Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
in association with the Fairness Project
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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DAILY ALERT

 June 13, 2002
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In-Depth Issue:

Arafat Bombs, Europe Pays - Part I
    The German newspaper Die Zeit has published an alarming report on how EU funds intended to support peace were turned to finance a terror network.

  • The PA's official television station, which repeatedly broadcasts calls for waging eternal war against the Jews, owes almost everything to European taxpayers: cafeterias, trucks, broadcast towers, training courses for journalists.
  • Since 1993, more than 330 million Euros have gone for educational assistance in the form of buildings, salaries, and schoolbooks. The printing of the schoolbooks is financed by six European states, coordinated by Italy. But in these books the idea of peace is nowhere to be found, while Palestine's "martyrs" are glorified. The State of Israel does not exist; its name appears on no map.
  • On November 15, 2000, French Socialist delegate Francois Zimeray asked the EU Commission why an educational system was being financed, when its textbooks were "nothing less than anti-semitic propaganda, which, in any EU Member State, would be prohibited under the law on 'incitement to racial hatred'."
  • German Christian Democratic European Parliament member Armin Laschet visited the region in July 2001, and discovered that nobody had changed the instructional materials. Even worse, the old anti-semitic books had been newly reissued, using European aid.
  • Laschet returned and made a motion in the European Parliament to suspend the educational aid "as long as the textbooks don't change." The motion failed by 2 votes. (Die Zeit)
        Tomorrow - Part II: How Did Arafat Pay for the Karine-A?

    Request for Photos

    The Conference of Presidents is seeking interesting, high-quality photos of the April 15th Israel Solidarity Rally in Washington for a forthcoming book.
        Please submit images and contact information by June 14 to [email protected].
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    Back Issues


    		• News Resources - USA and Europe:

  • U.S. Said to Weigh Provisional State for Palestinians
    Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that the Bush administration was considering backing the formation of a Palestinian state even before its borders and other details are agreed on, but he and his advisers played down any suggestion that the administration was preparing to make the idea of an interim state a centerpiece of its approach. (New York Times)
  • Americans Say Neither Side Wants Peace
    By a margin of 57% to 32%, Americans think Israeli Prime Minister Sharon does not "genuinely" want peace with the Palestinians, while by an even larger margin of 76% to 16%, Americans think Arafat does not want peace, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. 43% say the U.S. gives too much support to Israel, 40% say it gives the right amount of support, while 10% say the support is "too little." (Gallup Poll)
    • News Resources - Israel and Mideast:
  • IDF Ends Blockade of Arafat's Compound in Ramallah
    The IDF arrested 60 wanted terrorists in Ramallah including 2 homicide bombers. IDF forces also found a bomb-laden car and other explosive devices at a building used by Force-17, Yasser Arafat's personal bodyguard. (Israel Radio)
  • A Funeral Instead of a Graduation
    Hadar Hershkowitz, 15, was to have sung and danced at her middle school graduation in a special performance of fairy tales created by the students. Instead, friends and family members yesterday heaped her fresh grave with flowers at the Herzliya Cemetery. Hershkowitz was killed by a homicide bomber on Tuesday. (Jerusalem Post)

    • Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

  • Al-Qa'ida: "Why We Fight America" - Suleiman Abu Gheith
    "America is the head of heresy in our modern world, and it leads an infidel democratic regime based upon separation of religion and state and on laws that contradict the way of Allah. The entire earth must be subject to the religion of Allah. We are continuing with our blows against the Americans and the Jews. The blow will come from where they least expect it. We have the right to kill 4 million Americans and to fight them with chemical and biological weapons." (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat [UK]/MEMRI)
  • Shorten the Lines? - Ze'ev Schiff
    The evacuation of isolated settlements in the territories is not currently being discussed by the IDF general staff because, in the current situation, the Palestinians, and the Arabs in general, would interpret it as a military victory. (Ha'aretz)
  • The Baby Face of Hate - David Tell
    Americans fail to understand that the suicide bomber experiences "the height of ecstasy and happiness" just at the moment when "he presses the button to blow himself up," says Prof. 'Adel Sadeq, head of the psychiatry faculty at 'Ein Shams University in Cairo. (Weekly Standard)
  • Why Negotiate with Arafat If He Can't Control Terrorism? - Dov B. Fischer
    Why do the Arabs demand "self-determination" for Arafat's followers, even as the Arabs of Algeria deny self-determination for Berbers, the Arabs of Iraq deny self-determination for Kurds, the Egyptians oppress the Copts, the Iranians repress the Bahais and Baluchis, and the Sudanese Muslims enslave Black Christians? (National Review)
  • Israel on the Edge - Paul Johnson
    The Jewish faith was the first religion to preach the sanctity of human life. By contrast, in the Islamic-Arab concept of "the war of the martyrs," a warrior gains infinitely more by losing his life than by preserving it. (Jerusalem Post)
  • Who Rules Iran? - Christopher de Bellaigue
    Iran's Supreme Leader, its president, parliament speaker, and top judge are clerics. So are both the head and half the members of the twelve-man Council of Guardians, that acts as the upper house of parliament. The senior echelons of the intelligence ministry and judiciary contain many graduates from Qom's Haqani seminary. (New York Review of Books)
    • Talking Points:

        End the Weakness of U.S. Policy toward Saudi Arabia - Daniel Pipes

    • In 1995, Lt. Col. Martha McSally, the highest-ranking female fighter pilot in the Air Force, was stationed in Saudi Arabia. When she left the base, she had to ride in the back seat of the vehicle and wear a black, head-to-foot Muslim outfit she described as "very demeaning and humiliating."
    • As Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was about to travel across Texas to visit President Bush in late April 2002, his entourage demanded that only male air-traffic controllers handle the royal plane.
    • During the Gulf War, American troops were not permitted to hold formal Christmas services at their bases located on Saudi soil.
    • The U.S. government refuses to station American citizens who are Jewish in Saudi Arabia, although select senior U.S. diplomats who are Jewish are allowed to visit the country briefly on official business.
    • In contrast, the State Department and other agencies bend over backwards when Saudi nationals living in the United States get in trouble with the law (common charges include various forms of rowdiness, sexual harassment, and keeping slaves). Often, the accused Saudis are granted diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution, then whisked out of the country.
    • A planeload of Saudis was permitted to leave the United States right after September 11, 2001, before law enforcement officials could question any of them.
          (Testimony before the Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives)

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