NON PAPERS

Excerpts: Egyptian instability +++AL-AHRAM WEEKLYMore danger in random terrorism" By Magdi Mehanna FULL TEXT: Where civil crimes are concerned, criminals and victims normally stand on opposite sides of the fence. Political crimes are different: the criminal can also be the victim. Take the incident in the Al- Azhar neighbourhood that we all rushed to condemn. The man who committed the crime, Hassan Bashindi, was described as an engineering student who blew himself up in a district crowded with tourists and Egyptians. I don't suppose he had ever thought of looking into the consequences of this act of terrorism, nor do I believe he ever had a clear idea about the purpose of such a deed. According to available information, this criminal was a young man from a poor family living in one of the Qalyoubia governorate's crowded shantytown neighbourhoods. By all accounts he was a hardworking, successful student. Would he get the chance of a respectable job once he'd graduated? He must have heard of the armies of unemployed young graduates. Like millions of others he followed events around him: Israel's tyranny and the threat to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque in the face of Arab impotence, America's occupying armies pouring into Arab capitals and the sense of outrage and shame felt by every Egyptian towards the occupation's treatment of Iraqi citizens and the casual manner in which their blood was spilt and lives taken away. [IMRA: Mainly by Iraqis.] This sense of weakness -- both internal and external -- coupled with feelings of despair, frustration and hopelessness, makes Bashindi more of a victim than a criminal. Before he thought of committing a crime, he was contemplating a life no better than death. This week's Soapbox speaker is former editor-in-chief 0f Al-Wafd newspaper. +++HAARETZ 28 April'05:"In Cairo, Friday is military day"By Zvi Bar'el QUOTES FROM TEXT: "Squad after squad, these security forces are stationed along the sidewalks, in double rows, standing close together ... waiting for the prayers to end and the danger to pass" " 'They have taken over the Bar Association, they are in all the associations, they have schools and clinics, they hand out food and money to the poor' " " 'during Nasser's regime, there was more freedom than now' " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXCERPTS: CAIRO - The sidewalk near the Al-Azher mosque is too narrow. On one side is the mosque fence, ...and on the other, a safety railing made of thick metal pipes. On a normal day, these two obstacles leave a passage of about 1.5 meters; on Fridays, it shrinks to a few dozen centimeters. The rest ... is taken up by a squad of security guards ... carrying ... nightsticks and equipped with safety shields against demonstrators and stone throwers. Squad after squad, these security forces are stationed along the sidewalks, in double rows, standing close together ... waiting for the prayers to end and the danger to pass. Anyone trying to enter the Al-Azher mosque during the prayer services has no choice but to pass through dozens of police officers and soldiers, who will scrutinize his face and walk, and will not hesitate to use force if he arouses suspicion and shove him into one of dozens of military trucks that have been converted into improvised paddy wagons for demonstrators. The vans are fitted with small barred windows, handcuffs wait on the seats ... . This is the situation near the Al-Azher mosque, as well as near the school for gifted children next to another mosque in the city, and next to the Al-Fateh mosque, and near the Al-Nur mosque. Friday has turned into military day. {IMRA: Indicates potential instability.] . . . Two weeks ago, four tourists were killed near ... the huge tourist market, very near the Al-Azher mosque. Egypt hurried to announce that it had found the attackers ... members of an extremist religious movement. Immediately ... came an official announcement saying that "everything was under control." "How can they tell us that everything is under control when we see so many soldiers ...," says the manager of a tourist agency ... . Each time a terror attack of this kind occurs, he and his colleagues panic. They will not soon forget what happened in 1997 to Egyptian tourism after the terror attack at Luxor, the largest tourist site in southern Egypt. For almost three years, tourism to Egypt was frozen, and when it finally started to recover, the Palestinian intifada started. To tourists ... it does not really matter exactly where the shooting is taking place - Arabs are Arabs. ... there are tourists in Egypt. Not large clusters, just a couple here and a small group there, but their presence can certainly be felt. "Fortunately, the attack at Taba passed relatively easily," says the manager of the tourist agency. "Perhaps tourists in Europe really thought that we only planned to attack Israelis, and that here in Cairo, where there are very few Israeli tourists, nothing can happen to them. But now, this attack near Al-Azher is once again