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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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Friday, November 5, 2010 | ||||||
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In-Depth Issues:
Hamas Admits 700 Palestinian Fighters Were Killed in Gaza War (Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center)
Sign Petition for Red Cross Visits to Captured Israeli Soldier (Magen David Adom UK)
Five-Star Hotel Opens in Ramallah - Joseph Krauss (AFP)
Internet Helped U.S. Muslim Convert Embrace Extremism at Warp Speed - Tara Bahrampour (Washington Post)
Israeli Security Invention Wins Award (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The Expulsion of the Jews from Muslim Countries, 1920-1970: A History of Ongoing Cruelty and Discrimination - Shmuel Trigano (Institute for Global Jewish Affairs)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Saudi Arabia will refuse to "directly or indirectly engage Israel" until it leaves all land captured during the 1967 Six-Day War, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., said Thursday, dashing any hopes the Obama administration might have had for rapprochement before a final peace deal. "For us to take any steps toward any form of normalization with the Israeli state before these Arab lands have been returned to their rightful legitimate owners would undermine international law and turn a blind eye to immorality," he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Turki, though out of government, is considered a candidate to succeed his ailing brother, Saud al-Faisal, as foreign minister. (Washington Post) See also Ex-Saudi Envoy Presses Washington on Peace Process - Laura Rozen Former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the U.S. Prince Turki al-Faisal laid into the arguments of those urging the Obama administration to ease up on pressure on Israel over settlement building and efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. (Politico) See also Saudi Prince: Iran Nuclear Program on "Explosive" Path Iran is on an "explosive" course in the Middle East with its pursuit of nuclear enrichment and needs to clear up questions surrounding its program, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Thursday. (Reuters) Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday promised during a visit to Israel that Britain would introduce measures protecting visiting Israeli officials from arrest "within weeks." A British legal loophole allows pro-Palestinian activists to bring private prosecutions against visiting Israeli dignitaries. "We feel it's about time things should move in the right direction and think this is very welcome news," said Yigal Palmor, an Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman. (Telegraph-UK) Demonstrators chanted "Down with America" outside the former U.S. Embassy and pelted the British diplomatic compound with eggs and tomatoes Thursday in separate rallies. The protests outside the former American Embassy were well-scripted events to mark the anniversary of the 1979 storming of the site - which began a 444-day hostage crisis and severed Washington's ties with Iran. Crowds - including many school children bused to the event - chanted anti-American slogans and taunted effigies of Uncle Sam and President Barack Obama. The anti-British demonstration included the Union Jack going up in flames. (AP-Washington Post) See also Iran Praises Washington for Placing Insurgent Group on Terrorism List - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim Iran's Foreign Ministry praised Washington for placing an Iranian militant group on a list of outlawed terrorist organizations. In a rare moment of accord between the two nations, ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast praised the announcement Wednesday that the Obama administration had placed the ethnic Baluchi group Jundallah on its terrorism list. Iran executed the group's leader, Abdulmalak Rigi, in June. (Los Angeles Times) Iranian President Ahmadinejad will begin to eliminate the $100-billion subsidies which have kept prices of food and fuel in Iran artificially low for decades. Foreign economists agree that reform is needed but say that, if handled badly, it could cause massive inflation and possibly reignite street unrest. Inflation rose to 9.2%, Iran's Central Bank announced on Wednesday. (Globe and Mail-Canada) See also Iran Is Drying Up - Guy Bechor The government in Tehran announced that on Nov. 21 it will end fuel subsidies for private vehicles. Until now, each driver received his first 60 monthly liters of fuel for 10 cents a liter, and dozens more at a low cost. The world should continue focusing on sanctions. The Iranian regime is very concerned, and now is the time to keep pressing it. (Ynet News) Israel's easing of its Gaza blockade has devastated the once thriving smuggling industry. Now that most consumer goods can again reach Gaza through Israel - after three years of tight border closures - many of the hundreds of smuggling tunnels have simply shut down, with only a few dozen still active. The sharp decline is not believed to have affected a steady influx of weapons and other contraband through special Hamas-controlled tunnels. (AP) See also Gaza Tunnels Don't Just Run One Way - Kristen Chick (Christian Science Monitor) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
