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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DAILY ALERT

October 21, 2003

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In-Depth Issue:

Policemen by Day, Terrorists by Night - Dan Ephron (Newsweek)
Naim Abu Foul is a member the Popular Resistance Committee which claimed responsibility for last week's Gaza bombing of the American diplomatic convoy.
Abu Foul may well be innocent of the attack, but the fact that he once belonged to Palestinian security and that his group includes a number of former security men has investigators wondering if the bombers didn’t get help from inside the Palestinian police.
"Many of these people have been policemen by day and terrorists by night," said an Israeli military official, citing specific attacks on Israelis carried out by members of Palestinian security.

Iraqi Daily: Saddam Ordered Training of al-Qaeda Members in Iraq (MEMRI)
The independent Iraqi weekly Al-Yawm Al-Aakher reveals details on the training of al-Qaeda members in Iraq two months before the September 11 attacks.
"At the Special Forces School, we were informed that we would have dear guests, and that we should train them very well in a high level of secrecy - not to allow anyone to approach them or to talk to them."
"About 100 trainees arrived. They were a mixture of Arabs, Arabs from the Peninsula [Saudi Arabia], Muslim Afghans, and other Muslims from various parts of the world. They were divided into two groups, the first one went to Al-Nahrawan and the second to Salman Pak, and this was the group that was trained to hijack airplanes."
"Upon the completion of the training most of them left Iraq, while the others stayed in the country through the last battle in Baghdad against the coalition forces."

The Palestinian Money Trail - Mitchell G. Bard (Israelinsider)
Palestinians living inside the PA have been given far greater international financial support than most other suffering peoples. Yet significant amounts of financial aid have been siphoned off by Arafat and other PA officials for their personal benefit.
By the end of 2001, the Palestinians had received $4 billion (the figure is now closer to $5.5 billion) since the 1993 Oslo agreements - $1,330 per Palestinian.
Records seized by Israel showed that hundreds of activists in Fatah, Tanzim, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were put on the PA payroll, drawing salaries that allowed them to engage in attacks against Israel without having to worry about earning a living.
Arafat has created 27 monopolies to insure that he and his loyalists profit from every industry, such as cement, flour, oil, cigarettes, iron, and commercial sand.
Arafat's economic advisor Muhammad Rashid, together with Suha Arafat (Arafat's wife) and communications advisor Nabil Abu-Roudayna, co-own pharmaceutical and apparel monopolies.
Rashid and Arafat advisor Hassan Asfour co-own an oil monopoly. Nabil Sha'ath has a computer monopoly; and Abu Ala is co-owner of cigarette and dairy monopolies.

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News Resources - North America and Europe:

U.S. Believes Syrian Banks Hold $3 Billion in Iraqi Funds
American investigators have evidence that $3 billion that belonged to Saddam Hussein's government is being held in Syrian-controlled banks in Syria and Lebanon, Bush administration officials say. A delegation led by the Treasury Department has spent nearly two weeks in Damascus trying to win access to accounts established by the former Iraqi government or its confederates. Syria has promised to cooperate, but has so far failed to do so. The officials said they were concerned that money left in Syrian banks might be used to finance attacks on American forces inside Iraq. About $495 million of the money is in Syrian-controlled banks in Lebanon, while some $500 million more is in banks in Jordan, which is expected to return the money to the Iraq development fund. At least as much money, and perhaps more, may be in banks in Turkey. (New York Times)

Saudi Princes Seek Immunity Against 9/11 Lawsuits
Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz and Prince Turki al-Faisal, formerly head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, have been sued by relatives of the 9/11 victims, who allege that they knowingly contributed money and support to al-Qaeda through Islamic charitable organizations. Lawyers representing two princes argued Friday that their clients have immunity because they are diplomatic officials. Ron Motley, lead attorney in the case against the Saudis, said the Saudi government and the two princes were told at least three times by U.S. and French officials "that the very charities they were giving millions of dollars to every year were converting that money to terrorist activities including al-Qaeda." (CNN)

Bush Tells Mahathir His Jew Remarks Are "Wrong"
President Bush told Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad his remarks about Jews controlling the West by proxy were "wrong and divisive." "It stands squarely against what I believe," Bush told Mahathir during an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok. (Reuters)

A Grim Arab Survey of Rights and Education
Arab experts issued a report on Monday that finds the Arab world lacking in three areas they deem fundamental to development: freedom of expression, access to knowledge, and empowerment of women. The report, commissioned by the UN Development Program in Amman, called for more access to knowledge, focusing on family upbringing, education, and the news media. The report noted that the Arab region had 18 computers for each 1,000 people, compared with the global average of 78. Fewer than 2% of Arabs have Internet access, compared with 79% of Americans. (AP/New York Times)
View the 217-page report. (UN Development Program)

News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:

IAF Pounds Targets in Gaza City - Margot Dudkevitch
The Israel Air Force launched five separate air attacks on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip Monday. According to Palestinian reports, among those killed were senior Hamas commander Imad Akel and several Hamas members. Targets included a bomb factory, a warehouse where weapons and explosives were stockpiled, a vehicle containing two terrorists in charge manufacturing Kassam rockets, mortar shells, and explosives used in attacks, and a second vehicle containing Hamas terrorists. In the attack on the warehouse, Israeli security officials said the size of the explosion showed that it had been full of weapons and explosives. (Jerusalem Post)
See also Explosive Correspondence - Matthew Gutman
The IAF strikes sent shock waves through the Hamas and Islamic Jihad hierarchies, and that is just the point, said security officials. The strikes are a lightly veiled threat that the PA must prevent a repeat of Sunday's barrage of eight Kassams fired at the Western Negev. "The message is that you better clamp down, or we can make it a living hell for you inside Gaza," said Dr. Shmuel Bar, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. (Jerusalem Post)