awakening the fear. And what if the religious organizations return to the streets?" . . . And his fear has a basis. The opposition newspapers show ... the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood ... Mahdi Akef, does not rule out a political coalition with the Christian Copts. Akef's people can be seen in the narrow alleyways of the poor neighborhoods, but also in the center of Cairo. On Friday, in the midday prayers, when there is not enough room in the mosques for everyone, the worshippers fill the nearby streets and block them until the prayers are over. Among them, one can see "those with shining eyes and stylized beards," as an Egyptian journalist describes the "Brothers." He himself prays every Friday, "but not with them." `They are everywhere' "They are many," ... They have taken over the Bar Association, they are in all the associations, they have schools and clinics; they hand out money and food to the poor; they know how to win over audiences. ... If free elections were allowed, all kinds of crazy coalitions could pop up. [IMRA:So, despite Bush, elections aren't necessarily good news.] We have learned to love the current leader, whether his name is Nasser or Sadat or Mubarak. Do we know anyone who is able and is worthy to take his place?" After... the film, "I Love the Cinema," at the film festival, a long discussion is held on the meaning of the film, which describes the life of a Coptic family. On the stage sit the screenwriter, Hany Fawzy, the director Osama Fawzy (no relation) and three of the lead actors. ,,, Suddenly, screenwriter Fawzy takes the microphone and says... "There are those among us who claim that during Nasser's regime, there was more freedom than now. I tell you that we did enjoy true freedom then and we do not now." The audience, made up mostly of young people, breaks into prolonged applause. The second time the audience is aroused to applause is when the director Fawzy ... condemns "that gang that dominates all our cultural life. And not only our cultural life." . . .
FORD FOUNDATION NGO FUNDING UPDATE - IMPLEMENTATION OF POST-DURBAN GUIDELINES IS SLOW AND LACKS TRANSPARENCY FORD FOUNDATION NGO FUNDING UPDATE - IMPLEMENTATION OF POST-DURBAN GUIDELINES IS SLOW AND LACKS TRANSPARENCY For annotated report - www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v3n09/FordFoundationUpdateApril05Text.htm As documented by NGO Monitor, the Ford Foundation provided funding to a number of human-rights based NGOs that engaged in demonization and anti-Israel activities. In response to the controversy, particularly after the 2001 Durban Conference, Ford Foundation President Susan V. Berresford initiated a review in December 2003 and pledged that Ford would act to ensure that funds no longer went to "groups that promote or condone bigotry or violence, or that challenged the very existence of legitimate, sovereign states like Israel." Previous NGO Monitor updates have noted limited progress in fulfilling this declaration, with a number of highly politicized NGOs continuing to receive Ford funding. As the following update demonstrates, implementation is taking place, but slowly, and with very limited transparency. 1) On 20 December 2004, NGO Monitor drew Ford's attention to the activities of the Al-Dameer Association of Human Rights, the recipient of a ,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in 2004. Al-Dameer engages in anti-Israel demonization while condoning Palestinian terrorism. In addition it is a member of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), which played a key role at the 2001 Durban conference. NGO Monitor's analysis was sent to the Ford Foundation, whose Assistant Secretary and Associate General Counsel, Nancy Feller replied on 3 December 2004: "Thank you for your communication of November 24. As you know, we put such information through an established review process, which we will do in this case." No further correspondence on this issue has been received. 2) The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network continues to receive grants. This EU-based organization has repeatedly launched politicized attacks on Israel and chose to highlight criticism of the assassination of Hamas terrorist leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin through links on its website to politicized Palestinian NGOs. 3) Ford's list for 2004 indicates that it is no longer funding a number of highly politicized NGOs. These include the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights - Israel , MIFTAH and the Habitat International Coalition. Despite this, both PCHR and PHR-I continue to list the Ford Foundation as a major donor, and this contradiction must be addressed. In addition, Ford's funding guidelines have led to protests from a number of US universities such as Harvard. This issue is outside of NGO Monitor's mandate, other than to note that the primary cause of the guidelines was Ford's recognition of the abuses of funding by NGOs in the Durban framework, rather than other Ford grantees.
