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DAILY ALERT

December 16, 2005

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In-Depth Issues:

PA Police Planned to Assist Thwarted Bombing at Border Crossing (Jerusalem Post)
    Israeli sources discovered Thursday that Palestinian police stationed at the Karni border crossing between Gaza and Israel planned to assist a terrorist attack at the crossing.
    The policemen meant to allow the terrorists to detonate a large bomb at the crossing, to be following by opening fire and throwing grenades, according to Israel Radio.
    Fortunately, the attack was thwarted by Israeli security sources.
    See also IDF Thwarts Terror Attack at Gaza-Israel Border Crossing (Israel Defense Forces)
    The IDF carried out an aerial attack Thursday against a vehicle loaded with explosives, carrying four Palestinians who were on their way to carry out a terrorist attack at the Karni crossing.


Israel HighWay
- December 15, 2005

Issue of the Week:
    Ethiopian Jews

Car-Bomb Attempt Foiled Near Jerusalem Tunnels - Efrat Weiss (Ynet News)
    A car bomb was found by security forces on Wednesday near the tunnels highway south of Jerusalem and neutralized through a controlled detonation.
    Security forces were dispatched to the Beit Jala area following a Palestinian report about the vehicle, which contained gas containers as well as tires drenched with gasoline.


Iran Tests Missiles, Conducts War Exercises (AP/Jerusalem Post)
    Iran successfully tested surface-to-sea Silkworm missiles with a range of 110 kilometers (68 miles) during military maneuvers in southern Iran, Iranian state television reported Monday.
    Silkworms can detect targets from a distance of 15 kilometers and have the capacity to destroy a warship.
    Iran's armed forces began their biggest military maneuvers last Friday in drills involving submarines, warships, missiles, jet fighters, and gunships.
    On Sunday, Iran commissioned its second domestically-built submarine, a vessel that can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously.
    Iran produces the Shahab-3 missile, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces in the region.
    Since 1992 it has also produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, and fighter planes.


Lebanon's Largest Government University Hosts Hizballah Symposium Calling to Wipe Israel Off the Map (MEMRI)
    A symposium at Universite Libanaise, Lebanon's only government-run university and the country's largest, hosted by Hizballah's Al-Manar TV and broadcast on November 29, 2005, was held to mark the UN's 1947 Partition Plan.
    Hisham Sham'as, a political science student, explained, "Israel should be completely wiped out, so the Palestinians will have a country to return to....Just like Hitler fought the Jews - we are a great Islamic nation of Jihad, and we too should fight the Jews and burn them."


Top Al-Qaeda Agent Killed in Russia (MosNews-Russia)
    Russian special services have killed the chief representative of al-Qaeda in Russia, a mercenary called Dzhaber, said Col.-Gen. Arkady Edelev, head of the regional headquarters of the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus.
    It is widely known that many al-Qaeda mercenaries train rebels in Russia's Caucasus and even take part in raids on Russian territory.


Islamic Militants Will Try to Hit Scandinavia (Reuters/Aftenposten-Norway)
    "It's only a matter of time before we have a terrorist attack in Scandinavia; in Norway or Denmark or Sweden," said Jorn Holme, head of the Police Security Service (PST), Norway's domestic intelligence service.
    Al-Qaeda named Norway as a potential target, alongside the U.S., Britain, Australia and other countries, in 2003.
    Extremists have previously planted members in Norway to help plan bomb attacks in Europe, Holme said.
    Scandinavia's reputation for liberalism and equality also attracts Muslim radicals who may view the Nordics as a safe, soft option, he said, adding that this reputation must change.


IDF Trains Foreigners in Crisis Management - Arieh O'Sullivan (Jerusalem Post)
    The IDF's Home Front Command last week hosted more than three dozen foreign emergency personnel from 12 nations for the third course in Crisis Site Management, aimed at teaching them how to deal with anything from shopping center bombings to earthquakes.


