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Latest news briefs from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Monday, September 13, 2004
(JTA) - Demonstrators march against Sharon plan
Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in opposition to Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan. Settler leaders at Sunday night's rally in Jerusalem repeatedly denounced any use of violence, but also urged the prime minister to call for new elections. The rally came amid increasing concern of a civil war when Israeli security forces evacuate settlers as part of Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year.
(JTA) - Sharon fears civil war
Ariel Sharon said threats by settlers to resist evacuation using violence risked civil war in Israel. "These are calls that amount to civil war," the Israeli prime minister told his Cabinet on Sunday, referring to increasing pledges by Israelis slated for evacuation under the prime minister's withdrawal plan to resist violently. "Leave the army out of this ugly game," Sharon said, in an admonition analysts believe was aimed at right-wing government ministers opposed to his plan to withdraw all settlements from the Gaza Strip and four from the West Bank. The prime minister ordered security services to step up their surveillance of suspected far-right pro-settler groups.
(JTA) - Gaza raid ends
Israeli forces pulled out of areas of the Gaza Strip seized in a bid to stop Hamas rocket attacks. Tanks and troops left Jabalya and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza on Saturday amid clashes that killed three Palestinians. Hamas, which lost at least one gunman during the four-day siege on the town, vowed to continue launching its Kassam rockets into Israel. Fearing Palestinian terrorist groups would step up attacks, Israel ordered Gaza and West Bank crossings closed until after Rosh Hashanah.
Israeli school invites Russian terror survivors
Child survivors of the deadly terrorist attack at a Russian school were invited to spend two weeks at a school in Israel. The ORT Yad Lvovich high school in the Israeli seaside town of Netanya invited 20 survivors of the attack to visit the school, the World ORT organization said in a news release. The Russian government is considering the invitation. Of 1,200 students in the Israeli school, 400 are from the former Soviet Union, and there are 35 Russian-speaking faculty. Robert Singer, World ORT's director general, said that the Netanya school could offer survivors of the Sept. 1 tragedy, in which more than 300 people were killed, a safe environment as well as staff experienced in helping young people through terror-related trauma. Meanwhile, the incident is causing ORTs own schools in Russia to re-evaluate their security procedures.
(JTA) - Cameron Kerry wants votes from Israel
Cameron Kerry urged Democrats with U.S. citizenship living in Israel to vote for his brother, John, for president. The deadline for Americans living abroad to vote in the November elections is Sept. 15. Cameron Kerry, a convert to Judaism, made his comments Sunday to Israel Radio. Sen. John Kerry (D- Mass.) is challenging Pres. Bush in November elections.
(JTA) - Albright calls for more U.S. involvement
Madeline Albright called for greater U.S. involvement to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The Middle East is not an occasional trip, an occasional speech," the former U.S. secretary of state said last Friday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Albright served as secretary of state under President Clinton.
(JTA) - Synagogue opens in Russia's 'Jewish region'
A new synagogue opened in an area designated by Stalin as a Jewish homeland. Last Friday, a two-story Moorish-style synagogue opened in Birobidzhan. This is the first synagogue to be built in the region, declared a Jewish autonomous region by Stalin in 1934, since the last wooden synagogue burned down there in the late 1950s. The opening of the synagogue in Birobidzhan, currently home to 2,000 Jews, was timed to coincide with the opening that same week of synagogues in two other major cities in the Russian Far East. On Sept. 8, a 100-year-old synagogue building in Vladivostok, used for many years as a chocolate factory, was formally returned by the government to the local Jewish community, headed by Chabad Rabbi Menachem Raskin. The next day, a $3 million synagogue building was opened in Khabarovsk.
(JTA) - Egyptian students charged in terror plot
An Israeli court indicted six Egyptian students Sunday on charges they planned a terrorist attack in Israel. The students, who are not believed to be part of a terrorist organization, were arrested last month when they tried to cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Historic shul in Sarajevo reopens
During Rosh Hashanah, Sarajevo's Old Stone Synagogue will be used for religious services for the first time since 1941. The synagogue was built in 1581 and after World War II was used as a Jewish museum, which was closed in 1992 because of the Bosnian War. "We have succeeded in reopening it now," Jakob Finci, president of the Bosnian Jewish community, told JTA. He said that after the High Holidays work would begin to reconstruct the museum. The Jewish community in Sarajevo normally uses another synagogue, built a century ago.
