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Latest news briefs from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
(JTA) - Sharon expose
A former aide to Ariel Sharon said Sharon knew about illicit funding of his political campaigns. On Monday, David Spector, a strategy consultant who helped Sharon win the 1999 Likud Party primary, told Israel's Channel Two television that the prime minister was involved in all aspects of the campaign financing including an allegedly illegal $1.5 million loan from a South African friend. Spector played a recording of what he said was a conversation between himself and Sharon in which the latter asked for documents on foreign currency transfers to Israeli bank accounts. Sharon has maintained his innocence, saying his sons Gilad and Omri handled his campaign finances. On Tuesday, the opposition Labor Party demanded that Sharon resign.
(JTA) - Turkey backs group's program
Turkey will support a worldwide campaign by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to classify suicide bombing as a "crime against humanity." The assurance was given Monday by legislator Egemen Bagis at a meeting in Ankara attended by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and senior officials of the Wiesenthal Center. Gul and Bagis, who also serves as foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan, said the recent bombings of synagogues and British institutions in Istanbul represented a new phase in international terrorism.
(JTA) - O.U. lauds Bush on vouchers
The Orthodox Union praised President Bush's pledge to seek $50 million for school vouchers. The Orthodox Union says Bush's call, made last Friday, shows that he "understands a fundamental principle, which Judaism has taught for centuries, that children learn best when their parents guide their education." Many Jewish groups fear vouchers, which provide government money for children to attend private or parochial schools, would break down the constitutional wall separating church and state.
(JTA) - Rabbis protest house demolitions
A rabbinical human-rights group protested Israel's razing of Palestinian homes. Rabbis for Human Rights- North America delivered a letter by 300 rabbis to Israeli government offices in Washington and New York blasting the upcoming trial of Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of the group's Israeli chapter, for trying to block demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank last spring. The rabbis, spanning the denominational spectrum, want the charges dropped because they say the demolition policy violates Jewish morals and Zionist ideals.
(JTA) - U.S. agencies: Liberty attack a mistake.
An examination of recently declassified U.S. intelligence documents reinforces Israel's claims that its 1967 attack on a U.S. ship was a mistake. National Security Agency historian David Hatch said intercepts of a conversation between Israel's Air Force command and two helicopter pilots "suggest strongly that the Israeli attackers did not know they were aiming deadly fire at a vessel belonging to the United States," though they fall short of absolute proof. State Department historian Harriet Schwar examined inquiries by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and presidential adviser Clark Clifford after the war. These all "concluded the attack was not made in malice," Schwar said. Schwar and Hatch spoke Monday at a State Department conference on the Six-Day War. The attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, at the height of the war, killed 34 U.S. sailors.
(JTA) - Dialing for peace
Americans can dial a 900 number to talk to Israelis and Palestinians about life during the intifada. Hello Peace, a program of the Parents Circle, a forum for tolerance and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, will expand its service to America beginning Tuesday. Since the service began in Israel in October 2002, more than 600,000 callers have used the dollar-per-minute, English-language line to talk about their pain, anger and hope. "There can't be a successful peace agreement without integral reconciliation between the two nations, so any dialogue we can promote between Palestinians and Israelis helps," said Robi Damelin, a Parents Circle activist whose son was killed by a Palestinian sniper in March 2003. Hello Peace can be accessed by dialing 1-900-AT- PEACE.
(JTA) - Peace parley in Ireland postponed
A peace conference in Ireland that was to bring together high-level Israeli and Palestinian lawmakers was postponed. The conference, set to open Monday outside Dublin, was put on hold after the Palestinian delegation refused to show up as a protest against an Israeli decision not to allow one of the Palestinians to attend. Israel's Shin Bet security service said the delegate posed a security threat. The lawmakers were slated to discuss both the Middle East and Northern Irish peace processes. The conference was to have been partially chaired by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Foreign Minister Brian Cowan, who is scheduled to visit Israel later this week. Organizers said that they hope the event can be rescheduled.
