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Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Legal fund launched for ex-AIPAC staffer
Lawyers representing an indicted former employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee established a legal defense fund.
Attorneys from Arent Fox said the purpose of the Keith Weissman Legal Defense Fund, set up Tuesday, is to enable AIPAC’s former Iran analyst to mount a vigorous defense to the charge that he shared classified information with reporters and Israeli government officials.
“A successful defense is critical to protect the freedom not only of Mr. Weissman, who maintains his innocence, but of all Americans who exercise their First Amendment rights,” said Weissman’s lawyers, John Nassikas and Baruch Weiss.
The trial for Weissman and Steve Rosen, AIPAC’s former research director, is scheduled to begin next month. Weissman and Rosen are pressing AIPAC to pay additional funds for their defense.
Attorneys say the organization stopped paying fees last spring, and is violating its obligations to the two. AIPAC says negotiations over legal fees stalled over the defendants´ insistence on retaining the right to sue the organization.
Right-wingers target Carter
A conservative group wants Congress to censure former President Carter, saying he is advancing the interests of Hamas.
The “Move America Forward” campaign is in response to an effort by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to censure President Bush for authorizing eavesdropping without warrants. Move America Forward says former presidents are subject to censure.
“If the members of Congress cannot unite behind a resolution that rebukes a former president for repeatedly working to advance the interests of terrorist groups like Hamas and terrorist leaders like Yasser Arafat, then what good is Congress?” the group said in a release.
Carter has argued in favor of continued assistance to the Palestinians through third parties since Hamas’ election to lead the Palestinian Authority in January, and expressed hope that the terrorist group would give up violence.
New Jewish forum to meet in the fall
The first meeting of a new international Jewish body is scheduled for October.
The World Jewish Forum will convene in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post reported. The body was established by Israel’s president, Moshe Katsav, to deal with Israeli-Diaspora issues.
The body of 200-300 Jewish leaders is expected to be split 50-50 between Jewish officials and leading professionals who are Jewish.
Israel biggest Mideast investor in U.S.
Israel is the largest Middle Eastern investor in the United States.
The U.S. State Department published foreign investor rankings Wednesday. Israel was first from the Middle East, with $4.1 billion, followed by Kuwait, with $1.2 billion. Those sums were dwarfed, however, by major European nations, which tended to top $100 billion in investment. Britain is the largest single investor, at $252 billion.
The release came in the wake of controversy stirred by revelations that a company hired to manage six U.S. ports was based in Dubai.
The Bush administration defended the deal, but the company has since sold its business in the ports because of massive resistance to the deal.
The release noted the minuscule scale of Middle East investment: “Investment in the U.S. from Africa and the Middle East is less than $10 billion, only 0.6 percent of the total foreign investment in the U.S.”
New York lawmakers back Mideast policy
The New York state Senate approved a resolution backing U.S. policy toward Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The resolution affirmed support for Israel and backed U.S. policy of not supporting the Palestinian Authority as long as it is headed by Hamas.
New York is believed to be the first state to pass such a resolution.
New water source found in Israel?
An Israeli researcher reported the existence of untapped water resources beneath the Judean Desert.
The Judea Group Aquifer was mapped out by Leehee Laronne Ben-Itzhak, a master’s student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who released her findings this week. Ben-Itzhak’s supervisor, professor Haim Gvirtzman, noted that the water could bring benefits to the West Bank.
“The government has allocated these waters to the Palestinians, who are unfortunately doing nothing to fully exploit this available water source,” he said. But Gvirtzman played down speculation that the aquifer could be tapped to offset the evaporation of the Dead Sea, saying that an operation on that scale was unfeasible.
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