(JTA) - Israeli films win awards
A docudrama about sex slavery in Israel won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Amos Gitai's "Promised Land" won a prize Saturday for promoting peace through cinema at the festival. The film follows a group of European prostitutes who are smuggled into Israel from Egypt and endure abuse at the hands of their pimps and clients. Another Israeli film, "Prendre Femme," about a family gathering in which relatives try to calm a quarreling couple, won an audience award.
(JTA) - Animal rights group loses in Canada
Canadian officials refused to allow an animal rights group to open a photo exhibit in Toronto that uses images of Holocaust victims. Because the "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibition organized by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals uses photographic images from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in violation of the museum's Photograph Use Agreement, Congress persuaded city and regional officials to refuse PETA a display permit. "Both the city of Toronto and Queen's Park felt that the display violates community norms reasonably expected by the public," said Bernie Farber, executive director of the Ontario Region of Congress, which received assistance from both the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Jewish Committee.
(JTA) - 'Annie Hall'? 'The Pianist'?
The National Foundation for Jewish Culture launched a contest to select the top-10 American Jewish films. Ballots for the competition, in which participants can select from over 125 films from "The Jazz Singer" to "The Frisco Kid" to "The Pianist," can be found at www.jewishculture.org. The winners will be announced at the 4th Annual Jewish Image Awards in Film and Television on Oct. 11. Voting is open until Oct. 5.
(JTA) - Remembering 9/11 in Jerusalem
Some 1,200 people rallied for world peace in Jerusalem on the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Participants from 41 countries descended on the capital's Independence Park on Saturday to remember the victims of the attacks, in which terrorists piloted airplanes into New York's Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Washington, and an empty field in Pennsylvania. The rally, during which white doves were released, was sponsored by the International Federation for World Peace, and included Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders.
(JTA) - Viva Italia
A U.S. rabbinical group recently clinched a deal to bring Italian teens to New York and Jewish teens to Rome. In meetings with Father Norbert Hofmann, the Vatican's liaison to Jews, Israel Singer, head of the World Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, a vice president of the North American Boards of Rabbis, received approval for a 10-day exchange program with the Pius IX High School in Rome. The Italian students would come to New York in the spring, with the Jewish American students flying overseas in the summer, Rosenbaum said. The exchange is modeled on a two-year-old program involving the American Jewish community and Germany.
(JTA) - Senate adds non-profit security aid
The Senate has added $50 million for the security of Jewish sites and other non-profit institutions to its homeland security spending bill. The Senate on Friday passed an amendment to the 2005 spending bill providing for grants to secure high-risk non-profit institutions, a move pushed by several Jewish groups including the United Jewish Communities, Orthodox Union and American Jewish Congress. Several other Jewish groups, including the Reform and Reconstructionist movements, opposed the bill out of fear that it would breach the constitutional separation of church and state. The homeland security bill is expected to pass the Senate next week, though it's unclear if the non-profit aid will remain in the final version. The House passed a similar clause in a different spending bill this year. In addition, the High-Risk Non-Profit Security Enhancement Act, a stand-alone bill that would make $100 million in aid available each year, passed the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in July.
(JTA) - Bolton from the blue
A senior U.S. official was due in Israel over the weekend for consultations on Iran's nuclear program. Undersecretary of State John Bolton was scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and other Israeli officials as part of an effort to give priority to the Iranian nuclear issue at the United Nations Security Council. Bolton recently attended two days of meetings with senior disarmament officials from the Group of Eight industrial countries. Washington wants the G-8 to back its attempts to have the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog, declare Iran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty because of its attempts to enrich uranium, a key step in making nuclear weapons.
(JTA) - Arabs rally for Al-Aksa
More than 70,000 Israeli Arabs attended an Islamic Movement rally Friday warning of supposed danger to Muslim shrines in Jerusalem. The rally in Umm al-Fahm, entitled "Al-Aksa is in danger," warns of supposed Jewish plots to destroy the mosque on the Temple Mount. The rally began with a televised speech by the Islamic Movement's leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, taken during a court hearing. Salah and several other movement officials are standing trial on suspicion of aiding Palestinian terrorist groups.