After the conclusion of the midterm elections in the U.S. on Tuesday, Israel is preparing to step up talks with the American administration regarding the stalemated negotiations with the Palestinians, sources in Jerusalem said on Wednesday. Experts estimated that the outcome of the elections will not affect the American president's attitude toward Prime Minister Netanyahu or the negotiations. The officials noted that Obama will most likely continue pressuring Israel to jumpstart direct talks with the Palestinians, including an extension on the construction freeze in the West Bank. Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the U.S. next week, and meet with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Ynet News) See also Clinton: U.S. Working Non-Stop to Advance Talks U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday in New Zealand: "I want to reiterate that we are working on a nonstop basis with our Israeli and Palestinian friends to design a way forward in the negotiations. I am convinced that both leaders - President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu - are committed to pursuing the two-state solution. And it is clear that that can only be achieved through negotiations. So I am very involved in finding the way forward, and I think that we will be able to do so." (U.S. State Department) See also PA Gives U.S. Two More Weeks to Get Direct Talks Restarted - Hilary Leila Krieger and Tovah Lazaroff The Palestinians are willing to give the U.S. at least two more weeks to break the impasse in the peace process and to return both sides to the negotiating table, despite the fact that the Arab League on Oct. 9 gave the U.S. only 30 days to find a way to continue the talks, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat indicated Thursday in Washington. (Jerusalem Post) In the first case of its kind, a Palestinian merchant from Bethlehem has been indicted for violating a Palestinian Authority call to boycott goods made in settlements. He has been charged with "carrying out commercial transactions with residents of a hostile state," the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency reported. The man, who is being held in a PA prison, was caught trying to bring in wood products manufactured in a settlement, said Amin Abu Akil, director of the Customs Authority in the Bethlehem area. A PA magistrate's court remanded the suspect into custody until the end of proceedings. (Jerusalem Post) Israel last week approved the entry into Gaza of four submachine guns for the security detail guarding the heads of UNRWA in Gaza. The director of UNRWA's activities in Gaza, John Ging, said his life is in constant danger and he needs more suitable protection than the handguns his bodyguards had been carrying. UNRWA told Israeli security officials that its personnel are being threatened by Hamas. (Ha'aretz) The IDF Medical Corps and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command held a joint seminar in Israel last week aimed at coordinating research and development efforts in new military-medical fields. The workshops have been ongoing for 30 years. IDF sources described ongoing Israeli research projects such as freeze-dried blood that will enable soldiers to carry a unit of their blood into a battlefield and hook up to it intravenously if wounded. An IDF Medical Corps study conducted recently with Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv showed that Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) - a specialized MRI scan which measures neural activity - could be an effective tool in diagnosing and treating PTSD. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Nearly eight months after the March 7 parliamentary elections, both Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his main rival, Iyad Allawi, the former premier whose coalition won the elections by two seats, insist that they have the right to form the next government. Washington and its Arab allies prefer Allawi as the next leader of Iraq, while Iran wants to ensure that al-Maliki or one of its other Shiite allies remains in power. More broadly, relations between Sunnis and Shiites throughout the Middle East are badly strained by the sectarian bloodletting in Iraq. Sunnis are worried about the regional ascendance of the Shiite-led regime in Iran; its nuclear program; its growing influence on the Iraqi leadership; and its meddling in other countries with large Shiite communities, especially Lebanon. The Iranian regime has gained the upper hand in the latest political maneuvering. Tehran has brought together two of its staunchest Shiite allies: al-Maliki and the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr's political ascendance threatens to stoke sectarian tensions: his followers were responsible for some of the worst atrocities against Sunnis during Iraq's recent civil war. His militia, the Mahdi Army, unleashed