International

Education Department rules threats, hostile acts toward Jews are Civil Rights violations

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — Congressman Brad Sherman applauded Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for agreeing to return to its 2004 policy and applying Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to the protection of Jewish students from anti-Semitism on campuses. “For two years, I have been pushing the U.S. Department of Education to adopt this […]

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USA

Pennsylvania legislators protest anti-Israel speech of Lincoln U. prof

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (WJC)– Two state lawmakers have sent a letter of complaint to the head of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, about a literature professor who made strong anti-Israel statements at a rally in Washington, DC in September. Professor Kaukab Siddique, 67, had said: “We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel,

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USA

U.S. sponsors speech by Iranian apologist in Saudi Arabia

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel (Press Release)– There are days when you think: No, this nightmare can’t be real! Is the Obama Administration really so bad? Have the policymakers really taken leave of their senses? And then you see this: The U.S. Consulate-General in Saudi Arabia “hosted Dr. Trita Parsi, founder and President of the

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Middle East, USA

JWV urges Dec. 17 be made an evening for a special Kaddish

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– Steve Zeitz, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, has called on synagogues to set aside the evening of Friday, Dec. 17, as a Shabbat for commemorating losses of Jewish and Allied lives in World War II. He issued the following statement: “The JWV is requesting that special memorial prayers be recited

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USA

Jewish Agency refines its plans to introduce young Diaspora Jewry to Israel

JERUSALEM (Press Release)– Providing teens and young adults from abroad with a continuum of experiences in Israel and creating social action opportunities in Israel for young Israelis and Jews from abroad will serve as the focus of the work of the Jewish Agency for Israel, its Board of Governors decided Monday, Oct. 25. These areas of

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Middle East

Knesset member tweaks the nose of the United States, calls for war crimes investigation of U.S. role in Iraq

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — My concern in political science is to observe, understand, and explain. I do not view myself as a partisan.   At times observation can be painful, as when a student in my seminar died in the explosion at the Hebrew University cafeteria, and the girl friend (now wife) of a

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Ira Sharkansky, USA

Pro-Palestinian cleric hijacks statement from Middle East bishops

By Bruce Kesler ENCINITAS, California– “Is ‘Palestinian-killer’ the new ‘Christ-killer’?” was the first question that occurred to me as I read news reports that a meeting of Catholic Bishops from the Middle East condemned Israel, called for withdrawal to 1967 borders, and asserted that Jews have no Biblical right to Israel. I just read the actual statement of

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Middle East

Bad news for Palestinians: Israel and U.S. focused on other matters

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Two items are front and center in the Israeli media. One is American and one Israeli. Both are important in their own right, and may spill over to what had been the principal issue of the peace process.  Palestinians should be worrying that Americans are concerned with their dirty laundry,

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

WikiLeaks disclosures prompt questions about kind of USA does Peres want Israel to support

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Two questions come to mind on reading about the latest release of secret material by WikiLeaks:  Will this provide the same push to anti-war activists as the Pentagon Papers in 1971? and will anyone notice that the ugliness associated with the Americans and their allies dwarfs the charges levied against

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Palestinian negotiating tactics: give nothing, insist on everything

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel–A reader asks: “You wrote, `But if Israel defined it’s final boundaries before negotiations, the Palestinian Authority [says it] would return to the talks. Israel won’t do that, of course.’ Why is that `of course’”? I first joked that it was because the article was getting to be too long. In

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Middle East

Political bedfellows: Communist North Korea and Islamist Iran

By Barry Rubin   HERZLIYA, Israel — Now appearing in Pyongyang: North Korean missile; Iranian nose cone. Ain’t international cooperation wonderful? Joshua Pollack, a very smart arms’ expert, has just published an article and a paper on cooperation between these two countries which is well worth reading. One point really caught my eye. Iran’s news agency

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International, Middle East

Is American Jewish community getting restive over Israel?

By Ira Sharkansky Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Is the sky falling? Or only part of that over the Jewish community of the United States? The signs appear in one New York Times article that takes seriously the prospect of a Palestinian state declared unilaterally, with the support of prominent international bodies and maybe even the acquiescence of

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East