(JTA) - New trial in Busch killing
A federal judge ordered a new trial in the 1999 shooting death of a hammer-wielding Jewish man by New York City police. Gidone Busch, a mentally unstable Chasidic Jew, was shot to death by police when he brandished a hammer on a Brooklyn street. Police said Busch had lunged at officers at the scene, but Busch's family rejected the police account and filed suit against the city. A jury had cleared the city of responsibility in November 2003, but Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, overturned the verdict Thursday, saying it "would result in a miscarriage of justice," according to media reports. The judge said he found witness accounts credible that described Busch as standing still when police opened fire.
(JTA) - Stickers compare Bush to Hitler
Republicans blasted bumper stickers that compared President Bush to Hitler. Found at the headquarters of the Minnesota Democratic Party, the stickers read "Bush/Cheney - Most hated world leaders since Hitler." The stickers have been condemned by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.). Coleman called on Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic nominee for president, to tell the state party to stop distributing them. "It is absolutely unconscionable to me that supporters of the Massachusetts senator think it's a good idea to try and stir the base by making this offensive and outrageous comparison," Coleman said in a news release. "Someone needs to tell John Kerry that this is not the way we do things in the American heartland." According to Reuters, the stickers were not placed into circulation, but a campaign worker left a stack of them at the Democratic headquarters in Minneapolis for two hours before they were removed. The stickers had been mailed to the party from a Bush opponent in New Hampshire.
(JTA) - Israel seals off territories
Crossing points from the West Bank and Gaza Strip into Israel were closed for the High Holidays. The closure began Friday and is likely to remain in effect until the end of October. Israeli military officials said humanitarian cases still would be allowed to enter Israel, and travel between Palestinian towns would not be effected.
(JTA) - Settlers see civil war
Israeli settler leaders say Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip could lead to civil war. Eliezer Hasdai, leader of a regional settlement council, said the prime minister's plan for withdrawal could lead either to a mass refusal by soldiers to follow orders to uproot settlements or "a type of civil war." "If any one dares to come and touch my daughter's grave," Hasdai told Ma'ariv, "whether a soldier or the chief of staff, I will shoot him." Israeli politicians said such comments only served to inflame the situation more.
(JTA) - Man throws bomb out window
A Palestinian man threw a bomb out of his taxi window while being chased by Israeli troops. Israeli officials said Ibrahim Abu Zahu fled from authorities after he evaded a roadblock outside the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, then threw the 22-pound bomb out of his car window. He was arrested, and the bomb was safely detonated.
(JTA) - Slovakian leader: Support the fence
Slovakia's prime minister said the country should support Israel's West Bank security barrier. Mikulas Dzurinda told the visiting speaker of Israel's Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, that Israel is entitled to protect its citizens by building the fence. Asked why Slovakia had voted against the fence recently in the U.N. General Assembly, Dzurinda said Slovakia needs to reassess its policy on the matter and should act to persuade European Union countries to support Israeli self-defense, The Associated Press reported. Rivlin was in Slovakia to honor 12 families and individuals who helped save Jews during the Holocaust.
(JTA) - E.U. wants end to Arafat isolation
European leaders are pressing Israel to stop isolating Yasser Arafat. The Dutch and German foreign ministers have told Israeli officials that while they do not approve of the Palestinian Authority president's leadership, it is necessary to negotiate with him. Bernard Bot, the Dutch foreign minister, told his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, last week that Arafat's isolation in his Ramallah compound only strengthens him and prevents more moderate Palestinian leaders from emerging. Shalom replied that Arafat is a terrorist who cannot be involved in any peace process, Ha'aretz reported.
