DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

UN: People in Gaza Aren't Starving - Patrick Martin (Globe and Mail-Canada)
    Although conditions in Gaza are far from ideal, many Gazans are able to get by on what the Hamas-controlled smuggling tunnels provide.
    Coupled with a large surplus of fruit and vegetables, the vast majority of people in Gaza aren't wanting for food.
    Reports that 50% of children are suffering from malnutrition are exaggerations, says Khaled Abdel Shaafi, director of the UN Development Program. "It's an economic crisis, a political crisis, but it's not a humanitarian crisis. People aren't starving," he said.
    The market in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, is packed with products and with shoppers.

Calls in Iran to Topple Egyptian, Saudi Regimes - Y. Mansharof (MEMRI)
    Iran's attacks and accusations against Egypt and Saudi Arabia have recently intensified. In early December, Iran's leading conservative government dailies Kayhan and Jomhouri-ye Eslami accused the Egyptian and Saudi regimes of treason, and called on their peoples to topple their regimes.
    Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari, who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, praised Khaled Islambouli, the assassin of the late Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat, and called to follow his example.
    See also Iranian Group Attacks Saudi Airline Office Over Peace Plan (AP-International Herald Tribune)
    A militant group attacked the office of Saudi Arabia's state-owned airline in Tehran over a Saudi-backed peace initiative with Israel.
    The group - Ikhwan al-Radwan, or Brothers of Heaven - attacked the Saudi Arabian Airlines office with several Molotov cocktails Wednesday, an Iranian state-run newspaper reported Saturday.

Israel: Hamas Representative Not Identified in Guardian Column - Anshel Pfeffer (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
    The Guardian has refused to publish a letter from Israeli Embassy press attache in London Lior Ben-Dor complaining that a Nov. 21 article by Palestinian academic Azzam Tamimi had not properly identified him as Hamas' London representative.
    Ben -Dor wrote: "It is truly lamentable that the Guardian chose to give Tamimi such a prestigious platform. It is even more lamentable that the paper did not inform the readers who Tamimi really is and what he represents," writing that Tamimi "is de facto Hamas' spokesperson and representative in London."

Norway - A Paradigm for Anti-Semitism - Manfred Gerstenfeld (Jerusalem Post)
    Among parts of the Norwegian elite, Jew-hatred and rabid anti-Israelism intermingle.
    The Jewish population, even before the war, was never more than 2,000 and now numbers 1,300. Yet Norway must figure prominently in any future history of post-war European anti-Semitism.
    During the war, the Norwegians rounded up Jews and robbed them before shipping them off to Auschwitz. After the war, Jews were robbed further by the Norwegian democrats.
    During the restitution process, they had to pay for the administration of those of their assets recovered from the looters.
    The writer is the author of Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

Observations:

Israel Responds to IAEA's Letter on Syria's Nuclear Site - Nili Lifshitz (Wall Street Journal)

• The International Atomic Energy Agency's letter of Dec. 3 ("Probing Syria's Nuclear Project") defending the agency's record in investigating Syria is astonishing, but not surprising, Each time the agency comes under political criticism for handling of a Middle Eastern country's flagrant breaches of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or its safeguards agreement, the agency immediately resorts to publicly invoking Israel's name.
• Compliance with legally binding nonproliferation commitments is the cornerstone of an effective global regime. Past and present practices by four Middle Eastern countries which exploit their NPT membership to disguise the true nature of their nuclear programs have been a source of grave concern to the international community. The IAEA should take responsibility for the manner in which it has been dealing with these four countries, none of which is Israel.
• The claim that Israel is withholding critical information on the site is nothing but a smokescreen. Targeting Israel will not absolve IAEA of its prime duty to get to the bottom of Syria's nuclear activities.
• Only a different approach by the agency, one which focuses on its professional mission, will reinstate its reputation and credibility in the mission to uncover clandestine nuclear programs and effectively handle dangerous proliferation activity by rogue regimes.

  The writer is spokeswoman for the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.