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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:
Iran Says U.S. Report a "Declaration of Surrender" (Reuters)
Israel Officials in U.S. to Discuss Iran - Amy Teibel (AP/Washington Post)
Guilty Pleas in Terror Plot Against Southern California Jewish Targets - Gillian Flaccus (AP/Newsweek)
Palestinian Children on Hamas TV: "We Will Wipe Out the People of Zion and Will Not Leave a Single One" (MEMRI-TV)
Palestinian Militants in Nablus Halting Attacks Against Israel (AP/International Herald Tribune)
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Secretary of State Rice said Sunday militant Palestinians, not Israel, are to blame for deteriorating conditions in Gaza. "The responsibility for what is happening in Gaza should be put directly on the shoulders of Hamas," Rice said as she flew to Paris for a gathering of world donors to the Palestinians. "It is the policies of Hamas that have led to its own isolation and by implication Gaza as well," Rice said. "Of course we're very concerned, but let's put the blame where it should be, and that's on Hamas," she added. (AP) Major powers and key donors meet in Paris Monday for a one-day conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to help the emergence of a viable Palestinian state and give political impetus to the newly-relaunched peace process with Israel. The Middle East Quartet is expected to meet on the sidelines of the conference. (AFP/Yahoo) See also Saudis' $1.4B Support for Palestinians in Doubt - Donald Macintyre Saudi Arabia has so far refused to commit to budget support for the emergency government set up by Mahmoud Abbas, in a political move casting a shadow over Monday's international donors' conference in Paris. One key reason may be Saudi Arabia's reluctance to be seen throwing its weight behind one of the two parties to the coalition deal which it brokered and which then collapsed in Hamas' seizure of Gaza in June. (Independent-UK) See also Israel: "Arabs Will Pay Little to PA" - Herb Keinon Arab states participating in Monday's donor conference in Paris are likely to pledge generously to the Palestinian Authority, but not pay much of their pledges, partly so as not to antagonize Hamas, Israeli diplomatic officials said Sunday. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who arrived in Paris Sunday for the conference, said: "The formula that needs to guide us is on the one hand that a Palestinian economy and the road to a Palestinian state is in Israel's interest, just as Israeli security needs to be a Palestinian interest." (Jerusalem Post) A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza scored a direct hit on a house in Kibbutz Zikim, an Israeli communal farm less than a mile from Gaza, wounding a 2-year-old boy. The toddler was hit by shrapnel and taken to hospital, and his mother was being treated for shock, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. (AP/Washington Post) Yair Farjun, who leads the regional council which includes Kibbutz Zikim, told the Israeli Web site Ynet: "Everybody here is terrified. It's like being in a shooting range, like living on borrowed time." (New York Times) See also Palestinian Rocket Hits Kibbutz Factory - Rebecca Anna Stoil Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket that slammed into a kibbutz factory near Gaza on Friday evening. The plant normally operates 24 hours a day, but fortunately was empty at the time. It destroyed equipment, but there were no casualties. Shrapnel was scattered throughout the coffee corner, where workers take their breaks. (Jerusalem Post) About 200,000 Gazans rallied in support of Hamas on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of its founding, in a significant show of force. It was easily as large as one a month ago for its rival, Fatah, on the anniversary of Arafat's death. Central Gaza City was filled with green flags, and a large banner reading "We will not recognize Israel" adorned the back of the stage. (New York Times) See also Hamas Vows Never to Recognize Israel - Avi Issacharoff Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said that whoever declares he will never recognize Israel earns "the people's love." The crowd chanted: "We will never recognize Israel." In a fiery speech, Haniyeh cited the achievements of Hamas and "the resistance" throughout the region. He cited Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005, and the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He also listed Afghanistan and Iraq against the U.S.-led forces. Hamas parliament member Mushir al-Masri warned against a possible Israeli incursion into Gaza, saying that Hamas "has already begun to dig graves for the Jews." (Ha'aretz) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The world does not yet appreciate the gravity of the Iranian nuclear threat, Maj.