Middle East Going to Crap -- Weekend Headlines

JINSA Report #678
Weekend Headlines
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs prepares a "Daily Alert" for The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. We share today's headlines straight off the page with a sinking feeling. Some stories require elucidation, and we will try later in the week, but in sum they suggest that Western political establishments are ill equipped to deal with, or even properly understand, the depth and breadth of the threat we face and the relationships among those who would destroy Israel and America.

* Six UN Peacekeepers Killed in Lebanon (NYT) and Al Qaeda suspected in Attack on UNIFIL (Jerusalem Post): (The IDF) warned in December of increasing signs that global Jihad elements were setting up a presence in Lebanon and were planning attacks against UNIFIL. He said global Jihad terror cells posed a direct threat to the multinational force in southern Lebanon.
* Kidnapped BBC Journalist Shown Wearing Explosives Belt (AP/Washington Post) "Captors tell me that very promising negotiations were ruined when the Hamas movement and the British government decided to press for a military solution to this kidnapping," Johnston says in the recording. And Report: Captured IDF Soldier Held in Booby-Trapped Gaza Building (Reuters/Haaretz)
* Iran Takes Step Nearer a Nuclear Bomb (Telegraph-UK): 100 kg of enriched uranium...enriched to the level needed to run civilian nuclear power stations. But if Iran chooses to enrich it to 84% purity, the uranium would reach weapons-grade level. Iran would need 50 kg of weapons-grade uranium to make one atomic weapon of the kind that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.
* U.S., Egypt at Odds on Gaza Border Curbs (LA Times) Cairo insists the threat is greatly exaggerated. "The truth of the matter is that the problem is not nearly as large as the [U.S.] allegations imply, and we're doing quite a bit already."
* Saudi Says No More Mediation between Palestinians (Reuters): Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said, "The kingdom played its part at the right time and so it will not return to the same effort."
* U.S. House Bans Aid to Saudi Arabia (AFP/Peninsula-Qatar): more than 2.5m dollars to the kingdom in FY 2005 and 2006 as part of their partnership in the war on terror...lawmakers said Hamas received more than half of its financing from Saudi Arabia, and last May alone the Saudi government planned to send 300m dollars to the group...also accused the Saudi government of undermining U.S. military efforts in Iraq by making "no official move" to stop about 3,000 Saudis allegedly fighting U.S. troops in the country.
* Israelis, Arabs Meeting to Shore Up Abbas (Haaretz)
* Shin Bet Chief: Hamas Planning Terror Attack (Ynet news)
* Egyptian Militant Leader Calls for Attacks in Support of Hamas (Reuters)
* Olmert Shelves Rice's Shelf Agreement (Haaretz): In Rice's view, merely reaching such an agreement in principle would provide the Palestinians with a "political horizon" and hope. Olmert...fears a situation in which Israel approves the agreement, but Abbas fails to sell it to the Palestinian public and then Israel might be pressured to make further concessions.
* Three Injured in Palestinian Rocket Attack (YNET) and Palestinians Shell Israeli Border Area Near Gaza Crossing (Jerusalem Post): Palestinian terrorists fired 11 mortars towards Israel Sunday afternoon, hitting an area near the Karni crossing.