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Thursday, June 29, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Churches call for calm in Gaza
A coalition of churches appealed to the Bush administration to restrain Israel and calm the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Churches for Middle East Peace, a Washington-based group of 21 Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches that receives reports from Palestinian partner organizations, sent letters Thursday to Michael Doran of the National Security Council and to David Welch, the top State Department envoy to the Middle East.
The letter characterizes Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s power plant and bridges as “acts of collective punishment that have resulted in tremendous suffering by ordinary Palestinian people.”
The United States “must work closely with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz and insist that they restrain their military response and work with” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “to find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis,” the letter said.
The letter also condemned Palestinian militants’ capture of Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, which precipitated Israel’s invasion.
Columnist: ‘New York Times’ code for ‘Jews’
A newspaper columnist said White House attacks on the New York Times were code for attacks on Jews.
“Many members of the president’s base consider ‘New York’ to be a nifty code word for ‘Jewish,’ ” Jon Carroll wrote in Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle.
“It is very nice for the president to be able to campaign against the Jews without (a) actually saying the word ‘Jew’ and (b) without irritating the Israelis. A number of prominent Zionist groups think the New York Times is insufficiently anti-Palestinian, so they think the New York Times isn’t Jewish enough.”
Carroll said the attacks were an attempt to rally Bush’s Republican base.
The Republican Jewish Coalition called Carroll’s charges “reckless and irresponsible.” Bush has called “disgraceful” recent Times’ reports revealing anti-terrorist practices, including domestic wiretapping and secret monitoring of bank transactions.
“This is not in any way having to do with an attack on the Jewish community,” the coalition’s executive director, Matt Brooks, told JTA.
Kentucky employees denied access to Web sites
State employees in Kentucky cannot access three Jewish Web sites.
The employees have not been able to access jewishlearning.net, jewishworldreview.com or jewsweek.com for several months after an employee distributed material from one of the sites that was deemed religious, Gwen Pinson, general counsel for Kentucky’s Finance Cabinet, told JTA.
News of the ban comes as Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration faces criticism for blocking access to blogs among other Internet sites last week.
Access to the sites can be restored only if an employee appeals to the Commonwealth’s Office of Technology, Pinson said.
Lawmaker blasts Arab colleagues
A right-wing Israeli lawmaker wants Arab colleagues who identify with Palestinian terrorist groups banned from the Knesset.
Zevulun Orlev of the National Union-National Religious Party said Thursday he would submit legislation calling for the banning of Arab lawmakers who openly sympathize with Palestinian terrorists.
His decision followed comments by Arab lawmakers Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi about Sunday’s abduction of an Israeli soldier by Gaza Strip gunmen.
Bishara called the attack “legitimate,” while Tibi said it should be referred to as a wartime “capture” rather than a “kidnapping.”
White House to Chabad: Bush won’t press Israel
The Bush administration will not force Israel into concessions, top White House officials told representatives of the Lubavitch movement.
Chabad-Lubavitch culminated a two-day commemoration of the 12th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s death with meetings Wednesday with Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary, and Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff. Both men are Jewish.
Bolten and other White House officials assured Chabad representatives that President Bush would never force Israel to concede territory to the Palestinians, participants said.
Bolten said Bush would follow Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s lead in deciding what concessions to support.
German Jewish leader blasts outreach to Iran
A German Jewish leader criticized attempts to reach out to Iran.
Speaking at a press conference of the World Jewish Congress Policy Council on Wednesday, Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said it was unacceptable to meet with Iranian officials until President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stops calling for the destruction of Israel and denying the Holocaust.
Knobloch spoke at a press conference following the first meeting there of the Policy Council, a roving political think tank founded in February and headed by Rabbi Israel Singer.
Topics included interfaith dialogue, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 11:02 PM Permanent Link
 
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