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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:
UK Terrorists Got Cash from Saudi Arabia Before 7/7 - Toby Harnden and Andrew Alderson (Telegraph-UK) Israel Campus Beat - August 7, 2005 Point Counter-Point: More Views on the Gaza Disengagement
Undercover in the Academy of Hatred (Sunday Times-UK)
Top PA Judge Resigns After House Attacked - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Israeli Cruise Ships Diverted After Terror Warnings - Diana Bahur-Nir and Yigal Walt (Ynet News)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
The Bush administration has increased pressure on the Israeli government in recent days to do more to make a Palestinian Gaza successful after Israeli settlers are pulled out later this month. Secretary of State Rice in particular has been forceful and even abrupt in her dealings with senior Israeli officials, including the foreign and defense ministers. Rice was initially considering a return trip to Israel next week to monitor the Gaza pullout, but has since decided against it. "She'll get credit if it works, and she doesn't want to be here if it doesn't," one American official in the region said. In Washington, a senior American official said that American involvement had increased sharply after Rice, in June, told reporters she wanted to avoid mediating the details of Gaza coordination. But since then her aides have been doing precisely that. (New York Times) Many of the new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and shipped in from there, suggesting a new area of cooperation between Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunnis to drive American forces out, U.S. military and intelligence officials said Friday. One senior military officer said "tens" of the devices had been smuggled in and used against allied forces in the past several weeks. Some shipments have contained both components and fully manufactured devices, and may have been spirited into Iraq along the porous Iranian border by the Iranian-backed, anti-Israeli terrorist group Hizballah, or by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. American commanders say these bombs closely matched those that Hizballah has used against Israel. (New York Times) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday called for closer cooperation with Syria in the face of "common threats," during a visit to Tehran by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Both governments remain on a U.S. list of countries supporting terrorism, and Washington accuses both countries of failing to stop Islamic insurgents from crossing their borders into Iraq. (VOA News) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
By a 16-5 vote, the Israeli cabinet gave final approval Sunday for the removal of the Gaza settlements of Morag, Netzarim, and Kfar Darom. Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who voted with the minority, resigned. (Jerusalem Post) See also Prime Minister's Office: Netanyahu Resignation Won't Affect Disengagement - Herb Keinon and Gil Hoffman Sources in the Prime Minister's Office stressed Monday that Netanyahu's resignation would not delay the implementation of the disengagement plan. Prime Minister Sharon appointed Ehud Olmert as interim finance minister. (Jerusalem Post) A 10-year-old child was critically wounded after being shot in the head by Palestinian gunmen in a drive-by shooting north of Ramallah on Sunday. The Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aksa Brigades, claimed responsibility. (Jerusalem Post) See also Shots Fired at Israeli Vehicles East of Kalkilya - Margot Dudkevitch Palestinian gunmen fired shots toward two Israeli vehicles driving near Azoun, east of Kalkilya, in the West Bank on Sunday evening. (Jerusalem Post) Jamal Abu Samhadana, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza, announced Sunday, "We will move our cells to the West Bank," where they would start operating immediately after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The Popular Resistance Committees, which consists of gunmen belonging to the ruling Fatah party and dissident members of the PA security forces, had claimed responsibility for the October 2003 attack on a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Gaza in which three American security officers were killed. Abu Samhadana, wanted by Israel for a series of terror attacks, revealed that the PA recently offered him a senior position in its Military Intelligence Force and that he was positively weighing the offer. Abu Samhadana and his cohorts viewed the disengagement as an Israeli "surrender" to the will, determination, and resistance of the Palestinians. He said his group would continue to launch attacks on Israel after the disengagement "to liberate the remaining Palestinian lands." He disclosed that at least 500 members of his group have been recruited to the PA security forces since January. (Jerusalem Post) In al-Bureij in Gaza, Mahmoud Nashbat has been active in the Palestinian preventive security forces for a long time. Two years ago, he founded a militia called the Jenin Martyrs' Brigade, which numbers dozens (some say hundreds) of soldiers. The vast majority are former members of Palestinian security forces who have carried out acts of terror. More important, most of them continue to receive salaries from these organizations. In other words, in Gaza it is possible to receive a salary from the Palestinian Authority and to engage in acts of terror. How many gangs and bullies with Robin Hood-style pretensions exist in Gaza? Some say dozens: Abu Amra Bedouin tribal gangs in southern Gaza; "death squads" in central refugee camps; the Abu Rish Brigade in Khan Yunis; and Abu-Samhadana supporters in Rafah - all connected with Fatah. Hamas has its own groups, and there are other groups and political movements associated with senior Palestinians with some clout. Murder, kidnapping, and extortion, like those surrounding Nashbat, have become part of everyday life in Gaza. Mahmoud Abbas has not succeeded in coping with this phenomenon and some say he is not even trying. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Ten days ago, in Damascus, I sat down with a Syrian official I've known for years and asked: What's with the jihadists crossing Syria's border into Iraq? There is no way anyone can control a long border like that, he said, sounding the official line. Then he dropped a bombshell. Of 1,200 suspected suicide bombers arrested by Syrian authorities since the beginning of the war in 2003, 85% have been Saudis. During the last few months, the Iraqi resistance has been firing at Saudi and Kuwaiti border posts. So far it's nothing serious - but it could be a harbinger of Iraq's chaos spilling into the kingdom. Iran is no less a problem. Two months ago, in Qum, I spoke with Grand Ayatollah Saanei about the phenomenon of suicide bombings. I expected the usual diatribe against the U.S., but instead his real anger was directed at the "Wahhabi" suicide bombers, almost all of them Saudis, killing Iraqi Shia. "They are wolves without pity," he said. "Sooner rather than later, Iran will have to put them down." The writer is a former veteran CIA officer. (Newsweek) See also The Deadly Virus of Suicide Bombings - Robert Baer The only sure way of stopping the bombers is to have agents in their cells. You have to intercept them in the planning stage. You cannot rely on telephone taps but only on old-fashioned spies and informers, sources that in the intelligence world we call human intelligence. You can also crack down hard on those who feed the cult by inciting other young men on the path of jihad. But the only real solution lies within Islam itself. It is only when the vast majority of law-abiding Muslim societies reject the cultural virus of suicide bombing and cease to glorify it that this plague will burn itself out. (Observer-UK) When Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, admitted that "our own children" had perpetrated the July 7 London bombings, it was the first time in my memory that a British Muslim had accepted his community's responsibility for outrages committed by its members. However, this is the same Sacranie who, in 1989, said that "Death is perhaps too easy" for the author of The Satanic Verses [Salman Rushdie]. Tony Blair's decision to knight him and treat him as the acceptable face of "moderate," "traditional" Islam is either a sign of his government's penchant for religious appeasement or a demonstration of how limited Blair's options really are. Sacranie is a strong advocate of Blair's new religious-hatred bill, which he expects to outlaw references to Islamic terrorism. If Sir Iqbal Sacranie is the best Blair can offer in the way of a good Muslim, we have a problem. (Washington Post) Observations: Alone at the Dance - Mortimer B. Zuckerman (U.S. News)
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