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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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To contact the Presidents Conference: [email protected]
In-Depth Issue:
Palestinians Joining al-Sadr's Army in Iraq - Matthew Gutman (Jerusalem Post)
Palestinians Support Attacks on Coalition Forces in Iraq - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Islamic Militants Threaten Belgian Diamond Traders (Reuters)
The War on Terror Money - David R. Francis (Christian Science Monitor)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
U.S. forces are confronting a broad-based Shiite uprising that goes well beyond supporters of one militant Islamic cleric who has been the focus of American counterinsurgency efforts, U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday. Intelligence officials now say a much larger number of Shiites have turned against the American-led occupation of Iraq, even if they are not all actively aiding the uprising. U.S. intelligence also says that the Sunni rebellion goes far beyond former Baathist government members. (New York Times) See also Iran, Hizballah Support al-Sadr Military sources said Sheik al-Sadr is being aided directly by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and by Hizballah, an Iranian-created terrorist group based in Lebanon. The two organizations are supplying money, spiritual support, and possibly weapons. "Iran does not want a success in Iraq," said a military source. "A democratic Iraq is a death knell to the mullahs." The U.S. military is trying new tactics to try to quell insurgents in Fallujah, favoring targeted raids based on hard intelligence rather than house-to-house sweeps. (Washington Times) U.S. forces in Iraq and Syrian troops engaged in several border skirmishes last month in which one Marine and one Syrian soldier were wounded, reports said. Beirut's daily As-Safir quoted U.S. political and military sources in Washington as saying Tuesday that Syrian troops fired at a U.S. helicopter in one of the border incidents, causing the casualties. The State Department summoned the Syrian ambassador in Washington, Imad Mustafa, to complain about the incidents. (UPI/Washington Times) Syrian efforts to cut a trade deal with Europe before the possible imposition of U.S. sanctions have stalled over attempts to pressure Syria to renounce its chemical weapons programs. John R. Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, has accused Syria of pursuing "what is now one of the most advanced Arab chemical weapons capabilities." (Washington Post) See also Q&A: U.S.-Syrian Relations (Council on Foreign Relations) Syria has arrested dozens of Kurds in raids of homes in the country's northeast, Kurdish officials said Wednesday, following clashes last month between Syrian security forces and Kurdish rioters that killed 25 and wounded more than 100. The arrests included four Kurdish schoolchildren, aged 12 and 13, taken from their school in Qamishli and sent to a prison in Hasakah, 50 miles away. (San Francisco Chronicle) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The U.S. administration has promised to give favorable consideration to extra economic aid to Israel if the Israeli government approves the plan for disengagement from the Palestinians. The aid requests reportedly include grants for development of the Negev, and financial aid in combating terror. (Globes) British Prime Minister Tony Blair phoned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Wednesday to say he supports Sharon's disengagement plan and intends to work to gain international support for it - according to a statement issued by Sharon's office. A British diplomatic official said Britain welcomes disengagement "as long as it is consistent with the road map, and contributes to a lasting two-state solution." (Jerusalem Post) Brigadier General Eli Yaffe, outgoing head of the General Staff's Operations Branch, attributes the IDF's improved ability to thwart terror attacks over the past two years to a combination of IDF freedom to detain suspects in West Bank cities, the blow delivered to the terror infrastructure in the West Bank, and the fence that closes off the Gaza Strip and the other one being built on the West Bank. "The interrogations and arrest operations on the West Bank provide the intelligence that enables us to thwart terror attacks. Each week, between 100 and 150 terror suspects are arrested on the West Bank. At the same time, the...moment we receive information about a suicide bomber, our ability to identify his likely movements, and to isolate him, is much greater today than in the past." "The organizations' infrastructures cannot today operate freely - the militants today operate under the threat of being pursued and caught." In recent months, 10 would-be terror attacks have been thwarted for every one or two which succeeded. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The Iraqi "insurgents" opposing the U.S. today cannot plausibly claim to be the authentic expressions of Iraqi nationalism - as the Viet Cong claimed to be in the Vietnam War. The forces killing Americans and Iraqi police are primarily Sunni Muslims who want to restore the rule and privileges of their minority community and Baath Party, or foreign and local Islamists who are trying to undermine any prospect of modernism, pluralism, and secularism in Iraq. Virtually every poll taken since the fall of Saddam indicates that neither of these groups represents the vast majority of Iraqis, who want to elect their own government, free of intimidation. We cannot want a decent Iraq more than the Iraqi silent majority. (New York Times) When the Yemenites arrived in Jerusalem 122 years ago and sought to settle inside its walls, the veteran residents doubted they were really Jews. So they settled in caves on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, near Silwan. In 1885, the first three houses were dedicated. Six years later there were 65 houses. Over the years, more land was bought and the neighborhood grew. Simha Hazi, 75, whose parents were born in the Yemenite Village in Silwan, remembers the neighborhood and its alleyways, and the house built by her grandfather. Over the years, relations and bonds have formed between Jew and Arab in Silwan and in the nearby Muslim Quarter. Not much is heard about it, mostly because too detailed a public report of it could harm the Arab side. The fact that the new Jewish settlement areas were bought at full price, and not expropriated (as the government does) also contributed to the calm. Only the terror gang from Tunis and the delusional supporters of Oslo have tried undermining that reality. (Ha'aretz) From Riyadh to Ramallah to the Ivy League, the Saudi Wahhabi lobby and money machine is funding the goals of radical Islam and undermining America's efforts to prosecute the War on Terror. The Saudis have steadily infiltrated American educational institutions, using vast infusions of money to turn the American educational system against U.S. support for Israel and in favor of the Saudi vision of a global Muslim state in which not only Jews, but Christians and all infidels, will have subordinate status to the followers of the "true faith." The Senate Judiciary Committee recently heard testimony that Saudis control most of the Muslim organizations in the U.S., and that 80% of the mortgages on mosques in the U.S. are paid for by the Wahhabist Saudis. King Fahd donated $20 million to set up a Middle East Studies Center at the University of Arkansas; $5 million was donated to UC Berkeley's Center for Middle East Studies from two Saudi sheiks linked to funding al-Qaeda; $2.5 million to Harvard; $8.1 million to Georgetown; $11 million to Cornell; $1.5 million to Texas A&M; $5 million to MIT; $1 million to Princeton; Rutgers received $5 million to endow a chair as did Columbia. (FrontPageMagazine.com) Observations: Like It or Not, Israel's War With Hamas Is America's, Too - Jonathan Rauch (National Journal/Atlantic)
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