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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Republicans target candidate over Muslim ties
U.S. Republicans targeted a Muslim Democratic candidate in Minnesota for his ties to a U.S. Muslim advocacy group.
Keith Ellison, who won last week’s Democratic primary for a Minneapolis-area seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, accepted a $2,000 donation several weeks ago from Nihad Awad, a senior official with the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Republican groups, including the Republican Jewish Coalition, have noted CAIR’s past defense of groups like Hamas, and Awad’s own claim in 1994 that he preferred Hamas to the PLO.
Awad’s defenders note that in the same statement he said he favored Hamas “moderates,” and clarified that he rejected the PLO because of its corruption.
Ellison is himself a Muslim who has repudiated his earlier ties to the Nation of Islam and has received the endorsement of some Minnesota Jewish leaders.
Santorum blasted on Iran
Sanctioning companies that deal with Iran emerged as an issue in the battle for Jewish votes in Pennsylvania.
U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who are both Jewish, hosted a press conference Monday to blast U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who is fighting a tough re-election battle against Democrat Bob Casey.
Lautenberg says Santorum has consistently resisted Democratic efforts to expand sanctions to U.S. companies that allow foreign-owned subsidiaries to deal with Iran.
A Santorum spokeswoman, Virginia Davis, noted the Pennsylvania senator’s pending bill that would expand sanctions against Iran, and said he had tried to meet Lautenberg halfway by applying the New Jersey senator’s sanctions to future investments while exempting existing investments.
The Democrats’ attack “shows they do not understand the seriousness of the threat,” Davis said.
Both candidates in the November election have strong Jewish backing.
Israeli Arab population grows
Israel’s Arab sector is growing at a faster pace than its Jewish counterpart, government figures show.
According to Central Bureau of Statistics data released Tuesday ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish population’s growth rate remained at roughly 1.5 percent; the Muslim population dropped to 3 percent, mainly due to a lower birth rate. The report also stated that Jews constitute 76 percent of Israel’s population, while Arabs constitute 20 percent.
The total Israeli population now stands at around 6,990,700.
http://www.jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 10:58 PM Permanent Link
 
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