Middle East Update

Nissan Ratzav-Katz
A meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem on Wednesday led to few official statements. Reports indicated that Abbas expressed dissatisfaction with Olmert’s continued refusal to discuss a fixed timeline for the resolution of final-status issues.

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A report on Ocober 4 reveals that President Bush has issued Syria with a warning against interfering in Lebanon’s Presidential elections. It was announced too that he is sending US’s top military commander in the Middle East, to Beirut to see how Washington could do more to help Lebanon fight extremists.

79 U.S. senators signed a letter Tuesday October 2, asking Secretary of State Rice to insist that Arab governments stop their support of terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, end the Arab League economic boycott of Israel, and pressure Hamas to reject terror and recognize Israel.

A report on October 4 reveals that Iran is showing concern over the failure of the Syrian air defence systems, which Israel/USA was able to render ineffective. One report claims Israel used an electronic device installed in a plane that circled the area.

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by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz and Hillel Fendel
The IDF partially lifted a thick veil of secrecy on Tuesday October 2 and confirmed reports by foreign media last month that the Israeli Air Force attacked at least one target deep inside Syrian territory. Information regarding what was hit, exactly when and how remains classified. Just yesterday (Tuesday October 2), Syrian President Bashar Assad told BBC that Syria does not plan to retaliate for the attack militarily: Kuwaiti paper, Al-Watan, quoted diplomatic sources in Europe as saying that US jets circled above the Israeli planes, giving them cover.

by Hillel Fendel and Maayana Miskin
Sources are now saying that the Middle East peace conference in Washington sponsored by US President Bush might be pushed off by two weeks, until late November. The delay would give Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas extra time to agree on a joint statement.

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Ellen Knickmeyer (Washington Post)
After imprisoning or prodding into exile Egypt’s leading secular opposition activists, the government is using detentions and legal changes to neutralize the country’s last surviving major political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, ahead of the end of the 26-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who is 79.

Uzi Mahnaimi (Sunday Times-UK)
The Russians have sent technicians to upgrade Syria’s air defense system after Israel foiled it using stealth technology to remain invisible during an airstrike. The Israeli air force used a sophisticated electronic warfare system operated by F-15I jets and a fleet of specialist electronic warfare aircraft over the Mediterranean during the attack on a suspected nuclear facility near Dayr az-Zawr on September 6. They transmitted signals that jammed the Russian-made radar and the Syrian army’s communications.

Reuben F. Johnson
The Sa’eqeh (Lightning), the first military aircraft to ever be designed and produced in Iran, is not a modern-age weapon system.
It is based almost entirely on the old Northrop F-5 fighter, the chief U.S. export fighter of the 1960s and 70s, 166 of which were sold to Iran before the revolution.

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James Meikle
The prospect of an academic boycott of Israeli universities receded sharply Friday September 28, as leaders of the lecturers’ union contemplating the move were told it would be illegal.