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Monday, May 22, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Congressman: UNRWA amendment planned
A U.S. congressman plans to introduce an amendment that would condition U.S. funding of UNRWA on an independent audit.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ powerful foreign operations subcommittee, wants to attach the amendment to the foreign operations bill due for consideration in coming weeks, his office said.
Kirk withheld the amendment last Friday, when the subcommittee referred the bill to the full Appropriations Committee, offering instead a statement of his concerns. The amendment was unlikely to pass out of the subcommittee, but Kirk may introduce it when the bill is considered by the full committee or by the full House. The amendment also exists as a separate bill under consideration by the subcommittee.
Kirk says the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the main body responsible for Palestinian refugees, is overstaffed, has not had an independent audit in years and does not rigorously seek to ensure sure that staff members don’t affiliate with terrorist groups.
UNRWA says an independent audit by the South African government’s comptroller is near completion and claims that any staffers must quit before joining political groups. Israel does not want UNRWA touched for now.
Israeli envoy: Russia, China delaying Iran resolution
Russia and China are impeding passage of a Security Council resolution addressing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said.
Speaking Monday to a group of B’nai B’rith International members in New York, Dan Gillerman said he is disappointed by the two permanent members’ reluctance to support, or at least not oppose, a resolution that would clear the way for sanctions against Iran.
Gillerman also blasted Qatar, another Security Council member, which he said had blocked condemnation of a recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. “We hope that there will be a change in the attitude of Qatar,” he said.
Effort to reconcile AIPAC, congresswoman
An effort is under way in Congress to end a dispute between AIPAC and a congresswoman.
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) has banned officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee from lobbying her until the organization apologizes for a volunteer who allegedly said McCollum supports terrorists.
Congress members friendly to AIPAC and McCollum are brokering a reconciliation meeting, JTA has learned.
The Minnesota volunteer, Amy Rotenberg, adamantly denies the charge arising out of a conversation with McCollum’s chief of staff, Bill Harper.
“There were no threats by me in my telephone call to her staff,” Rotenberg told JTA on Monday.
Rotenberg claims instead that Harper asked her whether she was alleging McCollum supported terrorists, and Rotenberg denied it.
Harper stands by the charge. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), a strong friend of AIPAC, defended McCollum, saying the alleged attack reminded him of the Taliban.
The conversation came after McCollum, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee, voted against a bill that would ban assistance to the Palestinian Authority.
McCollum favors isolating the Palestinian Authority’s Hamas rulers, but wants to leave the United States some leeway.
The bill passed 30-2.
Bolton: U.N. council likely anti-Israel
The newly formed U.N. Human Rights Council is likely to be stacked against Israel, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said.
“I’ve always felt it would be a race to see if the first resolution of this new council would be anti-U.S. or anti-Israeli,” John Bolton told a B’nai B’rith group gathered in New York to meet with several nations’ delegations to the world body.
The U.N. General Assembly voted in March to create the new council, which will convene for the first time June 19, to replace the old Human Rights Commission.
The old commission included some of the world’s worst rights offenders and was considered highly biased against Israel.
The United States and Israel were in favor of replacing the old rights body, but voted against the new council because they felt the resolution did not go far enough.
Israelis held over arms export
An Israeli aviation firm is suspected of violating arms-exports regulations to China.
Four staff members of a Tel Aviv area company that produces unmanned aerial vehicles were arrested Monday on suspicion of selling controlled technology without Defense Ministry approval.
Israel has been stepping up its oversight on such exports since the United States voiced opposition to its sale of Harpy attack drones to China.
http://www.jta.org/
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