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Latest news briefs from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
(JTA) - Israel to unsettle U.S.?
Israel is allowing bids for more than 1,000 new West Bank homes despite U.S. demands for a freeze in settlement construction. The Housing Ministry on Tuesday advertised for bids on contracts to build 604 new homes in Beitar Illit, 214 in Ariel, 141 in Ma'aleh Adumim and 42 in Karnei Shomron. This followed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's order to rescind some previous offers for bids for fear of upsetting the Unites States, which received an Israeli pledge not to expand settlements under the "road map" peace plan with the Palestinians. U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the new ads. Israel has insisted that the freeze does not apply to established settlements that likely will be incorporated into Israel in any future peace deal.
(JTA) - Gaza bombing foiled
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians who tried to plant a mine outside a Gaza Strip settlement. The terrorists were spotted and shot near the Atzmona perimeter fence before dawn Tuesday. Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attempted attack.
(JTA) - Golan Cipel arrives in Israel
The Israeli man who prompted N.J. Gov. James McGreevey's resignation returned to Israel. Golan Cipel arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and spoke publicly for the first time since McGreevey resigned last week after revealing that he was gay and had had an adulterous homosexual relationship. Sources close to McGreevey pegged Cipel as his paramour and said Cipel had demanded millions of dollars in blackmail. But Cipel, who says he is heterosexual, has denied an affair and alleges that McGreevey made repeated, unwanted sexual advances.
(JTA) - Birthright boosted in budget
Israel's 2005 draft budget includes a $10 million boost for birthright israel. The allocation is $1 million higher than government funds put aside last year for the program, despite planned cuts to other areas of the Israeli public sector under the spending package approved Monday by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet. Natan Sharansky, Israel's minister for Diaspora affairs, said the boost to birthright showed "the government's recognition of the importance of the project to the Jewish people." Birthright, which brings young Jews from all over the world on free trips to Israel, is a joint project of the Israeli government and foreign donors.
(JTA) - Art attack on terrorism
Israeli forces distributed a cartoon urging Palestinians to shun terrorists in their midst. Titled "Terrorism is Killing You," the black-and-white sketch of an Islamist suicide bomber squashing an elderly Palestinian man and a boy in a huge vise was distributed in the West Bank city of Nablus this week, military sources said. It was the first time Israel has resorted to art in its psychological warfare against Palestinian terrorists. Nablus is a hotbed of extremists, many of whom are hated by the populace for assuming a vigilante role in lieu of the local police force.
(JTA) - Heavy weapons face Hezbollah
Israel is deploying advanced artillery on its northern border to ward off Hezbollah rocket attacks. The new Trajectory Correction System has made Israeli artillery along the border with Lebanon accurate enough to strike a target as small as a basketball court, security sources said Tuesday, meaning Hezbollah rocket crews can be struck without harming the Lebanese civilian populace. The system gives Israeli artillery a reliable range of 25 miles, enough to cover arsenals in southern Lebanon, where the Shiite militia is believed to have stockpiled as many as 12,000 rockets.
(JTA) - Voucher program ruled unconstitutional
Florida's voucher program was found to be unconstitutional. An appeals court in Florida on Monday upheld an August 2002 ruling that found the statewide voucher program unconstitutional, holding that it violated the Constitution's doctrine against government-established religion and the Florida Constitution's ban on direct state aid to religious schools. The state is expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. Several Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League, filed a brief supporting the plaintiff in the case. These groups see vouchers as a breach of church-state separation and say they drain money from the public school system. In contrast, Orthodox groups think vouchers could increase school choice and Jewish day school education.
(JTA) - UJC accepts money for Charley aid
The United Jewish Communities is accepting donations to aid members of the Jewish and general communities effected by Hurricane Charley in Florida. Donations can be made to local Jewish federations or can be mailed to UJC Inc., Hurricane Charley Disaster Relief, P.O. Box 20, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y., 10013. Jewish communities across central Florida have been working together to provide support to those in need. Sunday night, the Chabad of Sarasota welcomed 60 teenage girls and staff from an overnight camp held at the Chabad of Fort Myers, which lost power and water last Friday. Families in the Sarasota Jewish community are lending their freezers to keep the kosher food from the Fort Myers camp so the girls can maintain a religious diet, according to Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz at the Chabad of Sarasota. Other members of the community have offered their services in art, magic and pottery to entertain the girls, who are expected to return to Fort Myers next week.
