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49 Parties Invited to Mideast Peace Talks in Annapolis
by Glenn Kessler
The State Department formally announced last week that the U.S. has invited representatives of 49 countries and institutions - including Saudi Arabia and Syria - to sit down with Israelis and Palestinians in Annapolis on Tuesday in a conference designed to kick-start substantive peace talks in the region. The conference at the U.S. Naval Academy will be "a signal opportunity" to launch bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Assistant Secretary C. David Welch said, after "a long period in which there have been no such negotiations." The central goal is to persuade Saudi Arabia to send its foreign minister to Annapolis, the first time such a senior Saudi official would have joined in a gathering with Israelis. Bush weighed in with his own call to Saudi King Abdullah Tuesday. As a way to entice Saudi participation, diplomatic sources said, the formal invitation also drew on language from the 2003 Roadmap plan for peace that mentions an Arab League initiative promoted by Abdullah. That plan offers diplomatic relations with Israel if it withdraws to the 1967 borders and provides a "just solution" to the demands of Palestinian refugees. (Washington Post)
Survey: Americans See Israel as Ally
by Jonah Newman
  A large percentage of Americans continue to support the State of Israel, especially in relation to the Palestinians and the "war on terror," according to a survey released last week by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The survey reveals that a large majority of Americans, 65%, see Israel as an important ally. A 2005 ADL poll showed nearly identical numbers of Americans with this view, indicating that American support for Israel has stayed strong and relatively constant over the last few years. This support comes despite the common belief that America's friendship with Israel makes the U.S. a bigger target for terrorists. Though 65% of respondents expressed this conviction, 57% said that the U.S. should continue to give Israel its support. (Jerusalem Post)
Israel Approves Provision of 25 Armored Vehicles to PA Security Forces
by Hanan Greenberg
  Prime Minister Olmert has approved the supply of 25 armored vehicles to the Palestinian security services in the West Bank as a goodwill gesture to Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the Annapolis peace conference. The Palestinians will also receive from Israel two million bullets supplied by Jordan. (Ynet News)
Israel previously opposed supplying Abbas' forces with armored vehicles, in part because of concern that they might fall into the hands of Hamas or other violent groups. (AP/Ha'aretz)
See also Israel to Allow Gaza to Export Produce to Europe (Jerusalem Post)
A Time to Kill, And a Time to Heal
by Laura Blumenfeld
 A pediatrician named Yuval walked in wearing a white coat. He patted Ahmad on the head. The surgery would be soon. Later, Nasima called Yuval "our savior of the children." Yuval is a savior of children. He is also an attack helicopter pilot. By day, Yuval works as a pediatrician. By night, he fires missiles for the air force. One of Yuval's supervisors, physician Sion Houri, sees no contradiction between Yuval's two jobs. "There's reality A; there's reality B. It's not a dichotomy - it's us," said Houri. "It's our life as Israelis." After decades of war, what might be madness in another society passes for normal in Israel. As negotiators meet this week in Annapolis to try to resolve the Middle East conflict, Israelis find ways to resolve the conflict in their own lives. In the Bible, Ecclesiastes declares: "There is...a time to kill, and a time to heal." Yuval is doing both, at the same time. (Washington Post)
World First: Hadassah Uses Adult Stem Cells to Help Patients
by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
 Neurologists at Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Hospital, Ein Kerem, are the first in the world to help multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients by injecting their spinal columns with large numbers of adult stem cells taken from their bone marrow and multiplied in culture. The clinical trial, while "encouraging" and "promising," remains highly experimental, as all the patients have undergone a single injection with no untreated control group for comparison. With the first patients having received it two years ago, it is too early to know how successful it will be in the long term. Prof. Dimitrios Karousis, a senior Greek-born neurologist at Hadassah for the past 19 years, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the clinical trial was "the first in the world with this type of stem cells." (Jerusalem Post)
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U.S. Pushes on Israel in Order to Increase Turnout at Middle East Conference
by Steven Erlanger
 On the thorny "final status" issues, with the aim to conclude a peace settlement within a year, the Bush administration is trying to attract a significant Arab presence at the peace conference in Annapolis, a meeting now penciled in to start Nov. 26 and last less than 24 hours. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's main concession so far: to agree to have final-status negotiations with Abbas before the road map first stage is carried out. (New York Times)
See also Israel Pressed to Make Bolder Moves Before Meeting - Adam Entous
The U.S. is pressing Israel to go beyond a planned partial settlement freeze and to raise the number of Palestinian prisoners to be freed before the Annapolis peace conference, Israeli and Western officials said on Sunday. U.S. and Israeli officials have stressed that the centerpiece of the conference will be an agreement to resume formal statehood negotiations. "Annapolis cannot be a failure because it is already a success just for taking place," Israeli Prime Minister Olmert told visiting French Foreign Minister Kouchner. "It is a launching of talks which have not taken place in seven years, in the presence of dozens of countries and the entire world," Olmert added. (Reuters)
See also Secretary Rice Interviewed for Israeli TV (YouTube)
Iranian Jews Leaving Home for the Homeland
by Rory McCarthy
Benjamin is one of the latest young Jewish Iranians to leave their homeland in search of a new life in Israel at a time of growing tensions between the two nations. Once Benjamin, 23, was teaching Hebrew and running a shop in Iran. Two years ago he was arrested by Iranian intelligence agents who threatened to kill him and his family. He will not give his real name or have his face photographed for fear of reprisals against his elderly parents who are still in Iran, but he has taken Benjamin as his new name in Israel. Benjamin escaped, using an old passport that was no longer registered on Iranian government computers and made his way to Israel. There remains a large Jewish community in Iran of around 25,000 people. Synagogues still function and the Jewish community has a representative in parliament. Yet large numbers from the community have left and settled across the world, particularly in Los Angeles, and this year around 150 are expected to head to Israel. (Guardian-UK)
Palestinian Rocket Lands Near Ashkelon Neighborhood
by Shmulik Hadad
 A loud explosion rocked Ashkelon's southern neighborhoods last week as a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza landed south of the city. Several rockets have been fired at Ashkelon over the past two weeks. One of the residents living nearby said that "the explosion was so strong my house trembled. We are used to Kassam rockets, but far from here, in the industrial zone. This is the first time the rocket lands so close. It was terrifying." Security sources said that the firing of rockets at the Ashkelon area has recently become more accurate. Several rockets landed near strategic facilities in the city over the past few weeks, one of them causing damage. (Ynet News)
Hate Industry: Anti-Semitic Palestinian Cartoons Appear Regularly
 Coarse anti-Semitic cartoons drawn by Palestinian cartoonist Alaa' Allaqta appear regularly in Hamas' newspaper, Felesteen, on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad website, and in Saudi Arabian and Qatari newspapers. His cartoons, which recycle anti-Semitic motifs, have recently been part of a propaganda campaign against the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the upcoming Annapolis meeting. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
U.S. Conference: UN Biased Against Israel
by Michal Lando
 "The United Nations is not a forum to protect human rights, nor peace and security," said Anne Bayefsky, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and one of the organizers of conference across the street from the UN billed as the first to target UN discrimination against Israel. The conference, "Hijacking Human Rights: The Demonization of Israel by the United Nations," which included professors, ambassadors, and members of Congress, coincided with the General Assembly's upcoming annual adoption of over 20 anti-Israel resolutions. (Jerusalem Post)
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