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Sunday, October 01, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Congress pulls `Jesus’ out of troop prayers
Congress rescinded language in Pentagon orders that allowed military chaplains to mention Jesus in official prayers.
Controversy over including similar language in the Defense Authorization Act, a critical spending bill, dogged attempts to pull the bill out of a Senate-House of Representatives conference before Congress suspended for midterm elections. The conferees ultimately decided to strike the language and order the Pentagon to rescind its earlier instructions.
Mikey Weinstein, a former U.S. Air Force Officer who led the battle to remove the language, applauded the decision.
“We welcome the opportunity Congress has afforded to discuss the appropriate role of religion and chaplains in the military,” Weinstein, who is Jewish, said in Friday a statement issued by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which he founded. “The passage of this bill will be victory for those of us who have been fighting so assiduously to protect both the rights of the men and women in our armed forces and the United States Constitution."
British lawmaker scrutinized for remarks
A member of Britain’s House of Lords will be investigated by her party for comments about the “pro-Israel lobby.”
Liberal Democratic Party members have announced that Baroness Jenny Tonge’s position in the party will be reviewed in response to her public remarks.
In a speech that recently aired on BBC radio, Tonge said, “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its financial grips on the Western World. I think they´ve probably got a certain grip on our party.”
More than 20 of her peers in the House of Lords wrote a letter to the Times condemning Tonge’s comments, stating, “Baroness Tonge evoked a classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theory” and that her language “as a member of the House of Lords, was irresponsible and inappropriate.”
In early 2004, she was fired from her position as Liberal Democratic spokeswoman on international development by then-party leader Charles Kennedy for saying she could understand why a Palestinian would become a suicide bomber and also that she would consider becoming one were she a Palestinian.
http://www.jta.org
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