American expelled from Israel
An American member of a pro-Palestinian group is to be expelled from Israel. On Monday, the Tel Aviv District Court ordered the deportation of New Orleans resident Adam Wilson. Wilson, 28, is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, which has protested Israel's West Bank security barrier and whose members have tried to block Israeli army actions by acting as human buffers between Israeli troops and Palestinians. Wilson said Israeli authorities detained him after he refused an order to leave the country. "They interrogated me and I spent 10 hours at the airport," Wilson was quoted as saying in the Jerusalem Post. "They tried to put me on the plane and I refused to leave." When he couldn't come up with roughly $900 to cover court costs, a judge ordered his expulsion. Israel has deported other members of the group in the past. Israeli officials accuse the organization of abetting Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(JTA) - Historical cave found in Israel
Archaeologists in Israel found a cave where they say John the Baptist anointed numerous disciples. The cave, located on Kibbutz Tzuba near Jerusalem, is replete with wall carvings, pottery shards and other historical artifacts that suggest its authenticity, The Associated Press reported Monday. But some academics are questioning whether the pictorial carvings, found without inscriptions, offer valid proof.
(JTA) - Sao Paulo and Tel Aviv are sisters
The mayor of Sao Paulo declared his city a sister city with Tel Aviv. According to Marta Suplicy, who is running for re-election in the Brazilian city in October, the new status will strengthen ties between both Brazilians and Israelis. Suplicy, who recently married a Jew, added that the new status will be a kickoff for urban, cultural, scientific, tourist and economic programs. Some 60,000 Jews are estimated to live in the region around Sao Paulo, according to a recent census of Brazilian Jews.
(JTA) - Poll: Bush up slightly among Jews
President Bush would earn a slightly larger percentage of votes from U.S. Jews if the election were held today. Bush would win 22 percent of the Jewish vote, and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic nominee, would receive 75 percent. The poll, carried out in late July by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the National Jewish Democratic Council, has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. In 2000, Al Gore won 79 percent of the Jewish vote to Bush's 19 percent. Bush has earned strong approval from the Jewish community leadership for his support of Israel, but many U.S. Jewish voters oppose his policies on domestic issues. Kerry's campaign has worked in recent weeks to portray their candidate as strong on Israel as well.
Gaza rocket crew hit
Israeli helicopter gunships hit a Gaza Strip rocket crew, killing two Palestinians. The airstrike was ordered on Monday after men believed to be a squad of terrorists were spotted in the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun, preparing to launch a rocket over the nearby boundary with Israel. Two men were killed. According to media reports, Israel has recently begun using surveillance balloons to help intercept rocket crews who regularly target Sderot and other Israeli towns in the western Negev.
(JTA) - Poll: Israelis favor Bush
Israelis overwhelmingly prefer President Bush to his challenger, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a new poll shows. A Tel Aviv University survey last week showed 49 percent of Israelis preferred Bush to 18 percent for Kerry. The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. The poll conducted by the Teleseeker organization also broke preferences down according to Israeli party affiliation. Likud voters preferred Bush to Kerry by 69 percent to 18 percent; Labor voters preferred Kerry 44-36 percent. The U.S. candidates were in a statistical dead heat among Shinui voters. An earlier Teleseker poll showed Bush out-polling Kerry 48-29.
(JTA) - Israel budget passed
The Israeli Cabinet passed its 2005 budget. On Monday, the Cabinet voted 17-3 in favor of the $59 billion package, which includes widespread public-sector spending cuts. In response to some of the cuts, the Histadrut labor federation pledged to launch a strike on Sept. 1. Angered at losing $330 million from the military budget, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz opposed the budget. Also voting against was Trade Minister Ehud Olmert, in what was the seen as the latest in a series of personal challenges to Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To pass the draft, Netanyahu gave up on several planned spending cuts, including those on the state-run media and education. The budget must now pass a Knesset vote.
