|
|
Friday, July 29, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
|
Iraqi constitution raises Jewish ire
The Anti-Defamation League urged the State Department to push for the removal of anti-Israel passages from Iraq’s draft constitution.
“We hope the United States will encourage the drafters of the constitution to remove this objectionable, blatant anti-Israel discrimination in the draft text,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman wrote Wednesday to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “We are all hopeful that a democratic Iraq will be protected by a constitution that is free from bias and discrimination and will serve as a model for the entire region.”
One article of the constitution states that “Any individual with another nationality (except for Israel) may obtain Iraqi nationality,” while another article states that “Any Iraqi may have more than one nationality as long as the nationality is not Israel.” The constitution is slated for completion by Aug. 15. There are an estimated 250,000 Israeli Jews of Iraqi origin, comprising one of Israel’s largest Jewish ethnic communities.
Pentagon: China spat will be resolved
Israel and the United States will resolve a dispute over the sale of arms to China “sooner rather than later,” a Pentagon spokesman said.
Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli defense minister, cancelled a trip to Washington this week because the issue has yet to be resolved. “I have talked to folks who are involved, who think this is going to be resolved, in the time-honored phrase, sooner rather than later,” Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said Friday. “They don’t think that this is something that is going to take forever.”
The United States has restricted technology sharing with Israel because of the dispute. The United States, which says such sales pose a threat to U.S. ally Taiwan, wants the right to review all Israeli arms sales whether or not they involve U.S.-developed technology.
Israeli officials fear the United States wants to freeze out Israeli competition in lucrative international arms markets.
Congressman to colleagues: Fight anti-Semitism
A U.S. lawmaker called on colleagues to speak out against anti-Semitism on visits abroad.
In a letter sent to congressional representatives Friday, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) said that visits abroad provide lawmakers with a unique opportunity to help combat rising international anti-Semitism. “As members of Congress, we have an obligation to speak out against all forms of discrimination, racism, or intolerance,” he wrote. “Please urge parliamentarians to take action and do as our Congress has done — to use their bully pulpit and find opportunities to speak out against anti-Semitism, hold hearings and pass resolutions and develop national plans to combat it.”
Lantos, the sole Holocaust survivor in Congress, co-chairs the Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism.
Hezbollah: No SLA amnesty
Hezbollah opposes an amnesty for Christian allies of Israel.
Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the top Maronite cleric in Lebanon, proposed an amnesty this week for members of the South Lebanese Army who fled to Israel with their families in 2000 as Israel withdrew from its security zone in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government is seeking to reconcile a number of groups now that Syria has ended its three-decade occupation.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who heads the Hezbollah terrorist group, said Friday that such an amnesty would be a “big insult” and would pose a security risk. Of the 7,000 SLA men and family members who left, 4,000 already have returned. Among those, 3,000 have been handed prison sentences ranging from a few months to 25 years for their collaboration with Israel, and 80 have been sentenced to death in absentia.
Sfeir said an amnesty was appropriate considering the release this week from prison of Samir Geagea, an anti-Syrian leader involved in some of the country’s worst massacres.
Israel checking Ivory Coast arms sales
Israel said it’s cooperating fully with a U.N. investigation into suspected arms sales to the Ivory Coast.
Officials from Israel’s Foreign and Defense Ministries met recently with a delegation of U.N. experts to investigate claims that Israeli firms have sold arms to the embargoed country, Ha’aretz reported Friday. Sources in the Foreign Ministry noted that Israel’s willingness to cooperate proves it “has nothing to hide” and is complying with last year’s Security Council embargo, the newspaper said.
At the same time, the sources also noted that “Israel cannot control every Israeli businessman who travels the world and sells arms that are not Israeli-produced,” or are not from Israeli army surplus.
http://jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 10:30 PM Permanent Link
 
0 Comments:
<< Home
|
| |
