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Sunday, October 22, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Meridor confirmed as Israeli ambassador to U.S.
Israel’s Cabinet approved the appointment of Sallai Meridor as ambassador to the United States.
“The appointment will contribute significantly to Israel’s ties with the United States and to the Jewish community in the United States, as part of Israel’s efforts to strengthen its relations with this important nation,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday before Meridor was confirmed as successor to the current ambassador, Daniel Ayalon.
Though Ayalon is not expected to step down until January, Israel Radio reported that Olmert plans to take Meridor with him to next month’s 75th United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly in Los Angeles.
Campaign to compensate Jewish refugees
A campaign to gain restitution for Jews expelled from Arab countries in the mid-20th century was launched.
The “International Rights and Redress Campaign” opened with a one-day summit in Jerusalem on Sunday attended by representatives of Jewish communities from 10 countries.
Participants called for a campaign to document properties lost by an estimated 900,000 Jews who were driven out of Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen after Israel’s founding in 1948.
Most of the refugees ended up in the nascent Jewish state, while others immigrated to the West.
One group, the World Organization of Jews From Arab Countries, has valued the refugees’ lost property at $100 billion, and wants a concerted effort to sue for reparations.
Some of the conference participants want the Jewish refugees’ claims to be given equal weight to those of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war for Israeli independence.
Poll: Jewish support for Iran strike declining
Jewish support for a military strike against Iran is declining, according to a new study.
Thirty-eight percent of American Jews would support U.S. military action against Iran, according to the American Jewish Committee’s annual survey of U.S. Jewish opinion, down from 49 percent last year.
The survey also found that 81 percent of respondents think the Arabs’ goal is the destruction of Israel, 62 percent disapproved of American handling of the war on terror and 66 percent believe Iraq will never become a stable democracy.
Addressing this summer’s conflict between Israel and Lebanon, 55 percent said they approve of Israel’s handing of the war, but less than a quarter said Israel emerged as the winner.
Report: Spy heading U.N. hostage efforts
The United Nations reportedly appointed a German spy to help secure the release of two Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hezbollah.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made the appointment in September during a secret meeting with the unnamed BND intelligence agent in Madrid.
According to Der Spiegel, the spy will lead behind-the-scenes efforts to secure the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose abduction by Hezbollah in a July 12 border raid triggered the Lebanon war.
The BND, Germany’s foreign spy service, was integral to brokering a 2004 deal in which Hezbollah repatriated a captured Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers in exchange for Israel’s release of hundreds of Arab security prisoners.
Neither the BND nor the United Nations commented on the report.
http://www.jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 11:19 PM Permanent Link
 
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