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Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in association with Access/Middle East by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Eliminating the Operational Infrastructure of Hamas - One Year Since the Passover-Eve Attack - Hanan Shlein and Itai Asher (Maariv)
Foreign Fighters in Iraq Seen as Threat to Allied Forces - Bill Gertz (Washington Times)
See also Saddam's Secret Foreign Legion - Daniel McGrory (London Times)
Afghanistan Makes Diplomatic Overtures to Israel (AP/Jerusalem Post)
Useful Reference:
State Department Report on Global Terrorism
CIA Report on Weapons of Mass Destruction
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News Resources - North America and Europe:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday accused Syria of carrying out tests involving chemical weapons over the past 12 to 15 months and allowing some Iraqis to flee into Syrian territory. (Reuters) See also U.S. Threatens to Impose Penalties Against Syrians Secretary of State Colin Powell threatened economic and political penalties if Syria continued to offer safe haven to Iraqi leaders or to defy American demands on chemical weapons and terrorism. (New York Times) White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said on Monday that "Syria needs to cooperate and not harbor Iraqi leaders." He read from a CIA report to Congress last year that Syria had stockpiles of the nerve agent sarin, that it was "trying to develop more toxic and persistent nerve elements," and that it was "highly probable" that Syria was pursuing biological weapons. He also said that "Syria is indeed a rogue nation" and suggested it must rid itself of Hizballah, a terrorist group that is a principal foe of Israel. (Washington Post) Former chief UN weapons inspector Richard Butler says he's seen evidence that Syria helped hide Iraq's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. "I was shown some intelligence information, from overhead imagery and so on, that the Iraqis had moved some containers of stuff across the border into Syria and we had reason to believe that those were containers of chemical weapons and perhaps some other weapons. I don't believe the Iraqis wanted to give them to Syria, but I think they just wanted to get them out of the territory, out of the range of our inspections. Syria was prepared to be the custodian of them." (Australian Broadcasting) The U.S. is convening a meeting of 75 Iraqi community leaders and exile figures in Nasiriyah on Tuesday to formally begin the creation of a new Iraqi government. (Washington Post) News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
Lt. Daniel Mandel, 24, was killed and two soldiers in his Nahal unit were injured, one seriously, in an exchange of gunfire with Hamas terrorists in Nablus on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at the Karni border crossing at the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, killing two Israelis and injuring three others. (Ha'aretz) Dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of Iraqi officials escaped to Syria, according to fresh assessments by U.S., British, and Israeli intelligence organizations. (Ha'aretz) The prime minister's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, presented Israel's reservations regarding the U.S. road map for Middle East peace to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in Washington Monday. It was made clear that the Americans do not fully accept Israel's reservations with regard to at least one of the central points - the order of events. President Bush is apparently of the opinion that there should be simultaneous momentum at all levels and that there is no need for step to follow step. However, America is convinced that the Palestinians must prove the seriousness of their actions against the terrorists as a condition for progress. The litmus test will be in the field and in the powers given to the new PA prime minister and interior minister over the security forces. (Ha'aretz) Diplomatic officials in Jerusalem are pessimistic that the U.S. will formally accept Israel's reservations to the road map. The administration has made it clear it wants to see implementation of the road map, and that an Israeli insistence on the reservations now would only lead to a diplomatic confrontation with the U.S. By immediate implementation of the road map, the U.S. expects Abbas to begin collecting illegal weapons and arresting Hamas activists. When this begins to happen, the officials said, Washington will expect Jerusalem to start dismantling settlement outposts that were established after March 2001, when Sharon first took office. (Jerusalem Post) PA officials said Arafat seethed with anger when he saw the list of proposed ministers prepared by newly appointed prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). Abbas loyalists nominated for cabinet positions included Muhammad Dahlan and Nabil Amer, while pro-Arafat ministers Saeb Erekat and Yasser Abed Rabbo were demoted. Palestinian analysts said Arafat's objection to some names on the list shows that Abbas is all but irrelevant. "This simply shows that Abbas can't do anything against Arafat's will," said one Palestinian analyst. "At the end of the day, Abbas will have to cave in or quit, because he won't be able to challenge Arafat." (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The first casualty of the coalition's success must be the notion that the United Nations is the basis for a new world order. The UN not only failed but tried to prevent America and Britain from acting against the Iraqi threat. The UN debate over Iraq was not so much about Iraq as it was about constraining American power. We must ensure that chemical and biological weapons do not fall into rogue hands, and these efforts cannot be subject to vetoes from France and Russia. The UN must look to its own restructuring if it is to grow beyond the weakness and irrelevance that have characterized its conduct with regard to Iraq. (U.S. News) The Arab regime most hostile to Israel has been toppled. Saddam Hussein's defeat brings Iraq a giant step closer to peace with Israel. The close-up experience American troops are having with suicide bombers and other terrorist outrages in Iraq can only lead to better American understanding for the measures Israel is taking to protect its citizens against Palestinian terror. All those astounded by the efficiency of the military use of modern technology will probably remember that after the U.S. armed forces, the Israel Defense Forces has been the army most adept at integrating modern technology into its order of battle. (Ha'aretz) All along, Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV in their analysis were telling their viewers in the Arab world that the south had not fallen to the American and British forces, even a couple of days before the capital itself fell. Now that Baghdad has fallen, Saudis are feeling betrayed by their Arab satellite channels who had kept them believing that the Iraqi resistance did have a chance to whip the American forces. (Arab News-Saudi Arabia) Observations: Syria Should be Next on America's Hit List - Stephen Pollard (Telegraph-UK)
The author is a senior fellow at the Centre for the New Europe in Brussels.
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