[Israel leaving regardless]West Bank Militants Have Anti-Aircraft Missiles, Anti-Tank Rockets If Israel were a normal country Israel would be insisting that the Palestinians hand over the anti-aircraft missiles before ANY easing of security measures - and certainly before even more Palestinian cities are converted to cities of refuge with all wanted terrorists located in the cities of refuge granted immunity for past crimes and offered a job in PA security forces to boot. But Israel is a special country - and in order to both please President Bush and satisfy a blind desire to make "progress" the Government of Israel simply cannot let the reality of the anti-aircraft missile threat interfere with Mr. Sharon's plans (just as the reality that the Egyptians have total control over the weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza and Israel cannot interfere with Mr. Sharon' desire to hand over control of the Philadelphi Corridor to Egypt. What then will happen? Following the long honored Israeli tradition of ex-disaster investigations, there is no question that if, God forbid, terrorists manage to shoot a passenger jet out of the sky and/or force down a plane into a populated area with anti-aircraft missiles that a committee of inquiry will be appointed to investigate the gross failure of the authorities to seriously address the threat. It should be noted that if a missile strikes a jet but fails to cause significant damage that this may not necessarily count - much as Palestinian rocket attacks don't count until someone is seriously wounded.]. The Shin Bet revealed at a high-level security meeting two weeks ago that Bedouin from Egypt and Israel's Negev have succeeded in smuggling anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to West Bank terrorists. In the wake of this intelligence information, it was decided that the Israeli-Egyptian border had become an actual strategic threat and there was a need to redeploy Israeli forces accordingly.
Document: Pres. Bush ignored Saudis holding back 1.5 million barrels/day from market in joint statement #1 President Bush's DOE: Saudis holding back 1.5 million barrels/day from market Energy Information Administration/Short-Term Energy Outlook -- April 2005 Table 3a. OPEC Oil Production (Thousand Barrels Per Day) Saudi Arabia : March 2005 Production 9,500 Surplus Capacity 1,000 - 1,500 Notes: "Capacity" refers to maximum sustainable production capacity, defined as the maximum amount of production that: 1) could be brought online within a period of 30 days; and 2) sustained for at least 90 days...The amount of Saudi Arabian spare capacity that can be brought online is shown as a range, because a short delay may be needed to achieve the higher level. www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/pdf/3atab.pdf Energy Information Administration - United States Department of Energy #2 President Bush ignores Saudi's withheld capacity, instead "appreciates" "commitment" to expand it in future "Both nations pledge to continue their cooperation so that the oil supply from Saudi Arabia will be available and secure. The United States appreciates Saudi Arabia's strong commitment to accelerating investment and expanding its production capacity to help provide stability and adequately supply the market." Joint Statement by President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Crawford, Texas April 25, 2005 www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/04/20050425-8.html
Putin's Moscow peace conference idea From Cairo on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the idea of holding an international peace conference in Moscow in the autumn, yet another idea that did not go down well in Jerusalem. The officials said that an interest to gain influence in a region that Kremlin leaders have long viewed as their "immediate backyard" was behind Putin's offer to host a Mideast conference. Putin said he would raise the issue at his meeting with Sharon on Thursday. "I am suggesting that we should convene a conference for all these countries concerned [with the Mideast peace process] and the Quartet, next autumn," Putin said in Russian during a joint press conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Russia is a member of the Quartet, along with the US, EU and UN. Senior Israeli and US officials quickly poured cold water on the international conference idea. "Israel has a standing policy that there can be no international conference that in any way, either overtly or latently, seeks to circumvent the road map," a senior source in Jerusalem said. "This is not acceptable to us, and is not acceptable to the US." Another official, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, said Israel is not in principle opposed to an idea of an international conference, as long as it takes place in the second stage of the road map. "We are not in stage one or two of the road map," Regev said, "and have to go through those stages before holding an international conference." The Road Map states explicitly that an international conference will be convened in Phase 2 "to support Palestinian economic recovery and launch a process, leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders." White House press secretary Scott McClellan echoed Israel's position at his daily press briefing. "In terms of an international conference, we have to look at where we are right now," he said. "The road map does call for an international conference. We believe there will be an appropriate time for an international conference, but we are not at that stage now and I don't expect that we will be there by the fall. We need to continue to focus our efforts on the disengagement plan." At the same time, senior sources in Jerusalem said Israel was reserving final judgment until it heard directly from Putin what he had in mind. Israel came out strongly last year against British Prime Minister Tony Blair's suggestion to hold an international conference in London, only to accept the idea when Blair came here in December and explained that it would not be a peace conference, but rather a conference to help the Palestinians prepare for the day after disengagement.
