the Arab world and from Muslim communities as far away as Spain, France, and even Sheffield, England, seeking to fight the war against U.S. forces in Iraq. According to former fighters in Damascus, volunteers are given a crash course in using Kalashnikov rifles, firing rocket-propelled grenades, and the use of remote detonators. The training takes place at secret camps in the Syrian desert, near the Iraqi border. Some attacks are even planned in advance in Damascus and Aleppo. According to Lt-.Gen. John Vines, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, 150 foreign volunteers now cross into the country from Syria every month. (Times-UK) France joined the U.S. Thursday in calling for a firm stance against Syrian involvement in Lebanon, where Washington says Damascus' intelligence services are still active and plotting against anti-Syrian figures. "We are wondering about Syrian intelligence who may still be active in Lebanon," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rice in London. "[UN] Resolution 1559 must be respected and the firmness of the international community must be expressed in the coming days vis-a-vis Syria," he said. (Washington Times) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hard-line mayor of Tehran who has invoked Iran's 1979 revolution and expressed doubts about rapprochement with the U.S., won a runoff election Friday and was elected president of the Islamic republic in a landslide. (Washington Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Aviad Mansour, 16, of Otniel, died Sunday of wounds sustained Friday in a drive-by terror shooting near Beit Haggai in which Avichai Levy, 17, of Beit Haggai was also killed when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire from their car on a hitchhiking post. (Ha'aretz) "Without a doubt, the terrorists took advantage of the easing of restrictions to launch the attack," said IDF Col. Moti Baruch, the Judea district commander. (Jerusalem Post) Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon said that Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz would sign a memorandum on his visit to the U.S. in July, after which Israel's participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project would be renewed. "This settlement will tighten the partnership with the U.S.," Ayalon said. According to Ayalon, the memorandum will expand penetration of U.S. markets, where the potential is greater than in any other country, by Israeli defense industries. It will also upgrade technological cooperation with the U.S. "Close allies of the U.S., such as the UK and other NATO countries, have signed similar agreements," Ayalon noted. (Globes) See also Israel, U.S. Draft Agreement for Openness, Equality in Arms Deals - Aluf Benn The memorandum will state that the U.S. and Israel are "strategic partners" and that each country will be considerate of the other's concerns about military technology being transferred to other countries. The countries "arousing concern" will be specified separately. (Ha'aretz) See also Bowing to U.S. Pressure, Israel to Curb Arms Deals - Ze'ev Schiff Israel has decided to comply with all of Washington's demands regarding the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) deal with China and changes in the supervision of Israel's arms exports. The decision means that once again Israel will have to violate an agreement to supply defense equipment to China, five years after it canceled the Falcon airplane deal. China is expected to demand compensation fees, since Israel had undertaken to supply China with spare parts for the UAVs. (Ha'aretz) The IDF uncovered a tunnel on Monday that had been dug from the town of Khan Yunis toward an industrial zone in Neve Dekalim. The tunnel, which appeared freshly dug, was meant to bypass a checkpoint to allow Palestinian terrorists to infiltrate Israeli territory, Israeli military sources said. It was discovered after the PA relayed intelligence information to Israel. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Marwan Abu Ubeida, 20, a Sunni Muslim from Fallujah, says he has been training for months to blow himself up along with as many U.S. or Iraqi soldiers as he can reach. While he waits, he spends much of his time rehearsing that last prayer. "First I will ask Allah to bless my mission with a high rate of casualties among the Americans," he says, speaking softly in a matter-of-fact monotone, as if dictating a shopping list. Marwan asked his commander to consider him for a suicide mission last fall but had to wait until the beginning of April. There are, he says, scores of names on that list, and it can be months before a volunteer is assigned an operation. "I can't wait," he says. "I am ready to die now." (TIME) The Saudis figure U.S. concerns about the flow of oil and the fight against terrorism will continue to trump all this talk about freedom and democracy. By virtually any measure of political rights and civil liberties, Saudi Arabia deserves a spot on Rice's "outposts of tyranny" list. Three separate State Department reports over the past year - on human rights, on religious freedom, on human trafficking - portray Saudi Arabia as one of the most repressive places on earth. Freedom House gives Saudi Arabia its lowest rating for political freedom, a distinction shared by North Korea. Three of the six countries Rice called "outposts of tyranny" (Iran, Belarus, and Zimbabwe) are actually rated higher by Freedom House. (Weekly Standard) Egypt's land and air forces, equipped with the latest American weapons, constitute the greatest potential threat to Israel. It is therefore of vital importance not to change the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt guaranteeing that the Sinai Desert given up by Begin would remain demilitarized. The Egyptians are demanding that Israel agree to the deployment of about 5,000 Egyptian troops in Sinai, along the border with Israel from Rafiah to Eilat, equipped with armored fighting vehicles. Egypt has not given up its attempts to regain complete sovereignty over the desert region and is exploiting the current opportunity to destroy the principle of the demilitarization of Sinai. (Jerusalem Post) The Palestinian Arabs who remained in Israel were granted citizenship and there are now more than a million Israeli Arabs - about 20% of the country's population. They have more rights than Jews in Arab countries had in the past; indeed, they have more rights than Arabs in most Arab countries have in the present. Yet what passes for the moderate view holds that a future Palestinian state must be Judenrein - ethnically cleansed of Jews. (Townhall.com) Observations: Scripts for the Day After - Zalman Shoval (Ha'aretz)
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