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Sunday, March 12, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Cabinet candidate wants ‘Axis of Pragmatism’
A candidate to be Israel’s next defense minister called for an “Axis of Pragmatism” in the Middle East.
Ami Ayalon, a former Shin Bet chief currently high on the Labor Party’s parliamentary list, said in an interview published Sunday that if in government he would work to unite Israel with Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey against the spread of radical Islamism.
“This is the whole idea — to create this pragmatic axis which will be supported by the European Union and the international community,” he told Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper. “If we establish this axis it will break Hamas and we will see the pragmatist forces among the Palestinians.”
Though the Kadima Party is expected to win Israel’s March 28 elections, it will likely team up with Labor for a coalition government. Ayalon is widely predicted to be offered the Defense Ministry.
A retired Navy admiral, he spent four years as a grassroots peace activist with Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh.
NYC mayor suspends imam
New York City’s mayor suspended the head imam of the city’s jail system.
The move by Michael Bloomberg regarding Umar Abdul-Jalil came after the New York Post reported that the imam made several anti-American and anti-Israel comments in an April 2005 speech, including saying that Muslims in America should stop letting “the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us.”
Abdul-Jalil has said the remarks were taken out of context. He also reportedly said that his mother converted to Judaism in 1959.
Affirmative action for Israeli Arabs
Israel introduced affirmative action for Arabs in the civil service.
The Cabinet on Sunday approved a proposal by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which government ministries who choose an Israeli Arab candidate for a vacated position will receive a budget boost in order to take on an additional employee. Arab civil servants are also to enjoy a 10 percent pay hike.
While they make up almost 20 percent of the Jewish state’s population and enjoy full civil rights, Israeli Arabs have long complained of institutional discrimination. Several educational institutions in Israel employ affirmative action, enrolling a required minimum number of Arab students.
11 Israelis on Forbes list
Eleven Israelis made the Forbes billionaire list.
Highest among the Jewish State’s subjects to appear on the ranking of the world’s 793 billionaires, published over the weekend, was shipping heiress Sheri Arison, whose estimated $5.2 billion put her in 109th place.
The number of Israelis on the list matched the number of Saudis; one of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom’s princes, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who has made controversial gifts to U.S. higher education, made the top 10 of mega-billionaires.
Russian Jewish businessman Roman Abramovich, who supports Jewish life in the former Soviet Union, is listed in 11th place.
http://jta.org
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