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Thursday, September 28, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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House approves Iran sanctions
The U.S. House of Representatives approved new sanctions against Iran.
The Iran Freedom Support Act, approved in a voice vote Thursday, would extend existing sanctions, scheduled to lapse Friday, and expand them to include overseas companies that deal with Iran.
The Senate is due to consider the act, sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), before Congress breaks Friday for midterm elections.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which led lobbying for the act, praised its passage.
“The passage of IFSA is an important step in further isolating the radical regime in Tehran, and represents a unified American commitment from both the administration and Congress toward ensuring that Iran does not obtain the world’s most dangerous weapons,” AIPAC said in a statement.
Congress releases $25 million for homeland security
The U.S. Congress released $25 million in homeland security funds to protect nonprofits.
The money, from the 2006 budget, had been held up because of ambiguities in earlier legislative language, but negotiators on the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives conference committee agreed this week to release the money.
Most of the $25 million allocated in 2005 went to Jewish organizations for improving security.
The United Jewish Communities federation umbrella group, which together with the Orthodox Union had lobbied for the funds’ release, welcomed the decision.
“The conference committee has taken critical steps to alleviate a particularly troublesome predicament given the elevated threats against Jewish community organizations as demonstrated by the July attack on the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle,” said William Daroff, director of the UJC’s Washington office.
The conference committee has not completed negotiations, but insiders told JTA that no funds were likely to be allocated for 2007.
The UJC and the Orthodox Union had lobbied for another $25 million in next year’s budget
House passes homeland security cooperation
The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that would formalize homeland security cooperation with Israel and four other allies.
The bill, passed Tuesday night, establishes an office in the Homeland Security Department that would foster legal and research cooperation with Israel, Britain, Australia, Singapore and Canada.
The office will be funded at $25 million a year for three years.
The Promoting Antiterrorism Capabilities Through International Cooperation Act now goes to the U.S. Senate.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbied for the bill, said its passage would allow the United States “to leverage the anti-terrorism expertise of our leading allies in the global war against terror.
It provides a framework for expanded homeland security collaboration and creates increased opportunities for the United States and Israel to work together to address the common terrorist threat.”
Church coalition presses Bush on peace
A coalition of major mainstream churches urged President Bush to make peacekeeping in the Middle East “an urgent priority.”
“Your determined direction would make possible important interim steps that could stem the humanitarian crisis among Palestinians and lay the groundwork for a diplomatic process,” said the letter sent Wednesday from Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of mainstream Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Quaker and Roman Catholic organizations.
It called on Bush to press Israel to end West Bank settlement and resume tax payments to the Palestinian Authority, suspended after the Hamas terrorist group took power.
It also urged him to press the Palestinians to release a captive Israeli soldier, recognize Israel and renounce terrorism.
U.S. to press UNIFIL on ‘robust’ mandate
The United States will press the multinational security force in Lebanon to pursue a robust mandate.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed unhappiness with reports that the expanded U.N. force in Lebanon is reluctant to set up roadblocks and check vehicles to keep Hezbollah, the terrorist group that launched this summer’s war with Israel, from rearming.
The U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the conflict expanded the force and charged it with helping to keep the South weapons-free.
“They’ve certainly got the authority to do whatever they need to do to do their job,” Rice said this week in a meeting with New York Times editors and reporters.
“There probably ought to be a conversation with UNIFIL about how it sees its responsibilities, because the language says that anything and anyone which keeps them from fulfilling their responsibilities is to be challenged on that and they even have the right to use force if they need to, if somebody tries to forcibly keep them from doing what they need to do. That mandate was written in a very robust fashion.”
House approves funds for missile interceptor
The U.S. House of Representatives approved funds for joint U.S.-Israeli development of an interceptor for short-range missiles.
The mandate is part of the $136 million appropriated this week for the Arrow program, the successful U.S.-Israeli interceptor of long-range missiles.
The Arrow appropriation, part of the wider defense appropriations bill passed Tuesday by the House and expected to gain Senate approval by Thursday, was $58 million more than the $78 million requested by the Bush administration.
The inclusion of a program for short-range missiles arose from Israel’s difficulties this summer in intercepting missiles fired by Hezbollah terrorists from Lebanon.
Other U.S.-Israeli projects in the appropriations included combat aircraft navigation systems and helmets that help pilots aim, as well as unmanned aerial drones, all currently used by U.S. forces in Iraq.
Such appropriations, considered defense investments, are separate from the $2.8 billion Israel gets annually in U.S. assistance
Israelis boost Britain
Britain topped a list of European nations that Israelis consider friendly.
According to a survey commissioned by the British Embassy in Tel Aviv and released Wednesday, a quarter of Israelis named Britain first when asked which European country is most pro-Israel, while 32 percent of respondents characterized Britain as generally “friendly” to Israel.
Almost two in three Israelis consider British Prime Minister Tony Blair a “true friend of Israel,” the poll found.
Blair weathered intense criticism at home for his refusal to call for an immediate cease-fire during Israel’s war with Hezbollah this summer. He has vowed to devote the rest of his time in office to bringing Middle East peace and defeating Islamic terrorism.
House suspends Israeli contract tainted by Abramoff
The U.S. Congress suspended a contract with an Israeli wireless firm because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
In 2002, Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Administration Committee, awarded the contract to install antennas in office buildings to Foxcom Wireless.
He is set to plead guilty to awarding the contract at Abramoff’s behest and in exchange for bribes.
The committee, which handles logistics on Capitol Hill, is reviewing the contract, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Abramoff has also pleaded guilty.
http://www.jta.org/
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