Ethan Bronner of the New York Times has an excellent piece today on Hamas’s arms buildup in Gaza, based on a report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

AJC’s Terrorism Expert Yehudit Barsky examines Hamas’s quest for legitimacy, and its quest for arms, in this AJC briefing:

The repercussions of Hamas’s border breach into Egypt in January have yet to be fully appreciated. The long-term impact on the security of both Israel and Egypt, as well as on the wider region, deserves international scrutiny so the threat of Hamas can be contained and defeated.

From Hamas’ perspective, destruction of the border wall broke the sanctions imposed by Israel and the international community on the Hamas government and brought Gaza back into the fold of the Arab and Muslim worlds. Hamas saw the action as another victory not just for itself, but for Islamist movements worldwide. Its first triumph was the July 2007 coup against the Palestinian Authority that resulted in its takeover of Gaza.

continue reading "The Hamas Offensive"

The New York Times published today a devastating report on Hamas’s increased incitement against Jews in Gaza:

“Jews are a people who cannot be trusted,” Imam Yousif al-Zahar of Hamas told the faithful. “They have been traitors to all agreements — go back to history. Their fate is their vanishing. Look what they are doing to us.” …

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Such incitement against Israel and Jews was supposed to be banned under the 1993 Oslo accords and the 2003 “road map” peace plan. While the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has made significant, if imperfect efforts to end incitement, Hamas, no party to those agreements, feels no such restraint.

Since Hamas took over Gaza last June, routing Fatah, Hamas sermons and media reports preaching violence and hatred have become more pervasive, extreme and sophisticated, on the model of Hezbollah and its television station Al Manar, in Lebanon.

A new AJC-Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education study, Palestinian Textbooks: From Arafat to Abbas and Hamas, focuses on hate in Palestinian texbooks used in school is Gaza and the West Bank.

Sderot, an Israeli town under daily rocket attack from Hamas-controlled Gaza, is the focus of efforts by AJC for international attention.

The New York Times published over the weekend a letter from AJC’s Director of Communications Kenneth Bandler:

More than 7,000 Qassam rockets have landed in Sderot since 2001. Residents have barely 15 seconds to get to the safety of an air raid shelter after the “red alarm” sounds. That can happen 20 or more times in a single day, Mayor Eli Moyal told me on a recent visit.

Infolive.tv, Israel’s first web-based television news site, featured the recent visit to Sderot by AJC’s Board of Governors. AJC President Richard J. Sideman was extensively interviewed.

David Bernstein

In 1989, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman published his best seller, From Beirut to

Jerusalem. A foreign correspondent initially based in the war-torn capital of Lebanon, Friedman chronicled how this once peaceful “Paris of the

Middle East” had come apart at the seams and descended into factional violence and chaos.

After spending nearly five years in Beirut, and in much need of a breather, Friedman moved to

Jerusalem, where he reported on the painful dilemmas facing a society divided along ideological, ethnic and religious lines.

The thesis of Friedman’s book was that Israelis “could end up like the Lebanese: arguing first in the parliament and then in the streets.” In other words,

Israel, too, might fall part.

Having just returned from an AJC national board mission to Israel and

Germany, I am more convinced than ever that Freidman, a commentator I greatly admire, overstated the risks of a social and political meltdown.
continue reading "From Jerusalem to Berlin"

Joseph Rosenberg, Guest Writer

If the purpose of my first two trips to Israel, in the winter of 2004 and summer of 2005, was to paint me a marvelous picture of the country, and to enable me to affirm my support for the Jewish state, then the purpose of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) “Israel at 60″ mission was to give that picture a frame.

That frame, of course, came in the form of meetings with scholars, visits to controversial locations on the ground, and talks with people who in some way represent the “other side,” with points of view that are suitable for only the most mature, open-minded audiences.

continue reading "Reflections on the ICC Sixty at Sixty Mission"

SDEROT, ISRAEL – This small town of 20,000, located within walking distance of Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip, should be on everyone’s mind. As things go in Sderot, so they will go in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And, for all who truly desire peace, what’s happening to Sderot, and how the predicament of its residents has been virtually ignored, gives scant hope. The international community ought to be paying closer attention.

Sderot, and other communities in the western Negev region of Israel, has been the target of some 2,400 rockets since the beginning of 2007, and thousands more since 2000, launched by Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. That’s about one rocket every three and a half hours over the last year, targeting almost exclusively civilians. Imagine trying to live, raise children, conduct normal civilian activities under these conditions.

continue reading "The Agony of Sderot"

Eight years ago, Mauritania became the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. This momentous action occurred without fanfare, and even today is not as widely known as it ought to be.

The other two, Egypt and Jordan, signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively, and shortly thereafter opened embassies and exchanged ambassadors. These challenged the longstanding conviction among Arab leaders that diplomatic ties with Israel would be established only in the context of a full Israeli-Palestinian peace. But, bordering Israel, and having engaged in costly warfare, Egypt and Jordan proceeded without waiting for a resolution of the Palestinian situation, which has held Arab-Israeli relations virtually hostage for 60 years.

continue reading "The Mauritania Principle"

Watch the AJC video on the 1947 UN partition vote that led to the creation of the state of Israel. The video is now on YouTube.

David Bernstein, Guest Writer

Israel’s upcoming 60th birthday provides a great opportunity to take a step back from the day to day and assess the bigger picture.

It’s easy to be drawn into a pessimistic outlook about Israel’s future. There’s plenty of evidence to support such gloominess: much of the Arab world’s continuing rejection of the Jewish State’s right to exist; the rising tide of Muslim extremism; the menacing threat of Iran; the growing social, economic and religious cracks within Israeli society.

These problems are all very real and must be taken seriously. But they only tell part of the story, and can dangerously obscure our view of the larger, more positive portrait of Israel’s remarkable achievements. Such “we’re doomed” pessimism is dangerous, for it can skew our vision, sap our resolve, and wind up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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continue reading "Optimism for Israel at 60"

[audio:KevinParkerInterview110607.mp3]

New York State Senator Kevin Parker recently traveled to Israel on a Project Interchange Seminar for legislators involved with energy legislation. Parker visited the AJC studio and discussed his impressions of Israel on his first visit and energy policy.

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