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Friday, September 09, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Iraqi: No recognition for now
Iraq’s president said his country would not recognize Israel for now.
Speaking Friday at the Saban Center in Washington, Jalal Talabani said that as a member of the Arab League, Iraq would not establish relations with Israel until the Palestinian issue is resolved. Talabani’s government is one of the closest U.S. allies in the region.
Gingrich: Improve Israel’s U.N. lot
The United States should “shame” other democracies into demanding better treatment of Israel at the United Nations, Newt Gingrich told a Jewish group.
Co-chairman of the American Task Force on the United Nations and a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Gingrich told an audience convened by the World Jewish Congress that without profound reform, the United Nations would become irrelevant. “The United Nations has failed,” he said at the gathering Friday in New York. If reform efforts aren’t successful, the United States “should systematically find other institutions and other ways to be effective,” he said.
The WJC issued “Reclaiming the U.N. Charter,” a report detailing the group’s vision for U.N. reform, including significant changes to the Commission on Human Rights, action against anti-Semitism and full inclusion of Israel in the U.N.’s regional grouping system.
Also addressing the group were John Bolton, America’s U.N. ambassador; Mark Malloch Brown, chief of staff to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan; Edgar Bronfman, the WJC president; and Evelyn Sommer, chairman of the WJC’s American section. “What we really need” at the United Nations “is a cultural revolution,” Bolton said.
Group launches Israel campus program
The Israel on Campus Coalition launched a new effort to enhance relationships between American universities and Israel.
“Israel begins with i,” which includes efforts to offer campuses an image of Israel beyond the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, was launched Thursday in New York. The program, which the ICC’s 30 member groups want to customize for individual campuses, will help students present Israel “in a tangible, positive light,” said Lynne Schusterman, whose Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation founded the ICC coalition in 2002 along with Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and other organizations.
Programs include six Israel-themed “mega-events” on campuses nationwide; a move to take student newspaper editors to Israel; a program to teach students how to write Op-Ed pieces and letters to the editor; and an effort to bring more Israel scholars to American universities.
The goal is “to position Israel on campus as an asset to the university and wider community by emphasizing Israel’s contributions to education and peaceful endeavors benefitting humanity,” ICC literature says.
French official praises, blasts Israel
France’s foreign minister described Israel’s “colonization” of the West Bank as illegal.
Visiting the Jewish state this week, Philippe Douste-Blazy praised the success of the Gaza withdrawal but said that “other steps must follow.” “The colonization of the West Bank is against international law,” he said, “and any continued colonization called into question the very meaning of the peace process.”
Douste-Blazy also urged Israel to “allow the Palestinian Authority to develop credible security forces.”
Jewish groups bring Protestants to Israel
Two American Jewish groups announced plans to bring mainline Protestant leaders to Israel.
Thirteen Protestant leaders will participate in “Institute in Israel,” beginning Monday, sponsored by the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella group and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
“This institute provides us with a unique opportunity to strengthen interfaith relations and to show our colleagues the complex challenges Israel faces in its attempt to establish peace,” JCPA Executive Director Steve Gutow said. Several mainline Protestant groups have resolved to divest from American companies that deal with Israel’s military.
Berger fined $50,000 for taking documents
A court fined Sandy Berger, President Clinton’s national security adviser, $50,000 for mishandling classified documents.
Ruling Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson also suspended Berger’s access to classified documents for three years.
Berger, one of the top Jewish officials in Clinton’s administration, admitted to sneaking out National Archive documents in 2003 as he researched how prepared the country had been for terrorism ahead of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Berger was conducting the research to prepare for his appearance before the commission investigating the attacks. Unauthorized removal of documents from the archives is illegal.
http://jta.org/
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