(JTA) - Arafat liaison dies
Yossi Ginossar, a Shin Bet veteran who served as liaison to Yasser Arafat for several Israeli prime ministers, died at 58. Ginossar, who died of cancer on Tuesday at age 58, served since the 1980s as a key back-channel envoy to the Palestinians. But he suffered several falls from grace, forced to resign from the Shin Bet after being implicated in attempts to cover up the execution of two captive terrorists and accused in media reports last year of benefitting illicitly from business interests in the Palestinian Authority. Ginossar steadfastly denied the charges.
(JTA) - Syria-Iran rift
Syria's peace overtures to Israel are straining its ties with Iran, the chief of Israeli military intelligence said. "Syrian President Bashar Assad's statements on peace with Israel are creating rifts between Syria and Iran and between Syria and Hezbollah," Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, referring to the Lebanese terrorist group that enjoys the backing of both Damascus and Tehran. He noted that Assad had expressed a willingness to reconsider Syria's demand for the return of the entire Golan Heights in any peace accord "in order not to deter Israel from negotiations." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has voiced a willingness to restart talks without preconditions, but has demanded that Damascus halt its support for terrorist groups.
(JTA) - Suicide bombing foiled
Israeli troops on a West Bank sweep captured a would-be suicide bomber. The terrorist was arrested outside Tulkarm this week as the army stepped up searches in the city. Security sources said the attacker, who may be female, planned to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel.
(JTA) - Nazi archives to get a home
Construction of a permanent home for a Berlin archive and exhibit about the Nazi secret police is set to begin in June. The Topography of Terror's temporary building, which is open to visitors and researchers, contains documents and photographs related to the history of the Gestapo and the SS. It is located over the unearthed basement of an annex to Gestapo headquarters. Construction of the archive's new home, which is to cost nearly $48 million, was postponed in the autumn of 2003 after the contractor declared bankruptcy. A successor firm has bid to take over the contract, and a decision is expected in March. The new documentation center is expected to open in 2007.
(JTA) - Dean seeking more fence info
Howard Dean said he wants to hear more information from the Israeli government about the route of its West Bank security fence. Danny Siebright, a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic presidential candidate, told reporters Monday that Dean would like to be briefed by Israel as to why the fence crosses into the West Bank in some places. Leon Fuerth, the new chairman of Dean's foreign policy team, said he believed Dean understands the rationale for the security fence. He also said he believed Israel "will have as good a friend in the White House as it has ever had" if Dean is elected. Fuerth also said he believed that, as president, Dean would be intimately involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fuerth would not say whether Dean would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as mandated by U.S. law, or whether he would exercise a presidential waiver on national security grounds.
(JTA) - U.S. backs Israel-Syria talks
The United States supports direct peace talks between Israel and Syria. Syria previously had insisted on three-way talks, with the United States as a partner. The Syrian foreign minister recently turned down Israeli President Moshe Katsav's proposal for direct talks, saying the offer was not taken seriously because Katsav is primarily a figurehead. On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States supports direct talks. "We have long made clear the importance of direct dialogue between Israel and its neighbors," Ereli said. "That's the quickest way to solving these issues and engaging in a process that leads to a negotiated settlement."
(JTA) - Satterfield: Israel picture is 'stark'
Israel's demographic future is "stark," a top U.S. State Department official said. David Satterfield, the department's second in charge on Middle East issues, said Israel's settlement policy could undermine its status as a Jewish and democratic state. "Settlements continue to grow today, encouraged by specific ongoing government policies," Satterfield said Monday at a State Department conference on the 1967 Six-Day War. "And this persists even as it becomes clearer and clearer that the logic of settlements and the reality of demographics could threaten the future of Israel itself as a Jewish democratic state." Satterfield also called on the Palestinians to finally confront terrorist groups. "A transformed Palestinian leadership is essential to the ability to achieve a Palestinian state," he said.
(JTA) - Jew honored as Righteous Gentile
A French Catholic priest who was born Jewish and saved hundreds during the Holocaust was named a Righteous Gentile. Father Alexandre Glasberg was honored Monday by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Glasberg, who was born in Ukraine to Jewish parents but was baptized at an early age, founded the Amitie Chretien movement, which found safe houses for Jews in the non-occupied zone of France. Glasberg's brother, Vila, who took over leadership of the movement while his brother was on the run from the Gestapo and was later caught and murdered by the Nazis, was honored posthumously at the Jerusalem ceremony. After the war, Alexandre Glasberg helped Jews, especially from Morocco, Iraq and Egypt, immigrate secretly to Israel.
