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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:
Young U.S. Muslims Back Suicide Attacks - Jennifer Harper (Washington Times)
What Is Fatah Al-Islam? - Leena Saidi
(ABC News)
Hamas' Armed Wing Vows Not to Stop Rocket Fire (Reuters)
If Retirement Fund Has Tie to Iran, Tucson Wants to Cut It (Tucson Citizen)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Iran has again defied UN demands to suspend its nuclear enrichment programs, according to a report issued Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, leading Bush administration officials to demand increased pressure on Tehran. The IAEA report comes amid tension within the administration over how aggressively to respond to the continued Iranian defiance on a range of issues, including its nuclear program and support for international terrorism and violent insurgents in Iraq. Vice President Cheney's office and hard-liners on the National Security Council staff think the current carrot-and-stick strategy leans too far in the direction of carrots. At the same time, the State Department recently succeeded in getting President Bush's authorization to hold direct talks with Tehran on the situation in Iraq - something the president had repeatedly said he would not permit without a change in Tehran's behavior. The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq are due to begin a dialogue in Baghdad on Monday. The IAEA report said that during a surprise visit on May 13, nuclear inspectors found eight operating enrichment cascades - each with 164 centrifuges, for a total of 1,312 - being fed uranium hexafloride at the underground facility near Natanz. Five additional cascades were in various stages of completion. The number was more than four times the total number of centrifuges operating at the time of the last IAEA report, in February. But the level of enrichment - less than 5% - is substantially lower than the 90% required to make a nuclear weapon, and it is unclear how much Iran is producing and how smoothly the complicated machines are operating. (Washington Post) See also Iran Makes Steep Nuclear Gains, UN Says - Bob Drogin Defying the international community, Iran has sharply upgraded its capacity to enrich uranium in recent months while the outside world's access to and grasp of Iran's nuclear program "has deteriorated," according to a unusually blunt report Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency. "Iran is thumbing its nose at the international community," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in Washington. "We are not going to agree to accept limited enrichment, to accept that 1,300 centrifuges can continue spinning at their plant at Natanz." (Los Angeles Times) The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government. President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation, and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions. "I think everybody in the region knows that there is a proxy war already afoot with the United States supporting anti-Iranian elements in the region as well as opposition groups within Iran," said Vali Nasr, adjunct senior fellow for Mideast studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "And this covert action is now being escalated by the new U.S. directive." (ABC News) See also Iranian Money, Bomb-Making Material Found in Baghdad U.S.-led forces discovered a cache of Iranian money and bomb-making equipment during a raid Wednesday in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. has accused Iran of providing weapons and training to Shiite militant groups in Iraq, including powerful bombs used to penetrate the U.S. military's armored vehicles. (AP/Fox News) See also Sarkozy: Iran Must Cooperate or Face Tough Sanctions Iran has to decide whether it wants to cooperate with the international community regarding its nuclear program or face harsher sanctions, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the German magazine Cicero on Wednesday. "I for my part think one should not hesitate to toughen the sanctions," Sarkozy said. (Reuters) A stream of Palestinians flowing out of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli continued Wednesday, as the Lebanese Army reinforced its positions and vowed to crush the militants inside. Young men tied to various Lebanese political parties have arrived at the entrance to the camp carrying weapons in recent days, seeking to fight alongside the army, underscoring the growing tensions between Lebanese and Palestinians. (New York Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
In a continued crackdown on Hamas in the wake of Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza, the IDF arrested 33 senior Hamas leaders in the West Bank overnight Wednesday, including the PA education minister, three parliament members, and several mayors. The army also shut down ten Hamas offices in towns throughout the West Bank. "This is a terror group," an officer said, "and we will hunt them wherever they are." (Jerusalem Post) The IDF Spokesperson said: "The Hamas terror organization is currently involved in enhancing the terror infrastructure in the Judea and Samaria region - based on the model used in the Gaza Strip. The organization exploits governmental institutions to encourage and support terrorist activity." (IDF/IMRA) Israel agreed to extensive training of members of the Presidential Guard of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas near Jericho in the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian Presidential Guard is undergoing similar training in Egypt. The request for Israel to permit such extensive training was made through the Americans. Prior to this, Israel agreed to the transfer of thousands of rifles and ammunition to Abbas' Presidential Guard, but has refused to approve a request for the transfer of heavy machine guns. (Ha'aretz) Palestinian gunmen fired three Kassam rockets at Israel Thursday morning. Two landed near Sderot, and one fell near Kibbutz Nir Am. Four rockets were fired at Israel Wednesday evening. Two landed near Sderot and two landed south of Ashkelon. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The U.S. has the notion that by creating a political horizon in which Palestinians and Israelis could see what the end result of a negotiation would be, that would help to take care of the situation on the ground. But it's not going to be enough. It is going to have to be a process on the ground that creates a capable and responsible Palestinian partner, if there's ever going to be an agreement based on a two-state solution. Without that responsible and capable partner, you get what you've got today, which is Israeli withdrawal, Hamas, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda and Iran fill the vacuum, and instead of peace you get a continuation of war by other names. (Council on Foreign Relations) Lebanon's government would like us to believe Fatah Islam started the fighting there on Sunday on the orders of Damascus. Whether Syria is providing tactical help or not, at the end of the day Fatah Islam is the Syrian regime's mortal enemy. If the fighting were to somehow lead to an all-out civil war, Syrian stability will be undermined. Lebanon has had a Sunni fundamentalist element in the north for more than 25 years. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood used northern Lebanon as a rear base to seize the Syrian city of Hama in 1982. Lebanese Sunni, including fundamentalist Palestinians, were instrumental in the attack. In 2000, a Qaeda-affiliated group in northern Lebanon attacked the Lebanese army. Gaza is a mirror image of what is happening in Lebanon. Last year, Israelis have told me, Qaeda was growing like a fungus there, with both mainline Fatah and Hamas losing followers to it. In Gaza you could see the place was seething. But frankly the notion of bin Laden taking over sounded like propaganda to me. Now, though, watching the growing chaos, and with the kidnapping of a BBC journalist, I think the Israelis were right. (TIME) Observations: Palestinian Arabs Doing Violence to Own Cause - Youssef Ibrahim (New York Sun)
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