Raising the steaks
Israel plans to "smoke out" hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners with barbecues. Meat will be grilled outside the cells of fasting inmates as part of "psychological tactics" to break the strike, the Prisons Service said Monday. The protest was launched Sunday by 1,500 security prisoners, who are demanding improved conditions such as public telephones. Israel accuses them of trying to win concessions that would give them easier access to terrorist groups on the outside. "Seventy percent of the security prisoners have blood on their hands," Maqbe Tafesh, the warden of one of the affected prisons, told Army Radio.
(JTA) - New Zealand Jews honor dead
Three hundred members of Wellington's Jewish community paid homage to those buried in the city's Makara Cemetery. Sunday's ceremony came a week after 113 headstones were pushed over and the prayer hall destroyed by fire in a nighttime attack on the cemetery. Meanwhile, participants in an anti-racism meeting on Saturday faced extremist demonstrators handing out anti-Israel placards outside the hall where they gathered. The extremist demonstrators are members of the National Front, whose Oct. 23 rally is being countered by the anti-racist activists. Inside the meeting, some of the activists spoke out against the participation of New Zealand Jewish leader David Zwartz, saying Israel is a racist state.
(JTA) - Berlin Jewish memorial defaced
A Jewish memorial in Berlin was defaced. A swastika was painted on the memorial at the city's Tiergarten Park on Sunday, shortly before a visit to the site by German Jews who had emigrated, the German state news agency reported.
(JTA) - Prague exhibit features angels of peace
Visitors to the Jewish Museum in Prague will be able to send a message of peace for the Middle East. "Cyberangels" features an interactive gallery with several computer stations from which visitors can send their messages. The exhibit is being run in association with Israel-based American Jewish artist, Mel Alexenberg. Alexenberg's work uses angels taken from a Rembrandt etching to "disseminate across the Internet a message that calls for a shift in the way the Middle East conflict is perceived," museum officials said.
(JTA) - 'Israeli Idol' named
A border police officer won Israel's version of "American Idol." Channel Two reported that more than 980,000 viewers tuned in on Sunday night for the final round of "A Star of Born," which was won by Harel Moyal, 23. Moyal took most of the roughly 2 million votes cast during the live broadcast, Channel Two television said. On Monday, police reported that there had been no disturbances of the peace anywhere in the country during the two-hour broadcast. Moyal was awarded a car and a record contract.
JTA END
(JTA) - Israel to unsettle U.S.?
Israel is allowing bids for more than 1,000 new West Bank homes despite U.S. demands for a freeze in settlement construction. The Housing Ministry on Tuesday advertised for bids on contracts to build 604 new homes in Beitar Illit, 214 in Ariel, 141 in Ma'aleh Adumim and 42 in Karnei Shomron. This followed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's order to rescind some previous offers for bids for fear of upsetting the Unites States, which received an Israeli pledge not to expand settlements under the "road map" peace plan with the Palestinians. U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the new ads. Israel has insisted that the freeze does not apply to established settlements that likely will be incorporated into Israel in any future peace deal.
(JTA) - Gaza bombing foiled
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians who tried to plant a mine outside a Gaza Strip settlement. The terrorists were spotted and shot near the Atzmona perimeter fence before dawn Tuesday. Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attempted attack.
(JTA) - Golan Cipel arrives in Israel
The Israeli man who prompted N.J. Gov. James McGreevey's resignation returned to Israel. Golan Cipel arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and spoke publicly for the first time since McGreevey resigned last week after revealing that he was gay and had had an adulterous homosexual relationship. Sources close to McGreevey pegged Cipel as his paramour and said Cipel had demanded millions of dollars in blackmail. But Cipel, who says he is heterosexual, has denied an affair and alleges that McGreevey made repeated, unwanted sexual advances.
(JTA) - Birthright boosted in budget
Israel's 2005 draft budget includes a $10 million boost for birthright israel. The allocation is $1 million higher than government funds put aside last year for the program, despite planned cuts to other areas of the Israeli public sector under the spending package approved Monday by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet. Natan Sharansky, Israel's minister for Diaspora affairs, said the boost to birthright showed "the government's recognition of the importance of the project to the Jewish people." Birthright, which brings young Jews from all over the world on free trips to Israel, is a joint project of the Israeli government and foreign donors.