Jan-Sep Israeli Exports to Arab Countries Up 26% - Shay Pauzner (Globes)
    Israeli industrial exports to Arab countries rose by 26% in Jan-Sep 2005 to $171 million, says Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute Chairman David Arzi.
    66 exporters now sell consumer products, security goods, transport equipment, rubber and plastics products, and mining and quarrying products to Iraq.
    Exports to Egypt rose by 189% to $64.6 million.


73% Rise in First-Time Visitors to Israel (Globes)
    The Israeli Inbound Tourism Survey released Tuesday shows that in the first six months of 2005, there was a 73% increase in the number of first-time visitors to Israel - 328,000 compared to 190,000 in the same period last year.
    The number of tourists arriving in Israel for pilgrimage purposes doubled from 68,000 in the first six months of 2004 to 138,000 this year.
    Those arriving on organized tours numbered 181,600 in the first six months of 2005, up 40% from 88,000 a year ago.

    See also Canadian Physician Returns from Pilgrimage to Israel - Faye Bayko (Ponoka News-Alberta, Canada)
    Eight years after she first placed her name on the list of Baha'i waiting to pilgrimage to Haifa, Israel, Tania Nordli, a doctor at Alberta Hospital Ponoka, was notified she would be going.
    Together with her husband Jim Fuite and eldest son Fraser, Nordli left Nov. 21 for a nine-day visit to some of the sites associated with the history of her faith.
    Each year thousands of pilgrims make the trip to Israel to visit the Shrine of Bah'u'llah just outside of Acre and the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel in Haifa.


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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:

  • Iraqi Vote Draws Big Turnout of Sunnis - Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer
    Sunni Arabs turned out in force to build a new Iraq Thursday in national elections. The Sunni outpouring was a long-hoped-for victory for the Bush administration, concluding a U.S.-planned timeline aimed at establishing a government that will hold together after U.S. troops withdraw. (Washington Post)
  • Top Terror Leader Zarqawi Freed in Error
    Iraqi security forces last year caught the most wanted man in the country, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader who has a $25 million bounty on his head - but released him because they didn't know who he was, Iraqi deputy minister of interior Hussain Kamal confirmed Thursday. (CNN)
        See also Jordanian Terror War to Include Reforms - Jamal Halaby
    Jordan's new prime minister vowed Wednesday to wage a "preemptive" war against Islamic extremists, saying his government planned to fight terrorism by reforming religious teaching and granting greater freedom. Speaking to Parliament, Marouf al-Bakhit said the suicide bombers who killed 60 people in three hotels on Nov. 9 "only made us more determined to move forward in our preemptive war against terrorism and the 'takfiri' culture." "Takfiri" is the ideology of militants who regard their Muslim opponents as infidels. When King Abdullah chose al-Bakhit to be prime minister last month, he instructed him to launch an all-out war against Islamic militancy while vigorously pursuing political and economic reforms. (AP/NorthJersey)
        See also Zarqawi and Israel: Is There a New Jihadi Threat Destabilizing the Eastern Front? - Dore Gold and Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi (ICA/JCPA)
        See also Assessing Iraq's Sunni Arab Insurgency - Michael Eisenstadt and Jeffrey White (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
  • Israel's Top General During Iraq War: Saddam's WMD Moved to Syria Six Weeks Before War - Ira Stoll
    Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started, Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom says. Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon asserted that Saddam spirited his chemical weapons out of the country on the eve of the war. "He transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria," Gen. Yaalon told the New York Sun on Tuesday. "No one went to Syria to find it." An official at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, Entifadh Qanbar, said he believed the Israeli general's account.
        An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." Syria is one of only eight countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention. (New York Sun)
  • Egypt's Muslim Brothers Brand Israel a "Cancer"
    "I declared that we will not recognize Israel which is an alien entity in the region. And we expect the demise of this cancer soon," Mohammed Mehdi Akef, the leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, told the state-owned Ahram Weekly in an interview published Thursday. "The Muslim Brothers do not recognize Israel....70 million Egyptians, 300 million citizens in the Arab world, and 1.5 billion Muslims across the world do not recognize Israel," Akef told the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on Sunday. (AFP/Yahoo)
  • News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

