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Thursday, October 26, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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U.N. sees hold-ups in Lebanon withdrawal
The United Nations said there are hold-ups in negotiating the final withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
Israel this month quit all Lebanese territory that its forces overran during the war with Hezbollah, except for the northern part of Ghajar, a village straddling the border.
Talks have been under way for weeks on Israel’s demand that the bolstered United Nations peacekeeper force in southern Lebanon impose new security regulations in Ghajar to ensure Hezbollah does not use the village as a conduit for attacks or drug smuggling.
The UNIFIL force said Thursday that it has had “productive” meetings with Israel on Ghajar and hoped for a troop withdrawal there soon.
“Minor administrative issues with relations to Ghajar residents are still pending. UNIFIL hopes they will be solved at the next meeting early next week,” it said in a statement.
Bush: Returning Shalit would help Syria
President Bush said facilitating the return of a captured Israeli soldier would help Syria in American eyes.
Bush was asked at a news conference Wednesday what would persuade him to work with Syria, a nation his administration has shunned for its sponsorship of terrorism.
Bush listed helping Iraq succeed; not interfering in Lebanon; and ending sponsorship of anti-Israel terrorism.
“Help Israel get back the prisoner that was captured by Hamas,” he said, referring to Cpl. Gilad Shalit, captured by gunmen affiliated with the terrorist group in a June 25 cross-border raid. “Don’t allow Hamas and Hezbollah to plot attacks against democracies in the Middle East.”
Syria allows Hamas to headquarter in Damascus and runs weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group that launched a war with Israel this summer.
Waxman blasts Justice on Harman
A top congressional Democrat called on the Justice Department to publicize what it knows about an investigation into relations between AIPAC and a Jewish congresswoman.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee, said in the letter sent Thursday that allegations of improper relations between Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee seem “absurd.”
Reports have alleged that AIPAC lobbied Democrats to keep Harman in her Intelligence Committee leadership position in exchange for Harman’s favorable treatment of classified information charges against two former AIPAC staffers.
“The Intelligence Committee has no jurisdiction over a Justice Department prosecution of AIPAC employees, and it is unlikely that she, as a Democrat, could tell this Republican administration what to do on this matter,” Waxman wrote.
He suggested the department was retaliating for Harman’s tough criticism of its zeal in prosecuting leaks. Waxman and Harman are both Jewish.
Peres: West bolsters Iran
Shimon Peres chided the international community for not being firmer in its efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran is not strong. The reaction to Iran is weak, and that is what strengthens it,” the Israeli vice premier said Thursday after talks with visiting European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The U.N. Security Council has agreed to discuss sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt atomic procedures that could be used to produce a bomb, but implementation of the council decision has been held up by internal disagreements.
“There is a need to place sanctions on the Iranians so that they understand that the world cannot accept their way of promoting the nuclear system or nuclear program while trying to negotiate the terms of this program with the world,” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said.
Dems to host Israel online meeting
Top U.S. congressional Democrats will host an online “town hall meeting” on Israel on Friday. Participants in the meeting at noon, Eastern Time, include Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the minority leader; Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), both likely committee chairmen if Democrats win the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 7; and other members of the Democrats’ Israel Working Group.
Questions for the group may be posted at http://demcaucus.townhall.house.gov.
European politicians delay Israel trip
A visit by a European Parliament delegation to Israel was postponed due to Israel’s concern over a far-right French delegate.
The trip by 16 politicians, scheduled for Oct. 28-Nov. 4, was delayed, according to EUobserver.com, because of the presence of Marine Le Pen, a member of the National Front and daughter of anti-immigration politician Jean Marie Le Pen, who has made anti-Semitic comments in the past.
“The composition of the delegation, which includes a person coming from a party whose ranks are linked to anti-Semitism and Holocaust deniers, made it very, very difficult for us,” an Israeli diplomat reportedly told EUobserver.com.
The Parliament members now are deciding whether to propose a trip without Le Pen or to cancel the meeting altogether.
Massacre of Arabs to be remembered
Israeli schools will hold first-ever memorial ceremonies for a 1956 massacre of Arabs.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir this week ordered that schools hold special coexistence study sessions Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the killing of 47 residents of the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Kassem by border policemen.
The villagers were shot because they were in violation of a wartime curfew that had not been announced in advance.
The three policemen involved were jailed.
Tamir has said the incident should be used to teach Israelis about the need to question authorities in matters of moral urgency.
http://www.jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 11:05 PM Permanent Link
 
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