(JTA) - Art attack on terrorism
Israeli forces distributed a cartoon urging Palestinians to shun terrorists in their midst. Titled "Terrorism is Killing You," the black-and-white sketch of an Islamist suicide bomber squashing an elderly Palestinian man and a boy in a huge vise was distributed in the West Bank city of Nablus this week, military sources said. It was the first time Israel has resorted to art in its psychological warfare against Palestinian terrorists. Nablus is a hotbed of extremists, many of whom are hated by the populace for assuming a vigilante role in lieu of the local police force.
(JTA) - Heavy weapons face Hezbollah
Israel is deploying advanced artillery on its northern border to ward off Hezbollah rocket attacks. The new Trajectory Correction System has made Israeli artillery along the border with Lebanon accurate enough to strike a target as small as a basketball court, security sources said Tuesday, meaning Hezbollah rocket crews can be struck without harming the Lebanese civilian populace. The system gives Israeli artillery a reliable range of 25 miles, enough to cover arsenals in southern Lebanon, where the Shiite militia is believed to have stockpiled as many as 12,000 rockets.
(JTA) - Voucher program ruled unconstitutional
Florida's voucher program was found to be unconstitutional. An appeals court in Florida on Monday upheld an August 2002 ruling that found the statewide voucher program unconstitutional, holding that it violated the Constitution's doctrine against government-established religion and the Florida Constitution's ban on direct state aid to religious schools. The state is expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. Several Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League, filed a brief supporting the plaintiff in the case. These groups see vouchers as a breach of church-state separation and say they drain money from the public school system. In contrast, Orthodox groups think vouchers could increase school choice and Jewish day school education.
(JTA) - UJC accepts money for Charley aid
The United Jewish Communities is accepting donations to aid members of the Jewish and general communities effected by Hurricane Charley in Florida. Donations can be made to local Jewish federations or can be mailed to UJC Inc., Hurricane Charley Disaster Relief, P.O. Box 20, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y., 10013. Jewish communities across central Florida have been working together to provide support to those in need. Sunday night, the Chabad of Sarasota welcomed 60 teenage girls and staff from an overnight camp held at the Chabad of Fort Myers, which lost power and water last Friday. Families in the Sarasota Jewish community are lending their freezers to keep the kosher food from the Fort Myers camp so the girls can maintain a religious diet, according to Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz at the Chabad of Sarasota. Other members of the community have offered their services in art, magic and pottery to entertain the girls, who are expected to return to Fort Myers next week.
American expelled from Israel
An American member of a pro-Palestinian group is to be expelled from Israel. On Monday, the Tel Aviv District Court ordered the deportation of New Orleans resident Adam Wilson. Wilson, 28, is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, which has protested Israel's West Bank security barrier and whose members have tried to block Israeli army actions by acting as human buffers between Israeli troops and Palestinians. Wilson said Israeli authorities detained him after he refused an order to leave the country. "They interrogated me and I spent 10 hours at the airport," Wilson was quoted as saying in the Jerusalem Post. "They tried to put me on the plane and I refused to leave." When he couldn't come up with roughly $900 to cover court costs, a judge ordered his expulsion. Israel has deported other members of the group in the past. Israeli officials accuse the organization of abetting Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(JTA) - Historical cave found in Israel
Archaeologists in Israel found a cave where they say John the Baptist anointed numerous disciples. The cave, located on Kibbutz Tzuba near Jerusalem, is replete with wall carvings, pottery shards and other historical artifacts that suggest its authenticity, The Associated Press reported Monday. But some academics are questioning whether the pictorial carvings, found without inscriptions, offer valid proof.
(JTA) - Sao Paulo and Tel Aviv are sisters
The mayor of Sao Paulo declared his city a sister city with Tel Aviv. According to Marta Suplicy, who is running for re-election in the Brazilian city in October, the new status will strengthen ties between both Brazilians and Israelis. Suplicy, who recently married a Jew, added that the new status will be a kickoff for urban, cultural, scientific, tourist and economic programs. Some 60,000 Jews are estimated to live in the region around Sao Paulo, according to a recent census of Brazilian Jews.
(JTA) - Poll: Bush up slightly among Jews
President Bush would earn a slightly larger percentage of votes from U.S. Jews if the election were held today. Bush would win 22 percent of the Jewish vote, and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic nominee, would receive 75 percent. The poll, carried out in late July by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the National Jewish Democratic Council, has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. In 2000, Al Gore won 79 percent of the Jewish vote to Bush's 19 percent. Bush has earned strong approval from the Jewish community leadership for his support of Israel, but many U.S. Jewish voters oppose his policies on domestic issues. Kerry's campaign has worked in recent weeks to portray their candidate as strong on Israel as well.