(JTA) - Group challenges Canadian appointee
A Canadian Jewish group challenged Canada's new ambassador to UNESCO to condemn anti-Semitism and clarify his views on Israel. Yvon Charbonneau's appointment as UNESCO ambassador "has met with considerable controversy as a result of reprehensible views concerning the Jewish community and the State of Israel," said Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Charbonneau once accused a prominent Montreal Jewish businessman of being an "economic terrorist" and has urged teachers to put up posters referring to the "genocidal war of the Israeli government." In April 2002, after a month in which Palestinian terrorists killed 79 Israelis, Charbonneau gave a speech in Canada's House of Commons in which he equated Palestinian terrorism with the "terror campaign waged by Israel" and accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government of "turning Israel into a rogue state." Charbonneau has not responded to the CJC, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Paul Martin, who appointed Charbonneau to the ambassador post, said he "has a wealth of experience that makes him well-positioned to fulfill that role."
(JTA) - Israeli strike seen
Israel's trade union federation plans a general strike after the High Holidays. The Histadrut declared a "labor dispute" Thursday in protest the 2005 budget, which includes broad cuts to the public sector. The declaration opens the way for a general strike in early October, after the High Holidays end. Sanctions could delay the opening of a new terminal at Ben-Gurion International Airport set for Nov. 2.
(JTA) - Charity reaches out to Chechens' victims
An Israeli charity offered to airlift victims of a Russian school massacre for treatment. The Michael Cherney Foundation said Thursday it had budgeted $55,000 to bring 10 children wounded in last weekend's massacre by Chechen terrorists in the Russian town of Beslan, as well as their families, to hospitals in Israel. Cherney is a Russian businessman who immigrated to Israel and set up the charity to help treat youths wounded in a Palestinian suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv disco in 2001. Russian officials said they were considering the foundation's offer. In Beslan, more than 300 Russians, at least half of them children, were killed and hundreds more were wounded.
(JTA) - AJCommittee praises France
The American Jewish Committee praised France's efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Following meetings Thursday between AJCommittee leaders and senior French officials, including Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the AJCommittee's executive director, David Harris, told JTA that his organization "had walked away with the sense that the government and the prime minister understand the seriousness of the situation and are prepared to take measures to more effectively deal with the high rate of anti-Semitism." While there was "no magic wand or silver bullet to defeat anti-Semitism overnight," Harris said, "we saw during all our meetings that there is a firm, unblinking recognition that the problem is there, it is real and serious and must be confronted." JTA END
(JTA) - Demonstrators march against Sharon plan
Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in opposition to Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan. Settler leaders at Sunday night's rally in Jerusalem repeatedly denounced any use of violence, but also urged the prime minister to call for new elections. The rally came amid increasing concern of a civil war when Israeli security forces evacuate settlers as part of Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year.
(JTA) - Sharon fears civil war
Ariel Sharon said threats by settlers to resist evacuation using violence risked civil war in Israel. "These are calls that amount to civil war," the Israeli prime minister told his Cabinet on Sunday, referring to increasing pledges by Israelis slated for evacuation under the prime minister's withdrawal plan to resist violently. "Leave the army out of this ugly game," Sharon said, in an admonition analysts believe was aimed at right-wing government ministers opposed to his plan to withdraw all settlements from the Gaza Strip and four from the West Bank. The prime minister ordered security services to step up their surveillance of suspected far-right pro-settler groups.
(JTA) - Gaza raid ends
Israeli forces pulled out of areas of the Gaza Strip seized in a bid to stop Hamas rocket attacks. Tanks and troops left Jabalya and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza on Saturday amid clashes that killed three Palestinians. Hamas, which lost at least one gunman during the four-day siege on the town, vowed to continue launching its Kassam rockets into Israel. Fearing Palestinian terrorist groups would step up attacks, Israel ordered Gaza and West Bank crossings closed until after Rosh Hashanah.
Israeli school invites Russian terror survivors
Child survivors of the deadly terrorist attack at a Russian school were invited to spend two weeks at a school in Israel. The ORT Yad Lvovich high school in the Israeli seaside town of Netanya invited 20 survivors of the attack to visit the school, the World ORT organization said in a news release. The Russian government is considering the invitation. Of 1,200 students in the Israeli school, 400 are from the former Soviet Union, and there are 35 Russian-speaking faculty. Robert Singer, World ORT's director general, said that the Netanya school could offer survivors of the Sept. 1 tragedy, in which more than 300 people were killed, a safe environment as well as staff experienced in helping young people through terror-related trauma. Meanwhile, the incident is causing ORTs own schools in Russia to re-evaluate their security procedures.
