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Friday, November 04, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Bahrain ready to end boycott
Bahrain is ready to sign a free-trade agreement with the United States that includes a commitment to end its boycott of Israel.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee worked closely with Congress to shape the agreement. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means committee referred the bill to the full House this week with a provision for a yearly assessment of whether Bahrain indeed has ended the boycott.
Bahrain’s commitment came in a letter to Rob Portman, the U.S. Trade representative. “In the hopes of advancing peace and regional cooperation, the kingdom of Bahrain recognizes the need to dismantle the primary boycott of Israel and is beginning efforts to achieve that goal,” says the letter from Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s finance minister. Bahrain already has dismantled its second and tertiary boycotts of Israel.
“This is an example of the successful use of American leverage to produce a positive change in Bahrain’s policy and serves as a model for future trade negotiations,” AIPAC said in a statement. “The breakdown of these kinds of economic barriers can, hopefully, help lead to the development of important political relationships between Israel and the Arab world.”
Italians rally against Iran remark
Italy’s foreign minister backed out of a rally denouncing the Iranian president’s call for Israel’s destruction.
On a trip to Israel earlier in the week, Gianfranco Fini had pledged to attend the rally, but decided not to participate in Thursday’s march because he felt doing so could harm Italian interests, Ha’aretz reported. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a recent Tehran conference that “Israel should be wiped off the map.”
Numerous Italians took part in the rally, holding Israeli flags and torches as they marched to the Iranian Embassy in Rome. The rally was organized by Il Foglio, a newspaper close to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is considered one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Europe.
Foxman: groups aim to ‘Christianize’ U.S.
Abraham Foxman pledged to convene Jewish leaders to address what he described as a sophisticated coalition of groups aiming to “Christianize America.”
“Today we face a better-financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before,” the national director of the Anti-Defamation League said in an address Thursday at the group’s National Commission meeting. “Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview — to Christianize America.”
Foxman said he will call the meeting sometime in January to discuss ways to address these concerns, which he said must be done delicately. “It is serious enough for us to develop a strategy,” he said. “We need to come together with other Jewish organizations.” He added, “We are not the prime target of this effort. And yet we may become, if they are successful, its major victim.”
Credit card helps Israel
A new Visa credit card sends a portion of the amount spent to Israel-related charities.
Unveiled Friday by Heritage Affinity Services, the card allows users to donate a percentage of each purchase to a charity of their choice; they also earn points redeemable with El Al and other travel companies in Israel. The cards will be available later this month.
http://jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 10:14 PM Permanent Link
 
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