Gaza rocket crew hit
Israeli helicopter gunships hit a Gaza Strip rocket crew, killing two Palestinians. The airstrike was ordered on Monday after men believed to be a squad of terrorists were spotted in the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun, preparing to launch a rocket over the nearby boundary with Israel. Two men were killed. According to media reports, Israel has recently begun using surveillance balloons to help intercept rocket crews who regularly target Sderot and other Israeli towns in the western Negev.
(JTA) - Poll: Israelis favor Bush
Israelis overwhelmingly prefer President Bush to his challenger, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a new poll shows. A Tel Aviv University survey last week showed 49 percent of Israelis preferred Bush to 18 percent for Kerry. The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. The poll conducted by the Teleseeker organization also broke preferences down according to Israeli party affiliation. Likud voters preferred Bush to Kerry by 69 percent to 18 percent; Labor voters preferred Kerry 44-36 percent. The U.S. candidates were in a statistical dead heat among Shinui voters. An earlier Teleseker poll showed Bush out-polling Kerry 48-29.
(JTA) - Israel budget passed
The Israeli Cabinet passed its 2005 budget. On Monday, the Cabinet voted 17-3 in favor of the $59 billion package, which includes widespread public-sector spending cuts. In response to some of the cuts, the Histadrut labor federation pledged to launch a strike on Sept. 1. Angered at losing $330 million from the military budget, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz opposed the budget. Also voting against was Trade Minister Ehud Olmert, in what was the seen as the latest in a series of personal challenges to Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To pass the draft, Netanyahu gave up on several planned spending cuts, including those on the state-run media and education. The budget must now pass a Knesset vote.
Raising the steaks
Israel plans to "smoke out" hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners with barbecues. Meat will be grilled outside the cells of fasting inmates as part of "psychological tactics" to break the strike, the Prisons Service said Monday. The protest was launched Sunday by 1,500 security prisoners, who are demanding improved conditions such as public telephones. Israel accuses them of trying to win concessions that would give them easier access to terrorist groups on the outside. "Seventy percent of the security prisoners have blood on their hands," Maqbe Tafesh, the warden of one of the affected prisons, told Army Radio.
(JTA) - New Zealand Jews honor dead
Three hundred members of Wellington's Jewish community paid homage to those buried in the city's Makara Cemetery. Sunday's ceremony came a week after 113 headstones were pushed over and the prayer hall destroyed by fire in a nighttime attack on the cemetery. Meanwhile, participants in an anti-racism meeting on Saturday faced extremist demonstrators handing out anti-Israel placards outside the hall where they gathered. The extremist demonstrators are members of the National Front, whose Oct. 23 rally is being countered by the anti-racist activists. Inside the meeting, some of the activists spoke out against the participation of New Zealand Jewish leader David Zwartz, saying Israel is a racist state.
(JTA) - Berlin Jewish memorial defaced
A Jewish memorial in Berlin was defaced. A swastika was painted on the memorial at the city's Tiergarten Park on Sunday, shortly before a visit to the site by German Jews who had emigrated, the German state news agency reported.
(JTA) - Prague exhibit features angels of peace
Visitors to the Jewish Museum in Prague will be able to send a message of peace for the Middle East. "Cyberangels" features an interactive gallery with several computer stations from which visitors can send their messages. The exhibit is being run in association with Israel-based American Jewish artist, Mel Alexenberg. Alexenberg's work uses angels taken from a Rembrandt etching to "disseminate across the Internet a message that calls for a shift in the way the Middle East conflict is perceived," museum officials said.
(JTA) - 'Israeli Idol' named
A border police officer won Israel's version of "American Idol." Channel Two reported that more than 980,000 viewers tuned in on Sunday night for the final round of "A Star of Born," which was won by Harel Moyal, 23. Moyal took most of the roughly 2 million votes cast during the live broadcast, Channel Two television said. On Monday, police reported that there had been no disturbances of the peace anywhere in the country during the two-hour broadcast. Moyal was awarded a car and a record contract.
JTA END
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| Saudi Arabia financing covert PR campaign |
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