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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:
U.S. Reviewing Military Options Against Syria (Maariv International)
Hamas U.S. Websites Shut Down - Aaron Klein (WorldNetDaily)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called Wednesday for both the Palestinians and the Syrians to show they are ready for peace with Israel. After the Palestinian elections on Jan. 9, Shalom said, Israel would be open to a new conversation with the Palestinians and the Americans about how to move toward peace based on the Roadmap plan. While encouraged by PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas's statements urging Palestinians to halt violence against Israelis, Israeli officials also note that violence has not stopped and that Abbas will need time to reshape the Palestinian security forces, let alone confront radical Islamic groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. One Israeli official said Prime Minister Sharon does not want to be "trapped" into a discussion of a Palestinian state, leaping to the second stage of the road map, before Palestinians meet their commitments to stopping violence and incitement to violence in the first stage. (New York Times) PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday denied calling for an end to the armed struggle against Israel. "I don't want my comment on the demilitarization of the uprising to be misunderstood....All I meant is that we are in a phase that does not necessitate arms because we want to negotiate," Abbas said in Riyadh. (UPI/Washington Times) More than 500 plaintiffs representing families of Israeli victims of terrorism are expected to file soon a multibillion dollar federal lawsuit in New York accusing the Arab Bank of Jordan of abetting Palestinian terrorist groups. (Forward) Abu Mojahed, the commander of a hardline Islamic cell in the Iraqi insurgency, was jailed four times under Saddam's regime because of his adherence to the strict Salafi creed of Sunni Islam. "We fight the Americans because they are non-believers," he said. The motivations of Iraqi insurgents vary: some are undoubtedly from Saddam's military and intelligence apparatus, others fight to defend tribal or nationalistic honor, but alongside them a much more extreme Islamic militancy has emerged. (Guardian-UK) See also Iraq's Defense Minister Accuses Syria, Iran of Supporting al-Zarqawi's Terror Group (AP/Boston Globe) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Five Israelis were wounded, two of them moderately, in two shooting incidents Wednesday on the Kissufim-Gush Katif road in Gaza. In addition, a number of Kassam rockets and mortars were fired at Gush Katif, damaging one home. (Ha'aretz) PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday rejected a new Israeli initiative to resettle Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring Arab countries. "Any proposal regarding the resettlement of the refugees is completely rejected," Abbas told reporters in Saudi Arabia. (Jerusalem Post) Egypt has postponed until April 2005 its increased deployment of soldiers along the Egyptian side of the Egypt-Gaza border. Egypt had previously offered to deploy 750 soldiers as early as January. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The test for the Palestinians should be whether they make a concerted, sustained effort against terrorism. The sooner they meet the basic responsibilities of statehood, the sooner they will have a state. Israel should transfer responsibility for security to the Palestinians wherever they show they are ready to assume it. The U.S. can help by funding highly visible projects - such as building hospitals and schools - that will help Abbas put thousands of people to work. Finally, the U.S. must demand that neighboring Arab countries take visible steps toward normalization with Israel. (Los Angeles Times) The American motive in co-sponsoring the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) initiative was to further debate about democracy in a region all too willing to defend an authoritarian exceptionalism. It was also to tackle terrorism at its roots. The singular and terrible achievement of extremist Islamist clerics from Saudi Arabia to Finsbury Park has been to present a distorted and highly selective view of the Koran as an authoritative one that brooks no dissent. In recent months, moderate Muslims have noted that a 7th-century text deserves better than a 7th-century interpretation. At the same time, non-Muslims across Western Europe have abandoned the silence about Islamic fundamentalism once required by political correctness. Democracy's failure to take root in key Arab Muslim countries is a sign not of incompatibility but of work still to be done and the durability of dictatorships. (Times-UK) See also Straight Talk - Editorial Last week 30 representatives of civic organizations from 13 Arab countries met in Rabat, Morocco, on the sidelines of the first meeting of the diplomatic instrument the U.S. and other industrialized countries created this year to encourage liberalization in the zone from Morocco to Afghanistan. What was new at the "Forum for the Future" was the presence of the civil society delegation, which said in a statement, "The main obstacle hindering reform is the lack of willingness on the part of most Arab governments to undertake real reforms." "Palestinian and Iraqi issues should not be used as excuses for not launching reforms." Moreover, Western governments should "relate their political and economic cooperation to the progress of reforms." (Washington Post) Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom has predicted that "ten Arab countries will soon open diplomatic relations with Israel. A good period awaits us with the Arab world." In the near term, candidates for revived and improved diplomatic relations include Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, and Oman. The inclusion of Oman on the list is, at first glance, remarkable. Oman's majority follows a religious tradition known as Ibadhism that is the most conservative form of Islam in the world. Oman's constitution, the Basic Charter, declares that the state is founded on Sharia law and makes Islam the state religion. Yet Oman differs from Saudi Arabia in permitting open religious worship by non-Muslims, mainly Christians and Hindus. (Weekly Standard) Observations: Reading the Egyptian Sphinx - Efraim Inbar (Jerusalem Post)
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