  • Palestinian Rocket from Gaza Hits Ashkelon
    Palestinian terror organizations fired six rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Thursday, including one that hit a Carlsberg beer warehouse on the southern outskirts of the city of Ashkelon, the army and witnesses said. (Jerusalem Post)
        See also Palestinians Launching Rockets from Abandoned Israeli Communities on Northern Gaza Border
    Israel Radio reported Friday that Palestinians are exploiting the abandoned Israeli communities on the northern border of the Gaza Strip as rocket launching sites that are considerably closer to such strategic Israeli targets as a power plant and a large fuel storage area located south of Ashkelon. (IMRA)
  • Hamas Sweeps Election in West Bank's Largest City - Arnon Regular
    Hamas swept 73% of the vote in the West Bank's largest city, Nablus, one of three major towns in which it won local elections, winning 13 seats on the 15-member city council, according to preliminary results released Friday. In Jenin, Hamas won eight seats, while a coalition between Fatah and the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine garnered seven. In Al-Bireh, a large suburb on the outskirts of Ramallah, Hamas won 72% of the vote, grabbing nine seats to Fatah's four. (Ha'aretz)
  • Palestinian Bus Convoys Postponed - Yoav Stern and Akiva Eldar
    Despite intense American pressure, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has decided not to allow the passage of Palestinian bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank next week. Following an assessment of the current security situation held Thursday, it was decided Israel would not allow the convoys at this time. Meanwhile, the defense establishment continues to make preparations for the convoys. Buses carrying Gaza residents to the West Bank will be escorted by Israeli security personnel and will run along predetermined routes. (Ha'aretz)
  • Hamas Chief Lauds Iranian President's Remarks Denying Holocaust
    Hamas chief Khaled Meshal, in Tehran for three days of talks with top political and security officials, Thursday praised Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for recent comments in which he called the Holocaust a myth and said Israel should be moved to Europe or North America. "Those were brave and true remarks and it is what the Islamic nations say, especially the Palestinians," he said. (Ha'aretz)
  • Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

    Iran

  • In Iran, Arming for Armageddon - Charles Krauthammer
    Holocaust denial and calls for Israel's destruction are commonplace in the Middle East. They can be seen every day on Hizballah TV, in Syrian media, in Egyptian editorials appearing in semiofficial newspapers. But none of these aspiring mass murderers are on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons that could do in one afternoon what it took Hitler six years to do: destroy an entire Jewish civilization and extinguish 6 million souls. Everyone knows where Iran's nuclear weapons will be aimed. And everyone knows that if the button is ever pushed, it will be the end of Israel. (Washington Post)
  • Iran's Undeclared War - Arnold Beichman
    Iran's mullahs have created five major agencies to carry out their global ambitions, the most important of which is the "Qods"(Jerusalem Force), whose headquarters are on the former site of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. All of Iran's intelligence and extraterritorial agencies number some 21,000 personnel. In addition to terrorist operations, the "Qods" trains non-Iranian terrorists, including groups of 40-50 from Pakistan, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, and the PA. The great irony is that the West finances Iran's terrorist attacks in Iraq and elsewhere by buying its oil. The writer is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. (Washington Times)
  • Countering Iran's Nuclear Challenge - James Phillips, John C. Hulsman, and James Jay Carafano
    Washington should back European efforts to pressure Iran diplomatically to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. However, if Iran resumes uranium enrichment, the U.S. should mobilize an international coalition to isolate the Ahmadinejad regime, weaken it through targeted economic sanctions, contain Iran's military power, and encourage democratic regime change. Tehran is playing a double game in Iraq, using the young firebrand al-Sadr to undermine Sistani and keep pressure on the U.S. military to withdraw, while still maintaining good relations with Shi'a political parties who revere Sistani and need continued American support.
        In addition to trying to destabilize Iraq, Iran continues to be the world's leading sponsor of terrorism. It has close ties to the Lebanon-based Hizballah terrorist group, which it organized and continues to finance, arm, and train. Tehran has supported a wide variety of Palestinian terrorist groups and Afghan extremists, such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Iran was involved in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 American military personnel deployed in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Iran continues to give sanctuary to elements of al-Qaeda, including at least one son of Osama bin Laden. (Heritage Foundation)
  • Ahmadinejad's Venom - Editorial
    The whole world should pull together to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons. It is not much of a leap from denying that the Holocaust happened to wishing for another one. The notion of allowing a militant regime led by an unabashed anti-Semite to obtain the most deadly form of weaponry is simply unthinkable. (Globe and Mail-Canada)