(JTA) - Cameron Kerry wants votes from Israel
Cameron Kerry urged Democrats with U.S. citizenship living in Israel to vote for his brother, John, for president. The deadline for Americans living abroad to vote in the November elections is Sept. 15. Cameron Kerry, a convert to Judaism, made his comments Sunday to Israel Radio. Sen. John Kerry (D- Mass.) is challenging Pres. Bush in November elections.
(JTA) - Albright calls for more U.S. involvement
Madeline Albright called for greater U.S. involvement to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The Middle East is not an occasional trip, an occasional speech," the former U.S. secretary of state said last Friday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Albright served as secretary of state under President Clinton.
(JTA) - Synagogue opens in Russia's 'Jewish region'
A new synagogue opened in an area designated by Stalin as a Jewish homeland. Last Friday, a two-story Moorish-style synagogue opened in Birobidzhan. This is the first synagogue to be built in the region, declared a Jewish autonomous region by Stalin in 1934, since the last wooden synagogue burned down there in the late 1950s. The opening of the synagogue in Birobidzhan, currently home to 2,000 Jews, was timed to coincide with the opening that same week of synagogues in two other major cities in the Russian Far East. On Sept. 8, a 100-year-old synagogue building in Vladivostok, used for many years as a chocolate factory, was formally returned by the government to the local Jewish community, headed by Chabad Rabbi Menachem Raskin. The next day, a $3 million synagogue building was opened in Khabarovsk.
(JTA) - Egyptian students charged in terror plot
An Israeli court indicted six Egyptian students Sunday on charges they planned a terrorist attack in Israel. The students, who are not believed to be part of a terrorist organization, were arrested last month when they tried to cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Historic shul in Sarajevo reopens
During Rosh Hashanah, Sarajevo's Old Stone Synagogue will be used for religious services for the first time since 1941. The synagogue was built in 1581 and after World War II was used as a Jewish museum, which was closed in 1992 because of the Bosnian War. "We have succeeded in reopening it now," Jakob Finci, president of the Bosnian Jewish community, told JTA. He said that after the High Holidays work would begin to reconstruct the museum. The Jewish community in Sarajevo normally uses another synagogue, built a century ago.
(JTA) - Israeli films win awards
A docudrama about sex slavery in Israel won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Amos Gitai's "Promised Land" won a prize Saturday for promoting peace through cinema at the festival. The film follows a group of European prostitutes who are smuggled into Israel from Egypt and endure abuse at the hands of their pimps and clients. Another Israeli film, "Prendre Femme," about a family gathering in which relatives try to calm a quarreling couple, won an audience award.
(JTA) - Animal rights group loses in Canada
Canadian officials refused to allow an animal rights group to open a photo exhibit in Toronto that uses images of Holocaust victims. Because the "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibition organized by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals uses photographic images from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in violation of the museum's Photograph Use Agreement, Congress persuaded city and regional officials to refuse PETA a display permit. "Both the city of Toronto and Queen's Park felt that the display violates community norms reasonably expected by the public," said Bernie Farber, executive director of the Ontario Region of Congress, which received assistance from both the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Jewish Committee.
(JTA) - 'Annie Hall'? 'The Pianist'?
The National Foundation for Jewish Culture launched a contest to select the top-10 American Jewish films. Ballots for the competition, in which participants can select from over 125 films from "The Jazz Singer" to "The Frisco Kid" to "The Pianist," can be found at www.jewishculture.org. The winners will be announced at the 4th Annual Jewish Image Awards in Film and Television on Oct. 11. Voting is open until Oct. 5.
(JTA) - Remembering 9/11 in Jerusalem
Some 1,200 people rallied for world peace in Jerusalem on the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Participants from 41 countries descended on the capital's Independence Park on Saturday to remember the victims of the attacks, in which terrorists piloted airplanes into New York's Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Washington, and an empty field in Pennsylvania. The rally, during which white doves were released, was sponsored by the International Federation for World Peace, and included Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders.