Sharon: Road Map Only Chance for Peace
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opened the winter session of the Knesset on Monday with a speech declaring Arafat "the greatest obstacle to peace. Therefore, Israel decided to bring about his removal from the political arena," Sharon said. Israel would accelerate the construction of the separation fence, and Sharon promised to complete it within a year. He also named the U.S.-sponsored road map, with Israel's 14 amendments, as the only chance for peace in the region. (Ha'aretz)
See also Text of Sharon's Address (IMRA)

Ramallah Attackers Tied to Hizballah, Arafat
The Fatah-Tanzim cell that killed three soldiers near Ramallah on Sunday has close links with Hizballah, but was also financed by Arafat, senior defense officials said Monday. The cell is headed by Kamel Ghanem, who is believed to have been holed up in the Muqata for months. A senior IDF officer said it was apparently Hizballah that ordered the cell to resume attacks. (Ha'aretz)

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

Turning a Blind Eye to Hamas in London - Matthew Levitt
On September 6, the EU finally abandoned the sophomoric position that the social and political wings of Hamas are somehow distinct from the group's military wing, banning not only the Iz a-Din al-Kassam Brigades but Hamas overall. This should have made it harder for Hamas to raise financing in Europe. But less than three weeks later, in the first test of the new EU policy, Britain's Charity Commission for England and Wales unfroze the accounts of the UK-based Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, or Interpal, one of the largest Hamas front organizations operating in Europe. In the first test of the EU's decision to ban Hamas, Britain's Charity Commission has failed miserably. Inexplicably, the Commission ignored the plethora of readily available, unclassified evidence, choosing instead to turn a blind eye to the blood money Hamas openly raises in the UK. The writer is senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Wall Street Journal, 20Oct03)
See also British Jews to Parliament: Stop Funding Terrorism - Douglas Davis (Jerusalem Post)

The Gordian Knot of Middle East Terrorism - Colbert I. King
Since the signing of the Oslo agreements in 1993, suicide bombing missions against Israelis have numbered in the hundreds. Now, with increasing frequency, suicide terrorism is targeting Americans and U.S. interests in Iraq. What have we gotten ourselves into? Jessica Stern, a former Hoover Institution and Council on Foreign Relations fellow and currently a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, spent years interviewing terrorists. Stern said it's pretty clear that poverty in and of itself does not cause terrorism. She said the most important elements "have to do with a feeling of humiliation and a desire for a clear identity, more than poverty or lack of education." If poverty were a prime cause of terrorism, Stern said, we would see a lot more of it in poor countries. "A person engaging in suicide murder has decided he or she can control more through his or her death than through life," she said. (Washington Post)
See also Talking with Militants about God and Mass Slaughter - Interview with Jessica Stern (Reason)
See also Raising a Generation of Martyrs - Barbara Victor
Hanadi Jaradat, who blew herself up at Maxim's restaurant in Haifa on Oct. 4, taking with her 21 Israelis and Israeli Arabs, was living proof that the culture of death that has permeated Palestinian society is no longer limited to the poor or desperate. (Chicago Tribune)

With One Gaza Bomb, The Road Map Has Changed - Robert Steward
The Gaza bombing was an escalation that puts the lie to the excuse that somehow suicide bombers who kill women and children are merely responding to Israeli "occupation." The bomb killed U.S. citizens who were in Gaza as part of an effort to forge a peace process on behalf of Palestinians. The casualties were men with diplomatic passports - not Israeli troops. And more important, the terrorists struck against a group of observers who were open to the sovereignty and land borders demands of the Palestinians. The aim of the terrorists is clear: There can be no two-state solution - Israel must be destroyed. The writer is a former Army intelligence analyst. (Newsday)

Observations:

Peddling Zionism without Zion - Nadav Shragai (Ha'aretz)

The architects of the Geneva "understandings" are manufacturing another paper agreement to reward terrorism by providing it with more and more territory, and upgrading its lethal capabilities. They are putting yet more Jerusalem neighborhoods within Palestinian firing range.
After more than 3,000 shells, bombs, and Kassam rockets have landed on Gush Katif in attacks that no agreement, fence, or wall can stop, the planners seek to return Israel to its narrow-waisted borders of 1967, bringing missiles to the porches of houses in Kfar Sava, Lod, and Rosh Ha'ayin.
They have overlooked dozens of declarations of steadfast adherence to the "right of return" and they ignore an endless stream of articles, speeches, and commentaries articulated in the spirit of the "Hudaybiya Treaty" (the agreement abrogated by Muhammad), which prove that Oslo, Cairo, Wye, Hebron, and other agreements are tactical ploys to promote one main objective - ongoing, relentless strikes against the Jewish-Zionist entity that we built here after 2,000 years, until Israel as a whole is destroyed.
Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are components without which Jewish identity has no hope of continuity. Without them, the justice of Jewish-Zionist claims cannot be perceived. Without Zion, without the Temple Mount, there can be no Zionism.

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