    Arab World

  • Let Iraq's Sunnis Chase Al-Qaeda Out - Fawaz A. Gerges
    A coalition of nationalist guerrillas in the Anbar region have released a joint statement urging fellow Sunnis to vote Thursday and warning al-Qaeda militants not to attack voters. Zarqawi's indiscriminate slaughter of civilian Shiites reportedly pushed many Iraqis who had fought under his banner to join the Islamic Army, a local resistance faction. Sheikh Mahmoud Mehdi al-Sumaydai, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Iraq's highest Sunni religious authority with links to the rebellion, called on Iraqis to resist not just foreign occupation but also Zarqawi's "masked terrorism." Now more and more Sunnis say Zarqawi is impeding their ability to regain a measure of political influence in the new Iraq.
        Al-Qaeda lacks the military capability or the broad power base for a permanent foothold in Iraq. In fact, thought prevails within the country that once U.S. troops have withdrawn, Zarqawi would be chased out. Once Sunni Iraqis are fully brought into the new political order in Baghdad, they will find it in their own interests to defeat the terrorists in their midst. The writer is a professor of Middle Eastern studies and international affairs at Sarah Lawrence College and author of The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. (Christian Science Monitor)
  • Homegrown Jihadists - Joel Mowbray
    Because Abu Ali pursued religious studies in Saudi Arabia - after graduating as valedictorian from the Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia - his case has not been considered one of homegrown terrorism. Yet the seeds of his poisonous beliefs were likely sown in the U.S., not overseas. Found in the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., just miles from the Saudi Academy, was the following: "To be dissociated from the infidels is to hate them for their religion, to leave them, never to rely on them for support, not to admire them, to be on one's guard against them, never to imitate them and always to oppose them in every way according to Islamic law." If Saudi vitriol is allowed to fester or even spread, how many more Abu Alis will there be? (Washington Times)
        See also Saudi Stories: Peeling Back the Slick Western Imaging - Nina Shea
    Since 9/11, the Saudi embassy has been staging a lavish public-relations campaign directed at American audiences. (The December 12, 2005, edition of The New Republic, for example, contains seven full pages of Saudi advertising.) But if it wants to score points with the West, why isn't the House of Saud in full-throated protest against the Tehran madman? Why the insistence that Saudi condemnations be unofficial and "off the record"?
        The Saudis are coy for a reason. An open and unequivocal condemnation of Ahmadinejad's outbursts by the Saudis would make them look like hypocrites to home audiences. As is well known, what the Saudis say in English differs greatly from their statements in Arabic. Wiping Israel off the map is exactly what Saudi authorities have been avowing for years to Arabic-speaking audiences. Saudi publications collected from American mosques that were translated from Arabic this year by Freedom House are replete with such statements. (National Review)
