Excerpts: Saudi investment in West Bank.Shortage of Saudi
engineers.Terrorist groups compete for power 22 May 2008

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 22 May '08:"Saudi company to invest in a $250m project in
West
Bank "
QUOTE: "Bush's administration hopes the event (The first ever Palestine
Investment Conference ) will bolster a push to establish a Palestinian
state"
EXCERPTS:
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - The organizer of a Palestinian investment conference
says a Saudi company(Al Ard Al Qabeda) will invest in a $250 million
construction project in the West Bank.
...the construction will include office and apartment towers, malls and a
hotel in the West Bank town of El Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah....
Palestinian Investment Fund will be a partner in the project. ... More than
1,200 business people and government officials are to attend.
The first ever Palestine Investment Conference aims at spurring investor
interest by showcasing business opportunities and projects.
Deputy US Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt, who is leading a US delegation
to the three-day event, said President George W. Bush's administration hopes
the event will bolster a push to establish a Palestinian state.
The conference is expected to draw about 500 Palestinian and foreign
participants, including French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and former
British prime minister Tony Blair, who is now the envoy of the Middle East
Quartet monitoring the peace process.
The idea of the Bethlehem (conference)gathering was launched at a Paris
conference of donors in December. The donors pledged 7.7 billion dollars in
assistance for the Palestinian territories, but by early May, only 717
million dollars were actually paid out.
. . .There was strong backing for the conference from the United States,
with major US companies Intel and Cisco among the sponsors.
Jake Walles, the US consul in Jerusalem, expressed optimism about the
initiative to encourage more investment in the West Bank.
"Countries that have resources and that have an interest in the
establishment of a Palestinian state need to put those resources to use now
in order to lay the groundwork for the establishment of that state," he
said.. . .

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 22 May '08:"Percentage of Saudi engineers dwindling"
JEDDAH - The Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Engineers Authority ...
pointed out that there was shortage in the number of engineers working in
public sector due to low wages as compared with banks and private companies
and the fact that students favor other disciplines with less years of study.
He added that officials at the Authority made individual and collective
efforts to address this problem.. . .

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 22 May '08:"Bin Laden PR push reflects Islamist rivalry:
Analysts
By Randall Mikkelsen
QUOTE:" 'Do they (Al-Qaeda)
want to be the only show in terrorism, absolutely.Does it mean that they're
feeling like they're on the ropes? I'm not so sure' "; " 'Al-Qaeda remained
able to project itself ... through mergers with other militant groups' "

EXCERPTS:
OSAMA Bin Laden's emphasis on the Palestinians in recent messages is a
political shift reflecting competition with a surging Hezbollah for Islamist
leadership, analysts said.
The Al-Qaeda terrorist leader... has been on the sidelines as the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza draws Islamist attention and Hezbollah's
stature and power grow in Lebanon, they said.
"Hezbollah is supplanting Bin Laden as the leaders of the jihad, by
winning," said James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. "He is having to compete in a new market for influence, and it's
hard for him."

"There's been a recent spate of terrorist messages in which Israel has been
a central theme - one that Al-Qaeda believes resonates in the Muslim world,"
said a US counterterrorism official.
. . . Al-Qaeda would also like to contest Palestinian influence with Hamas
but has been unable to do so, intelligence officials and analysts said.
The US official said Al-Qaeda remained able to project itself beyond its
Pakistan base to North Africa, Europe and possibly elsewhere through mergers
with other militant groups.
Brookings Institution analyst ...was also unwilling to count out Al-Qaeda.
"Do they want to be the only show in terrorism, absolutely. Does it mean
that they're feeling like they're on the ropes - I'm not so sure." - Reuters

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA