[yshavurah] this week's snippets
- From: "Cherie Kurland" <kurlandc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Elaine Herrick gop" <veenker@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 07:28:18 -0400
Good News from Israel: From www.jcpa.org for 8/8/03: · Children's Hospital
Heals More Than Illness - Eileen Reinhard
Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel officially opened in 1992, and is
recognized as one of the most innovative pediatric institutions in the world.
The facility is also known for promoting "whole child care," where medical
treatment is accompanied by developmental, psychological, social, and
educational services. For the specific requirements of non-Jewish youngsters
and their families, the hospital employs multilingual staff. "My wife and I
believed that if an Arab mother came to this hospital and her child was cared
for, that would be a step toward lasting peace," Irving Schneider says. "Today,
almost a third of the patients at the hospital are non-Jewish. They are Druze
or Christian or Muslim." (Catholic Near East Welfare Association)
From http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/hizbullah/hezbollah.htm: updated
June 2003: Abstract
Since its inception in 1982, Hezbollah has conducted a terrorist campaign aimed
at promoting the radical Shiite-Islamic doctrine conceived by Iran?s spiritual
leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989. The basic principles of this
doctrine, which reflect the fundamental identity of Hezbollah as a Shiite jihad
organization, are 1) the consistent and relentless struggle against Israel
until the ?liberation of Jerusalem? and the annihilation of Israel are
achieved, and 2) intense hostility toward the United States, along with efforts
to force its presence and influence out of the Middle East. In order to achieve
these goals, Hezbollah has placed the use of terrorism against its enemies at
the focal point of its strategy of asymmetric conflict, with the weapon of
suicide as one of its key components. In Hezbollah?s view, the United States
and Israel have no adequate response to such weapon.
· During more than twenty years of its existence, Hezbollah has undergone a
remarkable process of organizational development. Starting as a local Lebanese
terrorist group, one among many others operating in Lebanon, it has grown into
a political movement with global capabilities in the sphere of terrorism, an
extensive military apparatus, and weapons that include land-to-land missiles.
The highest authority of this intricate organizational structure, which
encompasses civilian, military, and communal functions, is the Decision-Making
Shura Council (see below). The Shura has been headed since 1992 by Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah and the main architect of its policy.
Another member of the Shura is Nasrallah?s second-in-command, Imad Mughniyah,
who is in charge of Hezbollah?s military framework, including its terrorist
activity throughout the world and against Israel. Despite a tendency in Europe,
motivated by political interests, to differentiate between the military and
political wings of the organization, the leadership itself stresses time and
again that Hezbollah is a package entity, and that the distinction between its
military and political wings is merely technical.
· It goes without saying that Hezbollah would not have reached its present
status without the extensive assistance and backing of Iran and Syria. Iran,
which regards Hezbollah as a means of achieving its own ideological and
strategic goals, is a large-scale provider of military support to Hezbollah.
This includes first and foremost the al-Quds Force of Iran?s Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps in Lebanon. Iran also supplies Hezbollah with a
variety of military hardware, such as upgraded anti-aircraft and anti-tank
missiles, missile launchers, land-to-land missiles of various types, including
long-range (43 km) Fajr-3 missiles and Fajr-5 missiles (with a 75 km range).
Iranian assistance also comprises military training, logistic support, and
financial assistance estimated at several millions of US dollars yearly (in
addition to Hezbollah?s endeavors to generate its own financial resources
through fundraising in Western countries and through criminal activity, mostly
money counterfeiting and drug smuggling)?.
From
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/PrinterFull&cid=1060491342048
The IDF ? released a list of incidents on the Lebanese-Israeli border since the
army pulled out of southern Lebanon more than three years ago. [Editor?s Note:
this is considered ?relative calm? by some journalists.]
Incident Type# Since 2000# Killed# Wounded
Mortar shells & Anti-Tank Missiles on IDF Posts27326 (4 civilians)
Small Arms Fire66 civilians1 civilian
Anti-aircraft FireAt least weekly since 200202
Katyusha Rockets5 during 200201
From http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=536: August 9, 2003, 10:04 PM
(GMT+02:00) Jordanian Embassy Bombing and Hizballah Bombardment - Dual Show of
Tehran's Muscle
?.DEBKAfile?s Middle East sources point out that the Hizballah is not
authorized to carry out attacks on a scale as extensive as this without a very
clear directive from the highest levels of government in Tehran and Damascus.
Ominous meanings may therefore be read into the timing and targeting of this
round of Hizballah strikes.
1. It is a hands-off warning from Tehran to Washington to stop stirring up
domestic dissent against the Iranian regime and ease its pressure with regard
to Tehran?s nuclear weapons program. It is a reminder that Tehran is capable of
activating two anti-American terror fronts, one through al Qaeda in Iraq and a
second through the Hizballah against Israel. Tehran?s radicals also believe
they command a third potential warfront, the Shiite millions of Iraq.
2. Tehran is boasting that in addition to al Qaeda in Iraq and the Hizballah
threatening northern Israel, it commands a third resource capable of damaging
American interests ? the Assad regime in Damascus. The Hizballah bombardment of
the Golan Heights which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war signified
Damascus?s assent to Hizballah?s incorporation in a Syrian military offensive
against Israel staged on the Golan Heights.
3. Syria is already deeply involved in pumping a motley assortment of Arab,
Syrian, Palestinian, Egypt, Saudi, Yemen and Sudanese fighters across its
border to fight the Americans alongside Saddam Hussein?s supporters. Syrian
military intelligence also plays host to al Qaeda terrorists in Damascus and
southern Lebanon. Given Syria?s adversarial role in both of the Bush
administration?s main conflicts, the Hizballah escalation of violence against
Israel rounds off Tehran?s threat to active all three military-terrorist fronts
at the same time, along a line running from Baghdad to Israel?s borders with
Lebanon and Syria - unless Washington turns the heat down.
From www.jcpa.org for 8/8/03: · UN Still a Stage for Anti-Israel Incitement -
Shlomo Shamir
Cash continues to flow from the UN budget to finance activities, slogans,
and materials that deal with obsolete Middle Eastern affairs. The UN
International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People
will convene September 4-5, at UN headquarters in New York, just prior to the
opening of the UN General Assembly. Israel's deputy UN ambassador, Arye Mekel,
noted that the term "terror" as an obstacle to peace does not appear on the
conference's agenda. "This event," says Mekel, "is a blatant example of an
approach on the part of the UN that is completely cut off from reality. There
is cooperation with PA Prime Minister Abu Mazen and signs of progress in the
[peace] process, and the UN continues to act as if nothing were happening on
the ground." (Ha'aretz)
--- Cherie Kurland
--- kurlandc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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