Around the Jewish world

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2008-11-15T00:00:00

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Joe Biden discussed Middle East peace and Iran in a phone call with Tzipi Livni. Biden, a senator from Delaware for 35 years, is expected to take a lead foreign policy role in the Barack Obama administration. He is well known to Israeli leaders, having made his first visit to the region just before the 1973 Yom Kippur War. “Livni thanked Vice President-elect Biden for his long-standing friendship and support of Israel, and said that she looks forward to continuing to work with him,” the statement said. “They agreed to work together to advance the shared interests and values of Israel and the United States in the Middle East.” The statement emphasized concerns about Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and control of the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists.

NEW YORK (JTA)—Israel should cede parts of eastern Jerusalem and retreat to near its pre-1967 borders, Ehud Olmert said. Speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist, the current Israeli prime minister said Rabin “understood that if we want to maintain Israel as a democratic Jewish state, we must concede to a lack of choice and to our great torments and give up parts of our homeland for which we dreamt for generations of yearning and prayers.” By returning to its pre-1967 borders, Olmert said, Israel will be able to “cultivate a new Zionism that is practical, realistic, responsible and courageous.” But, he added, “If, God forbid, we procrastinate, we could lose support for a two-state solution,” with an eventual Palestinian majority overwhelming the Jewish state.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel does not want peace with its neighbors, Bashar Assad said. The Syrian president told a meeting of Arab lawmakers Nov. 9 in Damascus that Israel can prove it is serious about peace by withdrawing from all of what he called occupied Arab territory, The Associated Press reported. After four rounds of Turkish-mediated, indirect talks between Syria and Israel, a fifth round was postponed by Israel, according to Syria. Assad also called on U.S. troops to leave Iraq, saying they are contributing to regional instability.

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Leaders of Iran and Hamas expressed hope that Barack Obama would usher in a new era of relations between the United States and the Islamic world. In Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar sounded a hopeful note. “We hope, we hope, that Obama opens a new page with the world, including the Muslim world,” Zahar said, according to Ha’aretz. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Nov. 7 the world was expecting major changes in U.S. policy. He also made comments reminiscent of the claim he made in his September speech to the United Nations that a Zionist minority controls the levers of global power. “I hope that you prefer people’s interests and justice to the rapacious demands of a selfish minority, make the best use of the chance and leave a good name,” he said in comments directed at the U.S. president-elect, according to the Iranian news site ISNA.

NEW YORK (JTA)—The magazine Babaganewz will cease its print edition. Amir Cohen, the CEO of the nonprofit group JFL Media that publishes Babaganewz, told JTA that the magazine for schoolchildren will go to an online-only format. One of JFL’s flagship publications, the magazine was published eight times a year and received several awards from the American Jewish Press Association. As part of the move, JFL cut nine members of Babaganewz’s 21-member staff, Cohen said. He said the move was not strictly financial, but the economic situation was a factor.JFL, which also publishes the Jewish teen mag JVibe and the intellectual journal Sh’ma, has slashed its budget in half over the past year.

LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Los Angeles Jews voted overwhelmingly against a California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages and for Barack Obama, according to an exit poll. On Proposition 8, Jewish Angelinos voted 78 percent against the ban while only 8 percent supported the ban, according to the survey of 1,200 voters in 50 precincts. The remainder declined to respond. The Jews’ vote against the ban was the highest proportion of any ethnic or religious group. California voters approved the proposition, 52-48 percent.

WASHINGTON (JTA)—President-elect Barack Obama will respond to a letter of congratulations from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In his first press conference since his victory, Obama said he was aware of the letter sent by the Iranian president, the first such congratulatory letter to a U.S. president since the 1978 Iranian revolution. “I will be reviewing the letter from Ahmadinejad and we will respond appropriately,” Obama said, although he said it would not be in a “knee jerk fashion:” “We’ve got to think it through.”

NEW YORK (JTA)—Birthright Israel is cutting its budget by $35 million for 2009. Birthright, which sends Jews between the ages of 18 and 26 on free 10-day trips to Israel, had a budget of $110 million in the fiscal year that just ended, enabling the organization to send some 42,000 people to Israel. In the coming year, birthright will be able to send only 25,000 because the program’s budget is dropping to $75 million, the president and CEO of the Birthright Foundation, Jay Golan, told JTA. Golan, however, said that Birthright will most likely not be affected by the financial troubles of the company of its largest private benefactor, Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands company. The casino company is on the verge of bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg News. Adelson gave some $60 million to birthright Israel in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, he pledged $30 million to the organization to be paid out over the next two years. The money will pay for 6,000 trips, Golan said.

BERLIN (JTA)—German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned all forms of anti-Semitism at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.Speaking Nov. 9 at the historic Rykestrasse Synagogue in the former East Berlin, Merkel said tolerance is not a neutral term but one linked with values. One cannot remain neutral and tolerant, she said, when Iran and Hezbollah call for the destruction of Israel, a form of anti-Semitism. Kristallnacht was “the catastrophe before the catastrophe,” said Merkel, adding, “We cannot undo what has been done” to the Jews of Europe. “But Germany must continue to support the fight against all forms of hate, whether at home or abroad.” She decried recent anti-Semitic attacks on individuals and Jewish property in Germany, and said that treatment of minorities is a measure of a democracy’s health.