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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:
IDF Girds for War Next Year with Syria, Hizballah - Amir Oren (Ha'aretz)
Iran Ready to Equip Lebanese Military with Advanced Air Defense - (IRNA-Iran)
Battle of Beit Hanoun Adds Legend to Palestinian Narrative - Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
PA Weapons Enter Through Egyptian Port (Middle East Newsline)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Three and a half years after American troops captured Baghdad and ended the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi court set up to judge the brutalities of his 24 years in power found him guilty on Sunday of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging. An automatic appeal of the death sentence will delay it, but some Iraqi judicial officials held out the possibility that Hussein could go to the gallows before next spring. (New York Times) See also Hussein Trial Was Reasonably Fair and Verdict Was Justified, Legal Experts Say - Julia Preston (New York Times) See also Saddam Hussein Death Sentence a Milestone - Scott Peterson (Christian Science Monitor) See also The Trial of Saddam Hussein (Washington Post) Israeli bomb disposal units are combing the north of the country for unexploded Hizballah rockets left over from the recent conflict. Hizballah fired 4,000 rockets at Israel - including more than 100 cluster bombs. "There's an unexploded ordnance problem in Israel and no one wants to talk about it," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hizballah rockets were packed with thousands of lethal 5mm ball bearings that fired out at high velocity upon impact across a distance of 200 meters, according to doctors who attended to the dead and wounded during the war. (Reuters) Syria could resort to armed resistance if peace negotiations do not lead to Israel's return of the Golan Heights, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said Sunday. Israel has brushed off calls to restart peace talks, saying Syria must first clamp down on the radical Palestinian groups it hosts. (AP/Forbes) The specter of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised Friday when six Arab states announced they were embarking on programs to master atomic technology. The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest. All want to build civilian nuclear energy programs. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb. Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that it was clear that the sudden drive for nuclear expertise was to provide the Arabs with a "security hedge." "If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability you would probably not see this sudden rush [in the Arab world]," he said. (Times-UK) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Palestinians fired four rockets on Sunday evening from the northern Gaza Strip toward Israel. One rocket landed near Kibbutz Erez, and one man was hurt by shrapnel. Two rockets landed near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. Earlier Sunday, five Kassam rockets landed in the western Negev, with one rocket landing dozens of meters from Sderot's outdoor market. (Ynet News) See also Seven Rockets Fired by Palestinians Hit Israel Saturday - Shmulik Haddad Palestinians in Gaza fired seven Kassam rockets at Israel on Saturday. Six rockets landed in open fields, while a seventh scored a direct hit on a house. (Ynet News) See also below Observations: Israeli Cabinet: We Do Not Intend to Countenance Continued Palestinian Rocket Barrages Against Israeli Communities (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) As the IDF operation in Gaza continued, army officials have expressed satisfaction with the results so far. At least seven Kassam rocket cells were hit in the course of, or immediately following, launching rockets at Israel. An IDF Southern Command officer said, "We notice that Kassam launchers are moving southward, to less effective areas, and this stems from our activity." A senior IDF officer said that the operation had severely damaged Hamas' Kassam-launching infrastructure in northern Gaza, particularly in the areas of production and transportation. (Ynet News) Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Sunday that Hamas and not Israel bore responsibility for the bloodshed in the current Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza. "Who has the moral right to come to us with complaints?" Sneh told Army Radio. "After the IDF left Gaza, these terrorists turned Beit Hanoun into a base for launching rockets solely at a civilian population [in Israel]." "All those who are crying out should be directing that cry at Hamas, and not at us," he said. (Ha'aretz) Gunmen from the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, claimed Sunday they had kidnapped and murdered four Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. The gunmen said the four were captured while neutralizing explosive devices. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Last Tuesday Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit announced details regarding the deal that is developing with respect to releasing kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian sources have published details concerning the identities of the prisoners to be released. Apart from women and youths, the group is primarily comprised of about 360 prisoners incarcerated in Israel since before the Oslo Accords. Most are defined as having "blood on their hands." They are all considered heroes by the Palestinian public and their release will be accompanied by large-scale celebrations. And who will receive credit for such a grand victory? Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. The Israeli government, obviously, does not want this to happen. Also the U.S. and other nations, including Arab nations, cannot afford such an impressive victory for the Islamic zealots of Hamas. (Ha'aretz) In the words of Muhammad-Mahdi Pour-Fatemi, a member of the Islamic Majlis, Iran today is passing through "the deepest crisis our nation has experienced in decades." Because of "policies that have produced nothing but grief for our nation," Pour-Fatemi has courageously said, "the Islamic Republic today is isolated." The fall in value of the Iranian currency - despite rising oil revenues - and the massive increase in the rate of unemployment over the past two years signal an economic crisis already heralded by double-digit inflation. Ahmadinejad is now desperate to provoke a mini-conflict with the U.S. to divert attention from the gathering storm inside Iran. At the same time, he is raising the "wipe-Israel-off-the-map" banner, lately all but abandoned by most Arab leaders, in the hope of winning a position of leadership for his Shiite theocracy - something otherwise unthinkable to the Sunni majority in the Islamic world. Accelerating the collapse and replacement of this aberrant tyranny, a curse to the Iranian people and to the world, will strike a blow against anti-Western and anti-democratic forces all over the globe, safeguard America's strategic interests in the Middle East and beyond, and add another radiant page to the almanac of American support for the cause of freedom. (Commentary Magazine) Observations: Israeli Cabinet: We Do Not Intend to Countenance Continued Palestinian Rocket Barrages Against Israeli Communities (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
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