|
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
| |||||
|
To contact the Presidents Conference: click here In-Depth Issues:
Hamas Blames U.S. for Lack of Money - Ibrahim Barzak (AP/Washington Post)
Hamas Outbids Fatah for Black Market Bullets - Karin Laub (AP/Washington Post)
Fatah Creates New Armed Force - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Popular Resistance Committees a Terror Subcontractor for Hamas (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Center for Special Studies)
Top Al-Qaeda Strategist Captured in Pakistan (AP/Washington Post)
Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
"Wherever (in Iran) America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel," Iranian Revolutionary Guards Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani said Tuesday. Also Tuesday, Mohammad Ghannadi, deputy chief for nuclear research and technology, said Iran had found uranium ore at three newly discovered sites in the center of the country. (AP/FOX News) The emir of Qatar, on a visit to Iran, referred to the Arab Gulf. Iran's president was quick to correct him: it's the Persian Gulf, he said. The incident reflected the deep and growing disquiet among Iran's Arab neighbors over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Most anxious are Arab countries that lie on the east side of the Arabian Peninsula, across the water from Iran. They worry about deadly pollution should Iran suffer a nuclear accident and about possible Iranian retaliation against American military bases in Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain should the U.S. launch a pre-emptive strike. There is also anxiety about possible civil strife between the ruling Sunni Muslim majorities and Shiite minorities who might side with Shiite Iran if the Americans were to attack. (AP/Washington Post) Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has defended Palestinian suicide bombings as a "natural right" while denouncing what he called Washington's ambitions to dominate the Middle East. "Our enemies...don't understand that a suicide operation...is a natural right," he told students in Damascus. Hamas was responsible for the majority of suicide bombings in Israel during the past five years. (AFP/Yahoo) The BBC should not be afraid to use the word "terrorism" in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an independent report commissioned by the BBC governors said Tuesday. "We say that the BBC should get the language right. We think they should call terrorist acts 'terrorism' because that term is clear and well understood," the panel's chairman, Sir Quentin Thomas, wrote in the report's introduction. (Guardian-UK) See also Report: BBC News "Favors Israel" - Dan Sabbagh The BBC'S coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict implicitly favors the Israeli side, a study for the BBC Governors has concluded. Deaths of Israelis received greater coverage than Palestinian fatalities, the report said. (Times-UK) A federal jury rejected the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday, with some jurors concluding that he played only a minor role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (New York Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Palestinians in Gaza fired two Kassam rockets at Israel Wednesday, briefly interrupting Independence Day celebrations in the south of the country. Security Chief Gil Ta'asa from the community of Netiv Ha'asara was celebrating Independence Day with his family and friends when he spotted a rocket flying above his head. "We saw the fire and smoke and I realized it was flying in the direction of Sderot," he said. Israel's incoming defense minister, Amir Peretz, is a resident of Sderot. (Ynet News) Four months after Ariel Sharon's stroke and five weeks after the elections, Ehud Olmert will be sworn in as prime minister on Thursday. He will head a coalition of four parties - Kadima, Labor, Shas, and the Gil Pensioners Party - with 67 out of 120 Knesset members. (Jerusalem Post) See also A Life-Size Prime Minister - Anshel Pfeffer Ehud Olmert is Israel's first life-size prime minister. He is a career politician and the son of a career politician. He first entered the Knesset as a 29-year-old 32 years ago; no prime minister has served more years in the Knesset and in the cabinet before reaching the top job. (Jerusalem Post) Former Mossad Director Ephraim Halevy said Wednesday in Washington the world should believe Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he talks about his desire to annihilate the State of Israel. However, Halevy said Iran's aspirations of making Israel disappear have no chance of materializing. He noted that "now more than ever," Israel and the U.S. share the same interests "in the face of Iran's threats on Israel and the free world." (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
A funny thing happened on the way to the Iranian bomb: The more alarming the mullahs' behavior, the more nonchalant the rest of the world seems to be about it. Israeli intelligence reported last week that Iran has purchased an upgraded version of the Soviet SS-6 ballistic missile from North Korea, which is capable of carrying a nuclear payload and has a range of about 1,600 miles, putting parts of Europe well within range. And the international community's response? Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the Security Council, are adamantly opposed to UN sanctions on Iran. In Europe, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw has reportedly told cabinet colleagues that it would be "illegal" for Britain to participate in any prospective military action against Iran. Last week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, offered to share the nuclear genie with visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Mr. Bashir, whose government abets the massacre of Darfuris, says Sudan could use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. How so many apparently thoughtful people can face the idea of an Iranian bomb with relative equanimity remains a mystery to us. (Wall Street Journal, 3May06) Legally and morally, neither the U.S. nor Europe owes the Palestinians any assistance - much less hundreds of millions of dollars worth on a continuing basis. There are plenty of needy causes to which to devote the scarce humanitarian resources of our overburden governments: Darfurians subject to a genocidal campaign by an Islamist government, Congolese trying to recover from "Africa's World War," Tibetans sitting in exile in India, etc. The only justification for our governments' paying good money to the PA is our national interest in a stable Middle East - and we are hardly getting our money's worth. Michael I. Krauss is professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. J. Peter Pham is director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University. (TCS Daily) The only reason the continuity of Muslim aggression is news to some is because until recently almost all Muslim countries were under European colonial rule or subjected to European protectorates. With de-colonialization, the violence resumed. It has now reached virtually all places where Muslims are in contact with non-Muslims, so that there are almost daily reports of outrages from Nigeria, Sudan, and Egypt in Africa; from Iraq (Christians are fleeing the country), Israel, and Lebanon in the Middle East; from India, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Timor-Leste, by the way, happens to be mostly Christian, but because it was liberated from the domination of Muslim-ruled Indonesia, it is now on the list of Islamic grievances under the Muslim doctrine that any land once ruled by Muslims belongs to Islam forever, even if the population is mostly non-Muslim. That is the doctrine cited by Hamas to claim the whole of Israel, and which other fundamentalists do not hesitate to apply to southern Spain, southeast Europe, and much of southern Ukraine and southeast Russia, among other places. The writer is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. (New York Sun) Observations: The Gathering Storm over Iran - Nile Gardiner and Joseph Loconte (Boston Globe)
To subscribe to the Daily Alert, send a blank email message to: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send a blank email message to: [email protected] |
||||