  • Saudis Use TV to Tackle Extremism - Harry de Quetteville
    A ground-breaking television series in which repentant radical Islamists reveal what they call the "deceit of jihad" is captivating Saudi Arabia, the kingdom that produced 15 of the September 11 plane hijackers. The five-part series "Deceit in the Name of Jihad," being aired in prime time on Saudi state television and the Al Arabiya satellite channel, includes interviews with Saudis who claim to have fought alongside Muslim fanatics in Afghanistan and Iraq before realizing they had been "brainwashed" by al-Qaeda recruiters. (Telegraph-UK)
  • Egyptian Legislative Elections: A Reading of the Results - Khairi Abaza
    Elections for Egypt's parliament, the People's Assembly, were shadowed by a high level of violence and by low levels of participation. With less than 25% of eligible voters taking part, they did not reflect the will of the Egyptian people. Only serious reform can lead to free and fair elections that would attract the silent majority of Egyptians. Opening up the political environment by allowing parties and civil society organizations to be created more easily, by creating true impartiality in the state media, by restricting the unlimited use of state resources by the ruling party, by abolishing the emergency laws, and above all by reforming the constitution will contribute to greater political participation. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
        See also Egypt Islamists Adopt Step-by-Step Strategy toward Power
    Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is seeking to avoid a confrontation with President Mubarak's regime after its step-by-step approach scored big in parliamentary elections, analysts said. Winning 88 seats despite fielding candidates for only a third of those contested, the banned Islamist movement achieved a success rate topping 50% and sent a clear message about its potential future strength. "The Muslim Brothers refrained from fielding candidates against ministers and key men in the regime in order not to provoke it," said Amr Shubaki, an analyst from the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. (AFP/Yahoo)
  • Mideast Clan Mindset - Claude Salhani
    U.S. policymakers grossly miscalculated the importance of tribal mentality, sectarian belonging, and clan loyalty in the Middle East - concepts that are hard to fully fathom in most of the West. Both Jordan and Saudi Arabia feel they owe loyalty to their fellow Sunnis over any pact they may have entered with Washington. Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the expansionist ideals of Shiism as a direct threat to their national security. An Arab intelligence source based in Paris confirmed that he had seen documents proving that money and weapons were being sent to Iraq's Sunni rebels from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
        The overthrow of Saddam by the U.S. military accomplished in a matter of months what the ayatollahs in Tehran have been unsuccessfully attempting to do for more than two decades, and has for the first time in history given the Shiites control over an Arab country. Considering that a few centuries have passed since the death of sacred Shiite imams at the hands of the Sunnis, the scars appear as fresh as though the killings took place last week. (UPI)

