Al-Qaeda on the Ropes?
August 1, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
The Washington Post reported last week that US counter-terrorism officials
…are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed alQaeda to the brink of collapse. The assessment reflects a widespread view at the CIA and other agencies that a relatively small number of additional blows could effectively extinguish the Pakistan-based organization that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks…
While this is certainly very good news if true, it’s also important that such a claim not be misunderstood or over-dramatised…
The Pitfalls of the Palestinian UN Strategy/ The increased Gaza Threat
August 1, 2011
This Update features some more comment on the pitfalls of the problematic Palestinian strategy of seeking unilateral recognition of statehood at the UN.
First up is the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl, who argues that this policy is additional blunder by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. He points out that reconciliation with Hamas, part of the strategy to present a unified Palestinian front, has gone nowhere, Palestinians are increasingly questioning what a UN vote can accomplish, and economically, the PA is in deep trouble. He even raises the possibility that Abbas may be seeking to provoke Palestinians to take to the streets in a third Intifada.
Weakened Hezbollah Shifts Blame Towards Israel
August 1, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Last week marked the fifth anniversary of the Second Lebanon war, fought between Israel and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. Since the conflict concluded, Hezbollah has been systematically consolidating power in Lebanon and amassing arms for the next round of violence. However, there has not been a shot fired from Southern Lebanon into Israel for which Hezbollah has taken credit. This is in stark contrast to the situation before the incursion, when Hezbollah would periodically fire rockets and mortars into Israeli territory in order to raise tensions.
To mark the anniversary, Israeli academics Abraham Bell and Gerald Steinberg have written a piece in Ynet about a study that they are conducting on different NGO responses to the 2006 conflict, which has some rather disconcerting findings…
Iranian kettle meets pot
July 29, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Press TV, an Iranian state-controlled media outlet, has reported Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seemingly blaming some kind of pro-Israel conspiracy for the anti-Iranian sentiment permeating the Middle East,
“In the final days of their existence, plotters intend to cause difference and clash in our region to save the Zionist regime (Israel),” said President Ahmadinejad in the southwestern city of Ahvaz on Thursday…
UNRWA and Alternatives for Palestinian Refugees
July 29, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
The United Nations Relief and Works Administration (UNRWA) – set up in 1949 to look after the humanitarian needs of Palestinians – has long been the subject of controversy, with critics accusing it of deliberately perpetuating the refugee problem….
Now Israeli researcher Arlene Kushner has written, in the latest edition of Middle East Quarterly, a detailed compendium and deconstruction of many recent examples illustrating, in her words “The propensity for senior UNRWA staff to make inappropriate, incendiary, and highly politicized statements – in stark contrast to the organization’s mandate.”…
A new article at the Jerusalem Post offers an interesting example of what might be done if UNRWA’s insistence that Palestinian refugees must never be resettled, but must stay in refugee camps until the conflict is over, could be bypassed.
Ruthless terrorist group behind Somali famine
July 29, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
The catastrophic drought in East Africa has created an all-but unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Commendably, many world leaders – including Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd – have called for the international community to provide immediate aid relief to the millions who are suffering.
When describing the tragic situation in Somalia, Michel Gabaudan, the president of Refugees International, has made the allegation that the Somali famine is “man-made”. Gabaudan provides a pertinent reminder of the recent anarchic history of the war-ravaged nation…
A “Two-State Solution” or a “Two-Stage Solution”?
July 28, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
MEMRI has translated an interview with Nabil Shaath, Head of Foreign Relations in Fatah – the dominant party within the Palestinian Authority – which certainly provides cause for concern. Shaath essentially confesses that the PA’s commitment to a two-state solution is merely part of a larger plan to eventually end Israel’s existence as a Jewish homeland.
[The French initiative] reshaped the issue of the “Jewish state” into a formula that is also unacceptable to us – two states for two peoples. They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people. The story of “two states for two peoples” means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this…
Threats from Iran, Ambivalence from Egypt
July 27, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
As translated by Iranian defector Reza Kahlili, Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi responded to the recent assassination of an Iranian scientist, shot by an unidentified man on a motorcycle, by saying:
The main plot for this criminal act was conceived by the American government, and since it is scared of the reaction by the Muslim world due to the uprisings in the region, it had the Zionist regime commit the heinous act… In order to protect the security of our country, we have no option but to have the Zionist regime wiped off the map…
Israeli-Turkish impasse remains as report is delayed for a third time
July 26, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
While this year’s Gaza flotilla barely caused a stir, the ongoing saga of last year’s continues. Last night, the UN’s Palmer Commission confirmed rumours that the report that the release of the report they have prepared on last year’s effort will again be delayed in the hope that Israel and Turkey will settle their differences. As Herb Keinon reports in The Jerusalem Post:
The United Nations on Monday officially confirmed that the planned release Wednesday of the UN’s Palmer Commission report on the Mavi Marmara has been postponed until late August. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky gave no specific date for the much-delayed report, which officials in Jerusalem said on Sunday was now expected on…
‘Multi-Party’ Reform: Too Little, Too Late for Assad?
July 26, 2011 | Geoffrey Levin
In its biggest concession thus far to the protest movement that has swept the country, the Syrian cabinet on Sunday approved a bill permitting new political parties to exist alongside the Baath Party, which has ruled the country alone for over four decades. Yet the opposition understandably views the bill, which has yet to pass a vote before the parliament, with deep skepticism, as it comes after the government killed over 1,500 protestors. Al Jazeera reports:
Yasser Saadeldine, a Syrian opposition figure living in exile, said the new law “is designed to show on paper that the regime tolerates dissent while continuing killings and repression”.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin said that protesters are dismissing the draft law. The people are demanding “political freedoms, not just a law to organise how to form political parties”.
