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Saturday, July 15, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Israeli woman, grandson killed
An Israeli woman and her grandson were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack Friday.
The two died when a rocket hit their house in Moshav Meron on Friday evening. Dozens of people were injured as fresh barrages of Katyusha rockets hit the Galilee on Friday, the third day of Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s north.
A rocket hitting the village of Yesod HaMa’alah seriously injured one person, Ha’aretz reported. A rocket that hit an apartment building in Safed hurt two people moderately and eight others lightly. Other rockets hit Peki’in, Hatzor HaGlilit and Kiryat Shemona.
AIPAC trial delayed again
The trial of two former AIPAC staffers was postponed again.
Federal Judge T.S. Ellis of the Alexandria, Va. district court agreed this week to postpone the classified information leak trial for the third time. The government and defense are still negotiating what evidence may be unclassified for trial use in the case against Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst.
Ellis will announce the new date next week. The defense wants the trial to start in October; the prosecution has asked for a delay until January, a year after the trial was supposed to start.
Israel rally Monday at U.N.
Jewish groups will rally Monday in New York City in support of Israel.
Senators Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel will headline the noon rally across from the United Nations. Sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the rally is meant to support Israel’s right to self-defense against Hezbollah and Hamas, both of which have taken captive Israeli soldiers in recent attacks. Another rally is planned for Wednesday in Washington.
Jewish leaders organize D.C. ‘fly-in’
Top U.S. Jewish leaders will meet with Israeli Embassy staff, senior Congressional leaders and Bush administration officials to discuss the crisis with Hezbollah.
The United Jewish Communities, the federation umbrella body, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, its equivalent for community relations councils, are organizing a “fly in” for leaders on Thursday. UJC also is planning an emergency solidarity mission to Israel
Senate mandates spending security funds
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation that would release $25 million in homeland security funds for non-profit groups.
The amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), instructs the Homeland Security Department to disburse $25 million in 2006 funds by the end of 2007. The department has not disbursed any funds yet, saying they were reserved for “credible” threats, a standard Jewish groups said was impossible to meet.
The legislation would allow money to be spent on potential threats, and comes a day after Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, told Agudath Israel of America that the policy was a mistake and promised to reverse it. More than half of the $25 million set aside in 2005 — the first year funds were allocated to non-profits — went to Jewish organizations, mostly for security measures including barriers and gate systems.
The United Jewish Communities and the Orthodox Union led lobbying for the funds. Mikulski and Specter are also working to include $25 million in funds in the 2007 budget.
APN: Send former presidents
Americans for Peace Now called on President Bush to send his father and President Clinton to the Middle East on a peace-seeking mission.
“President George W. Bush should immediately dispatch a senior presidential envoy or envoys to the Middle East, vested with the authority of the president and empowered to work with parties in the region, the U.N., and relevant world leaders to restore order and renew a political process capable of ending terrorism and violence,” Debra DeLee, APN’s president, said in a statement. “For example, former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton — who worked together to address a number of crises at home and abroad — could serve in this role.”
The elder Bush and Clinton have raised money for relief in the wake of the Asian tsunami and hurricanes on the U.S. Gulf coast.
APN, a dovish group, said fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist groups made it “increasingly unlikely that the parties, on their own, have the ability to slow or stop it.”
Report: Haifa rockets made in Iran
Rockets hitting Israel reportedly were made in Iran.
CNN reported that an Israeli analysis of two rockets that hit Haifa on Thursday showed they were made in Iran. Hezbollah’s Katyusha rockets have never reached so far inside Israel. Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based terrorist group backed by Iran, has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel since sparking the current crisis Wednesday.
http://www.jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 12:45 AM Permanent Link
 
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