Middle East Update

The US has asked the United Nations Security Council to endorse by resolution this week’s Annapolis understanding between Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace settlement by the end of 2008. Meantime, Israeli defense sources are voicing concern that the new US special security envoy to the region, retired general James Jones, will spend [...]

Records on 17.5 million victims made available for viewing
The Nazi regime’s meticulous archives of 50 million documents on the Holocaust in World War II has finally been opened to the public, it was announced on Wednesday November 28. The massive vaults contain materials related to the persecution, exploitation and extermination of millions of Jewish [...]

The Annapolis peace conference has been set for November 27, and invitations to 49 states and other entities were sent out Tuesday November 20.

Gesture won’t stave off new sanctions
After years of delaying tactics, Iran has handed over to the UN nuclear agency blueprints showing how to shape uranium metal into atomic warheads, diplomats said Tuesday, in an apparent concession meant to stave off new UN sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been seeking possession of the blueprints [...]

The UN is beginning an investigation of an incident where Gaza gunmen are accused of using a UN-run school in the Gaza Strip to fire mortar shells into Israel last month. It is unacceptable that UN premises be used in this fashion.” The school in question is run by the UN Relief and Workers [...]

The UN Security Council’s five permanent members agreed to proceed towards a third set of sanctions on Iran, contingent on how Iran responds to crucial questions regarding its nuclear program, the British Foreign Office said on Friday November 2.

‘You need us more’
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened Europe if they follow the recent example of the US in imposing stricter sanctions on Tehran for its renegade nuclear program.

“If they plan to cooperate with the enemy of the Iranian nation, we cannot interpret this as a friendly behavior. We will show reaction,” [...]

China unlikely to support stiffer UN sacntions
Urging Beijing to “think about the grave implications” of a nuclear Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrapped up her diplomatic junket to China on Tuesday October 30, but appears to have failed to persuade the permanent member of the UN Security Council to support stiffer sanctions against [...]

Syria supplying Shi’ite militia with weapons
A new report to the United Nations Security Council on southern Lebanon shows that Hizbullah has “rebuilt and even increased its military capacity,” to a level higher than before the Second Lebanon War.

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
In an address to the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday October 1, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made reference to the Bible, the festival of Sukkot and democracy. She also warned against appeasing those she called extremists.

“Three thousand years ago, the people of Israel journeyed from slavery in Egypt [...]