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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:
Israeli Cabinet Approves Release of 441 More Palestinian Prisoners in Pre-Annapolis Goodwill Gesture (Jerusalem Post) Israel Campus Beat - November 18, 2007 Point Counter-Point: Should the Palestinians Recognize Israel as a "Jewish State"?
Palestinians Want to Reopen Institutions in Jerusalem - Ali Waked (Ynet News)
Chavez Jokes He's in Iran to Get an A-Bomb (Oil Week-Canada)
Anti-Semitic Palestinian Cartoons Appear Regularly - (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
Saudi-Based Terrorist Charity Remains UN-Recognized NGO - Eric Shawn
(FOX News)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Saudi Arabia could keep the U.S. guessing until the last minute on whether it will attend a Middle East peace conference next week, but analysts and diplomats say a high-level delegation is unlikely. "Right now the position is Saudi Arabia is not attending, that's what it seems - unless the Americans surprise us with a better agenda," said Jamal Khashoggi, editor of al-Watan daily, which is owned by a brother of the foreign minister. (Reuters) Lawmakers are striking a note of alarm over U.S. plans to sell sophisticated satellite guided bombs to Saudi Arabia. A coalition of 188 members of the House of Representatives warned that if the technology fell into the "wrong hands" it could harm U.S. forces in the Middle East and threaten Israel. The lawmakers' letter to President Bush was coordinated by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Christopher Carney (D-Pa.). (AFP) See also Lawmakers Caution White House on Proposed JDAM Sale to Saudi Arabia - William Matthews (Defense News) Tuesday's elections for the 110 seats in Jordan's lower house are marked by growing charges that the parliament is only superficially democratic. About 900 candidates are running, including about 200 women. The country's electoral system gives disproportionate representation to sparsely populated rural areas, a setup that favors tribal candidates, who generally support government policies, over liberal and Islamic opposition politicians concentrated in urban areas. Analysts predict that opposition parties will win 20% of the seats. (Washington Post) See also Jordanian Islamists Seek to Win Palestinians' Vote - Suleiman al-Khalidi Behind a poster of Jerusalem's Muslim shrines, Islamist activist Omar Zaib tells a crowd of Palestinian refugees at a Jordanian election rally that Israel is doomed - if not by this generation of jihadists, then the next. (Reuters) See also Jordan's Shift to Democracy Slows Amid Worries Over Islamist Power - Mark MacKinnon (Globe and Mail-Canada) Following recent threats against the Gulf countries by leading Iranian officials, several Saudi columnists have criticized the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries' passivity in the face of the danger posed by Iran. In the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, Saudi columnist Abdallah al-Mutairi wrote that the Gulf countries must not remain silent in the face of Iran's threats, but must instead formulate a joint defense plan. "We all remember the editorial by Hossein Shari'atmadari, advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and editor of the Kayhan newspaper, in which he stressed that Bahrain was a region belonging to Iran and that there are documents proving full Iranian sovereignty over the three islands (Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Moussa). We also cannot forget [Shari'atmadari's] comment that among the Gulf states there are illegitimate regimes." (MEMRI) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Ido Zoldan, 29, of Shavei Shomron, was murdered Monday near the Palestinian village of Funduk in the northern West Bank after terrorists opened fire from a passing car. Zoldan was survived by his wife, Tehila, and his two small children, three-year-old Aharon and one-year-old Rachel. As the Annapolis peace conference gets closer, the Israel Defense Ministry has in its possession five specific warnings on attempts to carry out terrorist attacks, in addition to dozens of general warnings. (Ynet News) At 11:30 p.m. on Monday, IDF soldiers spotted three Palestinians climbing on the security fence in an attempt to infiltrate the community of Netiv Ha'asara, located just north of Gaza. IDF forces opened fire and killed the three would-be attackers. A spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the infiltration attempt and said, "It was planned to be a suicide attack." (Ynet News) Public Security Minister Avi Dichter on Sunday toured Moshav Nativ Ha'asara, a border community which has been particularly hard-hit by the continued Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza. "I live only ten kilometers away from here," he said. "We need to halt the rocket fire by controlling rather than taking control. It's not enough to deal with the rocket fire - we must also deal with the independence of Hamas, which is smuggling in weapons such as anti-tank missiles similar to those Hizbullah used against us in Lebanon," he said. "Hamas is turning into a terrorist army. It is arming and building up in every way like an army. I suggest a three-part plan: An operation against the continued rocket fire, action against Hamas gaining strength, and an operation to end Hamas' ability [to wage war]." (Jerusalem Post) See also Palestinians Fire Mortar Barrage at Israel - Shmulik Hadad Palestinians in Gaza fired 20 mortar shells that landed in Israel's western Negev on Monday afternoon. Nine of the mortars landed near the Erez crossing, by the Gaza security fence, damaging a number of cars. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
"Annapolis" was conceived earlier this year by the Bush administration as a landmark conference that would revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and lead to a final settlement by January 2009. Today, the operative theory is that Israel's neighbors, fearful of Iran's growing regional clout, have a newfound interest in putting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to rest. Few Israelis take seriously the view that the creation of a Palestinian state offers a solution to their concerns about Iran. On the contrary, they fear that such a state would become yet another finger of the Islamic Revolution, just as Hizbullahstan is to their north in Lebanon, and Hamastan is to their south in Gaza. Among the principles sharply in dispute is whether Israel is a Jewish state. One would have thought the question of Israel's Jewishness was settled 60 years ago by a UN partition plan that speaks of a "Jewish state" some 30 times. (Wall Street Journal) After a short-lived romance with the possibility of reaching a full-scale Israeli-Palestinian agreement on the core issues - Jerusalem, territory, security, and refugees - the Annapolis hosts realized that the step-by-step philosophy embodied in the Roadmap was essential. Israel made an important procedural concession: acceptance that negotiations for the third phase of the Roadmap (creation of a Palestinian state) can proceed without full compliance on the first phase's security obligations. But however much U.S. officials would like to broker agreements on the core issues, it is clear that the focus is on devising a mechanism to define, execute, and monitor the security-related terms of the first phase. Washington tried this before in 2003 and failed. U.S. officials expect Arab states will no longer insist on normalization at the end of the process, and instead implement aspects of normalization in parallel with Israel's early discussion of final status issues. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) See also A Brief Encounter with Not Much Promise - Bronwen Maddox (Times-UK) A 55-second film clip that purports to show the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy at a Gaza crossroads was broadcast on France's TV 2 on Sept. 30, 2000. Yet evidence has been gathering for years that the shooting of Mohammad al-Dura was entirely staged. The 55-seconds are not a continuous sequence, but are made up of six distinct pieces spliced together. There is no shot of the boy actually being hit, nor is there any sign of blood. Nor does the father make any move toward his son. The crowd in the background cries out that the boy is dead before he falls over. Video of the incident taken by other photographers shows passersby walking unconcernedly between the crouching al-Duras and the Israeli post from which the bullets were supposedly fired. (National Post) See also France 2 Cooks the Raw Footage - Nidra Poller (Pajamas Media-Canada) Observations: Unpopular Child - Hillel Halkin (New York Sun)
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