(JTA) - ADL: Keep campaigns Holocaust-free
The Anti-Defamation League called on presidential candidates to keep references to the Holocaust out of the campaign. "We have witnessed a proliferation of comparisons to Hitler and his policies, which have been parroted by supporters of both Democratic and Republican candidates," Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL, said in a statement. The call by the ADL comes after a pro-Democratic Web site briefly posted advertisements comparing President Bush to Hitler.
(JTA) - Saudi Arabian killed Jew in Houston
A Saudi Arabian national in Houston pled guilty to slashing a Jewish friend's throat after undergoing a religious revival. Mohammed Ali Alayed, 23, faces up to 60 years in jail after the Aug. 6 attack on Ariel Sellouk, 23, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. Houston police did not find a religious motive for the slaying.
(JTA) - Palestinian to get money from Israel
Israel decided a Palestinian deserves compensation for damages suffered during the first intifada. Israel's High Court ruled Monday that Ossama Hamed can receive money for injuries he suffered when Israeli police fired rubber bullets at him in 1991. The court found that Hamed, then 11, was an innocent bystander and that police were derelict in their duties by shooting on the run at night at unidentified targets. A Haifa court will decide on the exact amount of damages.
(JTA) - Bad Samaritan goes to jail
An Israeli Arab was sentenced to life in prison in Israel for failing to stop a deadly terrorist attack. Monir Rajabi was sentenced for knowing about terrorists' intention to bomb a bus in Haifa in March 2003 that killed 17 people. The court ruled that Rajabi had called to offer assistance to the suicide bomber, who was transported to the site of the attack by Rajabi's brother.
(JTA) - Journalists pressed on 'martyr' issue
The Palestinian Authority is calling on all journalists at Arab satellite television stations to refer to those killed by Israel as "martyrs." The call made by the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation is believed to be aimed particularly at the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel, the Jerusalem Post reported. Journalists there are believed to have stopped referring to suicide bombers as martyrs after instructions that such labels might encourage suicide attacks against Saudi interests. The Palestinian Authority also ordered all Arab journalists to refrain from criticism of the Palestinian Authority.
(JTA) - Israel launches Arabic Web site
Israel's Foreign Ministry launched an Arabic-language Web site. The site, www.altawasul.net, will feature information about Israel and Op-Ed articles by people in the Arab world. The site's goal is to encourage understanding between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
(JTA) - Hungarian extremists burn flag
Protesters burned an Israeli flag during a right-wing rally in Budapest. The flag-burning occurred Monday during a right-wing rally of 3,000 people who had gathered to demand the closing of the left-wing radio station Radio Tilos. The rally followed controversial on-air remarks by one of the radio station's hosts, who said that he would "exterminate all Christians" if he could. The comment, aired on Christmas Eve, led to the firing of the host and to a public apology by the station. Though there was no connection to the Jewish community or Israel, right- wing demonstrators frequently vent anti-Israel sentiments for no apparent reason.
(JTA) - Estonia probes wartime activity
Estonia opened an investigation into a man who left the United States amid controversy over his World War II activities. Michael Gorshkow returned to Estonia in 2002, just before a court stripped him of his U.S. citizenship. Gorshkow is believed to have participated in the murder of Jews in 1943 in the Slutsk Ghetto, in what is today Belarus.
(JTA) - Germany to honor bridge-builder
A man dedicated to confronting Germany's Nazi past and helping rebuild ties with Jews will receive his country's highest honor. Manfred Karnetzki, 75, will receive Germany's Order of Merit in a Berlin ceremony Tuesday. From 1993 to 2001, Karnetzki headed the Action Reconciliation Peace Service organization, a Protestant group that sends young Germans to work with Holocaust survivors around the world. The young Germans volunteer for social service programs, often as an alternative to military service. A longtime peace activist, Karnetzki directed an educational project from 1986 to 1993 that included confronting Germany's Nazi past and coming to grips with the Protestant Church's involvement in anti-Semitism and national socialism. JTA END
(JTA) - Sharon expose
A former aide to Ariel Sharon said Sharon knew about illicit funding of his political campaigns. On Monday, David Spector, a strategy consultant who helped Sharon win the 1999 Likud Party primary, told Israel's Channel Two television that the prime minister was involved in all aspects of the campaign financing including an allegedly illegal $1.5 million loan from a South African friend. Spector played a recording of what he said was a conversation between himself and Sharon in which the latter asked for documents on foreign currency transfers to Israeli bank accounts. Sharon has maintained his innocence, saying his sons Gilad and Omri handled his campaign finances. On Tuesday, the opposition Labor Party demanded that Sharon resign.
