|
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:
U.S. to Vet Abbas' Forces Before Training Begins - Adam Entous (Reuters)
Hizbullah Instructors Tie Iran into Deaths of a Dozen British Soldiers - Ian Bruce (Glasgow Herald-UK)
Saudi Arabia Opens Door to Israeli Journalist - Orly Azoulay (Ynet News)
Adding the "Right of Return" to the Saudi Initiative Made It Impossible to Implement (MEMRI)
Search Key Links Media Contacts Back Issues Fair Use
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
The release by Al-Alam television in Iran of film of Faye Turney, the captive Royal Navy rating, wearing a black Muslim headscarf, caused outrage Wednesday after she appeared to be speaking under duress as she apologized for straying into Iranian waters. Footage of several other British prisoners in Iran was also shown. Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defense produced evidence that the Navy boats were two miles inside Iraqi waters when "ambushed" by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. (Telegraph-UK) In a calculated show of force, the U.S. Navy began a major exercise in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, a move that Bush administration officials said was part of a broader strategy to contain Iranian power in the region. Two American aircraft carriers - the John C. Stennis and the Dwight D. Eisenhower - participated in the exercise along with more than a dozen other warships. The exercise was clearly intended to send a signal that even with its forces stretched thin by the Iraq war, the U.S. still has the military means to project power in the region. (New York Times) Washington estimates that up to 90% of suicide bombers in Iraq enter the country via Syria, which has not acted to stop this flow of attackers, the U.S. State Department's Iraq adviser David Satterfield told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday. "It has to stop, it is not in Syria's long term interests to let this violence continue," he said. (Reuters) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The Arab League decided Wednesday to relaunch without changes its land-and-refugee-for-peace initiative from March 2002. A senior Israeli official said Israel would not reject the document out of hand, but will likely hone in on its positive elements, overlooking the problematic aspects. "What we are hearing is that the Arab countries are openly talking about resolving the conflict through dialogue and through recognition of Israel," the official said. "That is positive." (Jerusalem Post) On Wednesday, the Israel Air Force struck a group of Palestinians preparing to fire Kassam rockets into Israel from the former settlement of Dugit in northern Gaza, wounding four. The strike marks the first time in several months that the Israel Defense Forces has targeted a rocket-launching squad. (Ha'aretz) See also Palestinians Fire Seven Rockets at Israel - Shmulik Hadad Palestinians in Gaza fired seven Kassam rockets at Israel on Wednesday across the western Negev. The rockets landed in open areas near Ashkelon and Sderot. One fell near a strategic facility in the Ashkelon industrial zone south of the city. (Ynet News) Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi presented the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday with his governing principles: "The purpose of the army is to ensure the state's supremacy and to win in the face of every challenge." "My objective is to ensure that the IDF's operational fitness is such that it is clear in every war who won and who lost....We can't allow what happened in the Second Lebanon War to happen again." Ashkenazi also noted an overall trend of growing regional instability, which can be seen in increased capability on the part of Israel's enemies. (Ha'aretz) A sports utility vehicle filled with gunmen chased a car through Gaza City on Wednesday carrying Abu Salah Shinbari, a Hamas leader from Beit Hanoun, and his wife and two young children, witnesses said. The gunmen riddled the car with at least 10 bullets, injuring the four as well as a bystander. (AP/Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
During her visit to the Middle East this week, Secretary of State Rice has been touting a peace plan advocated by Saudi Arabia as the basis for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - even though it has serious flaws that have raised well-founded concerns from the Israeli government. Parts of the Saudi plan, particularly provisions demanding that Israel yield all of the West Bank territory it captured in a defensive war and return to its precarious pre-1967 borders; requiring that it yield the Golan Heights to a Syrian Ba'athist regime that is aligned with Iran; and leaving open the possibility that Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants might be permitted to return to their former homesteads inside what is now Israel, are unacceptable. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert quite sensibly has asked that these provisions at a minimum be significantly modified. The U.S. government has invested considerable political time and effort over the years in trying to advance the cause of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. But in the real world, advancing any plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace today would appear to face tremendous if not insurmountable obstacles - so much so that it is difficult to understand why Rice has seen fit to spend so much political capital in wartime on a diplomatic initiative with so little likelihood of success. If the Saudis want to be taken seriously as peacemakers, they need to stop issuing ultimatums to Israel and start issuing them to the Palestinian irredentists they continue to lavish money on. (Washington Times) Last week, while the EU celebrated 50 years of peace, freedom and solidarity, 15 Europeans were kidnapped from Iraqi territorial waters by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. What is Europe going to do about it? Where's the solidarity? Where's the action? Europe has more direct, immediate leverage on Iran than the U.S. does. Europe should flex its economic muscles. The EU is by far Iran's biggest trading partner. More than 40% of its imports come from, and more than a quarter of its exports go to, the EU. Much of this trade is underpinned by export credit guarantees given by European governments, notably Germany, France and Italy. The total government underwriting commitment in 2005 was £3.9b., more than for Russia or China. In the Commons Wednesday, former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind asked if Britain's European friends - and Germany, France and Italy in particular - might be prevailed upon to convey to Iran the possibility that such export credit guarantees would be temporarily suspended until the kidnapped Europeans are freed. (Guardian-UK) One year ago, the U.S. and the EU decided to cut off aid to the PA after Palestinians elected Hamas, a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization, to lead their government. Now, it turns out, Western sources, including the U.S. government, have actually put more money into the West Bank and Gaza since Hamas took over than in previous years. The Palestinians will never have a better life if they continue their destructive, self-defeating hatred of the Jewish state and its people. Palestinians have developed a culture built on hate. Until they learn to devote their energies into helping themselves rather than tearing down each other and their neighbors, we should not spend one more dime on aid. (Washington Times) Observations: Are the Saudis Seeking Peace? - Dore Gold (Jerusalem Post)
Unsubscribe from Daily Alert |
|||||