(JTA) - Viva Italia
A U.S. rabbinical group recently clinched a deal to bring Italian teens to New York and Jewish teens to Rome. In meetings with Father Norbert Hofmann, the Vatican's liaison to Jews, Israel Singer, head of the World Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, a vice president of the North American Boards of Rabbis, received approval for a 10-day exchange program with the Pius IX High School in Rome. The Italian students would come to New York in the spring, with the Jewish American students flying overseas in the summer, Rosenbaum said. The exchange is modeled on a two-year-old program involving the American Jewish community and Germany.
(JTA) - Senate adds non-profit security aid
The Senate has added $50 million for the security of Jewish sites and other non-profit institutions to its homeland security spending bill. The Senate on Friday passed an amendment to the 2005 spending bill providing for grants to secure high-risk non-profit institutions, a move pushed by several Jewish groups including the United Jewish Communities, Orthodox Union and American Jewish Congress. Several other Jewish groups, including the Reform and Reconstructionist movements, opposed the bill out of fear that it would breach the constitutional separation of church and state. The homeland security bill is expected to pass the Senate next week, though it's unclear if the non-profit aid will remain in the final version. The House passed a similar clause in a different spending bill this year. In addition, the High-Risk Non-Profit Security Enhancement Act, a stand-alone bill that would make $100 million in aid available each year, passed the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in July.
(JTA) - Bolton from the blue
A senior U.S. official was due in Israel over the weekend for consultations on Iran's nuclear program. Undersecretary of State John Bolton was scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and other Israeli officials as part of an effort to give priority to the Iranian nuclear issue at the United Nations Security Council. Bolton recently attended two days of meetings with senior disarmament officials from the Group of Eight industrial countries. Washington wants the G-8 to back its attempts to have the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog, declare Iran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty because of its attempts to enrich uranium, a key step in making nuclear weapons.
(JTA) - Arabs rally for Al-Aksa
More than 70,000 Israeli Arabs attended an Islamic Movement rally Friday warning of supposed danger to Muslim shrines in Jerusalem. The rally in Umm al-Fahm, entitled "Al-Aksa is in danger," warns of supposed Jewish plots to destroy the mosque on the Temple Mount. The rally began with a televised speech by the Islamic Movement's leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, taken during a court hearing. Salah and several other movement officials are standing trial on suspicion of aiding Palestinian terrorist groups.
(JTA) - New trial in Busch killing
A federal judge ordered a new trial in the 1999 shooting death of a hammer-wielding Jewish man by New York City police. Gidone Busch, a mentally unstable Chasidic Jew, was shot to death by police when he brandished a hammer on a Brooklyn street. Police said Busch had lunged at officers at the scene, but Busch's family rejected the police account and filed suit against the city. A jury had cleared the city of responsibility in November 2003, but Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, overturned the verdict Thursday, saying it "would result in a miscarriage of justice," according to media reports. The judge said he found witness accounts credible that described Busch as standing still when police opened fire.
(JTA) - Stickers compare Bush to Hitler
Republicans blasted bumper stickers that compared President Bush to Hitler. Found at the headquarters of the Minnesota Democratic Party, the stickers read "Bush/Cheney - Most hated world leaders since Hitler." The stickers have been condemned by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.). Coleman called on Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic nominee for president, to tell the state party to stop distributing them. "It is absolutely unconscionable to me that supporters of the Massachusetts senator think it's a good idea to try and stir the base by making this offensive and outrageous comparison," Coleman said in a news release. "Someone needs to tell John Kerry that this is not the way we do things in the American heartland." According to Reuters, the stickers were not placed into circulation, but a campaign worker left a stack of them at the Democratic headquarters in Minneapolis for two hours before they were removed. The stickers had been mailed to the party from a Bush opponent in New Hampshire.
(JTA) - Israel seals off territories
Crossing points from the West Bank and Gaza Strip into Israel were closed for the High Holidays. The closure began Friday and is likely to remain in effect until the end of October. Israeli military officials said humanitarian cases still would be allowed to enter Israel, and travel between Palestinian towns would not be effected.
