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Saturday, December 17, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Hamas resolution passes
A congressional resolution that warns of policy consequences if Hamas joins the Palestinian Authority government passed overwhelmingly.
The resolution, supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and opposed by Americans for Peace Now, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday in a 397-17 vote. The House leadership forewent a voice vote in order to get a record of each member’s vote.
The measure, sponsored by Republican and Democratic leaders, warns that a role in government for any terrorist group “will inevitably raise serious policy considerations for the United States, potentially undermining the continued ability of the United States to provide financial assistance and conduct normal relations with the Palestinian Authority.” Palestinians go to elections next month.
“Terrorists have no place in a democratic society,” AIPAC said. “Hamas and other terrorist groups pose a direct threat to the emergence of a peaceful, stable, prosperous Palestinian state capable of living in peace with the Jewish state of Israel.”
House backs Jewish month
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution seeking an American Jewish History Month.
The House passed the resolution by unanimous consent Thursday.
The measure, introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), asks President Bush to declare January as American Jewish History Month by executive order.
Wasserman Schultz originally had sought a waiver from the moratorium on commemorative months, to allow Congress to declare Jewish History Month. But House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said the moratorium could not be lifted, and pledged to work with the White House to have the commemoration established by the White House.
Wasserman Schultz said she hoped the commemoration would give more Americans an understanding of the traditions and culture of American Jews.
Pro-Rice letter garners 108 lawmakers
A congressional letter urging Condoleezza Rice to maintain active involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process garnered 108 signatures.
The letter was sent Friday. Americans for Peace Now lobbied for the letter, initiated by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee, and Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.). The letter commends the U.S. secretary of state for brokering a border-opening agreement among Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians and says it “clearly demonstrate the value of robust, hands-on U.S. diplomatic engagement with Israel and the Palestinians.”
Israel felt pressured into the agreement, saying the Palestinians had not done enough to secure the Gaza Strip since Israel’s withdrawal in September. Some top-ranking members of Congress signed the letter, including nine Jewish Democrats. The Zionist Organization of American opposed the letter, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was tacit.
Bolton: Israel treated unequally at U.N.
Israel still is not treated as an equal member at the United Nations, the U.S. ambassador to the world body said.
“Let’s be clear: For it to be said that Israel is being treated as a normal nation at the U.N. is fantasy,” John Bolton said earlier this week at the Zionist Organization of America’s annual dinner, after receiving the group’s Defender of Israel Award. Bolton referred to a recent U.N. Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, at which a map of Palestine was displayed on which Israel had been expunged, according to a statement from the ZOA. Bolton said he was looking into whether the United Nations had paid for the production of the map.
“I want to make it clear that we are not finished with the issue,” he said. “We are setting a new standard for honesty at the U.N.”
He also said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent call for Israel’s destruction was “no mere flight of rhetoric when it comes from a state that has been pursuing weapons of mass destruction.”
http://jta.org/
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