death squads that assassinated Sunnis and drove them out of Shiite neighborhoods. The Mahdi Army is among several Iraqi Shiite militias that received training and weapons from Iran, according to U.S. documents in the WikiLeaks archive. The writer is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a journalism professor at New York University. (National-Abu Dhabi) In recent weeks the EU's representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, rushed to the region from Washington to shore up the floundering peace talks following criticism that she failed to raise the international profile of the recently launched European External Action Service - a new mechanism designed to give the EU a stronger voice. If current U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell can't keep the Palestinians and Israelis talking, then it seems inconceivable that there is anything the EU can bring to the table that will. So what should Europe do? Recently Marc Otte, the EU's special representative for Middle East peace, looked forward to the day that the EU would be "a full player" in the politics of the conflict. But the EU should stop measuring its success in contributing to peace in terms of its ability to score political points over the U.S., or gain a political role commensurate with its economic weight. When a Palestinian state is finally established, the EU will play a crucial role in doing what it has done best in Europe over the past half century - promoting consensus and economic cooperation among former enemies in the interests of regional prosperity and long-term stability. Europe, Israel and the Palestinians would all be well served if the EU fully acknowledged the importance of this role, not as a pretext for political influence, but as an end in itself. The writer is director of Middle East and Mediterranean studies at King's College London. (Jerusalem Post) Anti-Semitism cannot be arrested by any remedial action of the Jews. There are harmful consequences for pretending that concessions from Jews can stop the aggression against them. Anti-Semitism forces a choice between protection of the Jews and, under the guise of liberalism, complicity with their enemies. (Commentary) The news that Islamist terrorists sent package bombs to two Chicago-area synagogues should have stirred worldwide outrage, not just hysteria. Most journalists ignored the terrorists' potential victims. Alas, Jews being targeted is not news. Once again we have to wonder, why do they hate us - and why does the hatred against us often invite indifference? Many opinion leaders and elites in the West somehow justify terrorists targeting Jews and Israelis. When Jews and Israelis are involved, terrorism is graded on a curve, the world's outrage dulls. The writer is professor of history at McGill University. (Jerusalem Post) The Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs want local communities to be able to spring into action in defense of Israel on a regular basis. That's why they are gearing up to launch a multimillion-dollar joint initiative to combat anti-Israel campaigns. These actions come not a moment too soon. The BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement is a sinister campaign designed to erode the very basis of Israel's legitimacy. Israel's supporters must quickly do what they can to stem the damage by confronting boycotters head on. Though we may not always agree with all of Israel's policies, we all stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel in defense of the Jewish homeland and its right to exist. (Washington Jewish Week) Weekend Features
Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are believed to be the last two survivors of the Treblinka extermination camp in occupied Poland where 875,000 people were systematically murdered in World War II, almost all of them Jews. Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a brazen revolt on Aug. 2, 1943, shortly before Treblinka was destroyed. Along with Belzec and Sobibor, Treblinka was designed with the sole intention of exterminating Jews. Victims, transported there in cattle cars, were gassed to death almost immediately upon arrival. Only a select few - mostly young, strong men like Willenberg and Taigman, who were both 20 at the time - were assigned to maintenance work instead. (AP-Washington Post) See also Video: Alice Dancing Under the Gallows The oldest Holocaust survivor in the world is Alice Herz-Sommer, a concert pianist in Prague who was sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she played concerts from memory. She still plays the piano, and this month will celebrate her 107th birthday. (YouTube) The Isral Defense Force's new flickr account features photographic content taken by the IDF Spokesperson's film department. The first albums released include: "Becoming a Soldier," "Women of the IDF," "Celebrating Diversity," "Flotilla Operation, May 2010," "IDF Aid Delegation to Haiti, January 2010," and "The Francop Weapons Ship, November 2009." (IDF Spokesperson) Observations: Dear Archbishop Desmond Tutu - Warren Goldstein (Jerusalem Post)
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