(JTA) - Settlers see civil war
Israeli settler leaders say Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip could lead to civil war. Eliezer Hasdai, leader of a regional settlement council, said the prime minister's plan for withdrawal could lead either to a mass refusal by soldiers to follow orders to uproot settlements or "a type of civil war." "If any one dares to come and touch my daughter's grave," Hasdai told Ma'ariv, "whether a soldier or the chief of staff, I will shoot him." Israeli politicians said such comments only served to inflame the situation more.
(JTA) - Man throws bomb out window
A Palestinian man threw a bomb out of his taxi window while being chased by Israeli troops. Israeli officials said Ibrahim Abu Zahu fled from authorities after he evaded a roadblock outside the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, then threw the 22-pound bomb out of his car window. He was arrested, and the bomb was safely detonated.
(JTA) - Slovakian leader: Support the fence
Slovakia's prime minister said the country should support Israel's West Bank security barrier. Mikulas Dzurinda told the visiting speaker of Israel's Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, that Israel is entitled to protect its citizens by building the fence. Asked why Slovakia had voted against the fence recently in the U.N. General Assembly, Dzurinda said Slovakia needs to reassess its policy on the matter and should act to persuade European Union countries to support Israeli self-defense, The Associated Press reported. Rivlin was in Slovakia to honor 12 families and individuals who helped save Jews during the Holocaust.
(JTA) - E.U. wants end to Arafat isolation
European leaders are pressing Israel to stop isolating Yasser Arafat. The Dutch and German foreign ministers have told Israeli officials that while they do not approve of the Palestinian Authority president's leadership, it is necessary to negotiate with him. Bernard Bot, the Dutch foreign minister, told his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, last week that Arafat's isolation in his Ramallah compound only strengthens him and prevents more moderate Palestinian leaders from emerging. Shalom replied that Arafat is a terrorist who cannot be involved in any peace process, Ha'aretz reported.
(JTA) - Group challenges Canadian appointee
A Canadian Jewish group challenged Canada's new ambassador to UNESCO to condemn anti-Semitism and clarify his views on Israel. Yvon Charbonneau's appointment as UNESCO ambassador "has met with considerable controversy as a result of reprehensible views concerning the Jewish community and the State of Israel," said Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Charbonneau once accused a prominent Montreal Jewish businessman of being an "economic terrorist" and has urged teachers to put up posters referring to the "genocidal war of the Israeli government." In April 2002, after a month in which Palestinian terrorists killed 79 Israelis, Charbonneau gave a speech in Canada's House of Commons in which he equated Palestinian terrorism with the "terror campaign waged by Israel" and accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government of "turning Israel into a rogue state." Charbonneau has not responded to the CJC, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Paul Martin, who appointed Charbonneau to the ambassador post, said he "has a wealth of experience that makes him well-positioned to fulfill that role."
(JTA) - Israeli strike seen
Israel's trade union federation plans a general strike after the High Holidays. The Histadrut declared a "labor dispute" Thursday in protest the 2005 budget, which includes broad cuts to the public sector. The declaration opens the way for a general strike in early October, after the High Holidays end. Sanctions could delay the opening of a new terminal at Ben-Gurion International Airport set for Nov. 2.
(JTA) - Charity reaches out to Chechens' victims
An Israeli charity offered to airlift victims of a Russian school massacre for treatment. The Michael Cherney Foundation said Thursday it had budgeted $55,000 to bring 10 children wounded in last weekend's massacre by Chechen terrorists in the Russian town of Beslan, as well as their families, to hospitals in Israel. Cherney is a Russian businessman who immigrated to Israel and set up the charity to help treat youths wounded in a Palestinian suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv disco in 2001. Russian officials said they were considering the foundation's offer. In Beslan, more than 300 Russians, at least half of them children, were killed and hundreds more were wounded.
(JTA) - AJCommittee praises France
The American Jewish Committee praised France's efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Following meetings Thursday between AJCommittee leaders and senior French officials, including Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the AJCommittee's executive director, David Harris, told JTA that his organization "had walked away with the sense that the government and the prime minister understand the seriousness of the situation and are prepared to take measures to more effectively deal with the high rate of anti-Semitism." While there was "no magic wand or silver bullet to defeat anti-Semitism overnight," Harris said, "we saw during all our meetings that there is a firm, unblinking recognition that the problem is there, it is real and serious and must be confronted." JTA END
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