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Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Abbas offers olive branch
Mahmoud Abbas called for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
“We stretch our hand to Israel with an offer of true peace,” the Palestinian Authority president said Tuesday in his first broadcast address since Israeli troops completed a pullout from Gaza this week. “I call on the government of Israel to exploit this historic opportunity, to make good on its commitments, to stop the construction of the West Bank barrier and settlements, to release prisoners and allow exiles to return.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also has characterized the Gaza pullout as an opportunity for renewed negotiations, but on the condition that the P.A. fulfills its commitments under the “road map” peace plan to dismantle terrorist groups.
Abbas has ruled this out, but he hinted in his speech that he would try to make Hamas and Islamic Jihad follow the official P.A. policy of seeking coexistence with the Jewish state. “There is no room for this or that faction’s private agenda,” he said.
Knesset urged to stop war-crimes complaints
The Knesset was asked to allow criminal prosecution of Israelis who seek war-crimes lawsuits abroad against members of Israel’s security forces. Under legislation presented Tuesday by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman, Yuval Steinitz, any citizen who tries to have a serving or retired Israeli soldier prosecuted in another country could be imprisoned for up to three years. The move follows a British arrest warrant issued against Doron Almog, a former commander of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, reportedly at the behest of Israeli citizens. The Israeli group Yesh Gvul has also called for the prosecution of the military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, and his predecessor, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, over an airstrike that killed a senior Hamas terrorist in Gaza along with 15 civilians.
Israeli generals under fire in Britain
A left-wing Israeli group filed a lawsuit in Britain against Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, and his predecessor, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon.
Yesh Gvul wants Halutz and Ya’alon charged over their involvement in the July 2002 assassination of Hamas terror mastermind Salah Shehada, in which a one-ton bomb was dropped on his Gaza house, killing him and 15 civilians and wounding more than 100 people.
The news comes after Doron Almog, a former Israeli army commander in the Gaza Strip, was forced to return to Israel without leaving his El Al flight following a warning by the Israeli Embassy that a pro-Palestinian group planned to have him arrested.
Romney postpones Israel trip
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney postponed a planned trip to Israel.
The Republican governor was expected to travel with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s educational foundation later this month. Romney’s spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, told the Boston Globe that the governor is focusing on the state’s legislative agenda and said the trip could be rescheduled for later this year or in 2006. Romney is considering seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2008.
Jewish lawyers start blog
A group of conservative Jewish lawyers launched a blog on U.S. Supreme Court nominations and confirmation hearings.
The blog, entitled “Judge and Jewry: Above the Din,” was launched last week by Jeff Ballabon of the Center for Jewish Values, a politically conservative think tank, and other Jewish lawyers. Ballabon said in the inaugural posting that judicial nominations are the “most significant Jewish issue in American politics.” Judge John Roberts is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week for hearings on his nomination as chief justice of the United States.
President Bush will name a successor to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor later this fall.
http://jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 10:35 PM Permanent Link
 
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