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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:
Shin Bet: Doctors Without Borders Staffer Plotted to Kill Israeli Prime Minister - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Next Target for Palestinian Rockets May Be Ashkelon, Defense Officials Warn - Ronny Sofer (Ynet News)
Mubarak Expresses Concern Over Growing Strength of Hamas - Barak Ravid (Ha'aretz)
Israel to Join OECD (Israel Foreign Ministry)
Useful Reference: Jerusalem Day Parades - May 15-16, 2007 - 585 Pictures - Jacob Richman Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
At least 19 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday - more than 40 have been killed over the past four days - in fighting between Fatah and Hamas as their unity government fractures and rage rises on both sides. Hamas attacked symbols of Fatah power in Gaza; after a mortar attack, 200 armed men of the Hamas occupied the home of the chief security commander. He was not there, but six bodyguards were killed. (New York Times) See also Gaza City: "A City of Corpses and Ghosts" - Sakher Abu el-Oun "Even during the Israeli occupation the situation wasn't this terrible," says Um Mohammed, praying for an end to the lethal Palestinian infighting raging outside her Gaza City home. Fear reigns throughout the city, deserted but for prowling groups of armed men, loyal to rivals Hamas or Fatah, living on a daily diet of ambushes, kidnappings and assassinations. Dozens of snipers on the rooftops of the tallest buildings open fire seemingly on anything that moves. "We can't go near the window, let alone on the balcony. We have all become targets," says Um Mohammed. "This is a city of corpses and ghosts." (AFP/Yahoo) See also AP Reporter in Gaza: "This Is the Worst It's Been" - Ibrahim Barzak On Wednesday, I saw several people shot in front of my building, I heard the screams of terrified women and children in a burning building, and I argued with gunmen who tried to take over my home. I have seen a lot in my years as a journalist in Gaza, but this is the worst it's been. (AP/Washington Post) See also below Observations: Solution for PA Anarchy? - Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet News); Salvation in Occupation - Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz) The U.S. Tuesday called for tough international action against Iran after reports that international inspectors have concluded Tehran has made major technical strides in recent days toward processing nuclear fuel. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the Bush administration is prepared to press for a new round of UN sanctions if Iran defies resolutions calling on it to halt the enrichment of uranium. "What is obvious to everyone is that Iran has continued to act in defiance of the wishes of the international community," Casey said. "We need to continue to apply pressure and increase pressure with an additional Security Council resolution if they don't comply." (Washington Times) U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced new legislation that would protect fund managers and state pension programs from shareholder lawsuits if they divest stakes in energy companies that do business with Iran. Rather than taking punitive action, the new legislation would authorize state and local governments and private fund-managers to divest assets for companies that invest over $20 million in Iran's energy sector, which the U.S. government would publish in a list every six months. The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2007 was introduced in the Senate by Illinois Democrat Barack Obama and in the House of Representatives by Democratic Reps. Barney Frank and Tom Lantos. Fund managers that choose to divest could do so "without breaching their fiduciary responsibilities to their investors," and thus dodge class-action lawsuits from disapproving investors, Frank said. A report by the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service found more than $100 billion in energy investments in Iran since 1999 by such foreign firms as France's Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's ENI and Inpex of Japan. (Reuters/Washington Post) See also U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Intensify Economic Pressure on Iran, Syria - Dan Robinson Tom Lantos, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asserts the divestment measure will also encourage moderate elements in Iran opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies. "This will strengthen their hand, it will weaken the Iranian economy, and it will contribute we hope peacefully to undermining this regime which has been so negative, both in terms of the freedom of the Iranian people internally and Iran's global position." Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced a bill last week to strengthen existing U.S. sanctions against Syria and support what it calls a transition to a democratically elected government in Syria. (VOA News) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
A high school in Israel was directly hit by a Palestinian rocket Thursday. Two people were lightly wounded in the attack, and several others suffered from shock. The rocket landed on an unfortified classroom, which was empty at the time. (Ynet News) See also Palestinian Bombardment of Sderot Continues Thursday Kassam rockets continued to bombard Sderot on Thursday. By 9 a.m., four rocket hits had been reported. On Wednesday night, a Kassam rocket hit a four-story apartment building in the city. Another rocket hit a transformer, knocking out electricity in parts of the city. Earlier Wednesday, the Sderot Municipality prepared to temporarily evacuate 4,000 residents, 16% of the city's 24,000 residents. (Jerusalem Post) See also Sderot: Woman Wounded in Palestinian Rocket Barrage - Shmulik Hadad As Palestinian terror groups launched over thirty Kassam rockets at Israel in 24 hours, a 70-year-old Israeli woman was evacuated to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon on Wednesday in moderate-to-serious condition with injuries to her limbs and stomach. A second resident was lightly wounded. (Ynet News) See also Constant Terror in Sderot - Masha Rifkin As I write this, Kassam rockets are hitting Sderot. Children are screaming, mothers are collapsing in despair, and doctors are pulling shrapnel out of the bodies of Jews. Cornell University junior Masha Rifkin of Newton, Massachusetts, is a volunteer at the Mishol social work office in Sderot. (Jerusalem Post) Israel Air Force jets bombed a Hamas headquarters in Rafah, the first such air strike against a Hamas target in more than six months, killing four Palestinians and injuring 20 others - all Hamas militants. The air force also killed a Hamas rocket crewman on the outskirts of Gaza City. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has joined a growing line of American mediators who have come up with intelligent and far-reaching security plans for the Palestinians, only to see their blueprints mown down in a barrage of automatic weapons fire. Dayton's benchmarks, circulated to Israeli and Palestinian leaders last month, called for a phased easing of restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and their goods, the removal of Israeli checkpoints, and the opening of a safe passage across Israel from Gaza to the West Bank. Israel was also to supply weapons and equipment to security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinians were to stop smuggling weapons, explosives and ammunition across the Gaza-Egypt border and to stop firing rockets at Israeli towns from Gaza. Dayton's plan - like those of his well-meaning predecessors - makes sense on paper, yet has proved to be far detached from the grim reality on the ground. (San Francisco Chronicle) It's spring in Iran, a time when a hard-line Islamic regime's thoughts turn to repression and crackdowns. These days the Modesty Police roam the streets of Tehran, stopping women who dress inappropriately. Their targets: women who wear small head scarves or short, tight coats or cosmetics or bright nail polish or large sunglasses or short socks ... just about anything that may be deemed un-Islamic. Most get a warning, which is better than it was in the early days of the Islamic revolution. Then, violators were fined, jailed and flogged. We can understand why the rulers of Iran are sensitive. They're driving the country deeper and deeper into isolation - with two sets of UN sanctions in place and more likely coming - all to keep an outlaw nuclear program going. Despite the country's oil wealth, the Iranian economy is feeble; the good times promised by Ahmadinejad haven't materialized, and never will without serious market reforms. (Chicago Tribune) Observations: Solution for PA Anarchy? - Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet News)
See also Salvation in Occupation - Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
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