    Other Issues

  • International Red Cross: Hiding Behind a Crystal - Editorial
    Why could there not have been four symbols recognized by the International Red Cross: a cross, crescent, crystal, and the Star of David? Or alternatively, why were the cross and crescent not - like our star will be - forced inside the crystal when operating internationally? Evidently even a humanitarian movement which prides itself on neutrality and impartiality can baldly discriminate against the Jewish state for decades, and then adopt a "solution" that continues to discriminate against the symbol of the Jewish people.
        By bowing for so long to the utter rejection of the symbol of the Jewish people, and then devising for it a second-class status, the international community legitimized a hatred that is the antithesis of the Red Cross mission and the cause of many of the casualties it treats. (Jerusalem Post)
  • Canada "Shifts" on Israel? Not Really - Alastair Gordon
    The great pro-Israel shift is a hoax - a well-orchestrated charade that has fooled both sides. On Nov. 13, Prime Minister Paul Martin spoke at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Toronto of the UN's "annual ritual of politicized anti-Israel resolutions." Of the 17 UN resolutions in this year's "annual ritual," Canada voted against Israel 11 times, down from 12 in 2004. By comparison, the U.S. voted against Israel zero times, and Australia four times. Canada believes Israel has no jurisdiction over any part of Jerusalem and earlier this year withdrew all passports that had "Jerusalem, Israel" as a place of birth. (Jerusalem Post)
  • The Struggle Against Anti-Israel Bias at the UN Commission on Human Rights - Hillel C. Neuer
    One of the greatest violators of the UN Charter's equality guarantee has been the UN Commission on Human Rights. It systematically singles out Israel for discriminatory treatment. At the Commission half of all the resolutions that censure states are targeted against Israel. Meanwhile, apart from a handful of states, the world's worst violators are routinely ignored by the Commission, and are granted immunity from scrutiny. This year, for instance, the Commission did not pass a single resolution on Sudan's genocide in Darfur. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
  • North Indian Muslims Hate Israel, Researcher Says
    Animosity against Israel is widespread among Indian Muslims living in the northern part of the country, according to an Indian researcher from the College of Orient and African Studies of London University. At a seminar organized by the Centre for Jewish Studies on "How the Indians and Pakistanis View Israel and Zionism," Dr. Sosila Yusudian Shitroviel said Indian Muslims see Jewish immigrants to Palestine as a continuation of the British imperialism in the region, a negative stance that has its roots in opposition to Britain's colonial past in India. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who led Pakistan to separate from India, was anti-Zionist and regarded Zionism as an integral part of British imperialism.
        When the nationalist parties in India, like the BJP, came to power and gave rise to Hindu nationalist sentiment against Muslims inside and outside India, this tipped the scales in favor of an Indian alliance with Israel against Arabs and Muslims. (Khaleej Times-Dubai)
  • German Officers "Knew of Holocaust" - Murdo Macleod
    High-ranking German officers knew much more about Adolf Hitler's plans to murder millions of Jews than previously thought, according to newly revealed transcripts of conversations between captured generals. During the Second World War, British intelligence secretly bugged the cells occupied by some of the most senior German army, navy, and air force commanders who had been captured by the Allies. The transcripts have only recently been made available to researchers and show that senior Luftwaffe officers mused together at the end of 1943 that millions of Jews had already been killed.
        In one conversation involving Luftwaffe general Georg Neuffer, who was captured in North Africa in 1943, in which they discussed later that year how many Jews had been killed, Neuffer said: "It must be three million by now." The transcripts, which have been published in Germany by Sonke Neitzel, professor of modern history at the University of Mainz, contradict the traditional image of senior German officers as having little or no knowledge of the mass-killings. (Scotland on Sunday)
  • Observations:

    Is There a Military Option to Halt Iran's Nuclear Program? - Ze'ev Schiff (Ha'aretz)

    • During war games at the Pentagon a few months ago, one scenario was of Israel using force to halt Iran's nuclear development program, as it did in Iraq in 1981. The question asked was whether Israel had the military means to do so. The popular thinking was that such an operation was beyond Israel's capability. It was believed that a small country like Israel, located so far away from Iran, whose planes would have to fly over other countries to reach the target and stay long enough to get the job done, would not be able to knock Iran's nuclear infrastructure out of commission.
    • A year ago, two retired generals - Eitan Ben-Eliahu, former commander of the Israeli air force, and Yitzhak Ben-Israel, former head of military research and development - took part in a symposium at Netanya College that touched on this matter. Both were cautious in presenting their views, but one could infer from what they said that Israel had the military capability.
    • The U.S. continues to debate whether it has the military might to eliminate Iran's nuclear program entirely. U.S. intelligence may not have all the data critical for such an operation. Yet military professionals believe the military option exists, and it is sufficient to zero in on a few strategic targets, where the most important work is being done, to create a setback of many years. President Bush says that military action against Iran has not been dropped from the agenda, although Washington is not pursuing this track at the moment.
    • The international community - as opposed to any individual country - could exercise the military option if a decision is made that Shi'ite Iran's status as a nuclear power poses an international danger or threatens the stability of the world, and not just the Middle East. What remains uncertain is whether such a decision will ever be reached.


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