-Gen. Benny Gantz, the IDF's incoming military attache to the U.S., said in an interview. Gantz said that despite the U.S. NIE report's findings, it was possible that Iran was continuing its development of nuclear weapons. "In a large country like Iran, in a culture like Iran, the ability to do things covertly is not something that seems so farfetched." (Jerusalem Post) The U.S. is examining the possibility of helping Egypt build a physical barrier to foil the weapons-smuggling tunnels that run from Sinai to Gaza. A few weeks ago, Robert Danin of the State Department and Mark Kimmitt of the Defense Department went to Sinai to investigate Israel's claim that the Egyptians were not doing enough to stop weapons-smuggling into Gaza. In their report, the two proposed several possible solutions: give the Egyptians sophisticated tunnel-detection and demolition equipment; dig a deep canal the entire length of the Gaza-Egypt border, filled with water; create an obstacle comprised of piles driven deep into the earth. (Ha'aretz) See also below Observations: The Smuggling Tunnels - Amos Harel (Ha'aretz) For several years now, a white river has run through the Hebron Hills with waste from a sawmill near Hebron, threatening the groundwater inside Israel and impeding attempts to rehabilitate Israel's rivers. Israel has tried to deal with the problem by collecting and purifying the waste at the boundary between Israel and the West Bank. But that is insufficient because much pollution enters the groundwater in the West Bank and spreads to Israel underground. The problem is documented in a two-year study conducted by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University and the Palestinian Water and Environmental Development Organization. The study found that the Basor River, which runs from near Hebron to Gaza, is now full of both municipal waste and toxins emitted by the stone- and leather-working industries around Hebron. It estimated that from 45 to 90% of the pollution seeps into the ground before the river reaches the Israeli treatment plant. While the Alexander River has improved substantially, the study said, it still is being polluted by municipal waste and the olive oil industries around Nablus and Tulkarm, and about half of the pollution on the Palestinian side seeps into the groundwater before reaching the "green line." (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Wednesday's car bombing of Lebanese General Francois Hajj is something of a mystery because he was not an overt foe of Syria. Hajj made a name for himself earlier this year by routing Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni terrorist group that had been hiding out in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. This led to speculation that Hajj was killed by that group to avenge its defeat. While that may be true, what's more significant is that Fatah al-Islam is widely suspected of being controlled and aided by Damascus. The sophistication of the bomb that killed Hajj - a remote-control device similar to the one that killed anti-Syrian figures Gebran Tueni, Walid Eido and Antoine Ghanem - underscores that suspicion. On Tuesday, Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa remarked that "no one in Lebanon, even with foreign support, can win the battle against Syria." The next day Hajj was dead, which was a perfect illustration of Sharaa's point. (Wall Street Journal) Last month the Ministry of Housing issued a tender for the construction of some 300 apartment units in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem. Immediately, Palestinian spokesmen screamed bloody murder and U.S. Secretary of State Rice joined the chorus and expressed her opposition. Seven years ago enemy snipers attacked southern Jerusalem. During the first two years of the second intifada, more than 400 shooting attacks were unleashed on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and its 40,000 residents from the nearby Arab town of Beit Jala. Ignoring the fact that the neighborhood consisted of major apartment complexes, schools and shopping centers, much of the world press condoned the attacks on the "Israeli settlement." The British press was quick to claim that Gilo was "illegal under international law." Har Homa, established in 1997, is another Jewish neighborhood on Jerusalem's southern flanks. With an estimated 6,000 residents, the suburb is a strategic impediment to Palestinian attempts to link up northern Bethlehem with Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem is ringed by neighborhoods built after 1967. They house about one-third of Jerusalem's burgeoning population, and they also serve to protect the city. The neighborhood of Ramot serves as a buffer to the north; Mount Scopus, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Sanhedria protect Jerusalem's east; and Gilo and Har Homa serve as a buffer to the south. The writer served as Israel's deputy chief of mission in Washington. (Jerusalem Post) Observations: The Smuggling Tunnels - Amos Harel (Ha'aretz)
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