The Jewish World / A Russian paradox   President Putin's visit to Israel is taking place against a background of three apparently contradictory trends in Russian-Jewish life: Increasing reports of anti-Semitic incidents, which Putin soundly condemns, and a significant return of immigrants in Israel from the former Soviet Union back to their nations of origin. However, most of those who return maintain an Israeli identity and retain their Israeli passport. In Moscow, the verdict in the trial against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder and major owner of the Yukos oil company, will be publicized in coming weeks. Human rights groups describe Khodorkovsky's trial as political window-dressing, but many Jews believe that anti-Semitic undertones accompany the trial. There are two national Jewish organizations operant in Russia and throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States: The Federation of Jewish Communities, controlled by Chabad and supported by Putin, and the Russian Jewish Congress, which is steadily losing its independence and is also subject to the influence of Putin's constituents. The Russian Jewish Congress is connected with the World Jewish Congress, whose headquarters are in New York. The federation is led by Rabbi Berel Lazar, whom Putin promoted to the position of (second) chief rabbi of Russia. Dr. Michael Chlenov, secretary general of the Eurasian Jewish Congress, the umbrella organization for Jewish congresses on both continents, recently declared, "The ideological situation in Russia continues to be cause for great concern. One of the points [mentioned] by Jewish groups and human rights organizations is the absence of motivation, on the part of the government, to prevent the spread of racist and anti-Semitic hatred ... To date, the government has acted almost exclusively against left-wing extremists, allowing right-wing extremists to operate freely, and in some cases, officially." A survey publicized by the World Jewish Congres this month concluded that current Russian anti-Semitism has its roots in traditional religious and nationalist sensibilities that consider Jews to be "strangers in the Russian landscape and Christ killers." The survey found a common belief that Jews are responsible for the rise of communism and millions of deaths during the Soviet regime. On the other hand, communist extremists blame Jews for the collapse of communism and the Soviet system. In summation, the survey stated that "the meaning of this is that the Communist Party is one of the leaders of the anti-Semitic trend." The most prominent expressions of the current wave of anti-Semitism, besides acts of violence, are two petitions, circulated by leading political and cultural figures and signed by hundreds, calling for the banning of Jewish organizations in Russia. These petitions call Jews "enemies of the [Russian] nation and society" and "anti-Christian and inhumane, to the point of ritual murder." Racism ignored Putin soundly condemned these petitions. Putin also said that his description of statements made by Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko as "Zionist, anti-Russian" slogans was a slip, and that he meant to say, "anti-Semitic, anti-Russian." However, he recently reiterated his claim that "Zionism" had a hand in Ukrainian elections "to the detriment of Russia." Two weeks ago, a report was published by the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights (MBHR), a watch-dog organization funded by the European Union to follow xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Russia. The report found that "the government did not adequately fight racist crimes." According to the report,there were at least 30 murders with an ethnic background, but the actual number is probably higher, because authorities often ignore racism as a motive in such crime. There were 124 anti-Semitic incidents last year. A poll conducted last year found that 42 percent of Russians surveyed believe there is a need to "limit the influence of Jews" in government organizations, politics, business, the judicial system, education and cultural institutions. According to the MBHR report, in the first quarter of 2005, the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose sharply and has already reached the total number of such incidents in 2004. "The most dangerous city for Jews is Moscow," where 27 anti-Semitic incidents took place last year. The incitement against Jews forced Rabbi Lazar and the new president of the Russian Jewish Congress, Vladimir Sloutsker, to demand that Putin and General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov respond. A headline in the Moscow newspaper Kommersant stated, "Jews become constant visitors at the prosecutor" to describe a meeting of these Jewish leaders with