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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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In-Depth Issues:
Report: Hamas Leader Admits Surprise at IDF Use of Force in Gaza (Ha'aretz)
Hamas Trumpets of Victory Strike False Note - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Iran Renews Efforts to Supply Missiles to Hamas - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Hizbullah Plot to Attack Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan Foiled - Nicholas Blanford (Times-UK)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israel proceeded with pulling its troops out of Gaza as Hamas ceased rocket attacks. There were no reported rockets Monday. "Our capacity to launch rockets hasn't been diminished, and we will launch more rockets with God's help," Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida told Al-Jazeera. (Bloomberg) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told a summit of Arab leaders in Kuwait on Monday that Hamas invited Israel's offensive against Gaza by not extending their cease-fire when it expired last month. He said Egypt would continue its efforts to achieve a reconciliation between Palestinians. "Without it (Palestinian unity), no stability will be realized for Gaza and no rebuilding and no end for its embargo," Mubarak said. (Reuters) Tehran University will celebrate the end of the Gaza war in a feast that will be attended by Iranian President Ahmadinejad. "University students in Iran will hold a special celebration at Tehran University on Tuesday to commemorate the Palestinian resistance and to discuss the consequences of the bitter Zionist defeat," student leader Esmail Ahmadi said Monday. President Ahmadinejad on Monday described the Israeli decision to pull its troops out of Gaza as a "victory" for the Palestinian resistance. (Press TV-Iran) President Obama plans to name former senator George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) as his Middle East envoy, aides said. With a fragile Gaza cease-fire in place, the new administration plans to tread gingerly, working behind the scenes while allowing Egyptian and European initiatives to play out before taking a highly visible role. Sources said the initial emphasis will likely be on stepped-up presidential engagement, and empathy and aid toward humanitarian suffering. (Washington Post) See also Ex-Senator Considered as Envoy to Mideast - Elisabeth Bumiller Mitchell, 75, has Lebanese as well as Irish roots: his father, Joseph Kilroy, was an orphan adopted by a Lebanese family whose Arabic name had been anglicized to Mitchell, and Mitchell was raised a Maronite Catholic by his Lebanese mother. He was appointed in 2000, in the waning days of the Clinton administration, to lead an international commission to investigate the causes of violence in the Middle East. (New York Times) See also Mitchell Outlines View of Mideast Road Map in 2003 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles. One Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd., has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms of tungsten copper - which can be used in missile guidance systems - from Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. of Beijing. The United Arab Emirates has informed the U.S. that in September it intercepted a Chinese shipment headed to Iran of specialized aluminum sheets that can be used to make ballistic missiles. A month earlier, UAE officials also intercepted an Iran-bound shipment of titanium sheets that can be used in long-range missiles. (Wall Street Journal) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Concern is mounting in Jerusalem that the massive efforts expected for Gaza reconstruction will lead to a de facto recognition of Hamas rule there. Another Israeli concern is that the massive amounts of steel and concrete that will be needed to rebuild Gaza will be rerouted to reconstructing Hamas' badly damaged rocket-producing capabilities. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Monday in Jerusalem that while the expected humanitarian aid would flow quickly, reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure would only begin when the EU had an acceptable Palestinian partner. She strongly hinted that it would be difficult to rebuild Gaza as long as Hamas remained opposed to peace efforts. "We don't want to go on to reconstruct Gaza every I-don't-know-how-many years," she said. "What we would like to see is a clear sustainable peace." (Jerusalem Post) See also Averting Iranian Influence in Post-War Gaza Rehabilitation - Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira (ICA-Jerusalem Center) Moshe Avitan, a resident of Kochav Hashahar in the West Bank, suffered a critical gunshot wound to the head Monday, in what is believed to be a drive-by shooting attack involving a Palestinian vehicle. (Ynet News) Hamas militiamen have rounded up hundreds of Fatah activists on suspicion of "collaboration" with Israel during the Gaza war, Fatah members in Gaza said Monday. The Hamas crackdown intensified after the cease-fire went into effect. A Fatah official in Ramallah said at least 100 of his men had been killed or wounded as a result of the massive Hamas crackdown. Some had been brutally tortured. According to the official, at least three of the detainees had their eyes put out by their interrogators. (Jerusalem Post) See also Fatah: We Also Fought IDF in Gaza - Khaled Abu Toameh Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, announced on Monday that its men in Gaza fired 102 rockets and 35 mortars at Israel during the war. The group revealed that Ali Hijazi, its commander in charge of firing rockets at Israel, was killed during the operation. The group said that most of its attacks were carried out in cooperation with Islamic Jihad. (Jerusalem Post) Iran has a clear strategic interest in helping Hamas control Gaza. For Iran, a radical Islamic entity in Gaza is an important strategic asset against Israel's southern border, in conjunction with the threat posed by Hizbullah along Israel's northern border. In both cases, Iran regards using rockets as an effective way of exhausting Israel's home front. Therefore, it has established large rocket arsenals for Hizbullah and Hamas, while at the same time developing their military capabilities. Iran regards Hizbullah and Hamas as two important sources of power in its striving toward regional hegemony. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The top echelons of Israel's political and military establishment think that Israel has re-established a reputation for invincibility tarnished in the 2006 war with Hizbullah; that they bloodied and humiliated Hamas while taking few casualties; that they called overdue international attention to the tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle its arsenal; and, with the unilateral cease-fire, that they put the onus to end the violence squarely back on Hamas' shoulders. For years, Egypt took an ambivalent view of Hamas: partly worried by the threat it poses to its own secular regime, partly delighted by the trouble it causes Israel. Now the Mubarak government at last understands that Hamas is also a strategic threat to Egypt. "An Iranian base can play against Egypt the same way it played against Israel," says the official. He adds that the timing of Israel's operation in Gaza was dictated in part by the assessment that Hamas was just months away from obtaining longer-range missiles that could reach Cairo as easily as Tel Aviv. (Wall Street Journal) What the world cannot remember the Israelis cannot forget. The Israelis know the Jewish nation has been one defeat away from extinction for 70 years. They know that every partition plan in the region, from the dawn of Zionism to the present day, has failed because of the Arab failure to accept the State of Israel. They know that the Palestinian leadership is virtually hopeless, wherein the people who are moderate are not effective and the people who are effective are not moderate. Israel is so small it has no margin for error. When Israel left the West Bank, it became a base for suicide bombers, ultimately forcing the Israelis to go back at great cost. They've since built a security fence, but a fence will not protect people from rockets. (U.S. News) Observations: The Disproportionate Criticism of Israel's Self-Defense - Robert Fulford (National Post-Canada)
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