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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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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 | ||
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In-Depth Issues:
Videos of Israel's Rescue Mission in Haiti:
See also
Israel's Disproportionate Response - Peggy Shapiro (American Thinker)
Poll: Overwhelming Majority in Saudi Arabia, Egypt Oppose Accepting Israel as a Jewish State - David Pollock (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Abu Dhabi Hosts Israel at Renewable Energy Meeting - Nour Malas (Wall Street Journal)
Islamic Solidarity Games Cancelled after Iran Insists Gulf Is "Persian" (BBC News)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
When devastation struck Haiti, Israel quickly dispatched its professional military relief team including evacuation and recovery experts aided by dogs from the canine unit and an extensive medical delegation that quickly deployed its fully operational field hospital in the soccer field of Port-au-Prince - complete with surgeons and all, and a technical division that set up a communications and Internet network for coordination and video-conferencing with medical colleagues back home. The international press is also using the IDF network, as most other communications are down. The doctors' main problem is fatigue; they're working around the clock. (Los Angeles Times) See also Israeli Field Hospital Only Facility Able to Perform Complex Surgery - Yitzhak Benhorin On Monday, U.S. media praised the assistance in Haiti provided by Israel, and one reporter even sent a letter of thanks to Israeli representatives in New York. CNN reported that Israel's field hospital is the one facility equipped with all that is required for surgical operations. Doctors from various aid missions are sending patients requiring surgery to Israel's hospital, particularly those whose condition is critical. Other field hospitals contain no more than stretcher beds and medical teams who administer first aid, and they are not prepared for complex surgery. ABC reported that the U.S. had sent staff for a field hospital, but they had still not received the instruments required for surgery. (Ynet News) See also IDF Sends More Hospital Staff and Medicine to Haiti - Yaakov Katz and Judy Siegel A second IDF delegation left Israel on Monday to assist the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti. Since opening on Saturday, the IDF Medical Corps field hospital has treated 200 wounded, performed 25 life-saving surgeries and facilitated three births. (Jerusalem Post) See also Israel Crews Rescue University Student from Haiti Rubble An Israeli team on Monday rescued a woman who has been trapped for six days under the wreckage of Port-au-Prince's university in Haiti, Channel 10 reported. The international teams asked the Israeli team for aid with pulling out a female student trapped in the wreckage. The Israeli team used special equipment to begin lifting parts of the rubble and carefully but quickly managed to create an opening, preventing the whole structure from collapsing. The team was able to see the woman through the opening and successfully rescue her. She was transferred to the IDF field hospital for further treatment. (Ha'aretz) See also Israeli Aid to Haiti (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Israel's Cabinet convened Monday for the first time in Berlin, the former heart of the Nazi regime, for a special joint session with the German government highlighting the two nations' strong bond six decades after the Holocaust. After the session, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and German Chancellor Merkel warned that Iran will face new sanctions if it doesn't change course on its nuclear program. (AP/Washington Post) See also Israel Seeks German Arms-Aid Deal - Barbara Opall-Rome Germany and Israel are intensifying negotiations over a $1.45 billion naval procurement package, a considerable portion of which Israel hopes to fund from a combination of German and U.S. aid. The Israeli-proposed arms-aid deal - discussed in Berlin at a special joint meeting of the German and Israeli cabinets - involves an additional Dolphin diesel-electric submarine, torpedoes and two German-built warships. (Defense News) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Last week's failed attempt on the lives of Israeli diplomats in Jordan was apparently carried out on instructions from Tehran, sources close to Jordan's General Intelligence Department revealed on Monday. The attack was apparently carried out by local al-Qaeda supporters who received money and explosives from Iran, the sources said. "We can see Iran's fingerprints on the roadside bombing," the sources said. (Jerusalem Post) Without Mossad director Meir Dagan, the Iranian nuclear program would have been successfully completed years ago, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram claimed in an op-ed on Saturday. "Over the past seven years, he has worked in silence, away from the media....He has dealt painful blows to the Iranian nuclear program." The op-ed stressed that while the Mossad under Dagan's leadership achieved many bold victories against Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it never took responsibility for its operations, but wisely chose to wait for the other side to declare that they had taken place. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
"The current regime has broken the social bonds that tie it to the public and thus is eventually due to fall," said Bill Beeman, a Persian-speaking professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. "Iran is a hierarchical society. Folks in the superior position must care for those in the inferior position or they will be toppled. The folks in the lower position will cease to support them - in fact will work to undermine them." There is a Persian concept that translates as the "party of the wind." It refers to the tendency of Iranians to bend politically whichever way the ideological winds blow. One of the reasons that Iran's 1979 revolution was relatively bloodless was the smooth, almost instant shift in the loyalties of thousands of bureaucrats and military men from Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to the opposition. On the last Sunday of 2009, anti-government demonstrators turned on the security forces and discovered that Iran's demoralized riot police no longer had much fight left in them. They often turned tail and ran. Videos emerging from Iran showed angry crowds surrounding trapped, often bloodied, police and plainclothes religious loyalists. In the shocked silence that followed, there was a feeling that the center of gravity had shifted. (Los Angeles Times) See also Simmering Opposition in Iran - Sabina Amidi Bitterness and anger are simmering just below the surface in Tehran. Ahmadinejad's plans to drastically cut subsidies on gasoline, electricity, milk, wheat and other basics can only fuel further widespread public dissatisfaction. "There is no unity among us [in the security forces], no trust and no respect," said a police officer in Mashad. "We are united only in that we get paid to protect the government." Among the regime's opponents it is stressed that they are not campaigning for defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi but, rather, against the regime for its ostensible betrayal of Islam. (Jerusalem Post) A decade ago, Turkey was an ally of the U.S. and maintained extensive relations with Israel. In recent years, it has been sliding toward Syria and Iran and away from America, and has become a venomous critic of Israel. Turkey's foreign policy has undergone a transformation in the wake of developments upon which outside forces, including Israel, have no influence. The end of the Cold War eliminated Ankara's dependence on Washington as a shield against the Soviet Union, and the EU's de facto refusal to take Turkey in has weakened the part of the country that advocates a secular, modernist and pro-Western orientation. Most importantly, the Islamist party, which has gradually shed the moderate cloak it started out with, has been taking over the country's power centers. There is not much Israel can do under these circumstances. The main assets Israel still wields are mutual economic and security interests, the need of the Turkish ruling party to take into account the opinion of the army and pro-Israeli elements, and the country's goal of playing a central role in regional politics. The Turkish leadership realizes that to mediate between Syria and Israel, or to help the Palestinians, it must maintain a dialogue with Israel. (Ha'aretz) Observations: International Consensus: Iran Must Stop Trying to Build Bombs - David Frost (Al Jazeera-English-IMRA) Israeli Spokesperson Mark Regev was interviewed by Al Jazeera on Jan. 8, 2010:
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