Ustinov. But both Lazar, and Sloutsker, a businessman and member of parliament, are Putin's constituents and would not hastily criticize the government. One curious aspect of the recent wave of anti-Semitism is the use of anti-Semitic analogies in articles condemning Chechen terror in the Russian press. In an article published last month in a Moscovian literary journal, American professor Anna Brodsky noted that newspapers and books describe Chechens in language lifted from the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion": fabulously wealthy, controllers of the economy, murderous chasers of Christian skirts. A blood libel recently appeared which claimed that Chechens kill Russian prisoners in order to use their blood in religious rituals. However, one must consider such statements and phenomena in a broad context which has positive and negative aspects. Israeli outposts On the other hand, the struggle against Chechen terror promoted cooperation with Israeli security and restrained Moscow's criticism of Israeli action against Palestinian terror. More importantly, the collapse of communism opened the gates of the former Soviet Union for more than 1 million Jews to immigrate to Israel. Synagogues and Jewish schools have flourished, mainly encouraged by Chabad, and there is a renaissance of Jewish culture. President Putin has frequently condemned anti-Semitism, and, in a special gesture, visited a synagogue to participate in the lighting of Hannukah candles. Renewed anti-Semitism apparently does not frighten all Russian Jews: A significant number of Jews from the former Soviet Union - some say 100,000 - have returned to Russia and Ukraine. But most of them continue to retain their Israeli citizenship. They see themselves as having temporarily left Israel, and even create "Israeli outposts" in major cities. Many work in Jewish organizations, teach in Jewish schools, and are central members of new synagogues. The emigrants say that they left for two reasons: financial difficulty and the fact that they felt like second-class citizens in Israel. But "in Israel they learned not to fear" to be Jews, say synagogue officials. There are Jewish schools in which a third, or more, of the pupils have returned from Israel. They speak Hebrew and encourage other pupils to do so. Thus, a paradox has been created, in which Jews return to the Diaspora despite anti-Semitism, and emigrants from Israel are the backbone of the renaissance in Russian Jewish life
Rice: Syria must halt covert activity in Lebanon .S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon is a positive step, but that Damascus must also cease all covert activity in Lebanon and comply with other demands made by the international community. In an interview with NBC, the secretary of state said that Syria must fully comply with UN Resolution 1559 which calls for a full Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, "and I mean the declared forces as well as the covert forces, because in a state like Syria, there is always covert activity that must be taken care of." Rice also called on Syria to exercise its influence to persuade Lebanese factions to avoid violence and to allow free elections. Rice said in the interview that "Syria must allow the Lebanese nation to determine its own path, without interference from Syria." On Tuesday, the last soldiers and remnants of Syrian intelligence left Lebanon after a departure ceremony that took place in eastern Lebanon, marking the end of a 29-year military presence in Lebanon. Syria announced to the UN that the withdrawal was completed in accordance with Security Council resolution 1559. Many Lebanese praised the withdrawal, and said that a new era was beginning in Lebanon. The Lebanese opposition said of the withdrawal, "This is an historic day that marks the end of a long period of mistakes and hegemony." Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that "with the completion of the withdrawal of Syrian military forces begins a new political era in regards to the relationship between the two states, which will be based on cooperation in all areas." The Israeli defense establishment considered ending air force flights in Lebanese skies in light of the Syrian withdrawal. However, it was decided that the flights would continue due to their operational importance. "Only if Hezbollah disarms will there be something to discuss," said a senior Israel Air Force official. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have consistently demanded an end to the flights, arguing that they violate Lebanese sovereignty. In addition, Hezbollah is conducting a struggle against the IDF presence in Mount Dov and occasionally attacks IDF posts there, arguing that the land belongs to Lebanon, although the UN determined that the Israeli withdrawal was complete.