Senators ask Obama to withdraw Hagel nomination
U.S. seeks direct meeting with Iran over nuclear program
(JNS.org) American officials have announced that they are seeking to meet directly with Iranian officials during next week’s nuclear talks in Kazakhstan, the Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. and European officials hope that the diplomatic overtures can create a fissure within Iran’s leadership ahead of its presidential election in June. Several Iranian leaders have spoken out in favor of direct talks with the U.S, but it is unclear whether or not Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would agree. Khamenei said recently in a speech that he is against talks.
“If Iran says yes, that would be great,” a European official told the Wall Street Journal. “If not, we think they’ll be more isolated.”
Talks are scheduled next week in Almaty, Kazakhstan between Iran and group known as P5+1—the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
According to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) quarterly report released this week, Iran has continued advancing its nuclear program. Iran installed 180 advanced IR-2m centrifuge machines at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
“The advance is significant both in terms of technology and timing. The IR-2m centrifuges can enrich three to five times faster than the outmoded machines now being used at Natanz,” the Associated Press reported.
Vienna Jewish museum grapples with items looted by Nazis
(JNS.org) Twenty-five years after the founding of the Jewish Museum of Vienna, museum officials have admitted that many of the items in the museum’s possession were looted from Jewish families during the Holocaust. A review of the artifacts found 490 objects and more than 980 books that may have been stolen from Jewish owners.
Back in 1998, Austria passed a law requiring restitution for Jewish families who lost property to the Nazis. Prior to this, the Leopold Museum in Vienna spent 10 years fighting Jewish heirs who sought the return of two paintings. “For historic reasons people did not see themselves responsible for investigating the collection referring to provenance,” Christian Kircher, a member of the Vienna Jewish museum’s board, told the New York Times. “This attitude changed completely during the last few years.”
While the Jewish Museum of Vienna is not the first institution to have such items, many have said that as a Jewish museum it has a special responsibility to find any living descendants of the original owners and to return the items.
The investigation of the items’ origin, which began in 2008, was completed only recently. Museum officials said that researching the origin of Judaica can be very difficult, given the few identifying markers and the fact that most Jewish institutions that existed before the Holocaust were completely destroyed. They also cited the lack of funds for such research. “Our situation is not comparable to any other museum in Austria,” said Museum Director Danielle Spera.
FC Barcelona to tackle Israel-Palestinian conflict through soccer
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres met Thursday evening with the president of FC Barcelona, one of Spain’s biggest soccer clubs, at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan to discuss a new project aimed at restoring peace between Israelis and Palestinians through sport.
The talk took place as FC Barcelona soccer players, including star player Lionel Messi, prepare to play an exhibition game against an Israeli team composed of both Jewish and Muslim players on July 31, a game that organizers hope will be broadcast worldwide.
“Barca wants to make a modest contribution to build bridges of understanding and harmony between the Israeli and Palestinian people through sports and education,” FC Barcelona President Sandro Rosell said in a statement Wednesday, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
“This is the president’s vision, which the Peres Center for Peace is based on, and such a move could promote peace,” an aide to Peres said.
During the Thursday meeting, Peres will receive a Barca shirt with the Spanish caption “Peres No. 1.”
Vatican aid chief and possible papal candidate visits with Syrian refugees
(JNS.org) The head of the Vatican’s international humanitarian aid organization, Cardinal Robert Sarah, traveled to Jordan this week to discuss relief options.
Cardinal Sarah, 67, a possible successor to Pope Benedict, is the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which organizes Catholic relief worldwide, the Associated Press reported.
Cardinal Sarah met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to discuss humanitarian aid for the Syrian refugees as part of a conference in Jordan and also visited the estimated 368,000 Syrian refugees being sheltered there.
Syrian Christians form about 5 percent of the country’s 23 million people and have attempted to remain neutral in the nearly two-year old civil war. Nevertheless, they have been caught in the crossfire between rebel forces—which are increasingly being influenced by Islamic radicals—and the government, forcing tens of thousands to flee their ancient homeland.
A Syrian Christian priest, Father Gabriel Akyuz, described the threats Christians are facing in an interview with the New York Times last week.
“The gangs are kidnapping people and holding them to ransom. They are perpetrating great injustices. That is why Syriacs [a sect of Syrian Christians] are fleeing,” he said.
As a result of the violence against them, many Christian refugees want to leave the Middle East altogether, requesting visas from their Christian brethren in the West. Cardinal Sarah, however, believes that Christians should attempt to remain in the region, if possible.
“The Church does not support emigration of Syrian Christians,” Sarah told AFP after visiting Syrian refugees in Jordan’s northern city of Zarqa.
“But in certain situations and if Christian families lost everything, including hope to live in their own country, no one can stop them from seeking a new life in another country.”
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