(JTA) - Turkey backs group's program
Turkey will support a worldwide campaign by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to classify suicide bombing as a "crime against humanity." The assurance was given Monday by legislator Egemen Bagis at a meeting in Ankara attended by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and senior officials of the Wiesenthal Center. Gul and Bagis, who also serves as foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan, said the recent bombings of synagogues and British institutions in Istanbul represented a new phase in international terrorism.
(JTA) - O.U. lauds Bush on vouchers
The Orthodox Union praised President Bush's pledge to seek $50 million for school vouchers. The Orthodox Union says Bush's call, made last Friday, shows that he "understands a fundamental principle, which Judaism has taught for centuries, that children learn best when their parents guide their education." Many Jewish groups fear vouchers, which provide government money for children to attend private or parochial schools, would break down the constitutional wall separating church and state.
(JTA) - Rabbis protest house demolitions
A rabbinical human-rights group protested Israel's razing of Palestinian homes. Rabbis for Human Rights- North America delivered a letter by 300 rabbis to Israeli government offices in Washington and New York blasting the upcoming trial of Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of the group's Israeli chapter, for trying to block demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank last spring. The rabbis, spanning the denominational spectrum, want the charges dropped because they say the demolition policy violates Jewish morals and Zionist ideals.
(JTA) - U.S. agencies: Liberty attack a mistake.
An examination of recently declassified U.S. intelligence documents reinforces Israel's claims that its 1967 attack on a U.S. ship was a mistake. National Security Agency historian David Hatch said intercepts of a conversation between Israel's Air Force command and two helicopter pilots "suggest strongly that the Israeli attackers did not know they were aiming deadly fire at a vessel belonging to the United States," though they fall short of absolute proof. State Department historian Harriet Schwar examined inquiries by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and presidential adviser Clark Clifford after the war. These all "concluded the attack was not made in malice," Schwar said. Schwar and Hatch spoke Monday at a State Department conference on the Six-Day War. The attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, at the height of the war, killed 34 U.S. sailors.
(JTA) - Dialing for peace
Americans can dial a 900 number to talk to Israelis and Palestinians about life during the intifada. Hello Peace, a program of the Parents Circle, a forum for tolerance and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, will expand its service to America beginning Tuesday. Since the service began in Israel in October 2002, more than 600,000 callers have used the dollar-per-minute, English-language line to talk about their pain, anger and hope. "There can't be a successful peace agreement without integral reconciliation between the two nations, so any dialogue we can promote between Palestinians and Israelis helps," said Robi Damelin, a Parents Circle activist whose son was killed by a Palestinian sniper in March 2003. Hello Peace can be accessed by dialing 1-900-AT- PEACE.
(JTA) - Peace parley in Ireland postponed
A peace conference in Ireland that was to bring together high-level Israeli and Palestinian lawmakers was postponed. The conference, set to open Monday outside Dublin, was put on hold after the Palestinian delegation refused to show up as a protest against an Israeli decision not to allow one of the Palestinians to attend. Israel's Shin Bet security service said the delegate posed a security threat. The lawmakers were slated to discuss both the Middle East and Northern Irish peace processes. The conference was to have been partially chaired by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Foreign Minister Brian Cowan, who is scheduled to visit Israel later this week. Organizers said that they hope the event can be rescheduled.
