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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Israel talks tough after border clash
Israel blamed Syria and Iran for a fierce clash with Hezbollah militiamen on its northern border.
“It is absolutely clear to us that Syria and the Iranians stand behind this Hezbollah operation,” Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday, referring to raids a day earlier in which four militiamen were killed and 11 Israeli troops wounded.
Lebanese officials said Hezbollah had tried and failed to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to swap them for Arab prisoners held in Israel.
Mofaz said Syria, under mounting international scrutiny, approved the operation as a distraction. Hezbollah is also backed by Iran. Israel shelled southern Lebanon in retaliation but ceased fire after U.N. peacekeepers conveyed an appeal from Beirut, Israel’s military chief of staff said. “This is the first time that the Lebanese government, albeit indirectly, through UNIFIL, has requested that the State of Israel cease fire,” Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said, referring to the U.N. peacekeepers.
Lawmakers want Hamas out
Six lawmakers introduced a resolution calling on the Palestinian Authority to prevent Hamas participation in upcoming elections.
U.S. Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) referred the resolution last Friday to the House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee.
The Bush administration and Israel have expressed unhappiness with the fact that Hamas and other terrorist groups will run, but have said it’s an internal Palestinian matter.
The Palestinians are obligated under the “road map” peace plan to dismantle Hamas, but have said they have no intention of doing so.
Lawmakers want U.N. Palestinian bodies nixed
Top members of the U.S. Congress urged the “Quartet” working for Mideast peace to back a U.S. proposal to abolish U.N. bodies dedicated to the Palestinians. Letters sent Monday by Reps. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), Ileana Ros Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) said the bodies “are nothing more than U.N.-funded propaganda organs dedicated exclusively to the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.”
The Bush administration has proposed abolishing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division of Palestinian Rights. The congress members, all senior members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee, also proposed doing away with the Special Committee to investigate Israeli human rights practices affecting the Palestinian people.
The “Quartet,” made up of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, guides the “road map” peace process. The letters were sent to U.N. representatives of France, Britain and Germany — the three most powerful E.U. members — and Russia.
Peretz criticized over housing plan
Israel’s new Labor Party chief was criticized for approving the construction of new West Bank settlement homes.
Amir Peretz allowed the Israeli housing minister, Isaac Herzog of Labor, to allow for the construction of 350 apartments in Ma’aleh Adumim this week, despite a clause in the U.S.-led “road map” peace plan calling for a freeze on settlement expansion.
The left-wing Yahad Party said the decision suggests Peretz is not serious about peacemaking. Peretz ousted Shimon Peres as Labor chief earlier this month, pledging to leave the ruling Likud Party’s coalition government in order to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, but polls show that keeping West Bank settlement blocs under a final accord is part of the mainstream Israeli consensus.
Bribe plea cites Israeli deal
A guilty plea in a congressional bribery scandal included allegations that an Israeli high-tech firm played a role.
Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe federal officials, including Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio). Scanlon was a partner of Jack Abramoff, the Jewish Republican lobbyist at the center of a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal.
Scanlon, who faces five years in prison, is expected to cooperate with the government against Abramoff. One alleged bribe cited in the plea involved Foxcom, an Israeli wireless company hired in 2002 to rewire the Capitol for better cell-phone reception.
Ney, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Administration Committee, approved the deal, despite Congress’ “Buy American” policy.
Foxcom had contributed $50,000 to a charity favored by Abramoff and later signed on with Abramoff as a client.
Poll: Elites more likely to blame Israel
Members of American opinion-making elites are much likelier than average Americans to see Israel as a cause of international discontent with the United States, a survey found.
Such attitudes are particularly widespread among members of the news media (78 percent), security experts (72 percent), military leaders (72 percent) and foreign-affairs specialists (69 percent), the Pew Research Center said Sunday in announcing results of its America’s Place in the survey. “But just 39 percent of the public sees U.S. support for Israel as a major reason that America’s global image suffers — most (52 percent) say it is only a minor reason, or not much of a reason,” the report said.
One of the survey questions that assessed whether a respondent was “low knowledge” was to name what country recently ceded the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians; only 46 percent correctly answered Israel. The perception that Israel is a reason for America’s negative image does not suggest a lack of support for the Jewish state, the pollsters noted; evangelical Protestants were likelier than secular respondents to name Israel as a reason America’s image suffered, but evangelical support for Israel remains strong.
http://jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 10:22 PM Permanent Link
 
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