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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: click here In-Depth Issues:
Hizb ut-Tahrir Behind French Intifada - B. Raman (SAAG-India) Israel Campus Beat - November 20, 2005 Point Counter-Point: One Year after Arafat's Death
Hizballah Planning Attacks Along Israel's Northern Border - Gideon Alon, Aluf Benn, and Amos Harel (Ha'aretz)
Palestinians Postpone Fatah Primaries (AP/Ha'aretz)
Government Suspected in Attacks During Egyptian Vote - Abeer Allam (New York Times)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Prime Minister Sharon Monday asked Israeli President Katsav to dissolve parliament and pave the way for early elections in which Sharon will run at the head of a new party, abandoning the Likud party he helped found. If Katsav agrees, Sharon will remain in office as a caretaker prime minister for at least 90 days while the government organizes elections. (Bloomberg) The respected PA finance minister, Salam Fayyad, resigned Saturday, saying he was considering running in legislative elections on Jan. 25. Fayyad also expressed enormous frustration at the inability of the PA to confront its financial problems. The World Bank recently warned that donor countries might not disburse the next portion of some $350 million a year in aid because the PA had broken its promises not to raise wages beyond its ability to pay, said the bank's director for West Bank and Gaza, Nigel Roberts. After a large increase this summer, the PA's wage bill is now about $1 billion a year - roughly equal to its income. (New York Times) See also Fayad Resignation to Deliver Blow to Palestinian Reform Drive The resignation of Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayad will deliver a major blow to efforts to attract investment and highlight the limitations of a reform drive, analysts said on Sunday. Azmi Shuabi, the head of the parliament's economic committee, said Fayad was furious that Prime Minister Qurei had ensured that $350 million was continuing to be channeled towards the 60,000 people employed by the security services. "We don't know if 10-15,000 of these people are even still working or not," Shuabi said. "Fayad is insisting that only those who are working be paid." A report recently compiled by the World Bank said: "The PA has created a serious fiscal crisis for itself with salary expenditure essentially out of control." A source close to Qurei scoffed at the suggestion that the minister had submitted his resignation to run for parliament. "He is not expected to be a candidate. It's all a smokescreen," he said. (AFP/Yahoo) Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told diplomats that his inspectors had recently obtained documents from Tehran showing that the Iranians had been given various instructions on processing uranium hexafluoride gas and casting and enriching uranium. These had been obtained via the disgraced Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Informed diplomats said the blueprint for casting uranium was required in making the core of a nuclear warhead, although that alone was not enough for the manufacture of a weapon. (Guardian-UK) See also Iran Learns How to Lose Friends and Alienate People In Germany, Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, who is expected to formally become chancellor on Tuesday, has promised to take a tough stance against Iran. "If Iran questions the right of the Israeli state to exist, as it has done in recent weeks, then no tolerance can be shown. Such a position must be condemned." With her comments, Merkel brought Germany in line with critics of Tehran elsewhere in Europe and in Washington. But don't be mistaken, Germany still backs a diplomatic solution. So far, however, those diplomatic efforts have yielded little more than a constant thumbing of noses on the part of Iranian leaders toward Europe and the U.S. (Der Spiegel-Germany) See also Iran Parliament Votes to Close Atomic Sites to UN Monitors - Nazila Fathi The Iranian Parliament on Sunday approved the outline of a bill that would bar UN inspectors from its nuclear sites if the agency referred Iran's case to the Security Council for possible punitive measures. (New York Times) Suicide bombers killed 74 worshippers at two Shiite mosques in Khanaqin near the Iranian border Friday, while a pair of car bombs targeting a Baghdad hotel housing Western journalists killed eight Iraqis. (AP/Yahoo) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Hamas militant Zeid Abu A'isha, 24, of Hebron, was shot and killed Friday by soldiers after the explosives belt he was carrying blew up near the settlement of Telem, southwest of Hebron in the West Bank. Remnants of the explosives belt were found on his body, and an additional device was on the ground nearby. (Ha'aretz) See also Palestinian Caught with Pipe Bombs at Jenin Checkpoint - Efrat Weiss IDF troops at the Salem checkpoint near Jenin on Saturday nabbed a Palestinian carrying two operational pipe bombs. Eyewitnesses claimed the Palestinian said, "I want to blow up on the soldiers." (Ynet News) The PA has brought in thousands of armed Fatah activists to become settlement guards in Gush Katif. At the entrance to Morag, the cornerstone has been laid for a new city, funded by the UAE, where some 3,500 apartments are to be built. Workers in the hothouses of Netzarim said they are supposed to get NIS 60 per day, including travel expenses of NIS 10. This amounts to about NIS 1,500 per month, as opposed to the NIS 4,000 they received when they worked for the Israelis. But in any case, according to workers in most of the settlements, they have not received any pay for six weeks. (Ha'aretz) See also One Dead in Dispute over Former Israeli Settlement Land - Matthew Gutman A violent dispute Friday over land in the former Gaza settlements left one Palestinian dead and several others wounded in clashes between clans claiming the area and PA police. The shootout erupted after police arrested two members of two different clans for staking out land in the Muwassi area near the former settlement of Neve Dekalim. The clans sent armed tribal members to sack the police station and free the prisoners. The PA Interior Ministry reported that three police officers and several armed gunmen were wounded in the shootout at the Khan Yunis police headquarters. Much of Neve Dekalim is slated for a new campus for the Khan Yunis-based Al-Quds University. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
In early October 2005, the reformist website www.elaph.com posted an interview with Hamas leader in Gaza Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar. Al-Zahar discussed internal Palestinian affairs and stated that Hamas would run in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, but would still keep its weapons. On November 8, 2005, in a statement widely lauded as a breakthrough, al-Zahar told Israel Radio that Hamas was not ruling out negotiating with Israel if this would serve the Palestinian interest. Subsequently, in an interview with the London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, he denied having made this statement. (MEMRI) It's hard to find a Syrian who doesn't want Assad to remain at least as a figurehead. He's a symbol of stability for a country nervously watching the carnage in Iraq. But I doubt that Syrians will permanently ransom their political futures to an Assad clan that doesn't deliver economic and social change. Syria is a country in ferment. People talk politics here with a passion. They're writing manifestos, dreaming of new political parties, trying to rehabilitate old ones from the 1950s. (Washington Post) Observations: IDF Chief Halutz: Sanctions Won't Deter Iran - Arieh O'Sullivan (Jerusalem Post)
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