(JTA) - Arafat liaison dies
Yossi Ginossar, a Shin Bet veteran who served as liaison to Yasser Arafat for several Israeli prime ministers, died at 58. Ginossar, who died of cancer on Tuesday at age 58, served since the 1980s as a key back-channel envoy to the Palestinians. But he suffered several falls from grace, forced to resign from the Shin Bet after being implicated in attempts to cover up the execution of two captive terrorists and accused in media reports last year of benefitting illicitly from business interests in the Palestinian Authority. Ginossar steadfastly denied the charges.
(JTA) - Syria-Iran rift
Syria's peace overtures to Israel are straining its ties with Iran, the chief of Israeli military intelligence said. "Syrian President Bashar Assad's statements on peace with Israel are creating rifts between Syria and Iran and between Syria and Hezbollah," Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, referring to the Lebanese terrorist group that enjoys the backing of both Damascus and Tehran. He noted that Assad had expressed a willingness to reconsider Syria's demand for the return of the entire Golan Heights in any peace accord "in order not to deter Israel from negotiations." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has voiced a willingness to restart talks without preconditions, but has demanded that Damascus halt its support for terrorist groups.
(JTA) - Suicide bombing foiled
Israeli troops on a West Bank sweep captured a would-be suicide bomber. The terrorist was arrested outside Tulkarm this week as the army stepped up searches in the city. Security sources said the attacker, who may be female, planned to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel.
(JTA) - Nazi archives to get a home
Construction of a permanent home for a Berlin archive and exhibit about the Nazi secret police is set to begin in June. The Topography of Terror's temporary building, which is open to visitors and researchers, contains documents and photographs related to the history of the Gestapo and the SS. It is located over the unearthed basement of an annex to Gestapo headquarters. Construction of the archive's new home, which is to cost nearly $48 million, was postponed in the autumn of 2003 after the contractor declared bankruptcy. A successor firm has bid to take over the contract, and a decision is expected in March. The new documentation center is expected to open in 2007.
(JTA) - Dean seeking more fence info
Howard Dean said he wants to hear more information from the Israeli government about the route of its West Bank security fence. Danny Siebright, a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic presidential candidate, told reporters Monday that Dean would like to be briefed by Israel as to why the fence crosses into the West Bank in some places. Leon Fuerth, the new chairman of Dean's foreign policy team, said he believed Dean understands the rationale for the security fence. He also said he believed Israel "will have as good a friend in the White House as it has ever had" if Dean is elected. Fuerth also said he believed that, as president, Dean would be intimately involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fuerth would not say whether Dean would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as mandated by U.S. law, or whether he would exercise a presidential waiver on national security grounds.
(JTA) - U.S. backs Israel-Syria talks
The United States supports direct peace talks between Israel and Syria. Syria previously had insisted on three-way talks, with the United States as a partner. The Syrian foreign minister recently turned down Israeli President Moshe Katsav's proposal for direct talks, saying the offer was not taken seriously because Katsav is primarily a figurehead. On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States supports direct talks. "We have long made clear the importance of direct dialogue between Israel and its neighbors," Ereli said. "That's the quickest way to solving these issues and engaging in a process that leads to a negotiated settlement."
(JTA) - Satterfield: Israel picture is 'stark'
Israel's demographic future is "stark," a top U.S. State Department official said. David Satterfield, the department's second in charge on Middle East issues, said Israel's settlement policy could undermine its status as a Jewish and democratic state. "Settlements continue to grow today, encouraged by specific ongoing government policies," Satterfield said Monday at a State Department conference on the 1967 Six-Day War. "And this persists even as it becomes clearer and clearer that the logic of settlements and the reality of demographics could threaten the future of Israel itself as a Jewish democratic state." Satterfield also called on the Palestinians to finally confront terrorist groups. "A transformed Palestinian leadership is essential to the ability to achieve a Palestinian state," he said.
(JTA) - Jew honored as Righteous Gentile
A French Catholic priest who was born Jewish and saved hundreds during the Holocaust was named a Righteous Gentile. Father Alexandre Glasberg was honored Monday by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Glasberg, who was born in Ukraine to Jewish parents but was baptized at an early age, founded the Amitie Chretien movement, which found safe houses for Jews in the non-occupied zone of France. Glasberg's brother, Vila, who took over leadership of the movement while his brother was on the run from the Gestapo and was later caught and murdered by the Nazis, was honored posthumously at the Jerusalem ceremony. After the war, Alexandre Glasberg helped Jews, especially from Morocco, Iraq and Egypt, immigrate secretly to Israel.
