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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 Issues:
Saudi Security Organs Infiltrated - Richard Sale
(UPI/Washington Times)
See also
Al-Qaeda Steals Saudi Police Cars for Expat Attacks - Keith Jones and Philip Sherwell (Telegraph-UK)
Aksa Brigades Seek Fatah Reforms - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
New Iraqi Police Fight U.S. Troops Who Trained Them
- Damien McElroy (Telegraph-UK)
64-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth in Israel - Dan Even (Maariv International) Key Links |
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israel's Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim says the West Bank security barrier has been a resounding success, blocking all attacks in the areas where it has been completed. The 200 km section of the barrier that is operational has been fully effective for the past 10 months. The International Court of Justice at The Hague is due to hand down its much-awaited advisory opinion on the legality of the security barrier on July 9. (VOA News) See also Israel to Ignore Hague Decision President Moshe Katsav said Saturday that if the International Court of Justice in The Hague orders Israel to stop building the anti-terrorism barrier, "We will have to reject it....Most democratic countries would not suffer that kind of intervention from the court....It is only for security purposes, it is intended to keep the Palestinians from killing us." (Maariv International) See also Mideast Security Barrier Working Palestinians who are reluctant to find any good in the barrier also are benefiting from a reduction in Israeli military operations into their neighborhoods and have begun to rebuild damaged streets and buildings. Jenin residents seem desperate to move on with their lives. For the first time in years, the craving for a shred of normalcy seems to be replacing the thirst for vengeance. (Washington Times) The commission investigating the 9/11 attacks has concluded that bin Laden's terrorist network had long-running contacts with Iran. Al-Qaeda, the commission determined, may even have played a "yet unknown role" in aiding Hizballah militants in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia, an attack the U.S. has long blamed solely on Hizballah and its Iranian sponsors. Commission investigators said intelligence "showed far greater potential for collaboration between Hizballah and al-Qaeda than many had previously thought." (Washington Post) Al-Jazeera television received a video Monday that militants said showed the execution of Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, an American soldier who had been taken hostage in April. (Washington Post) The Saudi ambassador to London, Prince Turki al-Faisal, has reinforced controversial claims by the kingdom's royal family of a link between "Zionists" and recent al-Qaeda terror attacks in the country, speaking in a television interview broadcast Sunday of "an attack on the kingdom...from Zionist circles." His comments were condemned by Lord Janner, the former Labour MP, who called them "highly offensive." (Telegraph-UK) Human rights in Syria are deteriorating under arbitrary arrests, a crackdown on minority Kurds, and systematic torture, according to a report released Sunday by the Syrian Committee for Human Rights, a Syrian dissident group based in London. The report accused Syrian authorities of ignoring the constitution and international conventions on torture, and using beatings with bats, whips and cables, electrocution, and rape threats. "This year, we had recurrent news of severe and systematic torture practiced by the security authorities," the report said. (AP/Washington Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
An Israeli in his 60s was found murdered in his truck Tuesday north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Ha'aretz) A man in his 50s was moderately wounded Tuesday when a Kassam rocket landed in an industrial zone in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, one day after a deadly Kassam attack killed two Israelis in Sderot including a 4-year-old at a kindergarten. IDF forces began operating in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday in what security officials said could be an extended operation to prevent rocket fire on Israel. Military sources said that various methods and technology were being deployed to thwart the Kassam rocket squads, including aerial surveillance via attack helicopters and unmanned drones to observe Palestinians trying to fire more rockets. (Jerusalem Post) "Palestinian terrorism will continue despite the disengagement, and we will not stop fighting it because of the disengagement. The problems we've had for 120 years will continue after the disengagement," Prime Minister Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday. (Ha'aretz) The first day, Egyptians opposed to the war in Iraq were allowed to vent anger in the streets. The next day, authorities let loose the police. Officers beat the largely peaceful protesters, lashed them with water cannon, and set dogs on them. Human rights groups say demonstration leaders were detained for days or weeks without charge, and in some cases tortured. Welcome to policing Egyptian-style. While authorities in Cairo have been discussing a proposal to train PA police, rights groups say Egyptian police tactics may be the last thing Gaza needs. (AP/Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
According to the reasonable scenarios, the terrorist organizations will increase their efforts to conduct attacks as the date of the disengagement approaches. They are in the midst of a competition. The Palestinian public will remember the winner as the one that succeeded in driving Israel out of the Gaza Strip, amidst death and destruction. This competition is likely to ignite an especially severe escalation. The attack on the Orhan outpost Sunday increased the number of Israeli casualties in Gaza to 20 dead in the last two months. (Maariv International) See also Resistance Activists Blow Up IDF Outpost Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that "all the Israeli statements about a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip are due to the Palestinian resistance operations. We are completely confident that as the Hizballah Organization managed to kick the Israeli forces out of Lebanon, the Palestinian resistance will kick them out of the Palestinian territories, and we will continue our resistance." (PA Press Center) In a safe house on the outskirts of Fallujah, the men wear white robes and long beards and greet each other solemnly. They are all Iraqi, but their beliefs are those of the strict Wahhabi strain of Islam repressed under Saddam Hussein. Militants like these are determined to wreak more carnage and have no intention of laying down their arms. A TIME investigation of the insurgency today - based on meetings with insurgents, tribal leaders, religious clerics, and U.S. intelligence officials - reveals that the militants are turning the resistance into an international jihadist movement. (TIME) Liberal Egyptian intellectual Tarek Heggy recently wrote about the need for Muslim moderates to work against Wahhabism: "The time has come for the Saudi government to part ways with Wahhabism and to realize that the alliance between the House of Saud and the Wahhabi dynasty is responsible for the spread of obscurantism, dogmatism, and fanaticism." An increasing number of reform-minded Muslims have begun to speak out against the impact of Saudi Wahhabism in the Muslim world. (National Review) Observations: Alice in Wonderland's Middle East - Barry Rubin (Jerusalem Post)
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