(JTA) - ADL: Keep campaigns Holocaust-free
The Anti-Defamation League called on presidential candidates to keep references to the Holocaust out of the campaign. "We have witnessed a proliferation of comparisons to Hitler and his policies, which have been parroted by supporters of both Democratic and Republican candidates," Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL, said in a statement. The call by the ADL comes after a pro-Democratic Web site briefly posted advertisements comparing President Bush to Hitler.
(JTA) - Saudi Arabian killed Jew in Houston
A Saudi Arabian national in Houston pled guilty to slashing a Jewish friend's throat after undergoing a religious revival. Mohammed Ali Alayed, 23, faces up to 60 years in jail after the Aug. 6 attack on Ariel Sellouk, 23, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. Houston police did not find a religious motive for the slaying.
(JTA) - Palestinian to get money from Israel
Israel decided a Palestinian deserves compensation for damages suffered during the first intifada. Israel's High Court ruled Monday that Ossama Hamed can receive money for injuries he suffered when Israeli police fired rubber bullets at him in 1991. The court found that Hamed, then 11, was an innocent bystander and that police were derelict in their duties by shooting on the run at night at unidentified targets. A Haifa court will decide on the exact amount of damages.
(JTA) - Bad Samaritan goes to jail
An Israeli Arab was sentenced to life in prison in Israel for failing to stop a deadly terrorist attack. Monir Rajabi was sentenced for knowing about terrorists' intention to bomb a bus in Haifa in March 2003 that killed 17 people. The court ruled that Rajabi had called to offer assistance to the suicide bomber, who was transported to the site of the attack by Rajabi's brother.
(JTA) - Journalists pressed on 'martyr' issue
The Palestinian Authority is calling on all journalists at Arab satellite television stations to refer to those killed by Israel as "martyrs." The call made by the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation is believed to be aimed particularly at the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel, the Jerusalem Post reported. Journalists there are believed to have stopped referring to suicide bombers as martyrs after instructions that such labels might encourage suicide attacks against Saudi interests. The Palestinian Authority also ordered all Arab journalists to refrain from criticism of the Palestinian Authority.
(JTA) - Israel launches Arabic Web site
Israel's Foreign Ministry launched an Arabic-language Web site. The site, www.altawasul.net, will feature information about Israel and Op-Ed articles by people in the Arab world. The site's goal is to encourage understanding between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
(JTA) - Hungarian extremists burn flag
Protesters burned an Israeli flag during a right-wing rally in Budapest. The flag-burning occurred Monday during a right-wing rally of 3,000 people who had gathered to demand the closing of the left-wing radio station Radio Tilos. The rally followed controversial on-air remarks by one of the radio station's hosts, who said that he would "exterminate all Christians" if he could. The comment, aired on Christmas Eve, led to the firing of the host and to a public apology by the station. Though there was no connection to the Jewish community or Israel, right- wing demonstrators frequently vent anti-Israel sentiments for no apparent reason.
(JTA) - Estonia probes wartime activity
Estonia opened an investigation into a man who left the United States amid controversy over his World War II activities. Michael Gorshkow returned to Estonia in 2002, just before a court stripped him of his U.S. citizenship. Gorshkow is believed to have participated in the murder of Jews in 1943 in the Slutsk Ghetto, in what is today Belarus.
(JTA) - Germany to honor bridge-builder
A man dedicated to confronting Germany's Nazi past and helping rebuild ties with Jews will receive his country's highest honor. Manfred Karnetzki, 75, will receive Germany's Order of Merit in a Berlin ceremony Tuesday. From 1993 to 2001, Karnetzki headed the Action Reconciliation Peace Service organization, a Protestant group that sends young Germans to work with Holocaust survivors around the world. The young Germans volunteer for social service programs, often as an alternative to military service. A longtime peace activist, Karnetzki directed an educational project from 1986 to 1993 that included confronting Germany's Nazi past and coming to grips with the Protestant Church's involvement in anti-Semitism and national socialism. JTA END
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